B & K left for the airport at 4:00 am.  Veek-tore took ’em.  They are headed to Beijing by way of Seattle.  Interesting route.  Methinks the ‘security’  folks will do a double-take on a GuatCity-to-Beijing itinerary.  Could be fun for them.  Strip searched and cavity probed.  Young people get all the fun!

I gave them my usual advice when encountering difficulties at airports; “Just yell Allahu Ahkbar and look crazed!  Waving your carry-on adds a little to the scene, too.  Within seconds, you’ll be surrounded by personnel willing to address any issue.  It’s like magic.  ‘ Course you have to look sane when they arrive and deny the ‘Allahu Ahkbar’ accusation by stating emphatically that that is the sound you make when sneezing.  But it works every time”.

Almost every time……………(do not try this if home is a middle eastern country.  For you guys, it DOESN’T work every time!)

R & P, Sal’s parents, arrived earlier in the day and we enjoyed a nice three generation get-together over dinner at ‘home‘ in Antigua.  Lots of fun.

B & K bought me small pinata and hung it in the garden for my birthday.  I took my considerable bulk outside and, well-fortified by a few of my own lethal margaritas, took up the classic ‘attack’ position with the thin, whip-like bamboo stick provided. It was an adrenaline rush.

B insisted on spinning me around and I was blindfolded and tippy in a very small garden strewn with uneven surfaces, a small moat for the goldfish and vegetation that included not just a little cactus.  Raucous fun provide for all as I endeavoured to smash my Super Mario effigy to pieces.

Three Gen Fun

Dignity cannot be preserved in such a situation.  It died with the tying on of the blindfold.

Mario was no slouch.  Put up a helluva fight.  Assisted by his dastardly cactus cohorts (somehow they managed to sneak behind me and tripped me up for a sec) he managed to draw some blood. Touch and go for a bit………….visions of Braveheart.

But, hell, I was much bigger and at least semi-sentient.  It was not really a fair fight despite K switching allegiances and helping him out by ‘keeping him at a distance’ by messing with the rope he was on.  In the end, superior firepower prevailed (he had none).  When fighting pinatas, size really does matter.  Poor ol’ Mario was definitely fighting well above his weight.

I can’t help but point out the obvious: the tradition of smashing effigys to pieces goes a long way to explaining the continuing violence in Latin American countries.  I think they should have a ban on pinatas.  At least a pinata registry.  Automatic/assault pinatas should be banned.  Pinatas don’t kill people.  People kill people.  But we use pinatas for training. Pinatas teach people to show no mercy.

It’s ugly.

Sometimes Goliath Wins

There’s a mind-picture for you: yell ‘Allahu Ahkbar‘ in an airport while waving a pinata of Che’ Guevera and adding the old US rally cry of “Give me liberty or give me death!” (Patrick Henry).  Suggestion# 2: immediately assume the prone position and put your hands behind your back.

Sorry about that last part of the post……it is just that old ‘adventure travel’ streak of mine I told you about in an earlier post………….I can’t help myself.  Gotta be me, ya know?

And it is much safer to try it out on the blog hypothetically rather than actually doing ‘street theatre’ to an unappreciative audience at LAX, don’t you think? 

I like to think of it as maturity.  Kinda.