Everyday Minerals | Everyday Naturals

A place that I'll remeber forever is a simple B&B in the Isle of Skye in Scotland. When you stay in a B&B you stay in the house where the owner lives everyday, so in a manner it's like to be a guest and not a client, but in that B&B it seems to be hosted by a granny or an old aunt. The owner was a very nice lady. She welcomed us with tea and home baked cookies and everyday at 5 p.m. guests had tea with her in her living room (if you liked, obviously). A day that she was out until late night for the grandson birthday, she left in our room two slices of cake that we found at the evening when we came back to the house. I suggest to everyone an holiday in the Isle of Skye. The isle is wonderful and scottish people are very nice.

These are a few shots of my holiday:

the town of Portree (the major town of the isle; a village, actually!!):


the so-called kilt rocks (because they remeber a kilt):


The fairy glen, a glen (valley) with a number of small lochs (lakes) and small conical shaped hills:


The dunvegan castle:


and the seals near the castle:


XXX

It just happened a few days ago. We had a delayed flight and had to find a hotel, fast. The terminal had a list of hotels, so we picked one from the list. It was horrible, dirty, trashy, and I'm pretty sure there were bed bugs. When we were leaving the next day, we passed a room where someone had punched holes in the wall, shattered pictures, and took a dump on the bed. A few other unlucky passengers were there also, but one family who had taken a cab to the place said the cab driver told them there was no way in hell he would leave them at such a dangerous, crappy place. Wish we would have had that cab driver!

My friend and I were taking a road trip and well a guy came to our room, knocked on the door and we opened it leaving the lock on.

He told us that he was with the restaurant, had a menu and looke very professional. We placed our order, paid with cash and he never came back.

We got scammed!

I stayed at the cutest little bed and breakfast and all of us staying there played games all night and the owner made the best omlets the next morning. It was such a unique experience

Hotel Bora Bora has it all. 6-star service, locale, overwater bungalows, food to die for, lots of excursions, privacy, not overcrowded... just unbelievable.

We stayed at the ceasers palace jin LV and well our TV didnt work so we told the concierge and they upgraded our room to this amazing suite all because the TV didnt work. It was great especially for someting that we did not care too much about

Not so fun!

WE stayed at a janky hotel in San Diego, well we didnt stay, we got to our room and there were pubes in the bed. It was so gross. WE told the manager and they gave us a different room, and the toilet was dirty. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.

WE went up to the desk and said that we would not stay here and tried to get our money back. They would not give it to us so we left and called our credit card company and told them to cancel, we took pictures (you never know when you may need them to back up your story) and so the hotel could not do anything about it!

finding blood all over the sheets! YUCK!!!!!!!

When My now hubby asked me to marry him!

That was a best

This may sound crazy but the couple next to ours wanted to come in our room and "have a little fun". It was terrifying.

Now I never ever talk to anyone that I do not know at hotels.

I stayed at a roach hotel literally.

I did not sleep at all that night

My most memorable stay is at Tangalooma Island Resort in Australia, off Brisbane.

The resort is at a beautiful beach.


The room was clean and comfortable and I had a great time there with the various activities.

Wild Dolphin Feeding
We were warned that the dolphins may not necessarily come as the dolphins were wild. So I was really excited when I actually got to feed two of them and one brushed my hand when getting the fish.


Sand tobogganing:
The climb up was hard, but the slide down was totally worth it!


We also went whale watching. Although we did not catch sight of a whale, the boat ride was just like a roller-coaster ride due to the waves and it was really exciting.

The Lodge at Bryce Canyon.
I start by saying, I love staying at National Parks. They have great services and comfortable lodging. Great food also. I think first class food.
Bryce was an exception, in 2004.

I made plans and lodge reservations for this huge vacation 1 year in advance. We were doing a round of National Parks out west.
I had dinner reservations made 6 months in advance. Every mile driven was anticipated and planned well. This was a Trip of a Lifetime.

