Thursday, July 06, 2006

The Bill in me

Today I had excellent jam from breakfast, with compliments from Shangri La. They'd actually given their compliments a month ago, to my friend who was staying at their fancy hotel. But the freecycler in me couldn't let the cute little bottles of marmalade and honey get cleared away with the room breakfast when I visited her.

My friend encouraged me to pick the goodies and was glad to see her money recovered. (She would have picked them herself had they been sugar-free)
I don't think Shangri La cared.
But my husband, as usual, is the problem. He thinks this amounts to stealing. In fact, he thinks this everytime we are out on vacation when the magpie in me collects matchboxes and stationery with glee, therefore at those points of time he frowns as menacingly as he can, which given his lineless forehead, isn't half as scary as he imagines it to be. So I continue.

Besides, his opinion on morals doesn't carry water given that he's a banker. And not just any banker - but a banker working in credit derivatives. For the uninformed, let me just say that Warren Buffet considers what he sells "time bomb"s. Me thinks his snooty highness finds two-dollar robberies beneath contemplation and would be quite delighted if I stole the whole Shangri La itself.

Anyhow, his opinion is quite dwarfed by a celebrity endorsesment I have just uncovered. The marvellously funny Bill Bryson, whose 'Notes from a small island' I am currently reading, candidly reveals his pocketing at an expensive hotel. I am a bit dubious about his being as Scroogy as he sets himself to be in the rest of the pages, [given how rich fans such as me must have made him], but in any case, it is nice to knaow that I and Bill have at least one thing in common. And I intend to keep it that way.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahahaa...following mom's footsteps,are you?

Anonymous said...

Hillarious

Lidia said...

Hahaha - your husband is funny, at least you know your married to such a moral fellow! I also take the stuff from hotels...soap, shampoo, biscuits...it's all good! It's not really stealing, it's borrowing indefinately!

Ekta said...

hah!
hey babe,
i think its a girlie thing!!...I love picking on all the hotel stuff..for some reason I find the little bottles very cute:-)
And yes hubby dear in most occasions also disapproves..but then this is a ladys privelege and do we care;-)
ps:- Was great bumping into u again..lets catch up soon!

babblezone said...

:) pick away u little magpie...

Dont let anyone curb your spirit :)) Even if its harmless ol vips...

And u r welcome to stay again this week..

Deepak Shenoy said...

My mum just returned from a Europe trip laden with tiny bottles of the sweet stuff, and shampoos and conditioners and liquids she wouldn't dream of using, but the bottles, she says, are darn cute.

If you liked the "Notes..." series, you'll love "Down Under", unless of course you've already read it.

Anand said...

Hey anuja,
Nice to have u guys back!
Guess all u women are the same!!:-)

Deliciously Alive said...

The only think I take back from hotels are their pencils because somewhere in my head i have this superstition that any new piece of writing begun with a flicked-from-a-hotel-pencil will turn out fab.And it does!:)))))))))

The One said...

For a minute I thought you were having a baby, or even better an affair...

Alas.. life isn't quite as saucy as the headlines suggest.

Thinking of coming over in October.

Will call.

j

The One said...

And don't you say nasty things about our line of work... Saying this because WB addressed that compliment to our entire industry.