The Chronicles of Bostonia Part II

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Monday 26th November 2007 - the only other thing of significance that happened today was that I went and took a few photos of Fenway Park, then met an Irish bloke called Enda in Cheers (the pub from TV show), who was a Kerryman in the Irish Army who looked like Ealmonn Holmes and was waxing lyrical about peacekeeping in the Lebanon, which was pretty funny as I thought all Irish Army blokes did was patrol the borders with the north and maybe meet up now and again with the Bolivian Navy or the Swiss for a few neutral pints and a laugh.

Tuesday 27th Nov - I went and checked out the museum of fine arts in Boston on the recommendation of my best beaverette Heather, whose mum lives here. It was quite embarrassing because the piece of shit phone that Laura and I are sharing (its so bad that when you have no coverage the time disappears too) will receive texts from Steve but not send them I thought it was his phone was UK based, but it would let me send to Laura’s UK number and gives you text messages about 3 hours late etc...
Anyway so my phone was blaring while I was in the Ancient Egypt section checking out mummies and inscriptions 5000 years old, relaying messages between Laura and Steve, while people looked on and the women in the transcendental Buddhist seminar at the end of the hall shot me disgraced glances. Two hours of this and several world sections later, it was time to relieve this impressive place of my awful ringtone and presence and go meet Steve in another American cultural hotspot...Dunkin Donuts in Downtown crossing. Well that’s where we headed after he was 20 minutes late (‘some bloke had a heart attack in the internet café and the computer’s clock was 20 minutes slow, honest’), as we both only had about an hour to kill (well he had more, but hit turned out he was staying just one stop away from me with the Senator of Everett (quite far north) and he didn’t have his guitar etc, so...before heading our separate ways: him to an open mic gig at the folk club, Club Passim where Suzanne Vega started out and me with Laura, Aidan (her middle brother), Clare (her sister), and her mum to Aidan (and Kevin - her eldest brother)’s pub Stones, located 45 minutes out west in a small town called Ashland. Mum - I think it’s near Sudbury where June used to live We past Acton anyway, which was funny.
Went on the internet to see that QPR had been tonked 3-1 by Stoke, not impressed. Kevin told me that he had some work for me and to be up ready to go by 6.45 - ouch

All I knew of Stones was what Laura had told me about the food mainly, oh and that it was haunted. Had an amazing braised rib and mash, 2 pints, shared starters, and a pot of camomile tea plus tip for $40 - I was pretty impressed. They also had a roaring log fire, a couple of flat screens at the bar for the sports nuts, a function room, and an Irish session band whose size kept changing as more people joined and some left. I was impressed and it was like they had been playing for years. We went on the tour of the upstairs which was disused as an Inn on the Boston- Worcester train line. The story goes that a young girl died of the flu there many years ago and a dress of hers remains in the very top attic. People have said they have seen a girl waving from the top window to their kids and heard a child’s laughter.
Some people including staff have said they have felt people on their shoulder and also seen a man, supposedly a man killed by John Stone himself over a game of cards in the poker room, then buried in the basement. It has been documented on youtube too:

Well it was freaky I can tell you and I did not feel at all comfortable as more stories rolled out on the way home, one of which they were having a meeting upstairs in the office (Aidan and Kevin there) and there were discussing the best plan of action when a voice no one re3cognised or fessed up to said...it doesn’t matter...argh, scary stuff
Well I got to bed at midnight but I couldn’t really sleep, I was so freaked out after my tour of the building, feeling a very heavy atmosphere in my chest.
Meanwhile Steve’s gig at the largest open mic night in the world went average apparently, he was not convinced it was worth playing. Boston is a lot quieter than New York, as are most places and I think his expectations have shifted somewhat. Me still new to Boston and not knowing the happening places did not help and I think he wished he hadn’t bothered with a trip north, possibly attaining bed bugs from the hostel for the second time.

