The Look
Has anybody else noticed what nobheads builders are? Not just builders but roofers, plumbers, electricians and lorry drivers – tradesmen in general.
It’s not that they ARE nobheads, it’s that they LOOK like nobheads. (And before anyone accuses me of being builderphobic, I should state that I carried a hod for several years in my younger days and probably looked like a complete and utter dickhead myself – well, I’m sure I did).
No, it’s the look they have in their eyes. As they enter a pub or cross the road to their truck from the café, they resemble cowboys getting ready for a battle at sunset. Not with the hat and spurs, you understand, but just the look in their eyes.
As they squint up and down the road, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they can see something in that street that somehow escapes the rest of us. But what is it? It’s only a fucking street!
I’ve seen that look before. When I was diving out in Portugal, the old boy who used to handle the boat for us was called Solgado, which means Salty interestingly enough. He was a tough old sod who had been a fisherman all his life. My buddy and I were once in the water and needed to tie a rope to a buoy. We asked Solgado to do it. He looked at us in utter contempt and, without ever taking his eyes off my buddy’s face, tied the knot and handed it back, shaking his head in disgust all the time.
My pal said to me, “That will never come undone,” and I had to agree.
We had a lot of time for Solgado. And I’ve seen the look on his face as he squinted out to sea waiting for the right wave. We could see little difference but he would steer the RIB back and worth, back and forth, and never take his eyes off the ocean. Suddenly he’d accelerate at an angle to the waves, racing the one he’d chosen. A swift turn and the nose would go right up in the air, hang still for a second and crash down on the other side of the wave, while Solgado finished rolling a cigarette with his spare hand.
It would scare tourist divers a little, but we were used to it and knew there were hardly a dozen people in the Algarve who could have taken us over that wave.
So I figure Solgado had a right to have that look in his eyes. But I also figure that builders look complete and utter twats when they put that look on their face just to walk into a pub or out of café. What the @!#$ is going on in their heads? Is it some sort of false bravado? Surely not. You don’t exactly need bravado to walk across the road or into a café, do you?
Any ideas?
