It’s a Saturday night and I have been kindly asked to come into work by my motivated friend and boss who has spent most of his week coping with the fact that the schedule in his head doesn’t match up with the people around him. I’ve spent that same week coping with issues of my own. A friend doesn’t know the way forward, there is confusion with another job, people I need to talk to are M.I.A and without physically going to Ireland to find them, I can only worry and hope that they are ok.
This is pretty much the tip of the iceberg and going by my experience behind the bar, is the limit to what I am going to write. Needless to say, there is much to improve on all around but we are still hard at it, no matter if that means throwing down on a Saturday night or waking up Monday morning and wondering why we spent the weekend carrying on over trivial matters.
Expat Quito is a melting pot and at times that pot boils over. working behind the bar puts me in the center of this and from this experience I have learned to judge when the fireworks are going to go off. More importantly I have learned when to stay home and read a book and go in the next day to clean up the remnants of the previous night. This past weekend was an exception as I unexpectantly found myself in the middle of the mayhem that I usually avoid.
Case and point, I walk into work to be greeted by a friend who had just won the rugby championships in Ecuador, celebrated in another city, had a kip on the plane back, rode his bike to the bar, had a drink and decided to carry on for the night. Fair enough, but that was just the start of the night..
It took a new friend from Ireland who grew up behind bars to help me get my head on straight as the night progressed. Despite what friends of mine think, working in a bar for extended periods of time, working behind a bar in Quito for extended periods of time is a skill. It doesn’t compare to your one-off job slinging beer at your neighborhood local and I certainly won’t be comparing war stories with you about whatsit and thingy anytime soon.
At this point I am wondering if I should go on but strongly telling myself not to.. It’s far too late in the wee hours and I am hoping that the events of tomorrow will drown out the drama that is sure to come in the evening. A good night to all, and to all a good night.
Th
