Chronicles of Bostonia IV - Ready for Chrimbo

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Wed 12 th December - After work wrote chronicle III then had to go out to fix Kev’s tenant’s handrail out in Watertown (he has a spare 2 bed flat for $1400 a month (less than what we pay now and closer to town, read civilistaion - oh well!) which took an hour and a half, so after we decided to stop for a few pints of good ole Guinness in PJ Ryan’s pub in Sommerville. The best bits so far are Cambridge (including Central Square and Harvard), Brighton (bars and the New Balance factory - see Friday), and Somerville, including Inman Square, Davis Square - cool shops and bars but no such visible Squares, strange, Porter, and Prospect hill which has a US flag from its castle with a Union Jack in the corner - that’s more like it. The last flag of New England before independence. Wow, how welcome were they so my depressing wednesday got a little brighter.

Thursday 14th Dec - Big black Earl at work told me all about how he was on a fixed income and that he can’t afford Dunkin Donuts like the other maintenance guys at Cambridge Housing. Didn’t wanna tell him he didn’t need any donuts, as he is massive and he told me he thought I was cool on account of me sideburns and earrings...hmm! Cheers, Earl, was all I could muster. When I came down again he was discussing a legal wrangling with a co-worker (something he clearly knows loopholes and ins and outs of)...’You gotta file agrievance man, you gotta file agreivance!’ as a hawk circled above.

We finished early today about twelve because a big storm was coming and Kev had to get the kids from school before the shit hit the fan. I walked Reilly around Wright’s Pond in the gathering snow - it was completely frozen over and Reilly went claw ‘n’ paw skating for a while chasing a stone I threw when I accidentally let go of the reins.
Listened to Billy Bragg and Wilco album Mermaid Avenue, based on the songs of Woody Guthrie, a quote inside of the latter is brilliant: “The world is filled with people who are no longer needed - and who try to make slaves of all of us. And they have their music and we have ours. Theirs, the wasted songs of a superstitious nightmare and without their musical and ideological miscarriages to compare our songs of freedom to, we’d not have any opposite to compare music with, and like the drifting wind, hitting against no obstacle, we’d never know its speed, its power...” AWESOME! Then I read some of my book and looked outside. 14 inches of snow fell until 10pm and it took Laura an hour to get home (15min drive) and her co-worker Veronica’s hour drive took her 7 as people ran out of gas and abandoned their cars on all lanes of the highway. Ouch!!

Friday 14th Dec - Set our work up for Monday (waterproofing the elevator winches in the attic to protect from our imminent brick dust)and again finished by midday, which was nice for a long weekend but annoying in terms of cash. Got John to drop me off at the New Balance factory where I spent two hours marveling at all the cheap stuff, but deciding on a two article limit, as not to feel too guilty for unnecessary spending. Got some cross trainers ideal for trekking and a waterproof jacket for 29 quid, how about that!!
On the way home was depressed to see the Wellington station Dunkin Donuts closed as my guts were screaming for a chocolate crulla (reminds me of that scene in Wayne’s World where he goes: ‘These guy needs coffee and crullas stat. We gotta get him to rampart, let’s go!’
Anyway got home to find a limo outside my house. Told Parker to take the night off, that I was tired after a long hard day’s shopping and needed a soak and a large brandy. He nodded politely and tipped his cap. Watched Flight of the Conchords with Laura when she got home (we still have only one fuzzy channel, so DVD’s it is) and we ate pizza and drunk beer happy it was the weekend, although she had to get up early to go into the office for a few hours. I felt bad for her but the thought of the double bed to myself for a few hours was very appealing!!

Sat 15th Dec - I was up at 10am and over to Kev’s to check emails and QPR’s result (as we 5 hours behind - 0-0 by the way, at home to Wolves in case you care), then Aidan picked me up and whisked Laura and I to Kelly’s Diner in Sommerville ( a silver bullet one like Starvin Marvin’s in Greenford, oh yeah!) For brunch, but he had to get back for his son gavin’s soccer practice so we ate alone and in peace. It was awesome., I am talking bottomless coffee, 3 eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and hash browns for $10 each including 20% tip.

