Madiana Madness - vendredi, 13.04.07

vendredi 13.04.07 Madiana Madness

It’s time to get some new heels. Nothing purchased in Martinique seems to have much staying power so I’m glad to pick-up two pairs of slip-on wedges for €10 each. I meet Nic for a while and we talk shop over late lunch in Cyber Délisse.

We decide to hit Madiana this evening. Oli, Lionel and Dorian strike some interest. However nothing goes to plan in this foutu country! Dorian has a car. It may be at pink Twingo but it goes. After the frustration with public transport Oliver and Lionel are trying to rent cars for the weekend. Oliver manages to secure one but his credit card is eaten by the machine in the regiment; it’s the weekend so nothing can be done till Monday. Oliver is in talks all evening with the bank and subsequently calls to say he’ll be late. Nicola calls to say that she has another client on her books and will try go to a later showing. Likewise Dorian is stuck in work but he plans to make an appearance later.

So the two people who don’t have wheels, Lionel and I, brave the public transport. We get off one stop after the cinema and have to backtrack along the motorway after getting directions from a directionally-challenged security guard at Université Schoelcher. The queue for the cinema is painfully long so we throw in the towel and head to Snack Elize for a double madras and crevettes. The queue gets pared back a bit but once we reach the desk the only films which aren’t booked out are either blood, gore and guts, which Lionel has seen, or a silly, slap-stick comedy, which neither of us wants to see. We’re heading back to the bus-stop when Nic texts to say that herself and Dorian are in Madiana and have also resorted to dining on steak instead of pop-corn.

Our feigned faith in public transport quickly disappears as we wait on the side of the Rocade for a bus, taxi or whatever for ages. We’re not ones to cave in quickly so I suggest going to La Feuille du Tôle which is only down the road, around the corner, over the bridge, around the round-about and somewhere in that maze of streets of Schoelcher village. We eventually get there and a truly diabolical cinema visit is turned around as we listen to live music and feast on cheap concoctions while the mosquitoes feast on us. I swear I see a pink Twingo roll by during the night but for us a taxi to town is the only option back to civilisation. Our souls are saved from kerb-crawling though my head is wrecked by that song. Thankfully the driver is a zouk expert. Déchiré Culotte all the way!