OK, we're officially in limbo - Alisa is now five days past her due date. She had a visit with the midwife a couple days ago, and mentioned in passing that she had been trying to finish sewing a new sailcover for the boat before the baby came along. "Well," the midwife said, "the baby's waiting for something - you go home and finish that sailcover."
That's what she's doing right now - sewing the final seam on the sailcover in the next room, Elias asleep, Alisa and her mom chatting companionably over the noise of the sewing machine. And here's Alisa two days ago, doing the last fitting on
Pelagic.
Meanwhile, the portable baby shower has continued - good friends in Sydney ("I think they'd be the most sophisticated Australians that we know, except she's a Kiwi," I say to Alisa) sent down a wonderful collection of gifts. A highlight was this tiny little Speedo.
This very kind gift gave us, first off, the chance to say "budgie smuggler". In this land where professional comedians starve in the face of all the competition from amateurs, Speedos are widely called "budgie smugglers".
It also got me thinking.
Alisa started it when she said, "We'll have to get Elias a Speedo, then all the blokes in the family will have one." (Extremely dedicated readers of Once In A Lifetime will recall that I was given a Speedo for my first birthday in the tropics, though I have
manfully resisted the urge to share any pictures.)
"Oh, hey," I said. "I think you're onto something."
"Hmm?"
"Well, you know how it is these days - pretty much everyone we know is out sailing the world, and blogging about it, and blathering about how they're 'gonna write a book'?"
"Uh-huh?"
"We clearly need something to set ourselves apart."
"Uh-huh?"
"Well, there used to be the Swedish Bikini Team in those beer commercials in the States. Maybe we could do something along the line of the
Pelagic Speedo team? Me and the boys. You know, we could do public appearances, marina openings, that sort of thing."
"I'm going to finish that sailcover."