I hope all you QPR fans reading this cheer extra loud for me at Chelsea on 5th Jan as I am so unbelievably gutted I will miss out it’s not even funny!! After brunch, waddled to Davis Square where I bought a Nautica fleece for work in the charity store for $5 and a Bob Dylan book for Brian (Laura’s bro in Eire - Clare taking it home with her) as I got him in the old Chriskindle. The bookstore even said they might put a few of my own books in the window, but I gotta call back and speak to the manager, whose name I have already forgotten....loser! Then we went for a quick game of Candle pin bowling and I whipped laura and am 2-1 up in the best of ten series. Oh yi! The we headed to Kendall Square on the T and went ice skating. Free admin, skates, and soup, but we did have to endure a freezing temp while 14 year old US champions and Disney on ice stars entertained us for an hour. We met a black chick Acuna from Conneticut doing Library Studies and Steve her fella and decided half way thru that coffee was in order to beat the intolerable cold, feeling like Withnail covering himself in Deep Heat.

Melissa’s hubby Alex picked us up in his ford Focus and drove us, speaking Buffalo jive to Jamal all the way, happy to have a month off from his crazy PhD. We arrived at Jamal (Jen and daughter Zee)’s house with 6 beers and quickly got stuck into the Empanada’s that Melissa had bought and chatted away to Jenny and Antonio (who hopefully will help us with Spanish in new year) too, whilst getting sloshed on beer and eggnog, a wicked evil eggy Bailey’s brew of all sorts of booze - rum, gin, vodka etc. Jen agreed to use my book in their Thursday night bookclub, great stuff and then Jamal really reminds me of someone off the telly but I can’t picture it. He took us to the independent pub in Union Square (where Aidan took us on our first night) when the others had left and the kids gone to bed. We got a round each on a tab but Jamal insisted on paying, so Laura and I agreed and spent a stupid $28 on another round and some steak and cheese fries when he left, when we really should have just gone home and eaten from the fridge saving money, but hey it was Saturday and we were feeling Kkerrr-razy!
Got home and in bed by 2am when it was one degree fahrenheit. Let’s just say 32 is zero celsius. Yowsers it was nippy and Cap’n Winky was not happy!.

Sunday 16th dec - Awoken at 7.15, let me repaet that, 7.15 by next door man snowblowing his drive. Yes another 10 inches over night, and no I’m not talking about the suprise Laura got in the middle of the night, I’m talking snow! ‘Your mumma was a snowblower!’ from Short Cicuit sprang instantly to mind! I got out of bed at 10.30 and got in me trackies and then headed to Kev’s for the Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea game - go Gunners, thank u very much and an injury to Terry. Now all QPR need is injuries to Cech, Cole, Lampard, Wright-Phillips, Makelele, Mikel, and the others and we’ll be all set for the Fa Cup showdown. Then spent an hour digging the car out of the snow and headed to Aidan’s for finger food, Fifa on the playstation with Gavin, and chasing Grace around the house to try and tire her out for bedtime, but it had the reverse effect, ie me being screwed. Knackered. Gav played Sunday Bloody Sunday on the drums before he went to sleep and Grace played Scooby Doo, yelling the words like 2/3 year olds do.
Got home at 9pm after a feast of hummus and veg and a couple of beers to wash it down with. Crawled into bed and read Cloud Atlas until I feel asleep around half ten.

Monday 17th Dec - Work consisted of more waterproofing of the opposite elevator shaft and using mega man tools, drilling bricks etc. I got a mansize blister but Kev thinks I am a woman because my Thermos is small and girly so to speak. Well, I’ll show him tomorrow.
Made meatballs and mash as Laura seemed very stressed on the phone and she was mighty appreciative. Read Cloud Atlas and bed. The links are quite tenuous but I like it.

Tues 18th Dec - Off drilling duty and hammer and chisel work-allday. Ouch! A real blister making the other seem like a baby appeared and I really did feel like a girl as my body ached all over and was glad to get home and eat egg and chips and read me book, which I take back is excellent, just needs to be read in one week not a few months.

Wed 19th Dec - Saw a bumper sticker - If you can’t feed em, don’t breed em
Work was all man-drilling again and my third blister is palm sized but it was dusty and fun. Got home, walked Reilly, and wriote this and then went home and smoked a big spliff (courtesy of Corey, who today ingratiated himself futher by saying he wants to go to prison for one year so he can work out, read, etc...and get bummed in the showers presumably. Hmmm. Until next time, all the best, seasons greetings and enjoy Friday’s solstice. Yay, longer days here we come!!

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Comments

[Stev Mahoney]

Hello kids! For Christs sake (geddit!) One things for sure, when you get home you'll never feel cold again! Merry Christmas! x