And Even Less

This post is about nothing. You can stop  reading now.

She's not going to thank me for this, but thank god she is still too young to have discovered my blog. Ignorance is bliss.

 

But for those that insist: M. called me last night. I may have no car, but I do have friends. She’d take me to the beach, as tomorrow (Sunday, that is) was going to be a beautiful day. And so she picks me up. We like to (ad)venture to new beaches all the time, because every time we discover a beach that is really good, before you know it, they hike up the entrance fees to 45,000 LBP (that’s $30), and then we have to find another one at a more decent price. She’s become quite good at it.  Well, she had heard of this place somewhere up in Batroun, which is quite a long way north of Beirut.

This particular pool requires bathing caps; hence the funky outfit 

 
And so we are on our way. Driving through Lebanon is fun when you’re not driving. We like to share our war stories when driving together. She’s been in the country for almost 30 years now, and we both agree that it was our naïve comportment that got us through alive. One day, somewhere in the 80’s, she and a friend, a fellow nurse, had to drive from East to West Beirut (She was in nurse in East Beirut, but lived in West-Beirut), but the usual passage (Mathaf/Museum) was closed due to sniping and heavy shelling. She had to drive all around, into the mountains, circumvent Beirut totally and re-enter it from the south. Too far, as far as she was concerned. “I am not going to do that,” she decided, “I’ll take Mathaf anyway. What could possibly happen?” And so she drove right through the Mathaf crossing, while everyone was hiding in the bathrooms and the basements. A militia member standing at one end of the passage saw them pass by and you could pick his jaw up from the floor. Nothing happened. But everyone who remembers Mathaf/Museum, can imagine that scene. Empty streets, even the dogs are hiding, and there’s these two Dutch girls, in an old Renault 5, crossing Mathaf during shelling and sniper fire.

Gloomy skies over Jounieh. Is this  beach day?

Anyway, while we’re talking, I notice the rather gloomy skies. It looks like it’s going to rain! “Rain”, I say, “It’s going to rain!”
“No, not until 12,” is the reply. I check my phone.
"Rain? We’re going to have a thunder storm!"
“Yes, at 12!”

Well heck, a thunderstorm at the beach, at least we’ll have prime seats as we’ll be the only ones.

It turned out to be not so bad. We did have  wind speeds at 19 knots/35km/h ( with gusts at 21 knots), and the beach umbrellas had to be put down while the palm trees almost blew over. But it was a good day.

This particular beach club requires the women wear bathing caps. I have about ten bathing caps at home, from previous beaches that require them, but somehow you never have them in your beach bag, and so I had to purchase new ones. Now I have twelve.

I think it is time someone develops a good beach app for Lebanon, with entrée fees, distances from Beirut, probable traffic jam times on the way back, pool requirements (many clubs will not allow children in the main pools which is a major headache for moms) and the price of a Caesar Salad with Chicken.

It was a perfect day for surfing

Anyway, that was my day. Tomorrow back to work at 7:20. Didn’t I tell you that this post was about nothing?