Sanjay, you're a star!

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Mick and Sal left Ireland via Dublin on the 13th of May, 2005, with heavy hearts and even heavier heads (the night before flying out, there was a heavy night on the "Blonde in the Black Dress" - aka Guiness - with a couple of lads from country Ireland). On arrival in London, the sheer expense of this city became apparent almost immediately upon arrival - the cost of the train trip from Gatwick airport to London Victoria train station (a journey of about 20 minutes) was considerably greater than the cost of flying from Dublin to the UK!

Mick and Sal's first stop in London was in Fulham, the pleasant abode of Dom (friend from Australia), Richard and Gerome (Aussie ex-pat). Not enough thanks can be lavished upon these three, who showed us tremendously generous hospitality. On our second night together, the five of us, along with Dom's sister Steph, ventured out to a quaint Fulham watering hole for a few pints. Late in the evening, in the midst of a photo opportunity, an astute member of our party (not sure who), noticed what can only be described as an individual with star, no superstar, qualities.

As such, Sanjay was invited into one of our photos. Sanjay, a man of Asian extraction, had a highly distinctive haircut described by Dom suscinctly as a "scullette" - that is, a mullet which starts at about the apex of the scull and works backwards. Clearly, Sanjay is a man not afraid to take the seemingly relentless recession of his hair head on, and turn it into a bold fashion statement.

Anyway, Sal took Sanjay aside immediately after the photo, told him how highly she thought of his star quality, and, well, told him that we would "make him a star." Sanjay, obviously someone who takes people as they present themselves, left the pub with a distinct spring in his step, with the sound of five intoxicated Aussies and a heavily intoxicated Englishman shouting, "Sanjay, you're a star!!!"

Anyway, all good things must come to an end, and so it was that Sal and Mick's life of leisure concluded with the commencement of employment at a traditional English Public House in the heart of London's West End. Sal is now assistant chef, whilst Mick is pumping pints of bitter and lager to theatre goers, tourists, business people and bar flys.

Shortly after arrival, the South African couple who manage the pub left for two weeks holidays. As a result, an older English couple have taken over management. As a consequence, the day-to-day running of the pub has descended into an on-going episode of Faulty Towers, with the couple stumbling from one catastrophe to the next. Needless to say, there are at least three extremely badly behaved mice involved, one of whom believes that the double bed the couple are sleeping in is rightly his bed.

The male of the couple, Phil, has a habit of using the phrase "taking the piss" an inordinately large number of times. When he became aware that someone had imbibed some cocaine in one of the toilets, he said that this person had "taken the piss." When one of our co-workers turned up late two days in a row, he was "taking the piss." In fact, it has become apparent that "taking the piss" can be used by Phil as a description for almost any form of human endeavour.

London has been fairly handy for celebrity spoting. Indeed, on the same day, Mick served a pint to a now 65 year old Austin Powers (complete with the voice, teeth and laugh) and then bought a four-pack of lager at the local Tesco supermarket from Indian cricket captain, Saurav Ganguly. If Phil had been there, he would have said that Saurav was "taking the piss" as he was wearing a name tag that said, "Mr. Patel."

Anyway, it is time for Mick and Sal to get back to work. We hope that all is well back in Australia. Cheers!

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Photos

Mick and friends in Dublin
Mick with a couple of Irish lads in Dublin (their accents were too thick to understand what their names were!)

Sanjay and friends
Sal, Steph, Gerome, Richard, Mick, Dom, don't know, and, drum roll, ... Sanjay!!!

Our pub in the West End
Located immediately above the bonnet of the car in the foreground is our pub - our bedroom is immediately behind the barrel affixed to the building about half-way up