I had a TGIF drink with some colleagues after work at
Sporting, except that it is Wednesday, but tomorrow it’s the birthday of
prophet Mohammed, and so I’m off.
Two of the colleagues basically ‘grew up’ in
Sporting. One of them met her husband there. My hubbie was a Sporting
old-timer. There must be a whole generation of old West-Beirut who grew up
with/in Sporting.
And while we saw the sun set, we discussed people we knew,
and who had been a ‘Sporting regular’ and noticed how this part of time is
somehow all interconnected with each other; Everyone knows somebody who knows
somebody here. She was married to him,
and he dated so-and-so, who used to date this girl, and that girl got married to this guy, whose sister was going to marry
this man who then married that girl, while she hooked with so-and-so but his
ex-wife then married so-and-so and on and on it went. There’s a village-like
quality to this town, and it makes it quite pleasant.
I wonder how many of my Lebanese readers are Sporting regulars.
4 comments:
I am one of those regulars, or at least was while living in Beirut. Never missed a day, even during the 15-year civil war. We used to swim with bullets raining all around us, but we thought, "If I am going to die, better it be while swimming at Sporting." We watched the naval shellings from there while enjoying an Almaza. It was all very surreal. It is the first place I like to go when I come back to Beirut. And their fish is the best ever!!!
It's where I made out for the first time when i was 13 back in 1980. I can show you where if you're curious :)
As a regular reader of your blog (love it!)... in the picture on the left side where the sea comes in... sure brought back memories when I was kid, with an inner tube around my waist and holding on for dear life as waves came crashing in, and not knowing how to swim yet, sure was an amazing day for me!! woo hooo!!... 1970s -)
Yeahh, that's so cool, Sporting regulars! You should have been there yesterday; there was a whole group of regulars, I am sure you know most of them, if not by name, at least by face!
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