Bermuda Holiday

Stories from the road

November 26, 2013

Bermuda

The sun is shining across the bay this afternoon on the tiny town of Hamilton. Soon we will take the ferry there to explore and eat dinner. Golf today was fun and challenging. The Belmont Hills course is narrow and snake like. Precise shot making is called for. Sand traps are frequent and the wind is a constant factor. There are a lot of water hazards on the course, and thick bushes mean errant shots are irretrievable. The course is relatively short, so good shots mean pars or better. We plan to play tomorrow, weather permitting.

 

I continue to talk a lot with the locals at our hotel and at the golf course. Some have a lyrical English accent, which is easy to understand, but others speak in a local dialect, with which I have trouble. I usually tell them I don’t have my hearing aids, when I have to ask them to repeat what they said. The islanders seem to like to laugh a lot, and they are fun.

I watched Django Unchained on my computer over the last few days. I thought it was a brilliant allegory of the Black experience. The ironies in the movie were powerful. The gentility of the Mississippi plantation with its underbelly of violence and dehumanization was striking. I particularly liked the characterization of the villain’s sister, whose use of denial was almost impenetrable. When a slave’s scars are shown, she becomes upset, not because she feels for the woman, but more that she comes face to face with the ugly world of which she is a part.  

Tonight we took our hotel’s ferry shuttle to Hamilton for pizza and beer. All the guys working in the restaurant were from Italy, and we had fun talking with them. The pizza was excellent, although as our waiter pointed out, the flour was not from Italy.

Have a nice evening.