Spent the evening at James’ coworker’s house. If you’ve read any of the James Herriot books and you remember the Granville Bennett episodes, you’ll know how I feel about hanging out at R (the coworker’s) house. Regardless of my intentions, I always end up hammered.
First we went to Fet’s which ended up terribly. R’s girlfriend C and another of their roommates were already there with two friends, and James, R, and I showed up with three more of their coworkers. So with 10 people we ended up at a section in the back. Eventually the waitress came over and said she’d like to rearrange us. We looked around to see how we could be rearranged. She said we were taking up her entire section, and it was going to be the dinner rush soon. So C asked if we could amend her arrangement slightly, since it would have left us pretty cramped. The waitress responded in a REALLY rude voice, “You know what, I’d like to make some money tonight, and this section holds a LOT more than 10.” (It holds 14, actually). WTF? 10 people drinking for a few hours, and most of them eating as well, will net you a pretty large sum.
We were rather put off by her comments, and her generally snobby attitude for the rest of the time we were there, that not only did we NOT want to order anything else, but we also didn’t want to tip her. Then when the gratuity was added onto the bill automatically, they tried telling us that it was against the law not to pay it.
In any case, we covered our food and taxes and left without leaving a tip. Went back to R’s house. There’s five of them there, two couples and one single guy. One of the guys is an amaaaazing guitar player and just makes up the best stuff on the spot. One James’ other coworkers there was like “Guy! Play that one about the guy who done you wrong!” and he’d make up a blues song. Or “hey play one about how you built a new shower! And make it a love song!” And all his lyrics are funny and they rhyme. So we all sat on the porch drinking and listening to hilarious spontaneous songs until late late late.
James and I decided a long bike ride would cure our hangovers this morning, so after brunch we headed off to Stanley Park. The bike festival there (our intended destination) was nearly over so we decided to just go around the seawall anyway, at a rather leisurely pace. On the way back it started raining and James has no fenders or anything, so we took shelter under the Burrard St. bridge and he tried (unsuccessfully) to teach me how to bunny hop. Seriously, how is that possible? Gravity works the other way! Every time I do what he tells me, my feet come off the pedals and the bike stays firmly on the ground.
After a while we went back to his house and took a short nap. Well we intended to, anyway, and wound up sleeping for two hours on the couch. I woke up sore and headachey and groggy and basically feeling more hung over than I did this morning.
Commercial Drive festival tomorrow! I am guarding one of the barricades from 10-noon. Come drop by, it’ll be fun.
Post a Comment