Things went downhill the first night at dinner. We brushed off the 20 minutes it took to have our orders taken. Funny, he didn't seem that busy at the time.
We tried to brush off the hour wait to get served our meals.....with no water. I'm not lying, no water was brought to our table.... no return visit from the waiter.
We tried to chill out (this was our Big Vacation after all), when our waiter took orders, served food and took the time to take photos for guests, who had been seated well after us.
What blew my top was when Waiter Dude looked up from taking yet another photo for a table, looked me in the eye, saw my wrath, and ignored me.
We were the only people in the place without alcohol, we thought that might have mattered. Lower tab. that is a rotten waitperson. And we had a coupon for the child for a free meal.

We had a 9 year old child that fell asleep at the table, waiting for food..water...something.

I stormed out, family followed and we ordered a pizza and ate it on the rim of the canyon.

That night we had mice in our cabin. AND our fireplace leaked gas and wouldn't light.

I actually cried. A year planning, I had made a folder of day by day itinerary's..driving maps and mileage...side trips...I even had printed the menu's from every National Park Restaurant.
I planned what I would eat! It was that important. Silly, but true.

They gave us half off our bill in the end, but I would have gladly paid the whole thing, for the experience that other guests had.

Everywhere else we stayed was exceptional.

Once I stayed at this place that was absolutely horrible... upon walking in the room is stank really bad but figured if we opened the window and turned on the air it might filter out. Next was grabbing my things out of the car and finding a place off the floor to set them... there was not a spot... luckily we got a double room and used the bed for our table. I went to sit down on the other bed and turned on the tube when I looked over and there was like 20 large gross bugs walking on the bedspread and on the floor near by... I flipped and needless to say we got our money back and decided to give the hotel down the street a try... much nicer and no bugs!!!!!!

My mother and I stayed in an old castle converted to a hotel in Scotland that my mother was convinced was haunted. In the middle of the night she woke me up to tell me the shower had turned on. She shouted please turn that off and the water went off. She then called out a thank you to the ghost. It was definitely the most memorable of the 6 different places we stayed on the trip. It was a beautiful old place with cows in the front, just down the street from the North Sea.

Three years ago I was spending my holidays in the UK with my boyfriend, my brother and few friends. My brother's girlfriend has an uncle in England and she found us the place, where we can stay. She said us that it is a camping. We were thinking about nice little houses with comfortable beds and nice bathroom.. When we arrived we were so shocked... We were living in CARAVAN!
It didn't look like that..

..rather like that..


We cannot do anything because we don't have a lot of money so we stayed there. When I woke up in the morning... My sleeping bag is WET! Our roof leaked! I was so angry...
I went to the bathroom.. another HUGE shock. Incredibly cold water. Dirtiness. SPIDERS..

Me and my boyfriend decided to change our caravan.. And we spent the rest of our holidays in England at this campsite.

It was the worst holidays in my whole life! I admire myself that I survive because I am scared of spiders and I don't have a good health (cold water in bathroom + awful weather in England= fever, influenza etc..).
But I did it and now I know one thing: no more holidays at the campsites in the ENGLAND! (Especially this one ;-) )

My family stayed at a horrible motel when I was a kid. It was part of a chain, I'm not sure if it still exists though. The place was gross. There were bugs everywhere and the bathroom was dirty. I think we asked for our money back and slept in the car. Whenever I stay anywhere now, I'm grateful that it is nothing like that place.

Now my family stays at resorts or hotels that are 4 or 5 stars and we plan better with road trips.

I've ever loved Theme Hotels, so when we went in Paris to visit Disneyland Paris I have no doubts:
I wanted to stay in the Disneyland Hotel!



