Holidays in London

So last week was Christmas here and it was celebrated with much fanfare.

Things started on Christmas Eve since we got of work at 7 instead of midnight like we normally do. That was really nice to have a bit more time in the Evening to relax and enjoy ourselves. We setup the top bar for the festivities the next day and sat around and talked for awhile. We kept it pretty low key for the next couple of hours enjoying our free time. Later that night most of the staff went out to a bar for Christmas Eve. That was a bit odd to tell the truth. I can't say that I've ever gone to a bar on Christmas Eve or ever will again for that matter. It was a fun night though.

Christmas day was a lot of fun. Things kicked off around noon or so when we headed to Trafalgar Square to start a little game of cricket. We lined up in front of the National Gallery facing Nelson's Column and started bowling. It was an absolute blast. We got more than a few funny looks from people and we had even more people taking pictures of us playing. Only four of us actually turned up, it seems there were quite a few casualties from the night before. We kept that up for a couple hours and than called it off. Bowling is surprisingly tough on the shoulder.

From Christmas at the Chandos

We had a little bit of time to kill and get prettied up for dinner. Middle of the afternoon we congregated in the top bar and started into the snacks. A lot of it was pretty standard: mince pies, crackers, candies, and such. There were a few odd bits though. There were these things called Twiggies, I think. Weird baked all grain sticks with some sort of seasoning that I couldn't identify. They were...odd. We played cards for a couple of hours while dinner was getting finished up and I learned a couple of new card games.

Dinner itself was absolutely amazing. We had roast lamb, roast vegetables, roast potatoes, potato bake, haggis, gravy for the main course. It was so good. For starters I had a brie and cranberry filled filo pastry. Desert was a meringue filled with ice cream and than covered with fresh fruit and cream. I was pretty floored to tell the truth. They really went all out for us. We spent a couple of hours eating and joking around before moving to open our secret Santa gifts, or as the Aussie called them KK gifts. I never really got a clear explanation as to what that meant.

That was my Christmas from across the pond. I don't work New Years so I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I know that they have something planned here but I don't know what I'll do for the day. I guess I'll just have to leave that for another post.

Bar Brawl

Ok so not really, but we got really close.

This was an interesting weekend. We had pretty much the whole spectrum of things going on. On Friday night we just got slammed. We were hammered the entire night. We sold more bitter than I think we've ever sold in a night since I've been here. For example, we sold something like 2 and a half casks of bitter during the day. A cask is 36 gallons which works out to 288 pints. Total that all up and you get something like 720 pints, just of bitter. That was the kind of night we were having. We also almost ran out of glasses. On the weekends we have one of the kitchen guys come down and clean glasses for us to make it easier for us to serve. This particular night however, it was all he could do just to pick up glasses from the floor because the place was so packed. At one point we were down to about 20 pint glasses out 2 or 3 hundred we normally have stocked. I hopped on dish duty and just washed as fast as I could. I pretty much kept it at level, slowly increasing the amount we had for the next hour or so. By the end of that time we maybe had 40 glasses up on the shelves. Not good. It was like that all night. It was a blast. We're all usually in pretty good spirits during times like that because, well, if we're not we're going to snap like twigs.

Saturday was much more interesting. It was pretty dead that night. There just weren't that many people coming out for the most part. We had the normal early evening rush, but after that things just died. We did get ht pretty hard at the end of the night though. There was a pub crawl that came in with 50 people or so. That's a lot of people to serve drinks at the same time. The real interesting part came during the lull. A group of maybe twenty people or so came up and starting shouting, I think that's an apt description, their orders at the bar. Turns out that one guy was paying for all of it and I happened to be serving this guy. As is pretty normal, he starting asking for name brands, Jack Daniel's or Southern Comfort (this got me in trouble), that while we don't actually have we serve something in the same class, a bourdon or liquor. I of course told the man this because we can get into trouble for not. So I'm two thirds of the way through this guys order when one of his friends starts shouting at the bar. This "gentleman" was angry that his So Co didn't taste right. I explained to him what the situation and he responded that I didn't tell him that. I told no, I didn't, I told the guy ordering drinks. At this point he accuses me of lying and starts to get a little unhinged. He insults me, starts shouting and is generally behaving like an ass. Neil walks over. They walk down the same road he and I went down and than things started to get really nasty. He insults me some more and than starts going after the pub. Not smart. He asks if we advertise, tell him no, and he calls our stuff rubbish. Really not smart. At this point Neil just starts making fun him. The guy tries to order something and Neil just makes a fool of the guy. That went on for a little while before eventually the guy got so pissed his friends had to pull him away. Which is good, because he just about got a beating he wouldn't have forgotten for a long time. During this whole interchange everything at the bar stopped. I was right there with Neil to my right and Russell to my left. The other three guys down there are just all standing there waiting for this guy to make a move. The way our bar is set up, you would have to lean really far over to take a swing at one of us, at which point he would have been pulled onto the bar and beat around the head until he stopped moving, his friends pulled him, off, or the Met showed up. Either way, bad ending for that jackass. They also walked out on a 40 plus pound bar tab.