Wed 28th: Worked a full day with Kevin, his partner John (also from Kildare) and his labourer Corey, a 20-year-old from New Hampshire (where he told me prisoners make their license plates, which rather amusingly boast the motto ‘Live free or die’ on them) like a young Ryan Talbert, me old faltmate from Southampton. I was up and down scaffolding and holding ladders still most of the day, as they are stonemasons repointing the faces of some ‘well-fair’ housing full of wheelchair bound patriots (mainly war vets) and trolley enthusiasts but it wasn’t as cold as it would get so that was a bonus. However, not being used to early starts or upper body work (3 months in an office has seen my once tight pecs become serious man boobs) I was pretty tired and a little homesick. So I didn’t really fancy going to Steve’s gig as it took 80 minutes one way to get there (only because the buses past 7.30pm are very poor indeed - 1 an hour), near Fenway Park at a club called Church. He played well and I took a few photos, but I felt sorry for him as his 9pm slot (first on in a uni bar open until 2am) meant most people just hung at the bar and talked their way through his set. Disappointing Home to bed by midnight craving more than 6 hours sleep and not getting it, but not remotely stirring until the alarm roused me from slumber.

Thurs 29th: work today was quadruply hard work as yesterday (as John and Corey were on another job), because we had to take down and re-assemble the scaffolding around the corner and it was heavy work and took the best part of 5 hours. Boy was I gonna be stiff in the morning, but hey what doesn’t kill ya makes you stronger, eh? God I hope so. After work when Laura got home from le office, herself and I went to the TD Northbank garden to watch the Boston Celtics annihilate the New York Knicks 104 to 59, just two points shy of the club’s biggest margin of victory ever. It was great craic and the entertainment and food etc was awesome but a 48 minute game should not take 2 hours and 40 minutes to play, so by the third quarter I was fading fast, only briefly awakened by the odd slam dunk, the Celtics dancers (oh yeah ) , or another beef dog thrown my way by my excited girlfriend. A great night came to an end at a midnight crawl under the sheets.

Friday 30th: After a half day, just finishing off moving stuff to our new location and putting all the walkway planks onto the scaffold and making sure it was secure, Kev shot off with the kids and Clare to Maine (Sheila, Betty, Emma, and Reilly the dog went yesterday to their summer house), and I met Steve in Sullivan Square, aftyer jumping on the T (the tube/metro here). In a classic piece of Steve play, he failed to tell me he had actually moved hostels, so rather than meet him somewhere close, we met where I thought his old place was (far north with the senator and his 4 daughters - aged 18-23, he was trying to hook Steve up with - god it’s a hard life). It didn’t really matter as I wasn’t in the mood (my feet hurt and clothes were dirty) for a tour, just to hang out, so once we got back to the house, I got in my tracksuit and we watched The Flight of the Conchords DVD (hilarious ) And got humungous subs from the amazing corner shop, waiting for Laura to bring beers home from work. Where I live now is a dry town (ouch ) Although there is an off licence about 10 minutes on the bus. Steve hassled me to do something but I told him I was saving it up (and my money) for tomorrow night. Kept hassling then I looked up from the computer at some point late afternoon to see him fast asleep in front of Dr Doolittle

When Laura got back we hung out and chatted and drank beer and got chicken and chips from the corner shop and wrote a song ‘Classified’ using just the words from the Boston Phoenix Adult classified section. Very funny, not sure where it is now though...Steve slept over and we were in bed by midnight.

Sat 1st December - Wow, December, jaysis So happy it is Saturday. They get all the English premier games on Fox Soccer Channel and as we are 5 hours behind the UK, they are on from 7am, which is great as it doesn’t feel like you have wasted the whole day in front of the telly, even if you possibly deserve it QPR lost 1-0 to Blackpool in the last minute and I am not impressed about how we are succumbing to teams who on paper are inferior to us in almost all departments. Us three all chipped in and carried our packed bags the ten minute walk to Brian (Laura’s youngest brother’s spare house)’s where we are going to live for 2 months (me, Clare, and Laura) - it is really big and clean and love it. Warm once it heats up too.