Call me a Big Kid, but I wanted to live the Fairytale of Disney World completely so I choose this hotel.
The wonderful pink palace reminds the Colonial American style with a touch of Victorian feel, with red-tile turrets and jutting balconies, it is very impressive!
And you feel like a movie star when you enter the hotel on the red carpet and discover the great Lobby full of leatherarmchairs and sofas, surrounded by polished oak tables with glass display cases featuring a different Disney puppets and the HUGE sweeping staircase looked as if it was just waiting for Cinderella to run down it, there were plush carpets and delicate, soft pastel coloured walls.
And Disney Music playing everywhere!




The Room was some kind of Magic: big, with soft pastel colours and filled with little Disney details and characters!
There were All the comfort of a normal Hotel room. But all was so Big and full of precious details like the bathroom with a huge gold framed mirror, complete carved with the 7 dwarfs!!
And all was themed by Disney of course!!
I forgot to say the Hotel was located right at the entrance to Disneyland park, so in 3 minutes we were in the Wonderful Disneyland PARIS!




Everytime I woke up in this Hotel I felt like I was the main character of a Disney FairyTale. When we ate in one of the restaurants, meeting "Mickey"or other Disney friends or we walked throught the Hotel Corridors I felt so excited like a Child!

I, sincerely, love beeing surprised from the little things. I think that thinking too much about job, duties, everyday life, we forget how important is our Inner Child
You're really Old, not when your age is too high, but when you Stop Dreaming and beeing Amazed!
This experience I lived with my boyfriend, was wonderful and important.
We had so Much fun and we left behind all the thoughts that obsessed us in the everyday life.
I don't feel ashamed when I tell you how funny it was and how my eyes shine all around!!

I suggest all of you to try this Magical Experience Forget you're 20, 30, 50 or more years old and come back to Childhood, when little things are amazing, and you may smile because you have Sleeping Beauty overtop your bed!

xoxo

Monaco Suites de Boracay was an amazing experience! It's beautifully situated on top of a cliff and has fabulous breathtaking panoramic view and scenery! The suites are tastefully decorated, very spacious and extremely clean. They have a dolphin-shaped salt water pool and a spa. There are so many fun things to do... horse back riding, island hopping, diving, jetskiing, parasailing, kiteboarding, wind surfing, and more!

This summer my family went to Maui. We stayed at the Aston Maui Kaanapali Villas. It was beautiful and right on the beach. Only problem was during the week they were doing re modeling and could some times be rather noisy. Luckily we weren't in our room very often. We had a 2 bedroom condo with a full kitchen. It was nice since we were able to eat most of our meals in the room and save some money. Here's the view from our room.



We had a wonderful time. We were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. Here's a picture of the roast pig at the luau we went to.

The absolute WORST motel I ever stayed at was Peter Pan motel in Anaheim, California.

My then boyfriend, my husband now, and I were being spontaneous and decided to take a drive to Disneyland without even planning. When we got there we tried to book a room at any available hotel that was on the strip. All the hotels we looked at were booked. We were desperate at this point so took a room at a run down motel called Peter Pan.

In the middle of the night we were woken up to some guy trying to open our door with his room key probably too drunk to realize he was at the wrong door. Then in the pitch dark night we'd hear little scampering feet running across our room. I'm thinking they were mice. I know, lovely. I didn't dare walk on the ground with bare feet since the floor was sticky like movie theatre floors.

We only stayed one night and checked out the next morning. Thankfully we found another room at a much, much better hotel.

We still reminisce and laugh about that time.

My dearest memories of staying in the hotel go back in the 90s, just after the war in Croatia was finally over. I've spent a week in Plitvice National Park with my family and friends.

The hotel itself was not glamorous or even beautiful but it was newly renovated after being badly damaged in a war and all the staff and guests were aware of that and treated it in proud and respectful way. White walls, clean herb scented sheets, 3 channels TV and all you can eat breakfast buffet with lots of fruits, veggies and traditional cheese were more than enough for the guests to feel happy, knowing that the real luxury was the fact that we have a clear sky without war aeroplanes above us.

And the nature around us...ahh...The lakes and the waterfalls are divinely beautiful but you can see that in any photo.


