Wherein the executive wives travel to the desert and find it is very hot.

Dear sisters,

I was in a resort again this weekend. This time in Indian Wells, which is not far from Palm Springs in Southern California. A desert area with no less than 120 golf courses and a lot more palm trees. I, and the other wives of management, were invited to come along for a Zecco off site weekend. The rates are very reasonable at this time of year, as it is off season, meaning not the best time to go. When we were there, the daily temperature was around 110 degrees Fahrenheit, which roughly translates to 43 degrees Centigrade. That is hot. I did pretty well considering our English bloodline and therefore my general disability to act gracefully in temperatures above 25 C. Having been to the sun so recently must have helped. While the men were in their meeting, I had a dip in the pool and lay in the shade for all of 15 minutes.

Amazingly, it was very busy in the resort. These people are pretending they can still breath normally, while I know they are being hugged tightly by a warm blanket of dry air.



In a book lying in our hotel room I found this advert which gives an idea of the feel of the Palm Springs area (in high season).



"Is it worth $ 5,000 to keep your woman from sleeping around?"




"$ 10,000?"



"$ 25,000?"




"Think about it."



"Women and Jewelry. It's...worth it."


Yes, when you think about it, life is simple.


On Saturday night the program took us to the FANTASY SPRINGS RESORT, which was just as subtly styled as the name suggests. The resort is situated in an Indian reservation, which means the main attraction is gambling. Not quite Vegas. We manoeuvred our way through the noisy slot machines, avoiding busloads of the extremely fat and the very old, that had been dropped off for the evening. I saw a little frail old lady, pressing her nose up to the screen of her slot machine each time she pushed the button, and running along the bars with a dollar bill to see if she had a winning line. It's just entertainment, baby.
We whiled away a few hours at the black jack table and came away with a slight profit.





All the kids had been left at home with the babysitter, her husband, her daughter and her parents. The nephew dropped by too. When we got home we made Jip and Rosie stick their head out of the window for a bit of fresh air. Nothing too drastic. We didn't want them to go into shock after not having been outside for 3 DAYS. Re-training starts tomorrow.


With love,
S1