Friday, May 26, 2006

The Flypaper around the Corner

Last night as we sat around a bowl of potato wedges analysing the deep and hidden depths of X-men 3, I realised several things. The first was that I had not paid close enough attention to the very last scene in the film and had been off flapping away somewhere with Warren Worthington III’s wings. The next thing was that I was having a sense of deja heard.

“Yeah Claire says she hates Wang’s Bar, but then I asked if she wanted to go for a drink after work and she said she was going to Wang’s.”

Yep it was Wang’s bloody bar again. Now at the moment I hate this bar with a passion, but I haven’t really questioned why. Is it that bad? After all how many bars in Paris do I wander into and a glass of wine and a plate of crisps materialise before me within seconds. Wang’s two expression face then appears behind the glass – he’s either smiling or scowling- and he usually enquires about my day and then I get plastered; slowly. But let’s face reality, since Easter I’ve probably had a drink at Wang’s, what, once? Yep once. Mostly I wander past between the hours of three and four, wave at Wang through the window as he’s having his lunch and head off home or to the gym. So why do I hate that place so much?

“It’s soul destroying, I sit with all those miserable people moaning on and on about the same old dross and I just don’t want to be there. I don’t want to listen to that shit anymore, it depresses me.”

That’s a little sound bite from me. Claire had innocently asked me if I was going for a drink after work and I had lashed back with that. Well actually I had said I was going to the gym first and although that was a perfectly good answer had felt the need to add that little snippet afterwards, and that’s the short version, there was more. But on further analysis, although it is soul destroying and everything, in the end it is not strictly true.

Wang’s bar is round the corner from work and it has the ability to draw you in and get you comfortable. Wang’s round smiley face – when he is smiling that is – his ability to memorise everyone’s name and drink of choice and the seemingly never ending supply of crisps, peanuts, spicy peas and fishy smelling twisty stick things. You also get to see the reflection of the Eiffel Tower twinkling in its glass every hour, although now that daylight has increased that is less a possibility unless you get really stuck there. Oh and there’s an Italian Version of the cinema ad for ‘Last Tango in Paris’. A scene was filmed in here in the days when it wasn’t filled with pissed Anglophones, and busloads of Dutch tourists. But in the end it’s like flypaper. You come in straight from work and you begin buzzing angrily trying to extricate yourself, but slowly your resistance gets worn down and you end up resigning yourself to your fate. But that’s still not why I hate it.

The reason why I hate Wang’s Bar is because he’s stolen my friends. I can resist; Champion has now got a range of Kettle Chips that far outstrips Wang’s and a 4€ bottle of wine lasts a lot longer than a 4€ glass at Wang’s, but I want my friends back! Every now and again I can tempt them out by staring them in the eye and dangling something promising and exciting in front of them. “Comedy Club, live bands, Indian restaurants, Mexican restaurants, cinema, picnics,” I say slowly in hushed tones as if talking to a small child. And then I go and spoil it; “Another bar.”

“What do you want to go to another bar for? Wang’s is cheap.”

But it seems that I am beginning to win the souls of my friends back with the help of my other friend; sunshine. One thing Wang’s Bar hasn’t got going for it is a terrace. He’s trying, but when you’ve got the equivalent of a dual carriageway passing in front of it, it just doesn’t cut the mark.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for the peek, nice read

Unknown said...

Ah you are always so positive Skint. On a completely separate note though, never thought I would have to delete comments, but I've been spammed. Now how does this work?

Unknown said...

V, go into your 'comments' bit on your personal blog index. Click on 'yes please' for 'comments verification'. It will give your blog the magic words below that the spammer bots can't read. They are illiterate apparently....so far!
ps, good postie

Anonymous said...

take heed of the good minx's advice

Unknown said...

Oooh Thanks Minx will do, but first a little rant. I also left a comment on somebody else's blog. It was a nice positive reply (I thought) and I got a very snotty "Actually..." Blah de blah de blah and I had to control myself not to be extremely rude cos in the particular case I know what I'm talking about, grrr... Anyway then I saw that this person moderates comments before they go on the post and that made me even angrier. If you have the choice of whether to post comments or not, then do so and don't add 'Oh well ACTUALLY I'm right and you are wrong smart alec comments afterwards'. Especially when you are too ******* lazy or clever or special to check up your frigging facts first. ROAR!

Unknown said...

There are lots of bloggers out there Verillion, who get very snitty if you comment on their blogs about anything. I have noticed that there is such a thing as 'blog cliques' and you notice that the same sycophants comment all the time. Miss Snark is a prime example ( but she? is very funny).
I had Beau Blue bugging me a while ago by email about the colour of my blog - everyone has issues and some just enjoy being obtuse/pig headed/always right. Just ignore the bastard, obviously small brained, and talk to us lot instead.

Unknown said...

Well Skint I have taken heed of all of Minx's good advice. I have to admit ignoring stuff about changing my medication and bonking zee little mice on zee head though.

Unknown said...

What do you mean - I'm very good at prescription drugs and the bonking!
Glad to see you figured out the word verification, it took me a while but it stops the bots and keeps your blog nice and clean.

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