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By Jeff and Judy

Yucky Plastic Beakers!

Just when Jeff and I think we’ve seen and heard it all, we haven’t.

I knew from hotel and restaurant friends on our tropical island paradise that a growing number of visitors have discovered when they moan and groan about this and that—mainly that—they stand a fair chance of getting a rebate from their travel agents when they return home.

It has apparently become such a serious problem that people in the tourism industry, both here in the West Indies and the countries the visitors come from, must buy expensive insurance to cover such claims, no matter how justified or frivolous.

And human nature being the way it is I fully accept gripes can come from persons perched anywhere up or down the economic ladder.

But you can imagine my bemusement when Jeff read out word-for-word a story he found on a London newspaper’s website this week. About a British lady who went before the High Court claiming a refund of £44,000, in addition to a further £16,500 for the mental anguish she claimed to have suffered, after paying £88,000 to rent a luxury villa in Barbados for 32 days.

Her claim wasn’t totally successful, she had to make do with an award of only £29,760, including interest, for the “distress” she had to endure.

But even with that piffling amount you can get up to an awful lot of fun and games in the West Indies. At least Jeff and I could.

The woman’s grievances apparently ranged from leaky windows letting-in the rain, uncomfortable Indonesian-style wooden furniture forcing her and her family to go to bed early because there was nowhere to sit, relax and enjoy themselves and the one that stuck out like a sore thumb; “Having to drink out of plastic cups.”

Now it didn’t say if the villa in question was on a magnificent Barbados beach. But knowing that island as Jeff and I do one couldn’t have been very far away.

Which leads me to today’s Sellers personal tourism tip for people facing a similar predicament. Whenever Jeff and I feel uncomfortable on our primitive wooden furniture and experience acute anguish drinking out of cheap unbreakable plastic beakers we move to the beach, lie together on the soft sand and drink from bottlenecks.

“Damsel in Acute Distress - Enjoyed Every Second,” would be the headline if our case ever reached a High Court.

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Just who are Jeff and Judy? Judy and Jeff Sellers are a US couple who love sunsets, world travel, fine wines, good food and each other. As often as possible and not necessarily in that order. They currently seek a congenial publisher for their "Frisky after Sixty" book ('A Good in Bed Read') and after many requests from friends all over the world waiting impatiently for their local newspapers to carry this column. To find out more go to Frisky After Sixty.

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