A Visit to the Bookshop

Sunday 10 September

We had finished our customary morning schedule of swimming, breakfast, blogging and puzzling before we heard from Juz and Dave that they had finally woken up at 11.45 – Juz was so astounded that she thought her watch had broken – but obviously only recovering from their journey here. We decided to stay at Smile for the rest of the day as I had several tasks I needed to catch up on.

The first mission was to visit the bookshop in the village to find some more reading material. I had finally finished “Memoirs of a Geisha” which had sadly fallen apart on its travels this far. Except we got diverted on the way to a clothes stall where we purchased some more strappy Tshirts for me and another pair of cut-offs for Colin. The guy in the shop mentioned that Colin needed more Tshirts too – he must have been speaking to Juz or Dave and know that he only has four with him – while Dave has fifteen packs of three new T-shirts plus other shirts as well – Dave could always set up a hire service I suppose. (By the way, Juz has only 57 outfits with her, not counting mix and match – she promised she would keep her packing to a minimum!)

We then ambled to the bookshop which has a shiny wood floor and you are politely requested to remove your shoes before entering – a common custom in this part of the world. Browsing amongst the shelves brought back memories of childhood visits to a small library back home. All the books are wrapped in polythene to keep them clean – several on the top shelves were very gritty with concrete dust – probably from some recent renovations to the building, which is now very clean and painted white throughout. A lady sat near one of the two doors gently plucking soft lullabies on a guitar – soothing sounds by which to choose your book. I eventually chose a historical fiction book about the times of Bonnie Prince Charlie (1760’s?), that I felt would be easy reading, but was about 600+ pages long – should keep me entertained for a little while.

We then felt the need for more sustenance and by chance Coffee Junction was just a few yards further on! We chose natchos again - they really are delicious and just right for midday snack (well about 14.00).

We bought more postcards to send to the trio of grandchildren and then returned to Smile – to start delving into my “new” paperback – it’s probably several years old from the discolouration of the pages – sitting on the edge of the pool, to keep cool. The weather was again very warm and sunny, with the odd blip of cloud passing over. Later I remembered I hadn’t completed my food log for some time, and with Colin we set about trying to remember all our gourmet intake for the past week! Not easy – the brain cells were very reluctant to work – must be on their hols too. By the time we had struggled to recall all the dishes we had eaten, it was time for a swim – there was a ball in the pool so we played around with that - splashing and swerving and diving like little fish we were - before relaxing in the Jacuzzi.

We had arranged to meet Juz and Dave in the Groggy Gecko (where else?) to watch the Italian Grand Prix on “the largest screen in Bophut!” timed for 18.30 our time - and by some extra sensory perception, as we exited Smile they were walking towards us – must be a family thing! We enjoyed more cocktails, beers and gins and tonics while the race roared around us – not only on the large screen, but on a smaller one too. There were probably about a dozen other people there to watch the race with us, but we had pole position seats, right at the front. At times it was almost like driving a Formula 1 car yourself as they played shots from the cockpits of some of the cars! We watched Michael Schumacher win and cheered a tall lanky Polish guy (Kabice?) to third place.

By this time Juz is “starvin’ marvin” and in need of sustenance. We chose the Happy Elephant where we had shrimp cakes and chicken satay for starters – very delicious - and I chose duck breast with honey and mustard dressing for my main course – which was cooked to perfection for me – very, very pink. The others chose a selection of Thai dishes, which was OK but probably didn’t match up to the ravings we have made in the past about this restaurant. The guitarist was still strumming in the background – but tonight it was mainly Beatles songs – although he did slip in “Love Me Tender” towards the end of his repertoire.

We wandered home and made arrangements to meet tomorrow to explore the Immigration Office at Nathon for our visa extension.

PS Colin has completed his training now and shaved off his beard, but is not overreacting by changing his shoes.