Finding Joy : Scenario #1

Many years ago wife and I had been on a coach trip in Europe. We were to arrive back in London late afternoon and decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel for the night before heading up north to relatives later the next day. As is often the case with travel, we got back late and arrived at the hotel about 11pm.

We went to check in and were standing behind an Australian couple who had just flown in and were also late. We heard that their room had been given to someone else. The man was beside himself with anger, insisting on having his room. The acting manager came out to explain they would be located to another hotel but he wasn't having any of that.

As he was taken to one side to continue his remonstration, I came to the desk and said "It seems like our room has gone". It had and we were told to take a seat and a taxi would take us to another hotel. We accepted that and sat to wait on its arrival. Finally the other man accepted his inevitable fate and took another seat with his wife, still fully frustrated.

We were whisked off to the new hotel. It was a top quality establishment and much nicer. We crashed into bed and got up next morning to get our continental breakfast (which is what the other hotel was to provide) just before 10am. We found a wonderful buffet waiting, which was to close in just 10 minutes time. We quickly took all we needed and thoroughly enjoyed the food.

Your breakfast awaits you 

By not getting annoyed at losing our room, we finished up in superior accommodation. We both left feeling happy. Had we got upset, it would have got us nowhere. By accepting the situation we found some joy in the way things worked out. I never did see the other couple again, and did they get such a nice a hotel too? They certainly lost their joy that evening.