By the time Steve and I left the house and caught the right bus it was 1.50pm and we were to meet Laura at Cheers at 6pm. We were headed for the last Duck Tour at 3pm, but Steve needed to change his undies and so we headed back to the hostel. Then he left his i-pod on the side and worried about that for the afternoon. I love him to bits but this was not one of his finer days, stopping for subs with 10 minutes to go to the last tour and it taking 20 mins was not a great start. Then moaning all day about his lot and making me feel guilty about how shit Boston is, etc...did not help me out, so after walking around a shopping centre for and hour and getting refused entry to the observatory in the Prudential building (private party), we did what we knew best and headed for Brighton and a bar called the sunset grill, which had 112 beers on draft
We had a few and when Laura arrived having heard of change of plan, I was pleased to see her as Steve and I made a miserable couple. Met a bunch OF DUDES LOCAL AND FROM Conneticut who were spot on and made us all feel better, one of whom Kevin Gardiner took my website details (and by Tuesday 4th Dec had called me to ask me to write some copy for his website - cool ).

We jumped in a cab after dinner to Central Square, where we hit a bar (missing the $5 entry and uni student rush) called The Phoenix Landing. There we drank more beers and met more guys from Conneticut, who had been drinking all day at a college football game. Had a great night dancing away to 80s tunes until Frank, a Red Sox fan who had been with his missus 11 years, tried it on with Laura on the dancefloor.- waiter, cheque please. By this point it was turning into a bit of a horny mosh-wrestling pit anyway, but Steve decided to stick around for a while and I promised to meet him at 2pm the next day to finally do the tour.
Got home at 1am after a subway scuffle with Laura, which has now been resolved, and crashed in to bed regretting that final gin and tonic and quite so many beers in the pub before.

Sunday 2nd: - How long have I been waiting to see QPR play Chelsea? Along time. So who do we get away from home in the FA Cup third round....hmmm, Chelsea. Man I am gutted I will not be able to go, although the way we are playing it could be humiliating in the extreme.

After porridge and shower, I went to meet Steve but the T was really Sunday slow and by the time I got there I was 20 minutes late. Steve had checked out, but yet again in his indomitable way we had to go get his multi-track recorder which he had put a $45 (10%) deposit down on Friday. Now I am no genius, but 10 x 45 is $450 is it not. Anyway Steve came to pay for it and told me it was good for $170 and me and the shop assistant rolled about laughing. Anyway he finally paid it but spent the rest of the day begrudging his decision and bemoaning his hurt leg and ripped cords after a stair-falling incident in the hotel. As friends we have got to be more decisive from now on, as it turns out neither of us really gave a shit about the duck tour anyway, so where did we end up but Cheers, after getting a cab with all Steve’s stuff. We had lunch and Steve bought some gifts for his nan etc (which he nearly left in the bog) and then we said our goodbyes, as he headed to the bus station to go back to New York, and I jumped on the T to meet Laura and her (girl) friends at a pub in Harvard called the Thirsty Scholar, where they had been catching up over a few beers. Met the husbands and their kids a bit later and then it started to snow hard core and it was a nice end to the weekend, as we sat watching it with a Chinese takout. Monday 3rd:
Unfortunately it meant no work for Tom on Monday but it would allow me to chill at home and sort the TV, stereo and other things out, and the shopping arrived at 6pm as I was starting to think about dinner. Great stuff

Tuesday 4th Dec: After a very cold (-7 degrees) day outside at work, I walked Kevin’s dog Reilly around the snowy (6 inches of snow) pond and then wrote this bad boy. QPR lost a third straight game at home to Palace and now lie bottom. Good work I am off home now as I have been on Kev’s computer for two hours and feel like a bit of a chav. Laters Photos to follow...

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