what a shenanigan!

Hola Bloggers,

The last few days have involved a fair amount of alcohol ..........and so needless to say we have had some very funny experiences. On Thursday night we went to a concert on the beach where we sat on a deck chair and downed a few fruit cocktails contaminated with the local fire water. We managed to form a posse by attracting the attentions of some local boys (I wonder how?). One of them looked distinctly like Crusty the Clown (well he did to us after a few cocktails). I don't think he was too impressed with us calling him that but we didn't let that bother us and continued to address him with this name all night (until approximately 4 am!).

Crusty and his friends, all aged about 23 - 25 (the old gals have still got it), took us to a street bar after the concert. Well, correction, they lead the way but I wouldn't say "they took us out" in the true sense of that phrase. We paid for everything because these tag alongs hardly had any money. This is a running theme with the friends we seem to make. We know damn well that they are getting a good deal out of befriending us but they are all harmless enough and since a massive bottle of beer (about two pints worth) costs about 50p we don't care about paying at all. I must admit that I was the most drunk out of the two of us that night and god only knows what rubbish I was coming out with and dancing in the streets. I remember breaking my flip flop at one point - but this was no problem as the local boys seemed very skilled and manipulating flip flops (there standard footwear at all times). I was safe in my drunkardness though as Jo was taking good care of me. We seem to take it in turns - I was the relatively more sober one last night and took charge of the absolutely smashed Jo.

Last night was spent in Shenanigans (the token Irish bar owned by Americans). This place has a set up whereby you are given a ticket on entry and then all your drinks are marked off on this ticket and you settle the bill at the end. We got into trouble because in this bar you get given a ticket when you go in and then they mark off your drinks on that and you pay for the whole lot when you leave. If you loose your ticket there is a fine. So obviously we lost a ticket.

I'd had both of the tickets on me all night and then one was gone. Jo and I have discussed this today and we suspect it might be on the toilet floor - Jo had no pockets and was storing money down her knickers. We can only think that she put one of the tickets down there at one point and then didn't see it drop out when she was absolutely blotto later. Anyway, we had been putting all our drinks on one ticket only. So one was loaded with a bill and one was empty. The one we had had a big bill on it so we gave every penny we had to pay for that one and then we didn't have any money to pay the fine on the one we had lost. I let Jo be the one with a ticket (due to her state) and I said I was the one without a ticket - hoping to talk my way out of it. I searched everywhere for the ticket - for bloody ages - but it never showed its face (I didn't look in the toilets though). I kept on explaining that we had paid for all our drinks on the other one - and I got the barmaid who served us to look at the ticket and confirm this. So I convinced them that we were not trying to get away without paying - we had simply lost the blank ticket. The manager did believe me eventually but he was insiting on me paying a fine. It turned into a right old argument because I kept telling him that I didn't have a penny on me to pay a fine with!

The manager's solution was that I was to leave Jo there and go back to the apartment to get more money. Jo was in no state to be left alone in Rio so I flatly refused and told the manager that he would have to walk back with both of us and get the money from the apartment and walk back to the bar himself. Eventually he agreed to do that and said he'd just go and tell his partner what he was doing. As soon as his back was turned I got Jo up off the floor and told her to run for her life (seemed like a good idea at the time - I didn't want the man to know where we lived). We legged it round the corner and through the back streets. Jo didn't understand what was going on but I just kept dragging her and making her run and saying if she didn't run then we'd be arrested - so that made her run!

We found our way home through the back streets safe and sound and without having to pay the stupid fine. ....................but now we can't ever go near that bar again - and its right in the main town square where we go every day. I still can't believe we lost the god damn ticket!

I have since banned Jo from ever doing another shot whilst in Rio. It was the shots that took her over the edge and so they are being blamed for all this (not the arm that lifted them to her mouth of course - just the shots themselves!).

Bed early tonight.

Night night

S x