Pontoon, Monsoon and Adventures With Mrs P!

What with washing, gardening and all those dirty jobs that have to be done on your return from hols, lazing on a sun lounger seems like centuries ago! Still not back to painting so I'm rummaging in my holiday sketches! 

This was the reception area of the hotel under shady trees and really my first sketch with figures in the building! The Maledivians seem to have a similar aversion to lighting at night as the Balinese who believe that light attracts evil spirits and so hotel gardens and paths are very minimally lit, this led to a holiday adventure! 

On this very pontoon, which was minimally lit, we were standing after dinner looking for black tip reef sharks (beside the life belt was one spotlight directed at the sea) when a diminutive, rather sozzled, Indian lady approached us! She introduced herself as Mrs P and started to explain that her husband was boring and that all she wanted to do was “let her hair down”, as far as letting her hair down Mrs P was at this point Rapunzel! Although Mrs P had told her husband he needed to let his hair down, he wasn’t up for it and had left her alone in the bar and gone to his room! This was not particularly chivalrous, considering the fact that it was pitch dark, these pontoons were high, without railings, badly lit and Mrs P as she told us, couldn't swim! 

We chatted, she started wanting to find the disco, wanted to go partying and definitely needed another drink and at this point the Monsoon set in! The rain was lashing, wind howling and we decided Mrs P had to be escorted home, so we asked her for her room number! Unfortunately, she had arrived that evening, she didn't know her room number and Mr P had the key. Mrs P then headed off down the pontoons to look at the different bungalows which as you can see from the photo, all look the same. The only solution was to find someone from the staff, luckily we saw two of the room boys and so we guided Mrs P towards them. The two men where somewhat surprised by the petite but blotto Mrs P however they called reception to try to find out where her room was. The last we heard was Mrs P stating that she needed something to drink ....... the men's very dry reply “water!”. That was not what Mrs P was wanting at all. We managed to get two towels, an umbrella and fought our way back to our room through the raging monsoon! 

A very pickled Mrs P will long remain one of my favourite holiday memories, she really had let her hair down big time!