not so majestic

A month in advance

I booked the Hydro Majestic

an old hotel in the

blue mountains

At the age of 10

in 1954

my father ran

down the corridors.

At the age of 10 

in 1981

I saved a young friends life

when he had almost fallen out the window 

while he was looking at the view

of the Megalong valley

spectacular and just outside

the hotel.

at the age of 25 I spent a 

drunken weekend 

with friends spilling

into a couple of rooms.

It was my birthday

44

and I hadn't been back for

19 years.

Think of a grand old dame

fallen on hard times

restored to its 

former glory.

The problem was 

the place is run as 

a hospitality school.

but billed as a 5 star.

booking system failed

to deliver promised discount

and the staff either dropped the food

or forgot your order.

dinner was expensive and set at 2 or 3 courses

and when presented with my 60 day aged steak

the waitress had never heard of mustard

or horseradish.

breakfast was cheap and lazy and $90

for things you'd find in a cheap motel.

want a real coffee?

$5.50 on top ...

If you can swallow that

the greatest disappointment were the rooms

tiny and airless with double glazed sealed

windows overlooking the valley.

you could look but you couldn't touch

the breeze absent, it was stifling

or freezing in the air conditioning

the only window a prison size in the bathroom.

every avenue for a real commune with nature

all the balconies and exits

were sealed. It was really their way

and the highway. 

room service, nup

movies, nup

pool, nup

gym, nup

It rained the second day and the grand

old fireplace in the lobby 

remained unlit.

too hard to create any real atmosphere.

I could go on and it was a shame

that a company could buy such a grand place 

so full of history

and rip the soul out of it.

Humourless, pretentious

expensive, hollow

its a damn shame.

for a grand dame.