Thursday, December 30, 2004
Dropping like flies
They are! Everyone around me is being struck down with illness. It's because I didn't bring my lucky travelling hat with me. The first time I don't take it and everyone around me is cursed. I'll explain in a minute.
Wednesday night was a blast. Graham and Yeon Nam drank a bucket of gin and tonic and a few tequila shots while Hez and I had quickly popped next door for a sneaky mushroom shake and by the time we returned they were absolutely trolleyed. Taxi for two, pronto. Then Hez and I persuaded a strange Belgian called Uri to join us and have a large plate of mushrooms. Two hours later we found ourselves miraculously at our chalets, having spoken to all the dogs on the way and been mesmerised in countless supermarkets. We were, of course, speaking gibberish by this point, especially our Belgian companion, who had descended into occasional grunts and moans of "Whaa, you say, oh, hahahahaaaa." Strangely, as the evening progressed, he seemed to get less and less involved in the conversation.
Somewhere in the midst of this we stumbled across some bloke with an adorable puppy. Two joints later and Hez was the proud kidnapper of said puppy. She took it to bed with her. The Belgian wandered off into the night, muttering something about seriousness as he went. Never saw him again. Ditto for the camp fellow who brought the puppy. I'll never know who the owner was...
And so to Thursday. Woke up late (for some reason, no-one was able to rouse me at 9am. Weird) and sauntered into town, where I found Graham and Yeon Nam studying hard but alas no Hez. Apparently she wasn't feeling too good. So I went to my favourite bar again for a while.
Happy Daze. Everything you need.
It's a great view from the balcony there. I know it's blurry off in the distance but you can take my word for it, the water was crystal clear.
Anyway, after a short while there I decided to go back and check on my sickly partner in crime. She was really not well (turns out she has tonsilitis, poor thing). Then I found a note outside my door saying that Ben's dengue was getting bad so he was staying on a drip overnight in a clinic. So Graham, Hez, Yeon Nam and myself struggled along to dinner. What a washout. Hez couldn't even eat, let alone stay awake, so she shuffled off to bed after a few minutes. Then the drama started. Yeon Nam suddenly keeled over and played dead, which pretty much ruined the rest of dinner as far as I was concerned. Graham dutifully carried her off to the clinic, where they did a few tests and then shrugged. An explanation of "Could be epilepsy, could be lurgi, might be a bunion" sounded suitably worrying and non-specific for all parties concerned. Thus satisfied that the world was ending and it wasn't some minor psychosomatic melodrama, they went off to bed, leaving yours truly with no choice but to smoke a couple and then go watch a movie.
New Year's Eve approaches. I hope everyone's well for it. Tonsilitis, dengue, back spasms (Graham had them a couple of days ago) and possible epilepsy are not what you want afflicting your companions.
I knew I should have brought the lucky hat...
Wednesday night was a blast. Graham and Yeon Nam drank a bucket of gin and tonic and a few tequila shots while Hez and I had quickly popped next door for a sneaky mushroom shake and by the time we returned they were absolutely trolleyed. Taxi for two, pronto. Then Hez and I persuaded a strange Belgian called Uri to join us and have a large plate of mushrooms. Two hours later we found ourselves miraculously at our chalets, having spoken to all the dogs on the way and been mesmerised in countless supermarkets. We were, of course, speaking gibberish by this point, especially our Belgian companion, who had descended into occasional grunts and moans of "Whaa, you say, oh, hahahahaaaa." Strangely, as the evening progressed, he seemed to get less and less involved in the conversation.
Somewhere in the midst of this we stumbled across some bloke with an adorable puppy. Two joints later and Hez was the proud kidnapper of said puppy. She took it to bed with her. The Belgian wandered off into the night, muttering something about seriousness as he went. Never saw him again. Ditto for the camp fellow who brought the puppy. I'll never know who the owner was...
And so to Thursday. Woke up late (for some reason, no-one was able to rouse me at 9am. Weird) and sauntered into town, where I found Graham and Yeon Nam studying hard but alas no Hez. Apparently she wasn't feeling too good. So I went to my favourite bar again for a while.
Happy Daze. Everything you need.
It's a great view from the balcony there. I know it's blurry off in the distance but you can take my word for it, the water was crystal clear.
Anyway, after a short while there I decided to go back and check on my sickly partner in crime. She was really not well (turns out she has tonsilitis, poor thing). Then I found a note outside my door saying that Ben's dengue was getting bad so he was staying on a drip overnight in a clinic. So Graham, Hez, Yeon Nam and myself struggled along to dinner. What a washout. Hez couldn't even eat, let alone stay awake, so she shuffled off to bed after a few minutes. Then the drama started. Yeon Nam suddenly keeled over and played dead, which pretty much ruined the rest of dinner as far as I was concerned. Graham dutifully carried her off to the clinic, where they did a few tests and then shrugged. An explanation of "Could be epilepsy, could be lurgi, might be a bunion" sounded suitably worrying and non-specific for all parties concerned. Thus satisfied that the world was ending and it wasn't some minor psychosomatic melodrama, they went off to bed, leaving yours truly with no choice but to smoke a couple and then go watch a movie.
New Year's Eve approaches. I hope everyone's well for it. Tonsilitis, dengue, back spasms (Graham had them a couple of days ago) and possible epilepsy are not what you want afflicting your companions.
I knew I should have brought the lucky hat...
# posted by Stuart Reid @ 11:38 PM 
