a little water game
Posted in sydney May 16th, 2008 by piablog

My friend Joe and I are a bit like Will and Grace. Except Joe is not gay, nor am I Jewish. But we love each other just the same, and when we were teenagers we used to play a little water game.

You see, Joe and I lived on the Northern Beaches of Sydney which is a strip of land that juts up and out of the Australian coastline, creating a series of beautiful golden sand beaches on one side of the strip, and a number of bays on the other (has anyone seen Home and Away? that is our home – even the school uniform is ours) – our high school was on the bay, our homes were by the bay, and so this is where we played.

We had a little run down runabout, and Joe and I used to take it out every weekend. We would visit out friend Sara across the bay, and we’d hang out by the edges of Scotland Island, or we’d go to one of the creeks and explore (sans funnel web spiders preferably).

And the other day, while I was out on David’s runabout cruising the canals of Amsterdam, memories of my time with Joe on the bay came flooding back.

While Joe and I were in our runabout going from a to b, we would spot the name on a moored boat, and try to come up with a very cool and funny sentence with this strange name in it, and the other person would have to find that boat with the mystery word. It seemed to entertain us for hours, and we would communicate like that for the whole day. Sometimes we would just float our boat amongst all the massive moored yachts, bath in the sunshine, and talk to each other using these boat names. And if we were feeling extra clever we would incorporate two or three boat names in one sentence, or come up with a poem. I’ve forgotten the many beautiful poems we used to create, but the memory of our time is still very vivid. And I remember that Joe was always better at the game than me.

So Joe, this one is for you…

pjb_boat1.jpg

“won’t you be my scialuppa…”

(check comments box for the meaning)


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6 Comments

  1. pia says

    my italian is pretty rusty but I think it means ‘life boat’. px

    May 16th, 2008 | #

  2. nadia says

    That sounds like a great memory to have. I remember home and away
    I used to go to school in england and people would run home to watch it!

    May 16th, 2008 | #

  3. Jill says

    We loved watching everyone in Amsterdam out on their boats, cruising the canals on a sunny afternoon, starting up their bar-b-que’s on board, drinking beer…now I know you were one of the lucky ones we were watching!

    May 16th, 2008 | #

  4. pia says

    Hi Nadia, I’m glad to hear it! We all used to watch it too although I’m sure no one wants to admit it. Alot of our friends were extras in the show when we were in high school, so we would watch the scenes looking out for each other in the background, hoping to see someone lurking or fake talking in the diner. Then we would talk about it at school the next day.

    Jill, I’m so glad you caught the sunshine – its been a little drizzly and cold again nowadays – not so many people out on their boats!

    May 19th, 2008 | #

  5. Jessie says

    I grew up in Avalon on the Northern Beaches (and am still close by after 20+ years), it is indeed a beautiful place to spend a childhood. Thanks for sharing your memories from our little corner of the world.

    June 3rd, 2008 | #

  6. pia says

    hi jessie, so nice to hear from a local! thanks for your comment, i’m sure i’ll be sharing more about the area, it is so beautiful and i have lots of wonderful memories that pop into my head every now and then.

    June 4th, 2008 | #


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