Sunday was rather uneventful. It was just dead all day. Nothing really interesting happened work wise. A lot of things broke though. One of our best selling beer taps broke so we were short one, the big dishwasher broke downstairs, and a fridge broke upstairs. That made the day a little more interesting, but it was still really manageable.

Monday was another story. We weren't really that heavily staffed because Marc and Russell had family here and Neil didn't expect it to be busy. The day started pretty mellow downstairs, busy for a Monday afternoon, but nothing too bad for two of us. Upstairs was another matter however. Caelly was alone and just getting slammed with food orders. I went up and helped her out for awhile. Their fridge had ben fixed so I ran to the cellar to get that for her and loaded up the fridge. Went up and helped again a little later and than I was on break. Didn't really do much on my break. The night was a whole different matter. I came down at five and Jade was getting slammed. We were serving as fast as we could and the lines were only getting longer. Russell came down at 6 and twenty minutes or so later we were down to about 8 pint glasses. For the next hour and a half I did nothing but glasses. Luckily one of the kitchen girls, Michelle, came and helped clear the floor but it was still barely enough. We burned through change, kegs, ice, lemons and pretty much everything else we had downstairs. It was absolutely manic. I was done at 10 and things had calmed down a lot but they were still going to be busy for quite a while tonight.

Comedy and Con Men

Its been really busy here the last week or so. All the UNi students who are in town are on holiday so they have a lot of free time and people here get a lot of time off for Christmas and new year. That leads to a lot of people going out drinking on the weekend. Lots of people.

I've kind of been out of it too. I'm finally over whatever it was that I had for the last week and a half. Last week on my time off all I did was lay in bed. Just got myself rested up and healthy. Feeling good now. Other than that, not a lot of note has really been going on here. Even though things have been really busy, there hasn't been a lot of out of the ordinary stuff going on. Things have been going smoothly, which is really nice. I guess I've had my hand at trying to get the bitter casks done right and I'm getting closer. The last few times I've made mistakes, but they'll all been different ones. Not quite sure what that means to tell the truth.

The one thing that does stick out in my mind from the bar happened earlier this week. I was serving a two guys, only one of which bought anything. That should have been my first clue he was up to something. After he gets his half pint, he asks if he could trade some change in for a bill. I said sure so he gives me the money and I get him a bill. He then tries to hand the bill I just gave him and tell me take the money he gave me and give him a twenty. Seriously. He spent a good five minutes trying to convince that I should essentially double his money. I can't believe that actually works.

On my much abbreviated time off this week I went out and did some Secret Santa shopping. We're doing a gift exchange amongst the employees so I had to go out and try and find something. I got something I would have liked so I think it should turn out alright. I just sort of wandered around Covent Garden until I found something that caught my fancy. After that I sat down in a pub for some lunch and to do some writing before going to pick up a book for myself. I went and got the Tales of Beedle the Bard, the short set of stories that Rowling put out. I really enjoyed them. She has a great knack for writing and making a world cohesive.

That was just the beginning of my Potter day though. That night I went to a play called Potted Potter, which did all the Potter books in 70 minutes. These two guys were pretty good. It was set in a really small stage and they were pretty interactive with the crowd. That, and they ad-libbed a lot. For example, at one point one dressed up as a golden snitch and was being chased around the stage by a couple of 8 year old girls. He was turning and got brought down hard by the girl. As in she slammed him to the ground. Pretty funny. Or at a later part the lights went out and one of the guys somehow got his hands on some chocolate cake. I don't remember what the gag was supposed to be, but apparently the cake had gone a bit bad. Great stuff.

Now this week and next week are going to be really interesting. This weekend we're all working crazy shifts to try and cover all the time we need. Its going to leave a little short when it comes to cleaning up on the weekend though. Not quite sure how that's all going to work. Next week might be interesting too, though it could go a couple of ways. Quite a few people have asked for time off, so we might be working quite a few shifts or at least more than normal. We might also be getting Christmas and Boxing day off, which would be really nice. We're going to close as soon as we can on Christmas Eve. I don't think we'll be getting a normal day off in there, but if we can get a couple off at the end of the week that should be good.

Enjoy you white Christmas back home.

Bar Buzz

Its been an interesting week or so here at the Chandos. First, Neil ha been teaching me about taking care of the casks of ale down in the cellar. This is special beer. Its what is called a "real ale" which means its never been pasteurized so it has live yeast in it, its hasn't been filtered, its hand pumped, and its in a big oak barrel. So, it takes some special care. All the other beers use compressed gas to push the beer up to the bars, but since this is made of wood, that won't work. It also means that a lot more has to be done to make sure that its going to come out right on the other end. First, you have to tap the keg in a specific manner. First you put the tap in with a hammer, old school style. Than you need to release some of the built up pressure from the yeast. Finally you need to open up a hole on top so the pressure can equalize as you pull it out. If you don't that all right, things can get busy. Once I did it in the reverse order and got a face full of beer. Another time, okay a couple, I didn't drive the tap in far enough so I ended up with beer on my feet.