What you can't get from the photos is the scent of the cleanest mornings, the look of the darkest nights where you can't see a finger in front of you but still see the glistening of the lake, the biggest and coldest raindrops you can imagine on a hot summer day and the feeling of being so happy and peaceful just for sitting on a rock a being a part of that perfection for few moments.

I love the treat of staying in a nice hotel. My most memorable hotel stay was on my 21st birthday. My mum took me to Glasgow for a birthday shopping trip and we stayed in a Crowne Plaza hotel down by the river:
http://www.crowneplaza.com/h/d...ptLink=hd

The hotel was lovely. Very luxurious inside. But even more memorable than that was the fact that it was just my mum and me. We had both had a difficult few years and our relationship hadn't been too great as a result but this trip was a real turning point.

when i was 14 me and my mom went on trip to mexico to visit some family memebers that lived over there. it was my first time traveling. my family wanted to take us traveling in mexico so we went to many different places and on of the places we stopped at was chapala, jalisco it was a nice little town right next to a big lake which the city gets its name from. when we arrived the sun was setting we ate at the hotel restruant...we finished eating and by that time it was already dark...we went up to the rooms and my cousins thought it was a good idea to go explore by the lake....as we were walking along the lake we stopped at little house that belong to the hotel and on the post there was a bloody knife stuck to it...so we ran....and we ran into a playground....not ur typical playground though. the playground had clowns around it, but they were those scary clowns like u see on halloween or scary movies but we still stayed and played anyways, until we decided it was a good idea to go back to our rooms as we were walking away the merry go round started moving slowly and none of us even went on it and there was no wind....so we started running and our rooms were upstairs. i go to my room where my mom was and told her wat happen and she thought i was crazy. to top it all of i couldnt sleep all night because there was a really big storm and i thought i was going to die..that was my first hotel experience
here is a picture of me at the hotel

My most memorable moment in a hotel was in The Hague with my boyfriend. We stayed in a lovely 4-star hotel and had a beautiful room. The first morning we went to the breakfastroom and found a lovely breakfast with eco bread, the most delicious kinds of sweet bread, pancakes (a rare site for a breakfast in a European hotel) and salmon. It all felt really luxurious.
But suddenly we heard a guest at the buffet scream and then we saw a mouse running over the buffet!
He didn't touch the food, but it was kinda weird seeing a mouse on a breakfast table layed with food in a four-star hotel. And the weirdest thing was that nothing was done about it. A cleaning lady did take a quick look, but that was all.
I felt kinda glad that i had just finished breakfast. Although i don't hate mice, i felt it wasn;t very hygenic for them running around the food...

My family stayed at the Gaylord Texan for Christmas a few years ago and it was just so pretty and amazing! CHristmas day we woke up and the next thing we knew our relatives from Ohio were coming in the room. We jumped up and were overjoyed we forgot about the presents. It was so amazing and i cant explain how wonderful it was!

Mine is a quite funny one if u look back at it but it sure wasn't when it happened we arrived at this b&b in london and the asked the regulair qs such as "how will u be paying" "Do u want breakfast" and "For how many nights are u staying?" 4 nights (we had booked in before hand so it shouldn't be any news to them) "Four nights?" the receptionist asks confused but nothing more.

Then after two nights at breakfast the manger comes to us and tells us that the bank is taking the house, the very next day so we will not be able to stay there as we thought. So we had to go out and hunt for a new hotel at the evning. At last we found one that was lovely and we met a few people that turned ut to become very good friends of ours.

This is how u turn a smack in your face to a warm embrace

It would have to be when i was younger and we were given our first experience of staying at a hotel.

we thought it was very exciting and like an adventure.

the hilarous thing was because the walls were so thin we could hear the guests in the other rooms, and lets just say the noise we heard would make you blush.

we were told that people were fixing the room, that is why were there was werid sound from there, so we had to have the tele on loud, and told to just ignore it, and make as much noise as we wanted.

we didnt stay a another day at the particular hotel.

