In Which A Sunday Sunset On A Beautiful Beach Is Just Part Of City Life
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 15/Nov/2010 07:55, 34 days ago
I pass up the offer of tea and biscuits at the British High Commission (plus preceding Remembrance Day service) in favour of a lazy morning at home. We start the day with our continental breakfast (cheese, proper cheese!) and progress to eating chocolate covered raisins and cheese filled pretzels while watching House. To complete our balance diet, we head to Cat’s where she whips us up a batch of her famous pancakes. Yum. Shona returns and tells us the service and morning tea also turned into smoothies and lunch, but I’m feeling pretty happy with the food so far today, even if the pancakes did come an hour after Beth told us not to eat anything else. Why? Because Sundays are sunset yoga on the beach. We taxi to Aberdeen and then walk along Lumley Beach to Roy’s, passing dozens of football games and families bathing in the dirty / jellyfish infested water. For once my guide book had it right and in all my (ok, 3) trips to Lumley, I’ve never seen it so busy.We set up camp on the sand in front of Roy’s, and Beth leads us through an hour of pretty tame stretches and poses. We attract quite a crowd, from beach sellers (who wouldn’t look out of place on the Italian Riviera) to families. Some of the children join in for a bit, while others just watch, all agog. Even one of the mothers tries outsome posts, albeit from the relative safety of her towel some distance away. We finish just as the sun is setting in the sky and though I’m not really a yoga bunny, there’s something a little magical about it. Then we ruin all the newly acquired tranquillity by going into Roy’s en masse and spending the next couple of hours gabbing and eating. Alex and I share a pizza (having already eaten, between us, most of the other veggie stuff on a menu heavy on numerous variations of meat in bread) and it’s good. When we asked what was on the vegetable pizza (as in which vegetables) we were told ‘ones from a can’ and while this probably meant sweetcorn and mushrooms, here it could possibly have meant carrots and peas instead, so we opted for the cheese version. The cheese is not identifiable, but tastes good, and they included a smattering of olives as well. And so ends our day of eating round foods: rolls for breakfast, pancakes, now pizza. Maybe tomorrow should be a triangle day, if I can force myself finally to try Laughing Cow (which, here at least, is the most common cheese because, here at least, it does not belong in a fridge...)Coming home is a challenge, as none of the taxis want to go our way. Yep, they’d rather continue on empty than pick up 3 of us, unless we’re willing to ‘Cha cha’ and they don’t meant dance. Refusing to pay said charter fees, we hold out and finally get someone who takes up vaguely in the right direction. Back home the power is off. It’s super fun navigating someone else’s house while pitch black, and I’m supremely glad my room (and my bathroom) are both on the ground floor.