One that all has been done, you have to be really careful with the casks. They add a special chemical to settle everything out of the beer so it pours clear. If you shake the casks too much, you ruin the barrel of ale. Not good. There is a crust of yeast at the top to worry about and than sediment on the bottom that needs to be kept out. Neil showed me the right way to rack the casks too. Since you can't disturb the casks once they've been tapped, sometime we have to keep the barrels in a separate space until we've emptied a rack. I suppose that doesn't sound to hard, but the casks weigh a quarter of ton. Not small. You also have to take a couple of steps to make sure it will clarify right since it hasn't been set they way it needs to be.

So that's been a lot of fun. The other stuff, not so much. One of the couples who was going to be leaving this weekend had been taking some liberties with the stock and they happened to get caught this week. Woops. So they got the boot and we got a couple more people to work with, from Yankton. Yes, we know have three South Dakotans working here. I haven't had much of chance to talk to them yet, just enough to know where they're from and that I think we graduated the same year. I have to say that I was pretty floored.

Such and Such

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope your day is filled with turkey and the induced coma that follows. Nothing big has been going on this side of the pond for me, but I did have a couple of little things that I thought were interesting.

-Law and Order wanted to use our pub in some shoot their doing over here. How awesome would that have been? Unfortunately Sam Smith doesn't want any sort of media branding so it was a no go. I could have been an extra.

-Sunset here is really early. My first shift back I was working away and all of a sudden I looked up and it was really dark outside. I thought alright, my shift is almost over. Checked the clock a little bit later and it was just past 4. Kind of depressing.

-It looks I'm set to be getting my own room, which will be really nice. Its a fair bit bigger than the one I have now, but it'll be nice just to have my own space again. I get it because we have 3 people leaving in the next couple of weeks. One of the girls from the kitchen, the one who is pretty much in charge, is leaving to go back home. There is also a couple from Australia who are heading home soon too. I think all three of them want to be back in time for Christmas I think. That's going to make the staffing here interesting I think. We'll be down for a bit, which won't be so bad though. It'll mean some extra hours to make up for the time I took off.

Things have actually been pretty slow here the last couple of days. We'll have a really busy post work rush and than things just die off. I think its because its getting to be the end of the month so people are saving their pennies. The end of the month is approaching though, so that should mix things up a bit. Plus, with all the people who are going to be out shopping for the holidays it will mean a lot more people milling about. I'm thinking things will pick up here soon.

One more down...

It was a pretty crazy weekend here for me. The pub was fairly busy which was a large part of it. It has been a lot crazier here than it has for a long time. That has actually been a really nice change of pace. It’s really fun to get into a good groove and serve people. When things are clicking behind the bar we’re all joking with each other and having a really good time. The really drunk customers are also a source of great amusement too. Some of these people are just hilarious.

Sunday I decided I would go visit a place called Spitalfield’s. It’s a big covered market on the east end of London. I took the Tube most of the way there and then hoofed it the rest of the way. I got off in what is called the City of London. It’s a central borough with a lot of the big businesses. The only thing I could describe it as was desolate. The place was creepy even. There just wasn’t anyone walking around like I was used to. There was also a stark contrast when I walked into Whitechapel, the borough where the market is. There was a distinct line between the metal and glass buildings of the City with the stone and mortar of Whitechapel.

I’m sure, in fact, some of you will have heard of Whitechapel. Mom and Nancy will be getting to know it fairly well if they take the Ripper tour. Yeah, that Whitechapel. Not as bad as it once was, but still not a place I would want to wander as a tourist. I was looking for this market and having a rough time with it. I got a little lost and ended up on Brick Lane wondering where I was. There were a ton of little swap shops and vendors along the way. Once I got myself sorted, I realized the market had some construction on the outside and so I missed it and that caused my long walk. Nice.

The inside was pretty cool though. There were proper shops around the outside with stalls packed into the middle selling all sorts of things: clothes, food, jewelry, and records. All really cool stuff. I spent a while looking at the wares and than headed back towards Leicester Square. I stopped at a couple of pubs for some dinner, but there were all full. I couldn’t find a place to sit. I eventually ended up at the Black Friars and ate there. I made it back in time for a movie, the new Bond film. The ticket was rather more expensive than I had expected, but it was worth it. It was set up more like a playhouse than a movie theater, complete with multiple levels. It was really cool.

