Saturday, March 23

I woke with my neck and back in agony. The bed had had two pillows. Irma had taken the soft one, and mine (the extra-extra-hard one) had resulted in a complete inability to move my neck from side to side.

I yelped in pain, to Irma’s eye-rolling irritation, and then spent the morning looking straight ahead.

We used the kitchen to make our breakfast from the things we had bought yesterday. We could have had the breakfast downstairs, but “downstairs” changed with the new management, and we sampled it in Janauary.

The restaurant now goes by the name El Batangueno, and has a “signature Cowboy Burger, containing beef patty, double cheese, bacon, egg, jalapeno and peperoni”. We love our crunchy cucumbers.

After we have eaten I notice the geometry of the room and the startling changes of light and tone that result. I look around and make a picture. Later I will realise that it would have looked ever so slightly better if the towel had hung in its place.

We will go to Gift Village and look around, before coming back and spending an hour or so by the pool. The dull overcast day will ensure that we leave within a reasonable time.

We will then leave the hotel again and, in turn, visit Answar Gallery, Safeer Supermarket, Toys for Less, Brands for Less and another store whose name I never knew.

We will buy various things of various use. Irma will find a dress for her formal dinner in Milan in May, and I will find a new breakfast cereal (by W. K. Kellogg) on sale at an introductory price of just less than 1 euro. I will also buy an Arabian version of Deep Heat.

They actually had tubes of Deep Heat but I opted for the local alternative.

We will take things back, and unpack them. Then we will go out again to eat, to “the usual place”. Soy and Pepper will have the usual buffet and we will both like it. The staff will recognise us.

Soy and Pepper sits at the bottom of Reef Mall and, once we have eaten, we will explore the mall.
We will find things to buy at both Daiso and 2358, so heaven help us if we ever actually get to Japan.

Back in the hotel I will find another soft pillow, in a cupboard, and then apply liberal amounts of gel to my neck and upper back.

I will lie down and fall asleep immediately.