I'll start off by saying that I don't believe in ghosts, but a visit to this hotel REALLY freaked me out.

A few years ago during a visit to Vietnam, my family and our relatives decided that we would visit the beach. So we rented a bus and started our road trip. It was a day and a half trip, so around 10 p.m. the first night, we pulled into a hotel parking lot. It was completely empty. Deserted. But we knew that there wouldn't be another hotel for another 30 miles, and this one looked pretty decent, so we started getting off the bus...and that's when we heard this eerie moaning sound - totally freaky!!! We exchanged glances and (hesitantly) started towards the rooms with our bags.

My family walked into our room, and I immediately felt very cold, except that the A/C was not on and it was a hot summer night in Vietnam. My mom and siblings also felt it, a strange "presence," and we immediately turned around and RAN out of that room.
Our relatives were more than eager to leave as well, so when my mom suggested that we drive to the next hotel, we bolted out of there.
We were all pretty freaked out but we had a good laugh about it on the ride to the next hotel, which, fortunately, was not haunted.

I would like to say my most memorable hotel night recently was when I stayed in a hotel alone, for the first time as a single woman. I have been single for over two years now but only recently learned how to actually be single. Meaning how to take care of myself and just enjoy being alone and doing exactly what I want to do. No need for compromising anymore. Just be an independent woman! It felt really good to enter the hotel room and know that the whole room was just for me. I could put all my stuff wherever I wanted and stay in the bath room as long as I wanted. Yep, sounds simple enough, right? Well, it took a while for me to get here, but now it feels right. And I've already booked another hotel trip for me, three nights this time! I'm going to spoil myself soo bad!

Oh gosh, I have to relate my worst hotel experience ever!

During a school trip to New Zealand about 7 years ago, one of our rest places for a couple of nights was at a motel. I can't remember what it was called, but I remember thinking what a beautiful place it was. It was clean, modern and with a great view overlooking some grassy slopes behind.

We were divided into groups of 5 to a "suite", but one of the girls in my group wanted to join her close friends (who got assigned to another suite) in their room. Before she left, she told the rest of us to leave the back door of the suite unlocked so she could come back in if she wanted to.
The rest of us promptly did as she said and retired to the bedroom for the night.

There were two double-deck beds in the bedroom, and I was sleeping on the lower deck of the one right next to the door.

Anyway, the four of us fell asleep pretty quickly, but sometime in the middle of the night, I was awakened by one of my roommates screaming, "Wake up, wake up! There's someone in the room!"

I opened my eyes to see some strange dude standing less than half a metre away from me. One of my roommates was shining the light of her cellphone on him, so in that illuminated glow, I could see that he was.....

*pause for dramatic effect*

UNDRESSING!!!!

I KID YOU NOT!! His trousers were already around his ankles and he was in the process of taking off his socks.

And I'm from an all-girls school, so there was no way he was our 5th roommate.

I was so taken aback I could only gape at him from the recesses of my bed. I was so afraid he was going to pounce on me or something! Thankfully, my friend sleeping in the bunk above me shouted, "Hey! What are you doing here?! Get out!"

Miraculously, he paused a for a bit before stumbling out of our bedroom, LEAVING HIS PANTS BEHIND. We were so stunned and scared that we didn't dare follow him out to make sure he actually left. Eventually, we called one of our supervising teachers over to our room for help.

Oh, and she tossed his pants outside somewhere after she made sure he wasn't still hiding somewhere in our suite. Goodness knows who else he shocked with his pants down afterward!

This is definitely the most terrifying and memorable hotel experience I've ever had, and moral of the story is, ALWAYS lock your hotel doors!

Three years ago, Kyle and I drove to Florida for a vacation. We stayed with his Grandma for a few days then headed to Daytona Beach for a few nights. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach and this was our view from the hotel.