After that I met up with Leo for a drinks at a place called the Lyceum Tavern. Its another Smith’s pub so I got to try some of the beers I’m always serving. The Oatmeal Stout is amazing. We talked for a couple of hours before we got kicked out of the pub.

I don’t have much planned this week beyond getting ready for next. Its gonna be fun.

On Hockey and Fifth of November

This week is turning out to be a lot more interesting than I had thought it would. I had Sunday off this week which severely limited what I would be able to do that day because not much is open and I don’t have a lot of time to plan things out. I ended up not really doing that much. I just took a day to sit around and relax pretty much. I went for a long run made myself a big dinner and was going to go to a Bond film. I went to a coffee shop around here to read for a bit too. I went to go buy tickets to the movie and it turned out that the times they had listed were nothing like what time the movie was actually playing. So, I just wandered. There is a pub near here that does sport, so I thought I could catch something on and headed there. It’s a Canadian pub called the Maple Leaf and boy was I surprised when I saw that they were playing hockey. Apparently every Sunday they put on the live game of the night. I was more than a little happy. I grabbed a beer and sat down to watch.

That’s where the night took a turn for the very interesting. I was sitting at a big table by myself when a group of asked if they could join me. The pub was fairly busy and I didn’t mind so I said sure. I was just really struck by the fact they would ask me that at all. I guess I just can’t see it happening back home anywhere. For example, I would be floored if someone asked to sit at my table to watch a game at Cubby’s or Senser’s. I just don’t think it would happen. Once that beer ran dry I went to get another and moved to an open table since it sounded like those three hadn’t seen each other for a long time. I ended up sitting next to this guy who was really into the game. I asked him where he was from and he said Canada. We got to talking about he came to be over here, how I found my way and what I was doing afterwards. I was talking about where I was planning to go. Another Canadian guy at this point chimed in when I said I wanted to go to Greece. His name was Barry. He was a really cool guy. He had backpacked it sounded like the better part of the world and so I asked him for tips and advice and he recounted some of his travel stories to me. When the pub closed down we went to a bar not far away for one more. Another Canadian guy appeared from somewhere with his girlfriend. We were sitting down and the conversation turned to politics, which was rather interesting to be honest. I always find it really interesting to hear Europeans, or even Canadians talk about US politics because they know so little. Its pretty funny. That was over pretty quickly and I walk Barry back to Trafalgar square. He ended up stopping in the Chandos the next night for a drink.

The next day I went to coffee shop and got the trip for Mom and Nancy all hammered out. More or less. That took me the better part of the afternoon to find a place to stay and a good tour to take us around the Scottish country side. The one I had wanted to do wasn’t running this time of the year, but they had a version of it that we could do. I had an early night that day so got some extra sleep.

I went to the Waterstone’s coffee shop the next afternoon and there I realized something. I’ve become a regular at the coffee shop. There are about three or four people I ever seen working there. There is one girl in particular who is usually working the register who pretty much has my order memorized. I get a coffee and on the first one something sweet to munch on while I’m reading. The second time I came up she was serving and asked me about it.

Also got dressed up for Halloween at work. Pretty much all the barstaff downstairs had some sort of costume on, so it was a good time. Not many people were out dressed up. There were quite a few college kids out though. We had at the very end of the night some people out in some really detailed Mickey and Pooh outfits like you might find in Disney World. I was impressed.

The big news so far this week has been the fifth of November though. To those of you not English that would be Bonfire day. Why do they call it Bonfire day? Its because this is the day of the year where they burn effigies of Guy Fawkes for being a traitor to the crown. Fawkes was part of a group of individuals who had planned to blow up Parliament and had nearly gotten away with it. They were only caught at the last minute. It was a group of Catholics rebelling against what they thought was unjust rule by the Protestants. So no every year they celebrate how it was stopped.

The interesting part was right away when I opened the bar a huge group of people walked in and started talking. It was a really mixed group which had me a little confused at first. At around ten to noon they all pulled Guy Fawkes masks and started getting kitted out like the main character in V for Vendetta. They left, I thought it was funny and didn’t think any more of it. That is until the Met showed up asking for them. Turns out they had started marching down Whitehall Street towards the Prime Minister’s house and Parliament and got stopped by the police. They were searched under the antiterrorism act and sent on their way. They came back to the pub and starting drinking heavily. About 20 people or so all put 20 pounds into a cup that just got drained. Amazing.

So what have I been up too?

The answer to that question is not a lot.

I went to hang out with the Pat on Monday at the Foundation House where I used to have class. I went to a class with a professor I really liked and went to class he gave on the on the Beatles. He did a really short version of it for the class when I over here last time, but this was a more in depth version. It was nice to see Justin again, he’s a really nice guy. I talked to him for a little while during the break. I was going to hang out with Pat afterwards, but apparently someone didn’t have enough time during his previous week off to get a couple of papers done. Lame. Oh well. I went back and crashed for a little while and generally took it easy for a couple of days. It was nice to relax for a bit. I tried to get tickets to a play at the National Theatre but its sold out, so I’ve been trying to pick up tickets that have been returned the day of. Its pretty sketchy trying to get them and I you don’t have a lot of say in where I can sit.

