Catch of the day

Waking up for the second time this morning... the first was more a rude awakening caused by Him not shutting the bathroom door at some ungodly hour... why are people so enamoured with en suites?... there was a happy thought; breakfast. Actually it was more modern medication for the migraine and coffee type thoughts, but we will pretend that all was going swimmingly shall we? At least the room was mercifully dark J

Those little ritual needs out of the way the thoughts turned to breakfast... though His seemed to be more on slave snacks. In fact He took advantage of the generous sized shower to pound one's arse into submission... for what felt like hours. Unfettered by the miniscule space ours offers Him, he took great delight in having a lot more room to move. Most of that movement seemed to be in an onwards and upwards direction. By the time He came one was almost at the stage of begging him to stop. In fact afterwards when one said thank you Master it was with sincerity.

With one small slave's arse out of the way His thoughts turned to more pressing matters... breakfast and with that goal in mind we moseyed downstairs. Waiting to be seated in the dining room one had time to notice that all the commemorative plaques on the walls had been done without the benefit of a spirit level... which was most unfortunate because whoever had hung the pictures had used one. It was something of a relief to be shown to our seats... if only to get away from them.

Now some hotels do fabulous breakfasts... The Sheratons are usually one of them and in the past the Noosa one was no exception. Until this morning...

With gusto one tucked into a pile of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and some pancakes... all slathered in maple syrup. Well there was gusto until one bit into the pancakes. Now they were fresh off the hot plate... one saw them come in and yet they were the texture of leather. Very old, tough leather might one add. No wonder everyone was eating theirs slathered in ice cream L

Undaunted one turned to other things...

He was looking for something to drink not being a tea or coffee drinker, so one did a lap looking for the hot chocolate that is normally around. Not finding it one asked one of the staff to be informed that it was available for an extra $5.00. Fine, whatever... He's worth it.

It arrived... served in a hotel tea cup and half of it foam.

It wasn't even good hot chocolate L

Never the less we found enough to keep us fortified for the morning... the omelettes were excellent as was most of the other items. Though there were no figs... He was most miffed having developed a taste for them.

Guess Gracia

So off we ventured for a little shopping... to find that there are five types of stores left in Noosa... resort wear (a peculiar type of clothing only to be found in these areas), tourist/ gift shops (and you would have to not like someone to get them gifts from some of those), jewellery shops (you have to accessorise that resort wear), shoe shops (that specialise in shoes to go with the resort wear) and swimwear shops (you guessed it... to go under the resort wear). It all made one very glad we had squeezed in a little shopping on the way up. That was how these found their way into the luggage.

He treated himself to these vile little critters at one of the gift shops. Only an inch long and with more bite than should be allowed. They are not going to give one happy holiday memories is one's pick L

In fact if one had known how bad they were, they might not have made the trip home at all... they could have easily been lost

Bad, bad slave

Wending our way back to the hotel to pack one commented that Noosa was in a decline... which is a shame as it is a pretty place with great walks, beaches, bars and restaurants... it's just struggling to survive in a lean market that isn't being driven by the tourist dollar.

This was something that was exemplified by our hotel...

You stay in luxury hotels for a reason... to pamper yourself and we go with that in mind, but let's look at the reality of it all for a minute...

The rooms were spacious... the halls had a funky damp smell that came and went in a mysterious manner.

The king bed that is essential for a 6' bloke as the only other option is twin doubles... an extra $20

Parking was $20 and the valet service was an extra $10

Room service is one of the best reasons to stay in a hotel. These days on top of the premium price of the food, a steak runs to just under $40 (an average steak in a restaurant is $25), they now add a service fee of $8 for delivering it to the room.

Water was $9 a bottle

There is a lovely TV. It doesn't play anything other than movies... at $15 a pop or $20 for adult (read very tame adult too).

Internet connection... you guessed it $15 a day for connectivity

Local calls.... $2 a minute (local calls are not timed here and cost about .30 cents)

Somewhere along the line all the little luxuries have attracted add on fees and many of the traditional services you can get around with modern electronics. The trouble is that the hotel industry may be aware of its customers' needs; it just doesn't know how to not make you feel a little gouged or worse smile at its attempts to do so. 

As they chirped at us we hope you enjoyed your stay one couldn't help but think well we did, but there aren't too many reasons to come back any time soon... unless you like wearing resort wear and dining out. And why would you go all that way to eat?

So we wended our way home, stopping for a few groceries before pulling up in the garage to be greeted by the cat... well it lifted an eyebrow enough to see who was disturbing it. Scampering inside there was that sense of relief coming home always gives... there is nothing like your own toilet and the relative safety that a miniscule bathroom provides. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for the bedroom where He reamed the arse one more time before one drifted off in an attempt to give the medication some more time to work on the migraine... it seems it too has made it back from the coast intact L