Just one more for the road...before we head for the train station I thought I would share one last story. While I can spin a good yarn, sometimes the truth is actually more humorous than anything I might make up or embellish. After a day of walking around the lakeside of Windermere, we spent a quiet evening organizing our things to leave this morning, and reading. We turned in about 9:30. The windows are open, door locked. Oh yeah, little detail, this is a 175 year old huge manor house with 12 foot ceilings, 8 foot doors, and thick plaster walls....no flimsy dry wall here. Knowing from past travels, these older places can be lovely but impossibly smallish when it comes to room size, I booked a family suite, which has a small living room area with a separate bedroom...I am typically up early and like a sofa where I can sleep if I get restless...I could go on about the furnishings and the need for a ceiling fan, but it would not add to this story. About 12:30 AM the telephone in the room sharply rings. It takes me a few minutes to figure out it is not a fire alarm nor door bell. I answer with a sleepy, “Hello”.
The gentleman on the line begins “Madame, it is after midnight and your simply must turn the volume on your television down.”
“Pardon, our television is not on”, I answer.
“I have just completed my security rounds, and after going below you and listening closely to the various doors, I have determined that the loud noise in originating from your room.” “I actually went down stairs to the room below, which is empty to have a listen.” “It is definitely coming from your room.” He was pretty insistent that he was right.
Still a little dazed, I answered that our 3 windows to the back were open, and we had heard noise in the early evenings. The property has staff quarters for the people who work here. Fashioned from old stable, garages and 19th century support staff part, it houses the East Europeans that have immigrated here to work. Kinda like a cruise ship as we can watch the in and outs of the 20’s something’s. They like to party on Saturday nights...but this was Sunday. He asked me to give a listen to our two adjoining walls to see if I heard anything. I did. I reported back that I heard nothing. He seem to not believe me. By this time I was awake...never good. Even the Admiral knows better than to wake me in the middle of night without good reason. This was a standoff. There was nothing on in the room....if you don’t count Eddie’s snoring and coughing fits. Hmmm... then the gentleman apologized for waking me and hung up.
As I worked to get back to sleep for the next two hours, I realized that Eddie’s snoring and coughing through a door, floor or wall while not a TV was a source of considerable sound/noise. There are stories of his epic snore fests that predate marriage...his current head cold and non snuffy nights have been noisy for sure, but a call from hotel security...this is one for the books. Now, how do I turn the volume down/off on Eddie?
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