Thursday, November 20, 2008

I woke early and helped DH carry our bags to the front desk. They will store our things for us until we are ready to leave for home. My old Camry would be easy pickings in the dark, isolated, underground parking lot. I had five and a half hours between checking out of the Holiday Inn and meeting DH at the Hilton. I figured The Mall would help kill some time so I headed for the lower level, the only part of The Mall I haven't yet seen. It took me 20 minutes to find the lower level. I spent less than an hour down there and most of that time I was waiting in line at the Toys R Us check out, behind two of the most moronic, immature 20 somethings. One of them had a baby. I pity that poor child. Oh goody! Only four hours left to kill and I'm all shopped out. I'm also thinking of returning the 91 piece tin of dominoes. They get heavier with each step I take. I think my arms are going to fall off. I hope The Six Year Old appreciates my sacrifice. I think I'll stop for lunch. It's 12:30 and I can rest my weary arms and legs. The food court is packed with crowds of people in long line ups but that's OK. I swore I wouldn't eat in the food court anyway. So, I leave The Mall and find a little sandwich shop not far away. There are only a few customers inside so I enter and order the club house. It isn't until my food arrives that I find out why there are only a few customers. My club house contained some turkey and undercooked bacon. Other than that there was no resemblance whatsoever to a club house sandwich. I dallied over my lunch (It took a while to choke it down.) then I headed over to the Hilton. So what if I still had three hours to kill. My dogs were barking and my shoulders were aching. I was mere metres away from the Hilton's door when I spied a little mini mall. In spite of my brain screaming, "NOOOOO!" my feet headed for the doorway of the mall. After all, there might be a yarn shop in there. Ya never know. Turns out it was a Chinese mall. All the store names and signs were in Chinese. I felt as out of place as an astronaut on a nude beach. By the time I'd found my way out of the Chinese mini mall I was lost so I reverted back to my plan and kept to my right. I eventually found the Hilton again and collapsed on a nice comfy couch in the lobby. Only two and a half hours to kill so I tried to knit but botched up the pattern and wasn't in any frame of mind to fix it. I think I may have nodded off a few times. I'm sure the Hilton's patrons were wondering why there was a bag lady curled up on a couch, snoring away, in the lobby. DH finally showed up. After picking up our bags at the Holiday Inn, we sped off to Horseshoe Bay and while waiting to catch the next ferry back to Nanaimo dined on English style fish n chips from a nearby restaurant, Troll's. We arrived back home at 10:00 PM, unpacked our bags and fell into bed. Damn but it's good to be home.