A girl named Floor ...

A Girl Named Floor …

The other week whilst in Brisbane catching up with Nick, Ramona and the boys we were also lucky enough to see Fons and Yoris again.

Now for those not in the know, Fons (not to be mistaken for the Fonz  is one of Caroline’s innumerable many relations … a cousin’s son or some such which probably has a more precise genealogical term for those that way inclined. Fons and Yoris stayed with us for a couple of weeks in Adelaide as part of their adventures travelling around the world and we had a great time. It was a happy coincidence that they would be in Brisbane at the same time that we were scheduled to be there.

We managed to hook up with them on a drizzly day (because that’s mainly what Brisvegas dished up in the week that we were there) and decided that we’d take the Brisbane ferry for a ride up and down the river, stopping at the Gallery of Modern Art for a bit of culture.

We caught up with them at the Ferry terminal and they introduced us to Flora, a Dutch girl that they’d met whilst volunteering in Indonesia or some such that had caught up with them in Australia.

It was all good, but at some time during the day Fons happened to mention to me that Flora was just the name that she happened to introduce herself as to English speakers. It turns out that her real name is Floor.

Yes, that’s right, like the thing that you walk on. Now how the hell was I supposed to meet a girl named Floor and then just say nothing? Just let it go, forget it ever happened? Not likely, but by God I bit my tongue for a long time. I walked past the sign that said “caution, wet floor” and I didn’t say a word.

Quietly I catalogued the things I could have said, not trusting myself. It was like a valve holding back the pressure. Something was going to give.

Then we lost her. She wandered into a different gallery and we were thinking about leaving and so started looking.

I said to Caroline … what do we do, go to reception and tell them we lost Floor? I could just imagine the questions coming back … “you lost the floor?”

“No not the floor, Floor. A girl … named floor … she’s not a walkover you know …”

I mean once you start dropping “the” into the name, the number of one liners increases exponentially. I just don’t think that I can write them all down here.

Just think along the lines of please don’t wipe your feet on the floor … a floor so clean you could eat off it …

And perhaps I should just leave it at that … I’m sure you can come up with plenty on your own.

Clearly someone’s parents weren’t thinking about English translations all those years ago J