The weather here has been absolute garbage. Today it was cold and rainy and just an unpleasant day. This afternoon was really busy though. There were a ton of people coming in to order food which is kind of problem. The kitchen today was just able to keep up, but it wasn’t pretty. Yesterday was a lot worse. We had about 20 plates of food ordered in about fifteen minutes. We got smashed. It was compounded by the fact the fact that I was training in the new guy at the time and he was just struggling to get the system down. The top bar was the same way so that just compounded the mistakes that were being made by the people down here. To say the least, things were pretty hectic.

I’ve got tomorrow off so I don’t know what I’m going to do. I might try to get a ticket to that show, but I don’t know. If the weather is going to be crappy again I don’t know what I can really do. There’s not whole open on Sunday either, and the stuff that is open is going to be swamped with all the people that are out and about. Just have to see I guess.

The leaves are finally coming down en masse here now. There are big piles of them on the street corners when I get up in the morning and a small army of street cleaners out to sweep them up. There are so many street cleaners here, its kind of funny. I suppose that it’s the only way to deal with them though. Back home people would take care of their own leaves, but when just about everyone around here doesn’t live on street level the council has to take control of things. Its just odd from what I’m used to I guess. The parks are also finally getting covered in a nice thick bed as well and the trees are looking somewhat bare. The weather here has turned to crap as well. There are days like today where the sun comes out and things are absolutely beautiful. There isn’t much wind because I’m in the middle of a lot of tall buildings so it is just wonderful to be outside. Most of the days are cloudy though, and with that comes rain. There haven’t been many days where it’s rained really hard for an extended period of time. Mostly what will happen is that its sprinkles for a little while, stops, starts again and just goes like that for most of the day. Kind of unpleasant.
I’m doing something I don’t think I’ve ever really done today either. I’m sitting in a coffee shop writing this. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. I think I’m going to have to make a habit of it. Until the next time.

Kew Gardens

So the last week has been getting busier and busier at work. This weekend we were nailed by food orders, which is a real pain. I think between the two bars we did something like 80 of them, which isn’t that much in the scheme of things I guess, but the pub really isn’t designed to handle that much food going through. That, and it really isn’t convenient for us to take all those orders and get them out to people. It’s a very problematic situation. Which, from what I hear, is only going to get worse. Neil said this happened last year around this time, so it must be some school holiday that gives people a lot of free time. The other thing that is changing is that there are a lot of college kids starting to come in. I don’t know if this is tied to some sort of holiday, but it is rather annoying. I can know say for certain that Uni kids around the world act with about the same amount of stupidity. Oh well, hopefully it will pass.

I managed to have some fun with my time off this week. My roommate Michael leaves sometime next week to go travelling. He and I went out to a pub I really like to have a drink since we both had the next day off. It was a good time, especially when these three British guys showed up, sat down with us and then started buying us drinks. They all started talking cricket, which was fairly humorous from what I picked up. Not sure on all of it though. I feel there might have been some jokes at my expense as well.


The next day I got up early and went on a run with Russell and then took the Tube out to Kew Gardens to catch the fall colors. Fall is a weird time here. There are leaves all over the ground and a few here and there on the trees changing, but most of the leaves I can see are still green on the trees. Granted, we haven’t had a hard frost or it hasn’t even gotten that cold here, but the leaves seem to change on a one by one basis. Even at Kew, there were only a few trees that changed like they do back home. Oh well, the day was sunny and beautiful and it was great to be outside. I had an amazing lunch at the orangery and sat around reading for a little while before exploring some parts of the garden that I hadn’t seen before. There was a really interesting little rocky garden with all sorts of waterfalls that was really cool. I was planning on staying a little longer than I did because it clouded up and then the temperature got to be fairly cold pretty quick. So I walked to what turned out to be a really nice pub by the train tracks and waited for the Tube.

From Kew in the Fall

When I got back to central London, I walked around and took some pictures around Trafalgar Square before going to a play. It was called Riflemind and its about a punk band getting together for a tour ten or fifteen years after they had disbanded. The main character was struggling because he had given up that lifestyle and was afraid he would return to drugs and partying. It ad an interesting little twist at the end too. It was directed by Phillip Seymor Hoffman too, if that’s anything.

From London by Night

The Hooleys

Hey all.

So I haven’t been up to much as of late. I’ve been felling kind of sick of late so I’ve been just laying around resting up. Its been actually nice just be lounging around for a little bit. I really didn’t feel that particularly sick, I just haven’t been well. That and I’ve been having problem getting used to Michael’s sleep schedule. I think I’ve gotten that taken care of though.

