Today is the first day of the weekend and after a lazy morning we decided to head to the beach to spend the rest of the afternoon there.
I was at the bar to place an order for food and while waiting for a friend to come back from the restroom I decided to occupy my time studying a club membership card that happened to be in my hands. My eyes were caught by a puzzling rule at the back. The rule read as follows (exact words transliterated here):
Alcoholic from outside are not allowed to consume the premises
I could hardly contain the loud burst of laughter.
As I looked around alarmed (it always looks a bit odd if you laugh so animatedly on your own and for no apparent reason) I noticed the man on the phone behind me. I unintentionally (for once) found myself eavesdropping on a conversation that made him repeat the same sentence over and over to whoever refused to believe him at the other end of the line: “I’ve sank the boat.. (pause) … yes! I'm telling you, I’ve sunk the boat; I’m not kidding. It’s under the water, at the bottom of the sea”.
I turned around and glanced at the table a few meters away where his friends were sitting, all composed and seemingly unperturbed in front of their large beers. Their clothes had obviously already dried up under the warm midday sun although on a second look I could notice some random wet patches on one of the guys’ shorts, then my gaze moved over to the ground next to them: there they were a bunch of life jackets slightly dusted with sand and partially covered by a few scattered belongings.
My mind wondered wildly trying to imagine what the boat looked like, how it sank, where it sank, how the party bobbed around on the surface in their life jackets on the immediate aftermath and how on earth the party got back to the club. In my head they all landed on the beach from ashore in true shipwrecked style but most likely they were collected by a local fisherman passing by. I guess we'll never know the juicy details.
When my friend came back I was relieved that I could finally share the exciting gossip with someone who I knew would be burned by curiosity just as much as me. She joined me in the eavesdropping for a moment. For a short instant we were tempted to go and ask a few investigative questions but then we thought better of it. Had you met this friend of mine you would probably be surprised that she did not engineer a ploy to actually stick her nose into the whole business...
I was at the bar to place an order for food and while waiting for a friend to come back from the restroom I decided to occupy my time studying a club membership card that happened to be in my hands. My eyes were caught by a puzzling rule at the back. The rule read as follows (exact words transliterated here):
Alcoholic from outside are not allowed to consume the premises
I could hardly contain the loud burst of laughter.
As I looked around alarmed (it always looks a bit odd if you laugh so animatedly on your own and for no apparent reason) I noticed the man on the phone behind me. I unintentionally (for once) found myself eavesdropping on a conversation that made him repeat the same sentence over and over to whoever refused to believe him at the other end of the line: “I’ve sank the boat.. (pause) … yes! I'm telling you, I’ve sunk the boat; I’m not kidding. It’s under the water, at the bottom of the sea”.
I turned around and glanced at the table a few meters away where his friends were sitting, all composed and seemingly unperturbed in front of their large beers. Their clothes had obviously already dried up under the warm midday sun although on a second look I could notice some random wet patches on one of the guys’ shorts, then my gaze moved over to the ground next to them: there they were a bunch of life jackets slightly dusted with sand and partially covered by a few scattered belongings.
My mind wondered wildly trying to imagine what the boat looked like, how it sank, where it sank, how the party bobbed around on the surface in their life jackets on the immediate aftermath and how on earth the party got back to the club. In my head they all landed on the beach from ashore in true shipwrecked style but most likely they were collected by a local fisherman passing by. I guess we'll never know the juicy details.
When my friend came back I was relieved that I could finally share the exciting gossip with someone who I knew would be burned by curiosity just as much as me. She joined me in the eavesdropping for a moment. For a short instant we were tempted to go and ask a few investigative questions but then we thought better of it. Had you met this friend of mine you would probably be surprised that she did not engineer a ploy to actually stick her nose into the whole business...
I guess this time it just didn't seem appropriate so we returned our attention to the “lost in translation” sentence on the back of the membership card and we made our way back to the sun beds laughing out loudly.
My question remains unanswered: "how on earth do you sink a boat?". I guess there are many ways and it can't be that difficult for this is the second "home made" nautical disaster we witness/hear about in a short period of time.
Priceless anecdotes filling our lite expat beach bumming days!
My question remains unanswered: "how on earth do you sink a boat?". I guess there are many ways and it can't be that difficult for this is the second "home made" nautical disaster we witness/hear about in a short period of time.
Priceless anecdotes filling our lite expat beach bumming days!
2 comments:
Hahaha!
"Yes, believe me, I sunk the boat. No, really..."
Absolutely priceless :-)
(and I regret not having made enquiries...We have to ask Moosa the next time we are there. He must know!)
I guessed the Mad Italian was with you, but think she must have been ill not to make any enquires at the time.
Great tale... thanks for sharing it.
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