Is it a Robin or a Seagull?

by Nancy Knudsen on 3 Jun 2007 It's now eleven days since we saw a vessel – any kind of vessel – all those horizon searches every ten minutes for no result.

Neither have we been able to hear the BBC, so we don't have any idea what's happened in Israel, or Turkey, or whether there's some new world concern that requires our opinion.

So the conversation, which is never hurried, there being so much time available, gets to be strange sometimes....









Nancy: Oh look.'

Ted (reading): 'What?'

Nancy: 'Bird.'

Ted: 'Where?'

Nancy: 'There – the tiny one.'

Ted: 'Oh, yeah.'

Pause....

Nancy: 'What is it?'

Ted: 'Dunno.'

Nancy: 'It looks like a robin'

Ted: 'Look it up in the Bird Book.'

Nancy: ' Nup - It's not in the Bird Book.'

Pause....

Nancy: 'It really does look just like a robin.'

Ted: 'They don't have robins in the ocean.'

Nancy: 'What else could it be I wonder?'

Ted puts down book he is reading

Ted: 'It must be in the Bird Book! You surely haven't discovered a new species!'

Nancy: 'Well don't get agitated. I am reading a bird book about robins anyway'

Ted: 'I'm not getting agitated.'

Nancy: 'You sound like you're getting agitated about the robin.'

Ted: 'S*!* Nance, I told you there aren't any robins in the..... That doesn't look like the Bird Book - what are you reading?'

Nancy: 'A book entitled 'How to Tell a Robin from a Seagull'.'

Ted: 'You're putting me on!'

Nancy: 'I would never do that'

Ted: 'What does it say then?'

Nancy: 'It says if you're on a beach, it's a seagull.'

Ted: 'Hah! - Well we're certainly not on a beach.'

Nancy: 'No that's right - so it must be a robin, what do you think?'

Pause.....

Ted: (picking up book) 'I think you'll be okay Nance – we'll be in the Marquesas soon.'