We decided to take a break with our friends Doug and Carol to visit Belgium. Doug wanted to look at a car in Brussels and we were stopping off in Bruges on the way. We arrived at a very prestigious hotel near Bruges and booked into our rooms. We met up in the bar later and after a few drinks, went into the restaurant where we were shown to our seats.

We sat at a table with crisp white linen and were waited on by a very smart waiter who handed us a menu the size of a large novel. After a while the waiter returned to take our orders and asked for our room numbers. When we gave him the numbers, he asked if we were half board – yes we replied. With that, he immediately took the menus back, almost snatching them from our hands. We all looked at each other. After a couple of minutes he came back with four, very thin, pieces of paper with a menu written on it consisting of three courses. Pour les Demi pension messieurs/dames!

We started to giggle and couldn’t stop. Eventually we gave him back the paper thin menus and asked for the return of the encyclopaedia menu and that we would be happy to pay the difference as the choice was amazing. With that the waiter suddenly became Mr Smiley once more and we spent a fantastic evening (and a fantastic amount of money!)

We got progresssively more drunk and staggered out of the lift. I found a shoe polishing machine and started to clean my shoes. Unfortunately as I was wearing strappy high heels, I went to bed with black feet.

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Next day we left and drove to Brussels and booked into an old hotel just off the main square. The owner was ancient, very grumpy and not the friendliest person we’d ever met. First question she asked was if Ed and I were married (we’d been married for four years at this time). I said yes but I still had to show her my passport to prove it. She took our details and rang a bell and her ancient husband appeared. He was marginally more friendly than his wife and showed us to our rooms. One was a pleasant room overlooking the garden and the other was in the attic with a tiny window. Carol and Doug took the attic room, kindly giving us the garden view room. When I visited them later, it was like something out of the shining, with every wall covered in pine, and one tiny window set high up in the ceiling.

We found a Slovakian restaurant near the hotel and spent a wonderful evening eating food we had never tasted before and listening to the owner’s tales of his home country. At the end of the meal he brought out the Slivovitz – a very strong plum brandy. That finished us completely. I gave renditions of Irish songs and the owner sang songs from his homeland. He was our new best friend. We staggered home and on the way a few things occurred which will remain forever between the four of us.

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We arrived back at the hotel and entered the gardens. I thought it would be a great idea to pick up the hose and soak everyone. After a few minutes of shrieking around the garden the owner opened up her window and screamed at us to get to bed. We put the hose down and to add shame upon shame, we had to wait for the old girl to open the front door as she had bolted it from the inside. We fell up the stairs and decided now was a good time to get on the boys’ shoulders and look out the attic window. More shouts ensued as the old girl yelled from the floor below for us to get to bed. We decided it was probably best to obey Madame before we were thrown out of the hotel and headed to our room.

WORLD KINDNESS WEEK