or: Unexpected Public Holiday

I am yet to meet anyone who doesn’t enjoy a long weekend. 

The only thing better than a planned public holiday is when one appears out of the blue and you happen to have been scheduled to work on that particular day.

This is just what has happened to a lot of Mauritians.

Tomorrow is unexpectedly a public holiday as a result of Mauritius winning the 10th Jeux des Iles.  It reminds me of Bob Hawke’s quote when Australia won the America’s Cup in 1983  “any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum,” so having a public holiday for it seems like a smart move.

Every four years, since 1979, the Indian Ocean Island Games has been held. This year Mauritius has hosted seven Indian Ocean Islands (about 2,000 athletes) who have competed across 14 disciplines over the past two weeks. Sports have ranged from beach volleyball through to rugby and judo as well as the usual athletics and swimming.

Unsurprisngly, the dodo was the mascot though in slightly different colouring to what it would have been naturally. If it had been these colours, I’m sure it would have been extinct a lot quicker!

The venues were spread across the island so when going for a drive, it was possible to see quite a few of them. Even the roundabouts were marked with the Games’ flags and those of the various nations. What was interesting to see is only two were coloured in red, white and blue (Reunion Island and Mayotte, both belonging to France, meant this is the flag they flew) whereas all the other countries had fairly brightly coloured flags. I particularly like the flag of Seychelles (and of course Mauritius!). I also learnt of a country that I had never heard of previously – Mayotte. 

So with tomorrow as a holiday, tonight is a celebration night.

It doesn’t matter for me though, I’ll still be diving tomorrow, public holiday or not!

 

* Thanks to Little River Band for the title to this post.