It seems that for the last decade or so I have decided on a given night during the Christmas season that I should go out and have some Christmas cheer--alcohol, I mean, in the form of Bintang beer, which is the only affordable sort of alcohol to be had here in Bali (save for Arak bought off the street in a plastic bag).
Why I decide to do this year after year I do not know, given that I stopped drinking many years ago and that alcohol, even in a small amount, instantly makes me feel ill, especially now with my damaged stomach.
Nonetheless, I went out last night for the traditional cheer and the outing was as distinctly non-cheery as ever, complete with the proverbial excessively inebriated Australian who roams the floor chatting up perfect strangers as if they were lifetime bosom friends. Ah the Christmas spirit spread abroad!
A small Chinese man was sitting at the nearby bar, and the Australian targeted this poor small man for the honor of being his new best friend. He leaned, swaying over the little man, wide-eyed, blaring, shouting God knows what in God knows what language, finally for some reason compelling the Chinese man to leave the bar and sit at a table--a demand with which the man meekly complied, glancing about at the same time for someone who might deliver him. Sadly this table was directly next to my seat, and so the large, booming, indecipherable Australian man loudly "befriended" me as well.
Seated nearby, the Australian man's girlfriend had fallen asleep with her head on the table.
Garr lappo spam kar noksie goggle-doodle-doo, the Australian shouts in my ear and laughs uproariously.
Yeah. Time to go home. Should auld acquaintance be forgot? Yes. Better to remember the shelf-life of old traditions and replace those that have expired with new ones.
Why I decide to do this year after year I do not know, given that I stopped drinking many years ago and that alcohol, even in a small amount, instantly makes me feel ill, especially now with my damaged stomach.
Nonetheless, I went out last night for the traditional cheer and the outing was as distinctly non-cheery as ever, complete with the proverbial excessively inebriated Australian who roams the floor chatting up perfect strangers as if they were lifetime bosom friends. Ah the Christmas spirit spread abroad!
A small Chinese man was sitting at the nearby bar, and the Australian targeted this poor small man for the honor of being his new best friend. He leaned, swaying over the little man, wide-eyed, blaring, shouting God knows what in God knows what language, finally for some reason compelling the Chinese man to leave the bar and sit at a table--a demand with which the man meekly complied, glancing about at the same time for someone who might deliver him. Sadly this table was directly next to my seat, and so the large, booming, indecipherable Australian man loudly "befriended" me as well.
Seated nearby, the Australian man's girlfriend had fallen asleep with her head on the table.
Garr lappo spam kar noksie goggle-doodle-doo, the Australian shouts in my ear and laughs uproariously.
Yeah. Time to go home. Should auld acquaintance be forgot? Yes. Better to remember the shelf-life of old traditions and replace those that have expired with new ones.
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