It’s amazing what can bring people of varying nationalities, varying financial conditions, some rich and others not, varying importance, some important others not so much, some well-dressed and others maybe not so much, to a common place and perspective.
I recently discovered one of those things. It was the bread toasting conveyers on the breakfast buffet at Fairmont St. Andrews in Scotland.
The Fairmont St. Andrews Hotel is an exceptional place inhabited by wealthy golfers, businessmen and women and other travelers of means. Not only is the place itself excellent in its location near the North Sea with outstanding views, but also in its architecture and decor. It is also excellent in its staff.
I have but one constructive suggestion; Get rid of the conveyer toasters and get a couple of “Those pop-up thingies” as described by an irritated English gentleman as we all stood around waiting for the bread, we had inserted into the conveyer several minutes ago, to magically become toast.
In the Fairmont’s defense there were two of the toasting machines. But it made little difference which one you chose to use.
Those conveyor toasters brought us all to the same point, some bending over, muttering as they looked into the darkened tunnel of those machines to see if the bread, they had so carefully laid on the slowly (I emphasize the word slowly) moving wire conveyer several minutes ago had somehow gotten stuck in the back, or maybe had disappeared altogether.
On our last day, I made an exciting discovery: there were Morning Rolls on another station of the buffet. My problem with the conveyer toaster became moot.
So, I guess if one looks around, there are always options.
I hope someone was able to make use of the two slices of brown bread I left on the conveyor after I discovered the Morning Rolls.