Dimanche 08.10.06 Buzz word
We wake up to a dirty, drizzly day. Our bags are packed and all for the beach but we decide against going anywhere because we’ll just end up wet and wretched. We can’t even see through the cloud to the bay across the way, and even as it clears it’s clearly raining at Trois-Ilets. Since it’s such a ‘pissy’ day we decide to get pissed too. We form a rather neat arrangement with our empties but the Panache and Bière Lorraine soon fill us and the Desperado’s make us doze.
Not long after our siesta Madame Arlette appears with une casserole full of tuna chowder. Each year the people of Martinique consume around 15,000 tonnes of halieutique fish products like tuna and shark. The average person gets through 45kg each year, making Martinique one of the principal countries for fish consumption; China being the first.
In her soupe de thon Arlette added vegetables such as poireau, oignon, carotte et pomme de terre (leek, onion, carrot and potato) and for seasoning some câpre, piment, ail et cives (capers, pepper, garlic and chives). Of course I knew there was fish in it; both the smell and the presence of shiny grey skin made that obvious, but what irked me most was the discovery of bones. The leftovers were carefully filtered into an empty juice carton so as not to block the drain or make our host suspect something fishy was afoot. Thankfully the soup was just for starters and we were soon tucking into vegetable stir-fry (no rusty tin-opener needed today Nic!) followed by crème glacée à la caramel et à la cacahuète (caramel and peanut ice-cream).
The tea was on the boil (gaily gurgling and murmuring to itself as it so often does), and Arlette arrived at the terrace again to tell us that Charles, her husband, and Roger, her son, had went to look at our Volkswagen. Their verdict was that the car would be suitable for a guy but not for a girl. We joked that Nicolas was already half a man with her doubly bewildering name and surname. And as for me, my previous press-up session with the lads was bound to make someone ponder my power. Charles and Roger came to the conclusion that extra work needs to be done on the car to make it more womanly workable. Fred the mechanic offered to try sort out these aesthetic concerns; but I don’t think he’ll go along with the idea of adding a purple lightening flash along the side panels! L’avenir le dira (time will tell) if we’ll soon have our Volkswagen wheels…
With today’s plans foiled by the foul weather Nic and I settle down to work out a schedule for the upcoming weeks. With holidays at the end of October for La Toussaint (All Saint’s Day) we’ll have almost two weeks off. We both warm to the idea of starting the ball rolling with a visit to Dominique and Guadeloupe. They both seem like exciting and essential ports of call and as my birthday’s coming up soon it’d be a bonus to go away for that too!
Night-time moves in and with it comes thunder and lightening which has been hanging in the heavens all day. We resume to the sofa for the evening news. In News today… the new Miss Martinique 2007 has just been crowned and a lady in Case-Pilote has reached the grand old age of 110. Since the evening seems to have an antique air about it we put on Steptoe and Son for a time warp of our own. Not long after lugging my weary bag ’o bones to bed I’m dashing around with a rolled up magazine swatting all the critters who have fled from the thunderstorm and straight to my bed. Those beastly bestioles really do bug me sometimes.
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