The Lola Boys had quite often played to a spaced out crowd. But by any measure, that was usually down to the Spanish kind, measures that is, not for lack of an audience. Now with social distancing looking to be the norm into the near distance, anybody sitting too near a distance was a no no! Also any performers treading the boards had to do so at least two metres apart. What a bloody performance! Paul was worried it could be the end of theatre as they knew it. He […]
‘I have always depended on the kindness of strangers’ is the heroine’s famous final line of the Tennessee Williams classic , ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ Blanche Dubois speaks it to the doctor who gently takes her arm to cart her off to the loony bin in the play’s tragic denouement. Her freedom taken from her – Blanche is forced into lockdown. Much like Paul and Andrew and the rest of the world had been recently. Like poor Blanche control had been snatched from them, unlike Blanche they hadn’t yet gone […]
Paul gazed along the deserted promenade on Brighton seafront. There were a few sun worshippers pebbled along the beach praying metres apart to their god of choice, who repaid his loyal congregation’s faith with a show of pure brilliance. The sky was a cornflower blue and the light breeze barely perceptible. Paul had rarely visited England’s south coast under such perfect weather conditions. In normal times the place would have been crowded with day trippers and those just tripping. Awash with paddle boarders or those simply paddling. Beach lovers decked […]
Paul sat in his sweaty surgical mask on the Boeing 777 Air Philippines flight wondering just how the operation was going to turn out! The aircraft was packed to the overhead lockers, there was no social distancing to be had. And to make matters worse, there had been no chance of a decent pre-med as everything in Manila airport had been closed. Including the ‘Duty Free’. The staff were too busy distributing alcoholic sanitisers to cater to satisfying alcoholics! Andrew and Paul had been on the road for hours. Well […]
Time had seemed to slow to that of the pace of an ancient sea turtle on the tropical island. Paul and Andrew had now been in The Philippines for over two months – far longer than they had planned. Their surroundings had grown so familiar and the company so familial, it felt as if the boys had spent years in the western Pacific. Covid 19 may have imprisoned them on the remote Camotes, but it was hardly ‘Colditz.’ Although the boys did have another great escape plan up their shorts! […]
So! The escape plan from the small Philippine island had failed miserably. Mainly due to the miserable consulate who had decided not to get in contact with Andrew and Paul, this despite the fact that the boys had handed over two grand for the privilege of an emergency repatriation flight. The plane was to fly them to Manila first, and then they were due to switch aircraft and make headway towards Heathrow. Unfortunately the plan didn’t take off! On the morning of their intended great escape, the boys headed into […]
The boys clambered up the rocky steps leading to the their last resort – the only resort which would accept credit cards -hopefully. They were both well aware if this were not the case they would be sleeping on the beach and fishing for tuna. Either that, or slaughtering one of the cows which were tethered on ‘Diva Street’, risking the wrath of the locals. Neither of them had the skills or the bent for butchering a bull, so they just prayed the place would accept visa! They just about […]
Paul took the sharp corner on the exotic island a little too fast! He, as the driver, leant into it but felt his passenger balance in the opposite direction. The bike wobbled precariously and he lost control. He and Andrew then crashed, most exotically, down onto the rock-strewn asphalt, the bike coming heavily down on top of them. Luckily, they had just managed to avoid a tree that would certainly have broken more than their fall. As they lay in a mangled heap, Paul knew it weren’t great! ‘Are you […]
At a time when the world was heading into uncharted territory, Paul and Andrew were doing the same, and heading deeper into a part of the great globe to which they had never been. They were sailing to the remote Camotes Islands, a small archipelago in the western Pacific making up part of the Philippines. They left the insalubrious, yet friendly, Cebu City and cruised past the island on which Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the 17th century. Murdered by an angry chief obviously most unhappy with the Spaniard’s new […]
Siquijor(pronounced – ‘sikihaw’). A mysterious island in the southern Philippines. It was to be The Lola Boys next port of call. They took the ferry from the scruffy, but friendly, port of Tagbilaran and headed on a south easterly course across the Bohol Sea, part of the western Pacific. Paul adored all this extraneous geographical information. He knew it to be pretentious but he felt it connected him with the seafaring adventurers of old – Drake, Columbus, Magellan and the like. Not to mention re-invigorating his youthful Tintin spirit. Whilst […]
