Fridays and a Monday – Kindred Spirit

There is a lot of socializing going on in and around the harbor, on the water, on the land. Socializing comes in many forms such as “scheduled” happy hours as much as 4 hours in advance, spontaneous eruptions, and regular planned events at local establishments. We aren’t much for the bar scene, anywhere, but here in hope Town, Friday nights would find us at Wine Down Sip Sip conversing and catching up with dirt dwellers and boat folks. The Friday night ritual at Wine Down Sip Sip, the local wine bar, is the place to be. From my first blog post in January 2014, here is refresher about what the name means: “Wine down = to relax. Sip-sip= to share ‘news’, the Bahamian equivalent of gossip. Wine Down Sip-Sip is the place to do both – relax and enjoy conversations with others.”

Wine Down Sip Sip - a sweet little wine bar — Wine Down Sip Sip – a sweet little wine bar

Friday evenings is also SOTS night which I also described in that first blog. The SOTS membership is still growing, now over 800 members. Congratulations, Deanna and Sara! It’s a worthwhile cause and just plain fun.

We introduced Charlotte and Magnus (Swede Dreams) to Wine Down Sip Sip and Sara and Deanna gleefully inducted them into the SOTS.

From December through February, I would take a couple of photos each Friday at Sip Sip, always planning to do another blog post. Time slipped away, but I certainly can’t let this winter go by without any mention of Wine Down Sip Sip, not at all. We all look forward to our Friday gathering at Sip Sip, come rain or shine.

The room is overflowing with chatter, smiles, food, wine and beer.

Bonnie, the owner. Serving the very delicious very famous flatbread. Al looks forward to this every Friday. — Bonnie, the owner.
Serving the very delicious very famous flatbread. Al looks forward to this every Friday.

Looks like the guys are all eagerly waiting for their flatbread pizza.

Jim and Al Gloria and me — Jim and Al
Gloria and me

From upper left, clockwise -- Kent, Muffin, Di and Will, Carol and Craig — From upper left, clockwise — Kent, Muffin, Di and Will, Carol and Craig

Sara and Deanna, and Al with a few other Elbow Cay folks — Sara and Deanna, and Al with Sunny, and the Fontaines. All Elbow Cay dirt dwellers – dirt and water can mix very well.

Another weekly Hope Town ritual is Monday Bingo Night at Captain Jack’s. In the interest of experiencing new things, I talked Al into giving this a try one Monday. Peter, from Navigator, was also willing to gamble on his luck.

Just had to take a picture of Captain Jacks' restroom doors, which are outside. FiFi's and Doodad's — Just had to take a picture of Captain Jacks’ restroom doors, which are outside. FiFi’s and Doodad’s – have you ever heard them called that before?

From our seats, we could see our Kindred Spirit in harbor . We were told that you have to get there early for a seat. Bingo starts at 6 pm so we were there at 5 pm. During holiday weeks it gets so noisy that we could hear the cheers from winners and the moans from losers from our boat in the harbor.

Let the games begin. $2 per card. Sara and Deanna are in charge of the cards and collecting the money.

Peter was a good sport to join us. We are ready to play!

There behind the window on the inside sits the "caller". He was good at it! — There behind the window on the inside sits the “caller”. He was good at it! But you won’t win if you yell out “BINGO.” You must yell “JACKS!”

bingo cards — Beer bottle caps are perfect bingo chips for this establishment.

Did we win? Nope. Was it fun? Yup. Would I do this every Monday night? No. But I would do it again, even though we lost $20 between the two of us.

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