Havana great time

Finally they have left. Slash and Burn and the beautifully miscalculating one, Lisa Thornton Allan finally did the decent thing and left on the Virgin flight yesterday evening. However, before that they decided they wanted one last long lunch to discuss the benefits of Currencies Direct, so we adjourned to Los Marinos, a charming seafood restaurant built on a jetty extending into the river. At the restaurant was another Cuban musical ensemble, charming again but playing the same set of songs they all play. If I hear “Perhaps, Perhaps Perhaps” again in my life it will be too soon. Almost without exception after you have enjoyed the Cuban musical experience you are asked if you would like to buy their CD. With every fibre of my being screaming “no” I can still see that nice lady decorator reaching for her purse on so many occasions to buy a CD that I believe we shall have an excess baggage issue on the return trip. Yesterday’s sales ploy however reached new levels of sophistication. The singer said “very good CD, 15 songs, all different”. Obviously a bargain as most of the CDs she had already bought were probably of the same song.

Downtown Havana

Last night we headed out to old Havana to the Oriental, a very fussy but very good restaurant in a lovely square for exquisite lobster and lamb loins in chocolate, but not together, that means we each had one or the other, and augmented these with an overpriced Chilean Shiraz. The idea was to discuss which  other aspects of old Havana we should try to experience in the last few days of our visit before returning to the delights of Valbonne via the UK. Discussion inevitably turned to the events of that last few days and I was reminded of a story told by Slash and Burn himself about an old girlfriend. It seems that she was quite pretty, a model, and as a result Slash and Burn was prepared to put up with a few eccentricities. One of these was her love of all animals and creatures. She apparently rescued an injured sparrow  and nursed it back to health and became so attached to it she used to have it perch on her shoulder where it’s rather loose bowels were given complete freedom of err…movement.  Not unreasonably she called it called “Hoppy” (although “Crappy” may have been more accurate) and not unnaturally she became so attached to this rescued orphan that it became almost a child to her to the extent that she would send thank you or birthday cards apparently signed by Hoppy. What I cannot explain however is that some years after the relationship had come to what I would have thought was an inevitable conclusion is why Slash And Burn had in his possession a touching card saying “To Daddy love from Hoppy”. A father’s day card from a sparrow is a hard act to follow. I even considered giving him the bird, indeed so doubtful is this behaviour I think he should be up before the beak.

Whilst into the land of he pun, I feel it is necessary to reveal that before we leave we plan going to cane the Havana Club distillery where they make rum. I shall make no jokes about it being a rum do as that would be well beneath the standards my readers have come expect from this daily look at the lives of the idle rich currently on tour away from Valbonne.

Taking the pun to a higher level, we were discussing the Catholic faith in terms of ice cream (don’t ask why, it just seemed the right thing to do at the time). I think Popeastachio was my favourite but I did also like Vaticone.

Chris France