Back to Kingston

January 10 and 11

January 10

Breakfast at the hotel, then read and relax by the pool, witnessing some photo ops of young ladies with distinctive hair styles.

Gilbert picks us up (an hour late) and we drive back to Kingston (through lovely mountain scenery), where we have lunch at Kay’s and rest for the evening’s activities, dinner at an Indian restaurant called Tamarind, which was excellent. And then a play, written by a playwright, Basil Dawkins, who we had met at the veranda talent gathering last Saturday, called Maas Mat Comes to Town, at the Little, Little Theater.

Neither Carol nor Kay liked the play, said it needed considerable work. I could not follow the dialect, so I spent the second act reading Michelle outside the theater.

We returned to Kay’s veranda for some excellent ice cream, to finish off the day.

January 11

Started off the day where we ended last night, on Kay’s veranda, for coffee, an omelette and some relaxing, enjoying the view

before leaving for the airport (Kay driving us) around 11 for our 2:10 flight, allowing plenty of time for Spirit Airlines’ storied inefficiency.

We were not disappointed in our expectation of inefficiency by Spirit. I’ll spare you the details of what started with their inability to find Carol’s reservation, requiring her to buy another ticket yesterday, and their miraculously finding that reservation today, thus (hopefully) causing them to refund the amount of the second purchase, and continued to their charging for everything imaginable. In the end, I asked the lady at the counter whether there was a separate charge for a seatbelt. (There is not, yet, but I imagine the ticket lady pumping this suggestion into management, and being rewarded for her creativity.). In short, flying Spirit is dispiriting.

But, we made it, and were picked up at the airport by Len and Elyse, and had an excellent dinner with them and my other Florida college buddy, Phil Paul, and his wife, Leslie. I did manage to get into an argument with the manager of the restaurant over their failure adequately to disclose the addition of an 18% tip and their pouring a glass of wine from a bottle that we had rejected as unacceptable. Just a little spice added to the evening.