On Thursday evening, grandpa took a stroll with the promise of meeting us on the pier - with ice-creams. So, with a line, a weight, a couple of hooks and a bag of ‘butcher’s bits’, Alex shared some of his new-found skills with me.
Shane: So you’re gonna show me what to do, yeah?
Alex: Yeah.
Soon after:
Shane: We’re doing well aren’t we?
Alex: Yeah – grandy (grandpa) and me are professionals – we caught forty last night!
Shane: Wow – that’s properly professional.
Alex: Yeah.
Shane: Maybe my fishmonger friend will pay us some money for them if we catch some really big ones.
Alex: (thinks) No, I don’t think so. You don’t have any fishmonger friends.
Shane: I do.
Alex: (pause) No you don’t.
A little later:
We were doing well. Onlookers marvelled at the tiny boy’s proficiency, fellow crabbers eyed us with envy, a gaggle of young women swooned at Shane’s easy buddy-style parenting. Soon, grandpa hoved into view with two honey-flavoured ice creams.
Alex: (shouting) Grandy! Shane’s got crabs! Loads of them!
Still facing the water, I distinctly heard the sound of young women tittering. I did not turn around, I concentrated on my fictional fishmonger.
Alex: (shouting) Grandy! Shane’s got crabs! Loads of them!
Still facing the water, I distinctly heard the sound of young women tittering. I did not turn around, I concentrated on my fictional fishmonger.
4 comments:
Out of the mouths...!
Funny that! At my first blog meet today my friends told me they had watched someone collecting crabs at Porlock Weir and they got 432 or numbers of that ilk. Did you love the honey comb ice-cream and did you watch the last 'Mountain'? It was Snowdonia. You can recognise the slates.
The honey ice-cream was good and rapidly melting. I didn't catch the Mountain programme... took me a few moments to realise that it was a TV reference. Of Britain's 'three peaks', it's the slatiness of places like Llanberis that make Snowdon my favourite. I found Ben Nevis to be a bit barren, and Scafell Pike to be a bit foggy (I'll give it another chance one day).
Turn about is fair play. Tell him this story when he's 17. It will be his turn to be embarrassed.
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