Date night

Got home from Stavanger last night. Busy week, but I much prefer busy to slow. I just hate days when you sit in the office looking at the clock every five minutes. Although I can not really remember having a day like that in a very long time. It is like a distant dream - must be years away from now.

Spent the week in a nice hotel in the centre of Stavanger. One that has tiny rooms, but they all do have fireplaces. Got upgraded to a double room. Yay. That one ALMOST had room on the floor for my open suitcase. Well, just almost. I guess I am a bit spoilt, as I have stayed in some pretty fabulous places in my time. Although very few - if any (!) - of these while traveling on business. Of course, I always obey the travel policies. So, as long as the room is clean (no bugs!) and the bed is comfortable (preferably with nice bed linens), and towels are not too old and stiff, I am totally happy. Hotels with nice toiletries always rank high on my list. But typical business hotels do not have any of that, as they cater to MEN. And men would happily wash their hair with toilet detergent, if that was the thing provided. So these hotels just do not bother.

A thing I really do miss when staying at hotels in Norway is what is referred to as "turn-down" services. Meaning that they close curtains, remove the bed cover, and - if you are really lucky - they leave a mint, or possibly also a little poem or gift on your pillow. Of course part of it is also changing the towels a second time. And - finally - they do that cute little folding of the end of the toilet roll. Neat. I thought I should perhaps start doing that at home myself. Yeah, right.

Anyway. Got through the week without attacking the mini bar. Although I heard this bag of tortilla chips whispering to me every night.... "Eeeeat meeee!". I am so disciplined, I know. Good thing there was no chocolate. Then I would have caved in. Easily.

I guess I should mention that I was pretty impressed when I saw that the minibar held a bottle of Bruno Paillard champagne. At a very reasonable price even. Well. I would never, ever allow myself to sit sipping champagne in a hotel room all by myself. In the middle of a work week. That would be just too sad. So I ignored all temptations, and tried to treat myself well by doing my nails or pampering my skin every other night. Not much else to do when you are all alone in another town and you have to get up at six the next morning anyway.

My flight home arrived 10 minutes early, and everybody in my row kept their shoes on during the entire flight. Could not believe my luck. I even got my luggage straight away. Not bad. I was home just in time to drop off luggage before dinner at Nodee with the love of my life. With me being away the whole week, and him leaving for a one-week business trip to China on Friday, we thought we should treat ourselves to a nice dinner date. So we did. Tempura, black cod (yum!) and crispy duck. With a nice bottle of Mersault. Everything was just perfect. Well except for the fact that we seemed to have picked what seemed to be "ladies night" at this place. So, we were seated next to:

• Behind me: A table of ten quite animated women, of which one had the most screeching voice, totally drowning out every other sound in the restaurant when she spoke. Something she did continuously.
• On my left: A woman exercising some "tough love" on her friend. She might have had the best intentions, but "tough love" combined with BOTTLES of white wine has never been known to be a winning formula. Needless to say, there was, of course, a lot of crying.
• On my right: "The commentators". Two women that felt it perfectly ok to comment on ANYTHING we were served. "Oh, look, their wine is in a carafe. Isn't that nice? Should we get one, too? What is that they are eating now? That looks good." Totally annoying. 

It is a good thing we do have a sense of humor. And that this was by no means our very first date.