Meakin on Two Easy - Meakin on Two Easy

Sunday, May 31^st 2009

Bizarre Moments in Tunisia

The last four months have been spent completing and huge amount of canvas sewing jobs and we quite got into the swing of trips to Tunis to buy canvas, webbing and velcro travelling by bus, Louage and train. We’ve become quite well known in Rue de Moungi Slim where the canvas is sold. In fact we decided to ‘give’ ourselves the business name of ‘Stitch Up ‘N’ Scaper’, and as I complete various orders, Keith would do collections deliveries. Due to the amount of work being carried out, our trip around Tunisia ground to a stop so here are some interesting things that have happened since we arrived here.

During Susan and Emily’s stay we visited the Museum of the Wedding Dress at Hammamet. A wedding takes about seven days during which time the bride, groom and all the guests change into a new outfit every day. Some of the garments are so encrusted with embroidery that they are like cardboard. Each region has a set style unique to the area. We took a few pictures of the outfits that are housed in a typical Tunisian house. Built in the cube style found here, in Spain and Portugal the house is built around a courtyard into which all the windows of each room looks down. The courtyard is quite cool, with big green leafed plants making it feel very relaxing.

One rare afternoon when we were relaxing, drinking coffee in a restaurant in Hammamet Keith thought there was a ‘bed race’ taking place. We soon realised it was a funeral. The deceased is carried on what looks like a bunk bed, on the top deck, just wrapped in a sheet with all the mourners following. No women attend funerals they can visit the graveside the next day. In fact women hardly seem to feature in the everyday life of Tunisia. On the buses, trains around the streets and definitely never seen in coffee bars, women are a rare sight.

Due to the amount of work I did, a trip to Beaulieu boat jumble and Denmark was affordable. We helped our friend Ivor who has a nautical business and against all odds we had a lovely sunny day at the boat jumble. It was a change packing away cardboard boxes in to the van rather than the rain soaked soggy ones of previous years. We saw quite a few people that we met in Portugal, and I had the fright of my life when a saw a strange man who looked as though he had lost something in the grass. When I got near him he jumped up in front of me, it was Aubrey.....who had sailed with us from Cadiz to Tangier, almost gave me a heart attack!

From Beaulieu we ticked things off our shopping list, had a quick trip up north to see Mark and Sam and my mum, then flew across to Denmark for little Clara’s first birthday. We hadn’t seen Clara since she was four months old so didn’t expect her to remember us, but she is such an easy going girl she just played and climbed on us like we always featured in her life. We had a lovely four days with her, Liam and Martine, that were over too soon and had to head back to Tunisia via Stanstead and Madrid. Three flights in 24 hours, three time zones and four currency changes.......confused, we should have been.

Our most bizarre moment happened when we had a shopping trip to Hammamet one afternoon with Kiwi, with my growing amount of sewing bits and pieces I wanted a tool box with a lift out section and compartments for the needles, spools and scissors. There’s a shop in ‘radiator’ street that is like one you’ll remember from your childhood, everything on high shelves, an assistant for just about every customer and a separate cash desk. I explain what I wanted and the little man pulled his step ladder hither and thither trying to find a box I would be happy with to no avail. They were either too big, no sections in them or too small. I thanked him, but no thanks and Kiwi asked for assistance.

He wanted a paint brush, the little man pulled his ladder across to some other shelves, climbed to the top, pulled a brush out and brought it to Kiwi. It was a round one like a pastry brush, Kiwi explained (much of this explaining is done by waving of hands in a pseudo New Zealand/French/Espanola accent) that he wanted a flat brush. With a heavy sigh the little man returned the round brush, dragged his step ladder to another shelf, climbed to the top, got a flat brush and brought it to Kiwi, who said, great, I want 3. I now realised we were in a live version of the Two Ronnie’s ‘Four Candles’ and found it difficult to keep from smiling. The poor old little man climbed to the top of his step ladder again for another two brushes, sighing heavily as he climbed every step.

Great, Kiwi had his three brushes, all his purchases were written on a slip of paper which he had to take to the cashier to pay, when he saw the price of his brushes he said, ‘nah....mucho dinar, non merci’ and left them in the hands of the little man, how we got out alive I don’t know.

The strangeness of the day didn’t end then, we caught our bus which was so full of people our noses were pressed against the windows, peoples elbows in our ears, which was quite painful when the bus screeched to a halt as half a dozen camels escaped from their ‘camel ride’ compound and legged it up the road. In fact everywhere we go it is mad chaos with mopeds riding the wrong way up roads, the riders balance their helmets on top of their ‘Yasser Arafat’ scarves, quite often there’s a small child clinging on for grim death on the seat behind, being taken to or from school. Vans packed up to heaven with fennel or the vegetable of the week, plastic containers, sheep, cows or camels. Everyone over here needs to be over there and vice versa, manic madness, people walking in the road, horns blowing, police whistles blasting, kids running across the road, the Louage drivers touting for business shouting out the name of their destination. Every taxi driver honking his horn telling you he’s free for business, shop keepers telling you they have ‘Asda Price, lovely jubbley’ goods. Phew.......

Now Two Easy is provisioned, the sewing machines put away. Yes there are two we bought a heavy duty one from Monastir souk for 100 dinar. We call it the beast, it’s a reconditioned heavy as hell 30 year old machine that can sew though 8 layers of canvas and window plastic, and when it stops working we’ll use it as an anchor. We’re just waiting now for a weather window to set sail to Pantellaria, a small Italian island about 70 miles north east of Tunisia where we’ll stay for a week or two. Kiwi and many friends from Yasmine are there already, we hope there’s room for us too. Then we’re going to Sicily and to Lefkas in Greece by October.

Posted by pam

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