"Fish, John, Fish!"

4 June 2009 - Giuseppe Zanotti Design in Downtown Beirut, Lebanon

Yesterday was Alyssa's last day in Lebanon. We hung out downtown for a while and I insisted on a detour past this shop to show Alyssa these shoes...because they reminded me of Nat, the captain's Thai girlfriend with whom we sailed for two months on Millennium. Alyssa's impending departure had taken us on quite the trip down memory lane...which meant, of course, many fond memories of Nat. Nat loves fish. She loves to buy fish, catch fish, cook fish, eat fish, watch fish...you name it. She whistles to the dolphins. Every time we got to land Nat would go on the hunt to buy fresh fish. She fished off the side of the boat all the time. And when those pirate-like fishing boats approached us in the deep sea, Nat earnestly urged John to buy fish from them, barking in her heavy Thai accent "Fish, John, Fish!!!" John was not keen to initiate the complicated fish swap in the depths of the Indian Ocean so he'd throw his hands up to ask "and pay them with what currency?" It was a good point.

When we got to the storefront downtown yesterday, the window shade was pulled, blocking the shoes…so I boldly went inside (I’m always intimidated to enter the quiet posh boutiques filled with things I could never afford), The shoes were right there behind the shade were I'd last seen them. The shopgirl was nice and let me turn the shoes so Alyssa could see them...she let me photograph them. The shopgirl said the shoes are quite well known - they resulted in Giuseppe Zanotti winning a shoe design of the year award last year…and Carrie wore them on Sex and the City. They cost about a thousand bucks....US dollar, in case John wants to buy them for Nat;)