You Men!

I flew into Zürich early in the morning. The flight from London was on time and the captain apologised and gave us some chocolates!

What happened was, once we were airborne the captain of the flight announced that the weather was excellent and we would be landing at Zürich twenty minutes ahead of schedule. However, as we neared Zürich, a ground fog crept in on the airport and hence there was a delay. With that delay, we landed on time. Still the captain sent large chocolates with his compliments, to all the passengers.

Once I reached the hotel where I was booked, I started the check in process and entered the customary details such as Name, Nationality, passport no. and then the date. I entered 22-10-1985. I then recalled that that was my birthday!

I knew that I would be in Zürich on my birthday but, the tensions of international travel had made me forget it, so early in the morning.

As I wrote it down I remarked to the dignified looking matronly receptionist, “Oh! I had forgotten. Today is my birthday.”

I must have triggered something deep inside her. Her shoulders sagged. She glared at me and the look was transformed to a look of pity and she said “Oh, you men, howwww cannnnn you forget your own birthdays. I can never understand this.” She shook her head pityingly and stared at an imaginary point, above my head, far away.

And then suddenly duty beckoned. She straightened up, forced a smile back to her face and shook me by the hand and wished me a happy birthday and a pleasant stay in Zürich.

I did have a great time except for a small hitch, which was also a pleasant incident, as the next post shows.