I’m sad to say good-bye to Madang I love it here. But we must go on with our trip and when we land in Lae, Werner Utzinger who is up from Port Moresby, working here, greets us. He already has a hire car so we don’t need another one. Werner drives us to Barclay’s hostel where we move into our rooms.
No troubles here with the bearings, they await us at the wharf. We take Werner to his job site in the mornings before taking off to do our service work. A very unique phenomenon in Lae is that it rains every afternoon. You can set your clock by it, on the dot of 2 o’clock, down comes the rain for about an hour or so. The end result is Lae is extremely green. The golf club near the airport looks lush with deep green fairways and bushy trees.
While having a drink at the Outrigger bar of the 'Melanesian Hotel' in town, we hear the boss talking Swiss-German to another hotel employee. I’m with Werner and we call out to them in Swiss-German. They look surprised and come over for a chat. It turns out that Walter Gschwind is the hotel manager and Hanspeter is his chef. They invite us for a game of Jass, the Swiss national card game for the following Saturday and we accept. Small world.
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| Füfzg, Ass mit de Stöck |
Saturday before lunch we front up and are taken to Walter’s private rooms. We play cards all day and night and drink quite a bit. On the house, of course.
Come back tomorrow morning; they say when we leave way after midnight. We will, we say.
Sunday morning we’re back at the hotel and get stuck into some serious drinking and playing Jass. I wonder who’s cooking for the hotel guests. My sou-chef, I’m being told, don’t worry, he knows what to do.
It’s a long weekend and on Monday morning we’re back again. We haven’t had a decent meal or sleep since Friday and I’m starting to feel it. By Monday night I’m totally out of it. Three days of solid drinking has taken its toll. I’m sick as a dog and crash in an empty hotel room. I don’t wake up until Tuesday morning when Phil calls to see if we are going to work.
I thank Walter and Hanspeter, for their hospitality and Phil drives us to work. I totally enjoyed this weekend.
It's a bloody miracle you can remember it....did you keep a tape recording?
ReplyDeleteIf not,, you're a better man than I, Gunga Din.
Olden times binge drinking.
ReplyDeleteWhat does the caption mean? Nothing to do with arse, I take it? F.C.
ReplyDeleteThe caption says the hand has four in a row from ace down, which in Jass is 50 points 'Füfzg' including the king and the queen which are called 'Stöck' another 20 points so this hand is worth 70 points just because hearts is trump in this hand. Plus the points that can be won during play, especially with the aces.
ReplyDelete