Lighthouse Beach Lifesavers

The lifesavers of Lighthouse Beach love their whistles.  

You can understand why when you see the Indian families and groups of young men on the beach. 

They all frolic and laugh like children regardless of their age.

Ladies, men and children alike all swim in the surf fully dressed.  The ladies go in with their metres of saris or salwar kameez even their long scarves go in, imagine how heavy it would be soaking wet with sea water.  The men go in fully dressed as well with their long trousers and long sleeved shirts. 

Last week Jim couldn’t get over the fact that a man went in with his belt on.  Whether the belt was leather or vinyl (in the case if he was Hindu) it is not going to last.  It appears to be a disposable society even here in India.

Of course there are the more modern Indian families that wear shorts and t-shirts but they still go swimming fully dressed as well.  Then they have to return to their hotels, cars or buses or whatever in their soaking wet clothes, they never have towels. 

Day before yesterday, it was a near perfect day on the beach, sunny blue skies and crystal clear water and the whistle was going off.  Kenny was pretending that the whistle was being blown at him.  He comes out of the water stamping his feet and waving his arms saying “why me, what have I done” the lifesaver is saying “no, not you” but then he realizes Kenny is joking and starts laughing.

  

The lifesavers have hand actions that go with the whistling.  It is a fun pastime to work out whom the lifesaver is whistling at and what his hand actions mean.  You can see we have a lot of spare time on our hands. 

The whistling is normally for Indian tourists swimming out too far, they are not renowned for their strong swimming ability.  The only time a foreigner gets a whistle is if they are nearing the rip, which there are three along the beach.  They are marked with red flags.  I stay clear of the flags, as I have experienced the pull once already and that was enough to scare me. 

Talking of the beach, it is time to go and catch up with Jim down there.  He heads down before me most mornings as I like to check the emails and blog (whenever I don't have writters' block).  Jim has his morning ritual whilst I am at yoga, he likes to read the Sydney Morning Herald, watch the Sydney channel 9 news and check out Facebook all before breakfast.  Occasionally I ask is there any news I should know about.

Lisa & I enjoying the water

Why me?

Kenny & the lifesaver sharing the joke

Typical scene at the beach