Friday, June 14, 2013

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

The Doors...



Well, there are whiskey bars and then there are whiskey BARS and we're thinkin' about sumthin' like this:



The first pic is of YrHmblScrb, ensconced at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel, Singapore (and earlier, in Cad's Alley... still in Raffles... a most appropriate venue for SOME of us).  Let us quote from the linked Wiki article:
The storied Long Bar, where the Singapore Sling cocktail drink was invented, and which was patronised over the decades by a host of literati, including Ernest Hemingway and Somerset Maugham, was relocated from the lobby to a new adjoining shopping arcade.
The Long Bar... which is indeed long, capable of seating about 30 or more folks... was my very first destination when I got a little free time away from the job, a lil consulting gig I was doing for the late, lamented Ed's Famous Data Company.  I was one of two "Pros From Dover" who were dispatched to the Pacific Rim for that gig and the only reason I mention that is the fact my partner in crime had never heard of Raffles, the Long Bar, or Somerset Maugham.  We managed to set the boy straight and got him famously, gloriously drunk in the process.  The first picture shows me with a draft but there were many, many G&Ts that followed that beer... or preceded it... if memory serves.  The upshot was the two of us bein' poured into a taxi at the end of our evening, which might rank right up there as one of the best bid'niz trips ever... if only because we got to drink in one of the most famous watering holes in the entire world.

So what brought all this up?  Blog Buddy Glenn posted an excellent reminiscence of his round-the-world cruise (courtesy of our favorite uncle) back in '87 and mentioned the Long Bar.  We took it from there...

8 comments:

  1. Ah Buck, still the "International Man of Mystery" I see. Wow, Raffles. Just wow.

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    1. ...still the "International Man of Mystery" ...

      Nah. I'm about as transparent as it gets. Fortunate, too.

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  2. There are bars and then, as you say, there are bars. Unfortunately never made it to Singapore in my time in SEA--Sydney, HK, Bangkok, Taipei--were it. Of course HAD to make the obligatory stop to have a drink at the Peninsula Hotel in HK. (LOL, years later at a bar in New Orleans ( Cosimo's on Burgundy St.--pronounced Bur-GUN-dy) I was having a 3am discussion with a fair young damsel who was fairly well traveled from a monied background who, when the subj of the Peninsula came up, observed: "Of course, you do realize the Peninsula is really the only hotel in HK." LOL!

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    1. In re: The Peninsula. I HAD to have a drink there while I was in HK... it has the best view of the harbor, bar none.

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  3. PS: Buck, I have a really fascinating but typically tragic only-in-New Orleans tale involving the lady mentioned in my comment,, above and our chance meeting involving sex, money, murder and suicide. Would you like to hear it?

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    1. Most assuredly. Your stories are ALWAYS entertaining, Virg.

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    2. Now THAT is a proper bar.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.