Buffet lunch on Sunday came with free beer. I asked what kind we could have.
"Tiger or..." Lamumble is what I heard.
"Tiger I've had. What is lamumble?"
"Local beer."
"I understand that but what is the word?"
"Lamumble."
"What does the word mean?'
After summoning colleagues, none of whom understood my question, they brought a
can of LaRue. On the can was, "depuis 1908."
I explained, "It means, 'the street.' Made since 1908."
They looked completely baffled. I told them it was French.
"French?"
As if I were talking about Inuit or soup. I thought about asking them why the
bread has a funny pointy shape, but instead I left the younger generation to
the world they know.
No, I don't know why a baguette is that shape.
This morning at breakfast the host said I looked like "d wine." I said I don't
know who that is. She went to get her smart phone.
Darwin.
An improvement on assassin, I think.
The reason fishing is in the middle of the day is that's when the sea is
calmest. By "boat" they mean coracle. We're going fishing in a coracle. On
the sea. It's a tradition, I read somewhere, caused by French taxes on
construction material. Making a coracle out of vegetation avoided tax. We'll
be risking our lives because of Imperialism, which seems fair, given the
history. I asked if anyone ever catches anything. The diplomatic woman said,
" you may be lucky."
Breakfast buffet selections were quite the post colonial melange for: steamed
rice pancakes, epoise, sausages egg and beans, pho, dim sum, smoked salmon,
apple bananas...baguettes.
David Ritchie
Aka Darwin the
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