The room was nothing special, but the view was beautiful! I love hearing the waves rolling to shore. So peaceful. And I loved that we could just walk right out to the beach. It was such a great trip, not because of the hotel or where we were at, but because it was some much needed rest and relaxation with the love of my life! We hope to be able to go back this Christmas.

We got stuck in a snow storm this past winter and was forced to stay in a hotel 30 miles from our house since they closed the highway. We typically stay at a particular hotel when we travel, but didn't really have a choice so we stopped in the one we were closest to and could turn off the road to get to with so many parked cars. I ran in to see if our dog could stay with us and how much it would be. My jaw dropped when I heard the price, then the girl said it was a special rate since they typically charge a lot more. It appeared to be a nice, clean place to stay. Well, our room was on the fifth floor. We went in and in the doorway there was a huge red stain on the carpet in the doorway. It was a little creepy since the kids thought it was blood. It was probably something like kool-aid but who knows. I told the front desk and they offered to change rooms. What really bothers me is that they didn't know there was a stain, which makes me wonder if the room was even cleaned after it was used since you really couldn't miss the stain of that size as soon as you walk in.

PART 1

Wow. I've had so many hotel experiences, good and bad. From the happy and playful adventures at Disneyland Hotel and exotic 5-star hotels on the Hawaiian islands with wonderful lagoons and swim-up bars to others in Las Vegas with great buffets to the excitement and activity of hotels in New York and Washington D.C. and several in between--some lesser and others greater.

However, my most memorable hotel experience stands out, not because it was either good or bad (it was actually a little of both), but because of a very profound realization that I had while I was there.

I had just given birth to my first child several months before. My extended family had decided to take a two-week tour across half the country with a group to visit national parks and other famous landmarks. While I was happy to get out and explore some very beautiful places, the itinerary was hectic and it was hard keeping up while taking care of a new baby. You moms out there know exactly what I am talking about.

New mothers are extremely sleep deprived as it is and this group trip required getting up at 4:30 or 5:00 every morning after long days and nights of activity. Also, because we were traveling half across the country, we rarely stayed in the same hotel more than one night at a time, so we were constantly on the go. I couldn't rest and my baby did not like being strapped in a car seat for long periods either. My baby and I were tightly bonded and she was used to being in my arms a lot and couldn't understand why I was keeping her in the car seat so much. After a while, she grew tired of the long rides and I had to keep thinking of different entertaining things to do to keep her calm and happy. She was always very alert and rarely took naps. At some point I was having to invent new toys and new things to say or do every minute--to the point of complete exhaustion.

Finally, more than a week into the trip, we were at a sky-rise Las Vegas hotel and we were going to spend two nights there instead of one. I saw my chance and I snagged it. I bowed out of the Grand Canyon experience scheduled for the following day, not because I didn't want to go (I truly did), but because I desperately needed rest and wanted to spend some quiet, quality time with my baby. We both needed this. She had previously learned to push herself up into a sitting position and was making attempts to crawl and I had been archiving all her achievements since birth with my camcorder, but this tough trip had made my archiving difficult.

The next morning I was still awakened at 4:30 a.m. by the alarm clock, but I didn't have to get up this time. At 5:00 a.m. I kissed my husband goodbye as he left with the family and group; and I laid my head back down with a wonderful sense of peace and satisfaction at the thought of spending a quiet, leisurely day with my precious baby in our hotel room. Even better, my baby was still asleep so I was really looking forward to finally sleeping in. I happily drifted off to sleep.

PART 2

!!#@!! BAAM! I was terrifyingly startled awake by the loudest, most horrendous blaring blast that kept repeating in quick succession. The blasting was so loud and startling that I was literally jolted awake with pain in my chest. I looked at the clock to discover that it was only 5:40 a.m., so I had only been asleep for less than 40 minutes. It took a moment for me to get my bearings and then I thought, "Is that a fire alarm?" I listened a moment to see if instructions or information would come over the intercom, but the horrendous blaring just continued. I began to hear the confusion of other guests and then the most profound realization came over me. My precious baby was completely helpless without me, and it was ENTIRELY up to me (and my God) to get her out of there to safety.