This was nice in that I got to see the Hooleys. I got a call around nine in the morning and asked if I wanted to go to dinner. I’m not going to say no to that. I was going to meet with Damien as well today. He and I had been playing email tag and he had said that Monday would be a good day to meet. I had the day off so I was planning on stopping by. He never got back to me via email and when I tried to call, but he never answered. Oh well, have to try again another time.

The rest of the day I spent doing little things that I had put off around here like some laundry. About middle of the afternoon I headed to the coffee shop and read for a few hours until I was meeting the Hooleys. We met just outside Big Ben. It was actually a very nice sunset. Tom was thinking about heading to dinner around there but asked my opinion and I suggested a place I had found down by the river. It was a bit of a walk, but ht night was nice so it wasn’t so bad. The place were ended up at was called the Anchor. It’s a three-story pub with a terrace that was right on the river. We sat on the top level and I had my first fish and chips since I got here. They were amazing. We also had some desert. I tried a treacle pudding and while I have no idea what it actually is, but is it delicious. It was kind of like corn bread with honey and custard.

From Westminster with the Hooleys

As a funny aside to this story, the Hooleys actually visited the Chandos, while I working. The one weekend I wasn’t working the downstairs bar, they stopped by and had lunch. I couldn’t believe it. They even said they thought they saw me walking by, which given the time that they were there, is a very real possibility. Funny how life works sometimes.

I walked them back to near where they needed to go to head back to there hotel than I went to catch a bus. I was planning on meeting Leo tonight. I was running more than a bit late since we had started dinner later than I though we would. I eventually made it though and had a blast. He’s doing well and is actually planning a trip to Canada in a little while. Too bad really, he could have swung by and said hi. So we talked for a while and then called it a night.

I don’t have much planed for the rest of the week. This is about the time things get really busy. Today is going to be really bad. There is a huge celebration set up in Trafalgar square for all the Olympic medalers so there are huge number of people there right now. So right about the time that ends, they’re all going to come into the pub and want food and drinks. Should be interesting.

The Weekend

I’ve had a pretty good weekend so far. I went out with a couple of people from work when we finished on Wednesday night, which was a good time. Afterwards I went in search of some sort of snack, I had a real craving for fish and chips or a kebab, and figured I could find one somewhere around Leicester square. That venture came up empty and so I thought there must be something around Piccadilly. Again, nothing. Finally my steps lead me around the theater district into SOHO. That is a place I never want to be past dark again. As bad as that place is during the day, it is so much worse at night. Creepy I think sums it up best.
Up until Saturday things have been pretty eventful. I did go out and pick up an international calling SIM card for my phone in case I need that. I only had to pay for the minutes on it, so it was pretty cheap. Little bit more shopping and that’s about it. Saturday was fun though. I’ve been working on the top bar at the Chandos for the last couple of days. Its pretty much identical to the one downstairs only its less busy and we do hot drinks there. I actually find it somewhat boring after working downstairs where it can get pretty hectic. There are a lot of tables and couches for people to sit on so they don’t really crowd in all the much. It’s a nice break, but I think I’d rather work at the bottom bar more. The days and nights go a lot faster. That, and screwing around with the coffees is really annoying.
I had a really interesting lunch on Saturday. I was talking to one of the girls who works up there, Caelly, who is Russell’s girlfriend. We were talking about different foods from our respective countries and she invited me along to a South African bar that afternoon with her and Russell to watch some rugby and try some of the stuff she had described. The bar was actually pretty cool, it was more or less a long tunnel underground. There was also a little dry goods kind of shop on the first floor. They bought some, I guess you would call it jerky, called baltin. Its spelled something like that. Its really similar to jerky, but its cut a lot thinner and they left it more chewy than I’m used to. For the meal we had a South African sausage that was amazing. The sausage itself was pretty much a bratwurst, but with more spices in it. It came in a crusty roll with fruit chutney on the top. It was so good. Definitely need to check that out some more.

