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Ho, Ho, Ho ...  [message #66413] Sun, 25 December 2011 15:20
The Gay Deceiver is currently offline  The Gay Deceiver

Really getting into it
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869




Anyone here got an amusing Holiday season anecdote to share?

I'll start the ball rolling with one of my own. This is a true story. It actually happened to me and my then lover Jon back in the day.

We had been vacationing in Bermuda prior to the advent of Christmas week and were on our return flight when the worst winter storm in generations hit the entire eastern seaboard of North America from Labrador to Florida. All air and most sea-based traffic was cancelled and everything quickly ground to a halt. Our flight was diverted to Kennedy International Airport. Our airline issued accommodation vouchers to all the passengers and arranged transportation to downtown New York City.

There is something YOU MUST PICTURE here to appreciate the full impact of this story.

Not-with-standing severe storm warnings having been broadcast for some hours prior to our departure (which I can't recall whether we ever actually had heard), Jon and I had started our journey from Hamilton Bermuda not quite two hours earlier in balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit, or thereabouts temperatures; and because, we had fully expected to be going from limousine to aeroplane to limousine we hadn't bothered to change from our vacation wear to standard street attire suitable for Toronto (or anywhere else for that matter) walking about; consequently, we arrived at our assigned New York City hotel, alighting from the taxi on to the sidewalk into a foot of snow clad only in tank-t's, shorts and sneakers. Our baggage was still aboard the aeroplane, and would remain there for the next 24-hours when it was subsequently determined our flight (nor anyone else's) was not going to resume any time soon.

Presenting ourselves and our airline accommodation voucher at the front desk of the hotel we were informed they had no rooms available, leaving Jon and I in a quandary about what to do. We weren't able to go walk about, our clothing was quarantined for how long we didn't know, and apparently we now had no place to park ourselves either.

Near despair (and about to erupt in hysteria) I spotted a familiar face in an adjacent marquée: Karl Malden was smiling right back at me urging that I "never leave home without it". Upon spotting this missive, I promptly did an about-face and marched right back up to the front desk and demanded to know of the clerk whether the hotel honoured "American Express". They did, and Jon and I successfully upgraded our airline accommodation vouchers to a suite of rooms for the duration of what transpired being 4-days.

In my nearly 35-year career in marketing, this would likely prove to be the only time I ever encountered real truth in advertising.

If I get suitable response to this thread, I will consider sharing one more, this time detailing Jon's and mine one and only ever experience with a water-bed during a road-travel holiday sojourn to Florida.

Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada

[Updated on: Sun, 25 December 2011 15:27]




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