LJ's Mexican Tale

Diversity.
I love diversity. I love different.

And that’s why I thought about this column, Kaleidoscope.

Something different, unexpected….

Well, LJ Anjema surprised me alright.

When I asked him to write for us, I didn’t expect what you are going to read. Because I know LJ as the quiet one, the good guy who reads books and who goes home whenever there’s a party.

For me, LJ is a professional athlete who I know very rarely drinks alcohol. By rarely I mean twice a year, and I personally (and don’t hate me for it) do like people who don’t drink too much.

So, yes, this piece did surprise me, and showed me that, after all, he is also a normal young man who likes to celebrate a great event. And God knows his title in Mexico was one of those…

All week long in the Corona Britania Open in Mexico the circumstances were against him. The altitude, the huge Mexican crowd, Mexican opponents etc. After a long and hard week he won the final against the Mexican national champion, Eric Galvez.

After his hot shower, he put on his smart clothes and realised: what better occasion to have a few of the odd Coronas than after a tournament win in beautiful Mexico…
  
Framboise


In the middle of the night
Somewhere in Quaretaro,
Mexico, 14th june 2004 ...

Celebrating my win of the Corona Britania Open, Eric Galvez, Johnny Abrahamse, Morten Sorensen, Baltazar and myself decided to go to this night-/salsa kind of club.

Around 4 in the morning, Galvez and I, after having had a beer or two, go upstairs to the toilet. So there we are, a small 5 foot 3 Mexican and a tall 6 foot 5 Dutch bloke, having a wee. Suddenly the lights go off. Undisturbed by the sudden darkness we keep on peeing and laughing about nothing.

The next thing I know I am lying on the bathroom floor, getting punched in the face several times by a (still unknown) Mexican dude. Galvez got hit by another guy and ran downstairs to get help from the squashboys. In the meantime, I’m lying there like a helpless little baby seal as he obviously caught me quite by surprise and as I mentioned before, I had had a beer or two. The beating finally stops. So I stumble to my feet, open the door and I see some Mexican dude (dressed in a suit) rush off. I want to do something to the guy I can’t write down; my adrenaline is sky-rocketing…

Galvez, Johnny and Baltazar come running upstairs, “LJ, don’t do anything man, they’re with more than us, just leave it man, oh man, are you alright?”. I noticed everybody looking at me so I went back into the bathroom and looked in the mirror: my originally white shirt and jeans were now red and so was my face. Nose and Teeth…check! Still all there and straight. Good. Galvez looks at me in the mirror, I look at him, blood everywhere…and we just started laughing.

I ask him: “Why man?! Why did they do this to us? I did absolutely NOTHING!!”. Galvez was just quiet. I sensed there was something wrong so I ask: “What man?!”.

He goes: “ On the way to the toilet we stopped on the stairs and talked to that nice blonde girl, you remember? And then you gave her a kiss on the cheek...”

To this day, I don’t remember the blonde girl I apparently had a chat with. What I do remember is the next day, when I entered the breakfast-cantina in my still red-blooded clothes (I had sent my bags to Mexico City the day before with a friend so I had no clean clothes), there was only a silence. The people were obviously thinking: “WHO IS THIS COWBOY?”.

I approach our table, all the squashboys are laughing and retelling the adventures from the night before, and Morten Sorensen from Denmark sits there with this beautiful Mexican girl he picked up the night before in the salsa-club. He left with her about an hour before I got beaten up.

Before I sit down, he looks at my red shirt and red jeans as if to say: “What the hell happened to you man?” I look at him and say in a soft intriguing Marlon Brando kinda voice: “Yesterday night, when you were making love to your woman, I was fighting for my life…”.

Ok kids, the moral of the story is:
If you go for a pee, and you’ve had a beer or two, and you’ve talked to the wrong guys’ girlfriend, AND you’re in Mexico, DO NOT use the standing lavatories! Better use the cubicles...
 


 

Laurens Jan Anjema

Nickname: LJ
D.O.B: 1st December 1982
P.O.B: Den Haag, Holland
Residence: Chingford, UK
Pro Since: 10th July 2001

PSA Wins:
Rennes, Oklahoma ‘03,
Dutch Open ‘04,
Corona Britania Open ‘04

Scalps:
Paul Johnson, Derek Ryan, Simon Parke, David Evans, Peter Nicol (in practice after he got back from a 3-week holiday)

Hobbies:
Blindfolded bungy jumping and crossword puzzles







 

 
Favourite quote:
“There’s a time for laughing and there’s a time for not laughing and this is NOT
one of them!”
 
Inspector Clouseau
 The Pink Panther
 






 

Photos by Patrick Le Fur, Chartres Open 2004

 My inside Tranquillity
Suddenly Disturbed
By a Girl
Her Beauty Overwhelms
And buries clear thoughts
Inside my Head
Underneath a Passionate Sphere
I’m Confused
But not Afraid
To let Desires Dominate
I’m wondering
Is she?