Colmans in the Land of Plenty

This week the Colmans are in the land of plenty . So news of what has been happening especially in the food department …..

Jane left on Saturday and of course there was a bit of a drama with BahamasAir flying out of Rock Sound. The flight was delayed by more than 90 minutes – which is a worry if there is a storm around – which there was. After a total lack of interest and reassurance by the staff we were both relieved when the flight finally came in.  Jane got her connecting flight to London and I finally returned to a state of relative calm. It takes so little if you are in the service industry to be kind and thoughtful to your passengers – a simple statement of apology and reassurance can go a long way to keeping the blood pressure down.

The evening before we had a lovely farewell meal at The Potlatch Club and Jane took some great pictures as you can see. The food was delicious – pasta with shrimp and lobster – really good. We all shared the dynamite shrimp as an appetizer which was perfect…… Fresh vegetables as a side order and Bob had the steak. Way too much for him but Rudge was delighted with what was left over …..

By the way The Potlatch Club will be closed from Sunday 11th August – re-opening on September 15th. Just so you know !

So here we are in the land of plenty enjoying a lot of what there is to offer.

We are staying at the Hyatt Centric on Las Olas Blvd and it is great value for money as well as being a great location at the western end of Las Olas Blvd. The first night we walked to Timpano for dinner – a very good choice ! We shared a starter of calamari which was huge as an appetizer meant for one person. Even I held back on finishing it as I knew I would be too full to enjoy my main course. I ordered spaghetti limone with rock shrimp and it was really very tasty. I remembered to take a picture just before I dug in and then Bob got me to take a picture when I had finished it to see the time difference. It was exactly 10 minutes which I thought was quite leisurely !! Bob had bucatini bolognese which he didn’t quite finish but he said it was really tasty.

The portions here in the US are always large and we noticed that portion sizes at the Potlatch Club have increased due to pressure from customers.

We took a trip to the Apple Store at the Galleria Mall as Bob needed a new laptop. We had the best service imaginable from a wonderful assistant called Fifi. She could not have been better – Bob actually asked her if we could adopt her ! but she politely declined. Not only did she save us money by pointing out that we did not need the higher spec we thought he did but she also set up the whole thing in about 45 minutes , sorted out trading in his old laptop and we walked out of the store with a fully set up new system. It was absolutely brilliant service plus including the trade-in she saved us $500 – now you have to say that doesn’t happen very often does it ? We are long time Apple fans but this service was above and beyond what we could have hoped for so I want to give them a big shout out. Not that they obviously need it but it is one of the reasons why they are so successful – now they just need to set up the adoption service……

As always we flew in on Aztec Airways – it is very expensive I know – but for us the ease of the whole procedure does justify the cost. The flights now go in to FLL – the international airport rather than the Executive airport up on Commercial Blvd – and I admit I was slightly nervous as to how it would work out. But it was brilliant – in through border control in about 4 minutes and through to the Sheltair building where the keys were waiting for the rental car from Go Rental. It was seamless and totally went without a hitch. It is 6 months since we took a trip into Fort Lauderdale and it is very good to be back……

And so let’s all take a leaf out of Fifi’s book and help people wherever we can without making a song and dance of it. Great service needs lots of positive feedback and Fifi is the best !! Have a great weekend and see you all next week……

And finally a shot of Bob with Tony Poletti – our brilliant freight forwarder in Fort Lauderdale. It is always lovely to meet up with him for a quick coffee when we are over there.