| This Hotel was one of my favorites on the entire trip. I had tried
to book this wonderful hotel via e mail after I had located some information about it on
the net. I sent the email and waited about a month for a reply, then called American
Express Travel Services and asked them to secure us a room for two nights. They
returned a bad answer: "...the inn is all booked..." Naturally, I was
quite disappointed. I sent an email to Morven at Ackergil Castle telling her of my
dilemma and requested her help. I asked her to please suggest a similar lodge and her
reply was a suggestion that simply did not have the character or charm that I had hoped
for. From the suggested lodge web site, I was reminded of a 1960's motel in the states.
The same evening that I was researching alternate accommodations online, an email
from Jamie at the Forsse House Hotel arrived in my Mailbox. It said that
..."I'm sorry, I don't check my email very often, but, no problem, we can place
you here for the two nights that you have requested Please forward your
credit card number and expiration date to secure the booking." That was
great news. And I immediately replied with the requested info. About two week
before departure, as I was reviewing the dates and times of all of the various aspects of
our trip, I noticed that I had not received what I would consider a true confirmation of
our stay. Once again, I sent off an email to Jamie, just asking him to re confirm or
reservation and promptly forgot about it. As we were leaving Edinburgh, I
thought that it was perhaps a good time to get that confirmation. I got Jamie on
the phone
and was pleased to hear that he was expecting us. When I informed him of our
expected arrival time, 10:00 pm, he said that his cook usually departed at 9:00pm, but if
we would like dinner, he'd keep the cook on late for our arrival. I knew immediately
that we had selected a Hotel that really was special! We ended up calling back about
two hours before our expected arrival and asked Jamie to let the cook go home at
his normal departure time. Jamie said that he would have an assortment of sandwiches for us
upon arrival. When we arrived, Jamie hoisted my suitcase up on his shoulder, carried it to the front door as we tried to explain that it had wheels, and then proceeded to carry it up a full flight of stairs (13 ft). This was the same bag that a Parisian taxi driver tried to pick up and immediately queried:..."what have you got in here, your mother in-law?" .
Not to be outdone, two days later, when we were packing to leave, I quietly and discretely emptied the bag and put the contents into the car, then carried the empty bag down the stairs on my shoulder. Jamie was in the bar chatting with some guests and I patiently stood at the door with the bag until the guest mentioned to Jamie that she thought I was waiting for him. Jamie looked at me and assumed that the bag was as heavy on my shoulder as it was on his and came running over. I told him that I wasn't about to let him outdo me and we walked to the car together. When we got to the car, he expected me to be as exhausted as he was when he carried the bag into the hotel, and immediately drop the bag to the ground. I stopped and with the bag still perched on my shoulder, made a smoking gesture with my other hand and casually asked..." so, do you have a cigarette..." as if the bag meant nothing to me. He was actually quite overwhelmed. Instead of throwing the bag to the ground, as he expected, I was just casually standing there, starting a conversation. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
