So there’s me, Fred, and two Norwegian girls that we met on holiday. The girls are a lot younger than us, maybe 19. we’re touring the South of France together.

So what are you doing around here, I ask Christina (blonde)

‘studying for exams’ she tells me.

That sounds interesting, I tell her.

it’s not really. She answers flatly.

and are you studying too? Fred asks the other one, brunette, serious.

Sarah concurs.

‘So, drinks, what shall we have….’

I’ll have a beer, (Christina) I’ll have one too. It ends up being three beers, nothing for Fred, he doesn’t drink.  When you’ve been travelling for as long as I have you get used to all kinds of crazy scenarios. Fred writes screenplays, then convinces older women to give him the money to make them into movies. Fred’s latest is about a mutant shark that takes over the South of Los Angeles. Fred touts the story as a parable on consumerism or something. It sounds terrible but what do I know?

Fred drinks instant nescafe from a plastic cup.  The girls laugh at his jokes. at this bar a can of beer costs 1 euro. We have been white water rafting today.  It rains a lot here. The girls speak really clear, accented English.  We’ve been drinking all night. There isn’t much else to do. Christina has a small tattoo on her shoulder that looks like a lizard. I would like to sleep with her. and that is what goes through my mind in a hotel bar in Nice, August 2009.