Beach Writing Challenge Days 3 and 4 — A Change of Venue and Some Brisk Writing

14th of July, 2018

 

Click here for the previous day’s post.

 

The third day of my writing journey began with my checkout from the Calangute Beach Residency. I had initially thought this would be silent owing to the off-season, but can a North Goa beach be quiet at any time? My hotel room was peaceful but the very fact that the beach was just a shout away tempted me to go out and look. So, I decided to change the venue.

 

New Place

I found a great deal at the Mapusa Residency. The room cannot be more silent than this, and there’s everything at a stone’s throw. The market and bus-stand are right across, and the buses can take me to anywhere in the state that I need to go. Beautiful, just the way I like it. Brightly painted too (see the pic!).

 

Had lunch at their in-house restaurant. Good food but had just a chicken sandwich and a can of Budweiser, since they didn’t have steaks and none of the other lunch stuff could be portioned for a single person.

The Writing

 

 

Wrote up a storm actually. Went 500 words higher than my average of the past two days and covered the 20000-word mark. Devika is now deep in the mess and her enemy has already had one victim and she’s inching closer to Devika. Things are bound to happen soon.

Okay, keeping Day 3 a very short post as I did nothing but write the whole day. See you again on Day 4.

15th of July, 2018

Day 4 dawns a bit late for me again, for I had been up till late in the morning. Had a short sleep and was up at 10, for the cleaners come in here and they give the room a good shakedown. It’s a good thing; not complaining. You can be as messy as you like.

Wrote two scenes in the morning and then set out to lunch.

By the way, I have been limping since two days because I have got a nasty slipper-bite (yeah, like a shoebite) and there’s not a medical shop open when I go down to get bandages. It’s healing anyway.

Lunch at Ronaldo’s

There’s this quaint little place bang outside Mapusa Bus Stand called Ronaldo’s where I had my lunch. You can see the football evidence everywhere in Goa actually. Even right next to Mapusa Residency, there’s a place called Zidane Boutique.

Anyway, at Ronaldo’s, I had some cool scotch (mistake, I’ll tell you why), some chicken tandoori and a rice plate. Interesting stuff, well-made too, and for just 300 rupees! Quite a steal for backpackers really.

Moved around a bit in the Mapusa Market, decided to come back when I am not limping, and got back to the hotel room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mistake

 

Well, the mistake was that I slept in the afternoon! Had a short sleep the previous night and then the scotch on a rainy afternoon could lull a giant to sleep even after getting up from a six-month slumber. Was out like a light for two hours, and by the time I woke up, I did not want to be in Goa. I wanted to be at the Luzhniki Stadium!

The Match

Well, what a FIFA World Cup Final that was! Chatted with my kids on WhatsApp all through the match and we had our own commentary going on here. A fun two hours, and the better team won, though for me the Croatians are the true winners. Not many people had heard of Croatia before this month, and see how they have just stormed into the world space. Modric, we love you.

The Writing

 

Sadly, didn’t get much by way of writing today. Just a piddly 3000 odd words. Have to buck up tomorrow, for it will be my fifth day here already. The week’s coming to a close.

Till tomorrow, ciao!

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