Imperial Hotel, Soeul
We're pretty spoilt in the LSO. We travel all over the world and get to stay in 5 star hotels. Vienna, Paris, Sydney, Berlin, Tokyo ...
Here in Seoul, South Korea it's no exception. We're staying at the IMPERIAL PALACE HOTEL, Very smart.
The bedrooms are a delight and the bathrooms are to lust over. Bath-robes and fluffy towels galore. Creams and potions for all skin types. Lights and mirrors every where.
Yesterday's drama took place when I was catching up with the Archers. I like to keep in touch with civilisation when I'm on tour. I listen via the podcast on an iPad. You can even take it with you to the loo. Very handy.
Well there I was in deepest Borsetshire but was ready to leave the bathroom and get to back to my duvet cloud. But hang on a second. Where was the loo paper?
What do you do when you look for loo paper and can't see any? Perhaps it's behind you. Still not there. Search everywhere but no roll, dispenser, box of tissues or anything within reach or even sight.
Easy to see from close up.
And then I spotted it. A small white box. It was bolted to the wall right next to my right hip. It had a screen, some buttons, diagrams and picture style writing.
OK. So this was it. A toilet paper replacement gadget.
But how are you supposed to read the instructions? They're tiny, not a word of English and positioned awkwardly. I don't have eyes in my hips.
I took another look around the bathroom for an alternative. There were lots of towels. But nothing else. Ruth was having whine on the Archers and I was getting nowhere.
There was only one thing for it. ... start pressing some buttons.
With trepidation I tried one.
There was some whirring and then a few seconds later, a warm airy sensation, rather pleasant I'm sure but not doing what I needed at that moment.
Eventually, after a few more trial and errors I hit lucky with a jet of water. A rather strange sensation, but after some wriggling it felt as if it must be doing the job.
How long do you jet for?
The Archers sig tune had finished and I hadn't even noticed tonight's cliff hanger.
Never mind I could always catch up later.
Drifting off to sleep back in my duvet cloud I couldn't help thinking about that warm air dryer. Could James Dyson do better? Perhaps not using something as strong as an Air-blade though if the crown jewels were to be preserved.
PS Tonight's concert was a great success and my friend Angela Barnes reassures me that there's loo paper in the drawer behind the little white panel. Obvious with hindsight.
Pps i've only just noticed that I didn't have the comments switched on. So please feel free to add comments to any of the previous posts. Thanks, Nigel