Turin Day One

How stupid am I? Having planned my wardrobe and packed carefully, I got pulled-up at security because I’d forgotten to put my pen-knife in my hold baggage. It was inevitably confiscated which totally punctured my mood as it was a gift from Rod and Jess for being Best Man at their wedding some ten years ago. I kept telling myself that it’s only a thing and it’s not the end of the world but it still dampened me for a while.

The flight was delayed by an hour and the passenger list seemed to be made up mostly of fifteen LGMC bods and forty or so noisy Italian teenagers. Once we got underway though they quietened down for the most part and the rest of us got on with enjoying the flight and joking with the little ginger steward (whose day had obviously been made by the sudden rush of openly gay middle-aged men on his flight.)

The coach transfer from the airport to the hotel was interminable. We got checked-in and when we reached the room, my first thought was, “Oh my god, it’s Moonbase Alpha!” The room is entirely furnished in shades-of-grey Formica with rounded-off edges and inset consoles at oblique angles. It’s not as hideous as it might sound from that simple description but it definitely has a rather retro-futuristic feel to it. (We subsequently learned that the hotel that the bulk of the Chorus is staying in was somewhat more basic than ours and it rapidly had its name transmuted from ‘OpenZero’ to ‘Ground Zero!’ so, on the whole, I don’t think we did too badly.)

Anyway, after checking-in at Moonbase Alpha we had barely fifteen minutes in the room to freshen up before we had to leave for the group meal. Once we got there though, it proved to be a convivial atmosphere; the food was reasonable and everyone was catching up with each other as we’ve not seen much of fellow choristers over the break. We had a bit to drink, but decided not to go on to the club afterwards.

Instead we headed back to the hotel for an early night, but ended up having a nightcap with Scott L instead and so didn’t turn-in until gone 1am!