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Wednesday 14 September – part one: I’m going to say something about the fall and how they treated me afterwards…

I was very pleasantly surprised when I woke up. First, it was 6:35am, meaning I’d had a solid nine hours sleep. Obviously getting over the jetlag nicely then… Secondly, I wasn’t in as much agony after my fall yesterday as I’d expected. I was half thinking that I’d almost be unable to get up this morning, but I managed fine, and although my right shoulder hurt, and there was a bruise starting to form, it was nothing terrible, and certainly it could’ve been so much worse.

I wrote up the trip report, and as I did, I recounted what had happened to me yesterday. The security guy who’d come up to see had promised a manager would call me, and no-one had. I was pretty annoyed about that. It felt as if they’d made promises and failed to keep them. They’d raised my expectations, and then not delivered, and that was still sitting badly with me. I was also thinking by now that others in my position could easily have started demanding everything under the sun, and I hadn’t. I’d have liked them to start building some bridges with me but it was going to start with me saying something.

We made our way downstairs…



… and I went straight to reception and asked to see the on duty manager, explaining what had happened. The guy immediately went out to find someone, and returned to tell me the front desk manager was reading my file, and would be out immediately she’d finished doing that to speak to me. He was as good as his word, and we were introduced to Julie, and invited into her office.

I explained how I felt and how upset I was that no-one had called last night, and obviously it was news to her, as she obviously thought someone had called. I suspect that someone’s in for an earful about this. I also said that I was concerned that the Fairmont just weren’t taking my fall seriously enough, and that it was a dangerous situation, and that I didn’t want others to go through what I’d done. I also explained that my accident could’ve been so much worse.

I made the point about the accident book only being in French, and that not being acceptable, and she immediately took that on board, agreeing, as most of the hotel’s visitors are English. She assured me that she would be gathering up everyone relevant to ensure lessons are learnt. As Mark said later, of course we’ll never know if they did or not. The only way you ever find out is if the same thing or something similar happens again, and then it transpires there were previous accidents.

I felt more reassured by Julie though, and did get the impression she did care about what had happened to me. I also made the point that I felt as if they didn’t care. Towards the end of the conversation, she asked what she could do for us, and to be honest, I wasn’t about to take the Mickey, so I just happened to mention we were about to head down to breakfast, and I left it hanging there in the air, and she immediately told me breakfast for both of us would be complimentary, which wasn’t bad going, given it was $35 CAD each!

I left there, feeling a lot better and somewhat reassured. I’m glad I did say something, as I felt it needed saying.

On the way out, we met Daphne…



Here’s her story:

She was so docile, and the only time we heard a peep out of her while we were in the lobby was when a small dog came over to her and started barking at her. She just took it in her stride, and was like “whatever”… casually greeting him, and somehow calming him down! Apparently she belongs to a member of staff, so comes into the lobby whenever she’s working. I thought it was a nice touch.

We made our way down to the Restaurant Dufferin, which is where breakfast was being served…



Almost as soon as we handed over our complimentary coupons for breakfast, I felt as if suddenly we were treated like Royalty, so maybe they don’t get many of these. We were escorted to a window table, although by now the rain that had threatened earlier in the day was now here, so it was almost impossible to get good shots outside.

I went up to investigate the buffet, and get some photos…



… and almost had another accident when I stepped on a tomato on the floor. I immediately summoned someone over to get it cleared up, before someone else went flying.

I think it’s fair to say I sampled the majority of the buffet during the next half hour or so. I started off with this…



… it was supposed to be eggs benedict, which was supposed to be with salmon, but if you’re thinking “I don’t see any salmon”, you wouldn’t be the only one. It tasted a bit of salmon, but it was definitely more vegetable than salmon.

I also had a good selection of Quebec cheeses, some crepees , salmon, waffles, and fresh fruit, and that wasn’t everything. Darn, I failed in my mission!

While we were eating, Alexander who was in charge of housekeeping, and some other things, which included the swimming pool, came over. I was up at the buffet when I arrived, so he and Mark were chatting when I got back. He was asking where we were staying in Montreal, but I couldn’t remember off the top of my head. I did say we’d be at the Fairmont in Ottawa, and his words were “we’ll sort something out for you”… Ok, it’ll be interesting to see if they come through with something or not…

Next: I don’t think I’d want to be in here with the maximum allocation of people.