Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A la plage


Yesterday my friends asked if I would like to take the ferry with them to the beach. Being a bit of a beach-lover myself, I was ready with my togs, hat and sunscreen in less than half an hour. Although this sounds like something one might do in Sydney, there were some important differences. The ferry warf is just down the road from where I live and the trip isn't very long at all to get from town to the..ah..beach. The beach itself is the only stretch of the lakeside that I know of that has sand, and the stretch of sand is almost ten metres long! There are no waves, but that doesn't bother me, because I don't like it when I get dumped and the water goes up my nose.

But the biggest difference was the cultural misunderstanding that occurred when we arrived. You see, when my friends had asked if I would like to come to the beach, they didn't actually mean that we would "go" to the beach, just that we would sortof walk past it and admire it as one does with a tourist attraction. Luckily I had my book with me, and could spend a happy afternoon by myself at the beach, followed up by a mandatory icecream.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the "beach"! Is it that bit we saw when we were there? I think that rocky part where everyone was sunbaking is more beachy! It is cold here- snow on the mountains and frost on the car! See you soon!

Anonymous said...

Hi Aletia,

I have only recently found your blog (via Gerry's). I just thought I'd say that Nobby's Beach at Newcastle, NSW, Australia has become a tourist attraction over the past 24 days after a coal loader, the Pasha Bulka, became stranded a few metres off the beach after being pushed ashore during a storm. After much planning and some abortive attempts over the past few days, it was finally freed last night (on a high tide) and is now happily anchored 10km offshore. The local Novacastrians produced "stubbie holders" and T-shirts etc. in double quick time to sell to all the tourists flocking to the beach to see the ship. Now they sound a bit disappointed that it's all over.

Looking forward to seeing you on your return to Sydney (after Western Kenya??).

Love, Jenny