Now, no, it wasn't like I hadn't had the realization before that my baby's care and life was in my hands. Of course I already knew that. I am and have always been a very thoughtful and responsible person. It's just that in this real life-and-death situation, the realization was so much more penetratingly intense, far more profound. I knew I needed to act IMMEDIATELY. That was my child and there could be no excuse good enough for wasting a single moment and not doing everything in my power to save her.

Prior to this event, I had never needed to implement any of the skills I had gleaned from all the fire drills I had participated in at school and at work. I knew that our room was on a floor too high for firefighters to reach with a ladder. I could smell smoke coming through the ventilation system, but our door was not hot and smoke was not coming in under it so I knew it was safe to exit into the hallway. I didn't know if the fire was above us or below us, but I knew that if it was below us, time was especially of the essence and we needed to get to a stairwell without wasting a moment.

I quickly picked up my baby and didn't dare to waste any time strapping her in the baby carrier. I knew I could only grab one more thing before bolting out the door. I swiped up the camcorder and headed out looking for the stairwell. Other guests began joining us. I had to hold my baby tightly with one arm while I used my other hand to steady myself while descending 38 flights of stairs to the ground floor. As other guests began crowding in the stairwell, floor by floor, oftentimes I wasn't able to hold onto the rail and I feared being knocked down with my baby as some people started to push in fear. Also, given the little sleep and rest I had received over many months, and especially on this trip, I began to feel really weak after so many hundreds of stairs in addition to the muscle strain I exerted to maintain my balance while descending--while carrying my well-fed baby and camcorder. Intense prayer and sheer will brought us to safety. It was still dark outside when we got to the ground floor and we had to stand outside in the cold for more than two hours before the firefighters gave us the OK to go back to our rooms.

Years have passed since that terrifying event at the hotel, yet I fully remember that penetratingly profound sense of responsibility (instead of fear) that I experienced during it. It really can't be fully articulated, but I know you parents understand, especially those who've experienced a sudden life-and-death situation with a child.

I did everything in my immediate power to ensure my child's safety and prayed to God for more power and saving aid. The profound nature of the experience stands on its own, yet it is further underscored by two things that I deliberately did not do. In those brief moments that I had to make the best decisions possible under those circumstances, I purposely did something I had never done before--I left my purse behind, with all my keys, cash, credit cards, IDs, etc., knowing I might not get them back, because even though those things are very important, I knew they could be replaced and are infinitely less important than lives.

The other thing I left behind I could have very easily and quickly grabbed and placed inside my camcorder bag and I knew it and I wanted it, but I consciously left it behind as well. I didn't dare waste a split second. As I stood among the crowd of other hotel guests for over two hours and the sun began to rise and shine light upon my bare naked face, I felt only a bit of the discomfort that I painfully expected to feel over the exposure of my then less-than-perfect complexion.

Standing on the cold pavement outside holding and kissing my baby, I didn't feel the slightest bit of regret over what might be lost. Instead I felt gratitude to my God that my baby and I were safe.

I never did get my rest, but my precious child and I did spend the rest of the day happily interacting and I was able to video record more precious moments with her.

My partner and I have stayed in some pretty average places for 5 weeks at a time while doing clinical placements for uni. One time in particular we had to stay in a caravan in the middle of winter. The caravan was the smallest one in the park- about 2m x 4m. It had a small double bed with a mattress that was like a futon that gets all squished out of shape from people always sitting on one side of it. It was like sleeping on the side of Mt Everest. It was a bit of a trek to the public toilets and showers so by the time you got back from the nice warm shower, you were frozen again. We had no tv or hot water inside the van and the gas cook top was more like an uncontrollable open flame. And so we lived like this for 5 weeks- going to work everyday but earning no money. What fond memories of being a student.