Holiday Snaps: Cravats and Carbonara

Las Palmas again

No holiday to Gran Canaria is complete without a visit to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria the capital city. The bus ride from Playa del Inglés is about 45 minutes and the bus was running late this morning.

As usual, there is always something I want to get from El Corte Inglés, the upscale department store and the day is closed with a meal at the El Muelle shopping mall.

El Corte Inglés is no easy store to navigate when looking for something particular and though it is well staffed very few speak English.

Caveat cravat

I went looking for an Ascot cravat, the silk ones I have are not sturdy enough, they crumple and deform easily, I got one made of sterner stuff in July so I thought I would get a few more today.

I basically made the rounds of menswear area about 3 times before I asked for help but none of the men fully understood what I wanted, there were thousands of ties but no cravats in sight.

In the end, I went on the Internet with my phone and got an image of an Ascot cravat, showed it to one of the stewards and I was taken to the tie section where the cravats are ready-made to be worn like stick-on ties – now I might wear a ready-made bow-tie because I have not learnt how to tie one properly but definitely not an Ascot cravat.

Besides, these were supposed to be worn on the collar when what I want was to be worn on the neck beneath the collar.

I decided to look around that section and just close to the scarves on that big store of 6 floors on both sides of the road there were probably 12 Ascot cravats out of which I selected two satisfied that I had found what I was looking for.

Piping cold and too off for eating

For lunch, I made for Ginos, an Italian restaurant on the 3^rd floor of El Muelle, I had been there twice before, their entrees are just too big to allow for the plat principal to go down well, so I ordered a main course with drinks.

Spaghetti Carbonara, surely, that should be one of the easiest pasta dishes to make, I was served within 10 minutes. I settled to it but something was wrong, it was lukewarm and it had just come from the kitchen.

I told the waiter, he took it away and brought it back a few minutes later, it was not steaming, there was hardly any heat radiation. I’ll be damned if I sent the dish back for me to receive the meal as ashes.

I asked for my bill and I was presented with the full cost which did not matter to me, I could not be bothered with making a fuss, I was too hungry for an argument to ensue, I paid but the manager got involved and I was given change with no charge for the pasta dish.

That became my first complaint in 2011 and it was really unnecessary, Ginos will not see my shadow again, if I could help it – that was a complete let down.