One Last Hurrah

Thursday 11 December 2008
Palolem Beach, Goa – Thiruvananthapuram

So I force myself to wake up early today so I'm tired for the journey tonight. It my last day on a beach and from what I can tell the last chance to sunbathe on this trip, so I aim to make the most of it. However there isn't much wind and it's simply too hot to stay out in the sun for more than five minutes. After a while when the sun in lower I manage to walk around on the beach which is more interesting and less hot, but not quite the full on sun tan that I was hoping for.

I make a brief visit to the internet café to download some lyrics. Yes, there's another open mike on tonight. Even though we're leaving, the train is about 11.30 pm so we have time for dinner and a quick set from me. I seek out the lyrics to Fight Test by the Flaming Lips, as it's a cool song, should be easy to play, and easier to play than Do You Realise?? which, despite being a better song, is a bitch to play and sing with no practice.

So I have a quick meal and then go up on stage. I've run out of new songs to play, so I'm having to rely on the more obscure stuff that I know. I start off with Stockholm Syndrome by Yo La Tengo (“I touch it” in Spanish), then Lost Cause. I play Fight Test for the first time on stage and it goes very well. It's a beautiful little song (“... I let him take you...”).

The idea after that was to do requests but as I couldn't hear anything from stage I just did the songs I'd had the best feedback about: Ready for the Floor, There is a Light that Never Goes Out, and Crazy. It's a good, fun way to end my stay at Palolem. Unfortunately from the still lingering heat, I managed to sweat like a bitch. So much for trying to keep clean ahead of my overnight trip to Kerala.

Old Dave does a new poem, one that he's written that evening, which is very funny. Young Dave gets up to do a few songs, but when he's due to go on stage he walks off, leaving the organiser guy in the lurch. I jump up on stage and do a quick song to pass the time. The only thing I can think of at short notice is the first two verses of You Are The Everything.

Anyway Dave gets to do his set and it a good'un, he has a real broken passion in his voice. Immediately afterwards we have to go to the station, so we get our bags, quickly exchange email addresses and leave.

Unfortunately we have to walk across the soft sand on the beach as it's a full moon, a spring tide and the water is all the way in. That's a complete arse as I don't have a rucksack and walking on the soft sand is a real effort. I start off with my suitcase on my head until my neck muscles hurt, then transfer it to my arms. I get there in the end, not without breaking into a nice sweat again.
Once at the station we're mega early so we kill time on the platform. There's another English guy from Sheffield there as well that we chat to. There are also three small puppies scampering around the platform that are cuter than anything. They even fall asleep all curled up over each other in a massive outbreak of dangerously high levels of cuteness. I take a photo.

I have a quick snooze on the platform as I'm tired and eventually the train comes. We board the non-AC sleeper carriage. It's essentially the same as AC but with open windows and the carriage isn't in as good condition. There's also a pervasive smell of fish for some reason, but thankfully it's not too strong. There are no sheets but as it's warm it doesn't actually matter, and I'm soon asleep.