Random thoughts and observations

-It’s really weird to be living with all the people I work with. When I get up in the morning to go get a cup of tea, or a bowl for some cereal, right away there is one of my bosses getting the kitchen in order for the day. I’m constantly around the same group of people all the time. It’s weird because I don’t find it that wearing though. Even though we all spend a significant amount of time together, we really don’t get to talk that much. When we’re working we don’t have a chance just to sit around and pass the time. There’s always something to do.
-People here, and by here I mean my coworkers and the general population, are really laid back. First of all, there doesn’t seem to be any aversion to swearing, anywhere. People will come up to the bar, ask for a drink and when we don’t have it respond, “F****** hell. What the f*** do you have.” Not angry in any way, just swearing. Same thing with the people behind the bar, to ourselves and to the people we’re serving. It’s a bit of a culture shock really.
-Americans are so obvious everywhere we go. I don’t know what exactly it is, but I can pretty easily now pick them out walking down the street or walking into the pub. I don’t know if its just something about the way we carry ourselves or what, but we stick out like sore thumbs over here.
-Americans also pretty much exemplify every stereotype that there are about us. I hate to say it but almost all the American tourists act exactly like the clueless people you see in movies or on TV. They’re the people who don’t know how to use the money wherever they are. They walk around with big bum bags or a very obvious passport pouch, which to me seems to defeat the purpose of having either on to begin with. Once someone sees you with one of those, they will immediately know you are tourist and you become a target because if it.
-Continental tourists aren’t much better though, if that’s some consolation. Some of my favorite lines are when someone will come up to the bar and ask for a beer. I don’t know if that’s supposed to mean something where they’re from, but walking into a pub just asking that is, for me, akin to walking into a grocery store and asking for food. I know you’re in the right place and all, but really? They also just expect them to conform to their way of doing things. At least most Americans will have the decency to ask, but the Continentals just sort of do it.
-British people are so ridiculously polite. When I’m serving them and ask if they want ice, almost without a fault their response will be followed by a please and/or a thank you. If I screw up an order, whether through fault of my own or theirs, they try to bend over backwards to make it alright. It just amazes me. One day in fact I was working the bar by myself and I did something wrong with someone’s drink, I think there was too much head on it for his liking. He gave me this rather terse response and told me to fix it. Here, he was just joking around, back in the States that sort of thing would have been a much bigger issue.
That’s it for now. I’ll keep a running list going if I think of anything else.

My Weekend

It was a busy weekend here. This is apparently the start of the busy season for pubs around here. According to my boss from here on out it will just start to get busier as we go. It won't be so bad now that we have a full staff again. We picked up some more people at the end of the week so that should help out a bit. That will mean less hours for everyone else here, but I'm of two minds on that. While the extra cash would be nice, I also won't mind not having to work the crazy hours. So whatever happens, I guess. 

But, back to the fun. So Friday night was pretty busy. We had a good crowd all night and so we were all well occupied. At the end of the night I was going through and cleaning the floor. I was picking up the empty glasses, rubbish and whatever else happened to be lying about and then cleaning the tables. I walked over to one of the corners to find a guy passed out. I tried to get him up a couple of times and he would just open his eyes and then he was out again. So I called over the manager and he tried to get him up to no avail. He would pick him up and this guy would just fall over. So finally he tells him he was going to call the cops and the guys books. Just far enough though so he passes out in front of the pub. So my manager tries to get him up for about half an hour, until finally we called the Accident and Emergency Room to come and pick this guy o he wouldn't get to cold in the night. 

Saturday we were pretty busy again for the first part of the night, than it calmed down quite a bit. It was actually kind of nice. While working, we have to scan all the bills we get under a UV light to check for a special mark because they have such a problem with counterfeiters over here. I grabbed a 20 from a guy, put it under the light and no mark. Called my manager over and he took a look, and yup, fake. So I told the guy that bill was no good and I needed to hold on to it. He at the point proceeded to freak out and start yelling at me. He seemed pretty legitimately, pissed, more so that he got caught than anything else. He ended up storming out. My boss told me later that he was pretty sure the guy was going to jump the bar. That would have made the night a whole lot more interesting....

So I'm not liking the kitchen

I went to make some dinner last night on my break. I had picked up some pasta and chicken on the cheap and I figured that it would make a good dinner. So I go to fry up the chicken on our crappy stove and pans. Really, the things are just useless. I'm just about done cooking it, not really paying that much attention to things, when the fire alarm goes off. Normally, this would just be annoyance, not a big deal at all. Most people don't live above a pub that happens to share the same alarm system as the pub they live above. Shit. Luckily, it got shut off pretty quickly, so it wasn't a big deal. Though I have taken a fair amount of shit for it. Oh well, live and learn.

So I saw a red flag flying....

From The Globe and London by Night

(I've added a link to my photos)

...and decided that a tragedy would be a good way to spend a night. Back in the day, the Globe would fly a different colored flag to let people know what kind of play they were putting on. The play I went and saw was called Timon of Athens about a man who gives everything to his friends, more than he can afford really. When he finds himself in need though, they all refuse to help him. He is cast out of the city and finds a cache of gold which he gives to a captain who has also been exiled to go and sack the city. Things work out in the end, even if Timon does die.

I have to say that it was one of my favorite plays I have ever seen. Part of the great part of it was the intimacy. I sprung for a seat which was still no more than 20 feet from the stage. There was good sized crowd gathered right in front stage. I think the best part was the crowd interaction. Actors entered and left through the crowd and the actors interacted with the crowd as well. At one point, three actors dropped down into the audience and one of them grabbed a beer from a patron, finished and handed it back. Hilarious. Shakespeare was a really great writer. One of the jokes in the play was when two of his false friends searched him out, he heard them coming and had a fairly substantial bowel movement. And after a while, ended up smearing it in their faces.

