Saturday 28 March 2009

Kunt, cunts and the ever changing circle of friends in Manchester.

It's a sad time for the new batch of international students. After only a couple months together they're soon to depart again for their respective homes. I know precisely what it is they're going through and while I don't know them as well as I wish I did, I can't help but feel a tinge of sadness creep up as they discuss farewell parties and last nights out as a group. It's funny to think how close you get to people when you're thousands of miles away from home. The more time you spend with them, the more your new environment feels like a bit of a surrogate home. For some, it may be easier to leave, for others it might be impossible. It should come as no surprise that I fall into the latter and while I miss my family and friends immensely everyday I'm here, I'm starting to identify England as my new home. This doesn't mean that I will never return to the states but it does mean that my foray to the UK has become more long term than I had previously thought on that first plane trip to the UK in September. It's sad that I'm having to express this through a blog entry but I'm afraid my communicative tools are fairly limited at the moment and this will have to do. Besides, I've always found it easier to write my thoughts than it is to speak them. I've found myself to be very thoughtful and nostalgic of late and it's made this decision to stay that much more difficult. Remembering nights with a good movie and my parents or crazy kate nights with some of my closest friends always make me crack a very sad smile. It seems that the distance has also put some space between my relationships with some of my closest friends stateside. This obviously makes me quite emotional and I'm in no way blaming anyone for this, it's just one of those bitter truths to face. I'm still very thankful for the time spent talking to them and also very thankful for the new friends I have made over here. There's no way they could ever replace my American friends and I'm glad they haven't tried, they're just my friends, nothing else.

Moving onto different areas that have less to do with how I'm feeling and more to do with how I'm spending my time here. I'm still working loads and still loving it tremendously. The staff at fab are getting better and better and I feel like they'll be important people in my life for a long time. This week has been a hectic one at work with many highs and lows. I have worked 5 days straight and will work one more tomorrow night before a three day respite, which I am very excited about. There hasn't been much in the way of exciting times but Wednesday was without a doubt the most interesting and humorous night thus far. It started off in a rather tortuous fashion with an performance by 'comedian' and 'musician' Kunt and the Gang. I chose to put those words in quote because he was neither funny nor musically inclined. The only way I could describe his act is a 6 year old learning how to swear and then putting it to pre made casio beats and melodies. Once he was through bombarding us with his terrible tunes, the real fun started. I served a gentleman who picked up on my accent and began spouting off hate speak against Americans. He was doing so in jest so I was a good sport about it and I felt better about him when he bought me a shot of tequila. I noticed that he was chatting up a girl who was not enthralled so when his back was turned I advised he that it might be prudent for her to leave, unless she fancied him. She said no and thanked me and was on her way. I felt bad about ruining this guy's chances but he proved to be an asshole in the first degree so I thought being his pulling nemesis would be fun. He tried once again with a couple of girls who once again seemed desperate to get away from him but unfortunately were too polite to just turn around and walk away. After a couple minutes he came rushing up to me demanding a round of drinks for the three of them (he was quite drunk at this point). I poured the drinks and told him his total. He was unaware that he had run out of money so he went scouring around the bar to raise the necessary funds but to no avail. He continued chatting with the girls so I walked up to the three of them and very blatantly asked for the necessary monies to purchase said drinks. He pulled me aside and said all he had was an atm card and was there anything he could do to boycott the payment. I said no and told him to go to an atm right up the road so he could pay me. After a lot of loud noise and disgruntled behavior, he agreed and left his phone behind for collateral. As soon as he left, once again I told the girls what was happening and advised them to vamoose while they had the chance. As they were leaving I apologized on this moron's behalf. They said there was no need but I assured them that someone owed them an apology and they left on cloud nine b/c of my well mannered ways. He came back, paid for the drinks (which he didn't drink) and left again, but not before the staff took pictures of me on his phone for him to find later! He left, I drank his discarded drinks and had a good laugh.

Since then, work has been fairly standard and uneventful. I've come down with a bit of a cold, so naturally the manager Ash made me a hot toddy (water, whiskey, honey and lime) to ease my aching throat. Only in a bar do they prescribe whiskey for a cold! Tomorrow should be quite eventful as well. It's the Fab Cafe movie night and we are putting on "watchmen", the movie recently released based on the graphic novel. I've wanted to see it for a while now and am excited at the idea of getting paid to see it!

I have also made a new friend this past week. I met her at a club called Opus. I was on my way out and we got to talking while she had a cigarette. Her name's Orlaith from the green hills of Ireland. There's no romantic involvement because she's currently got a girlfriend but we should be having a night out on the town sometime next week. I can't wait to do something fun with a fun person. Meeting new people was one of the things I was most excited about when I came back to Manchester and now that it's finally coming full circle, it's a great time to be alive! I think that pretty much brings us up to date so I will take off for now. Thanks to everyone that's reading, leave me a comment on here and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear what everyone wants to read about and what they like about my little internet journal. I'll be talking to everyone soon. In the words of Gary, 'peace and fuckin' yeah'.

2 comments:

  1. Cool stories. Keep telling us bar tales and give us movie and music reviews when ya can, in the same tone. You shoulda called me on that guy's phone!

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  2. watching others re-create your experience of a few months ago; got to give you pause. the circle is the most frequently recurring figure in life. keep the stories coming. fletcher at work asked for directions to your blog, but he's christian to a fault so i've put off following through.

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