I think the thing I liked most about it was there was no pretension here. Most shows I've been to on the West End try to be so lofty that, while being good, come seeming kind of silly to me. Here, these were just actors who knew exactly they were there, to entertain. And they did spectacularly. The set was simple, there weren't any really fancy tricks, just great acting, writing and a great time.


I've been wandering around a lot lately, walking as much as possible. That's been going good. After the play for example, I took a walk to a pub along the river with a great view and after a drink looking at the city headed home. The walk was gorgeous and I think I found some good pictures. It was pretty brisk last night, but it felt good.

Living and Working in The Chandos

From In and Around Chandos

So here are some pictures of the place I'll be calling home for the next few months.



So far so good I think. I worked the entire afternoon yesterday by myself which was a little difficult and definitely a little frightening. I think I managed to do pretty well though. I only screwed up a few drinks yesterday and I don't think it hurt that the bar was really slow all afternoon. The weather here has been cold and dreary lately so they're aren't many people coming out. That, and Uni has started for the students here so there is a much smaller pool of people available to come out and drink on a Monday afternoon. Except for these three guys that were in the bar all day yesterday. I just couldn't believe them. I must have served them or seen them be served about ten rounds of stout. I was off at 8 last night too. They apparently went and kept drinking the entire rest of the night, another four hours. Two of the old guys were sitting together but one guy just sat there the entire time by himself pounding beers. I'm not sure if I should be impressed or scared.

Everyone I work with seems like they'll be very nice. I went out after work with some of them last night for a drink to a place that was still open just off of Picadilly. It was an Irish bar with a decent live band playing. Nothing really spectacular about it but I got to meet a few more people from the crew that I hadn't met before. There are two bars with in the Chandos. One is at street level, where I work and is a pretty standard pub. The other on the first floor is more of a lounge kind of place with great big leather couches and they serve hot drinks as well as having a full bar. I think I've met most of the people who work in the kitchen and my bar, but I've met almost no one who works on the top bar expect for a couple of girls who will be leaving in a short time. One of the girls is leaving tomorrow and the other is leaving next week. The girl leaving tomorrow, who's name now escapes me, is actually from Arizona and was on the the same program that I am currently. She's been able to travel a lot more though since she won't have the same restrictions that I do. Oh well.

Also got out to a play last night called Six Characters in Search of an Author. The basic premise of this play is that these characters have become an abandoned project and are looking for someone to bring it to fruition. It had been updated quite a bit and become substantially more existential than what i had read for class last year. I still enjoyed though. It was weird going to a play by myself too. I am really used to doing that sort of thing with other people, whether it be in London or just going to a movie back home. I don't why, but I just feel weird sitting by myself at something like that. Don't know.

Something I'm calling a positive that's been happening a lot lately is that people have been asking me for directions as I'm walking around. That feat took me a couple of months last time I'm over here so I think its cool that its happening now. It just feels good to at least seem like I know where I'm going as I'm walking around the streets here even though things feel a lot more alien. Its a really odd sensation, as if I'm looking at things out of focus so everything is just not quite clear. Part of that could be that I'm lacking a routine yet. Now that I'll have some semblance of a constant schedule, I'm guessing that feeling will go away. I know I missed that coming to the pub from the hostel. I had laid down some roots there and it was hard to tear them up. It occurred to me too that I've just been drifting around for the last couple of months. I've gone from one place to the other with any sort of stability to what I've been doing. This will be the first time that I'll have a set living space for a really extended period of time since I left for the RNC.

Well, I'm off to get some dinner before I have to go to work. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Jobs and Stuff

So I've been here for about a week and things are going pretty good. The hostel so far has been pretty good. I wasn't sure I was going to like it at first, but its grown on me. The people are all pretty cool and they're all generally pretty mellow. I've gotten along pretty well here. I've been rooming with an Australian who just graduated from high school. He's pretty cool. Haven't seen him around much because he's been working really weird hours so our paths haven't really crossed much.

I had a job interview on Friday which went over pretty good. It was at a pub that's right between Leicester and Trafaglar square.


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The people working there are in more or less the same situation I'm in. They're people from various different commonwealth countries who are here on a working holiday. I worked for five or so hours today and the people I was working with seemed pretty decent. I liked the people I was working with, which is good because I'll be living there. That's one of the advantages of this job in that I'll only be paying 30 pounds a week for housing. I'll be sharing a room with one or maybe two other people which shouldn't be too bad. The big downside is that they don't have internet access at the pub, which is pretty lame. There are enough places around that I should be able to get on pretty easily. Skype might be slightly more problematic, but I can get a phone plan here that lets me call for 4 cents a minute if that's what I need to do.

I went out to a Pub with Patrick last night. We went out the Blackfriar's and hung out for a few hours. He seemed to like the pub so that was cool. I tried to pass on some of my extensive knowledge of the City, but I don't know how helpful I actually was.