Wednesdays

 Wednesday. What can I say about Wednesday? Wednesdays are quite good days, getting to the time in the week where the town is a little more active, I'm not quite tired out from the week yet; Wednesdays are also normally Ladies Night, and Wednesday is always pay day!

The best part about this Wednesday was the weather – the ski fields had gotten just a bit of snow this week, and it was warm and sunny in town. I waited for Hannah to get back from lunch and practically ran out of the building, sunglasses and book in hand, and walked over to the fish n chips shack on the water, enjoying the last hour of sunlight before it disappears behind the mountains again before 3pm. I happily ordered my fish and chips meal, knowing full well it was suited for two people, but I had been starving for the last few hours. The man in the tiny shack, full of oil and grease, could have been cut and pasted out of a lobster shack on Cape Cod or a street vendor stand in NYC. It's nice to see a blue collar worker not afraid to get his hands dirty in such a posh town, especially across the road from fine dining places like Les Alpes and Botswana Butchery.

The fish was succulent and tender, with a delicious crisp coating, not as greasy as PJs but greasy enough that you know it's authentic; the chips were nice and thick and tasty as well. Sitting on the stone wall looking over the lake basking in the sun was a well-deserved treat for my day. I loaded heaps of malt vinegar and pepper salt onto my plate and enjoyed my meal while fending away the seagulls. I read my book a little bit as I picked at the last of my chips, satisfied, yet not too full, since my stomach had been completely empty, not having eaten breakfast in about 5 hours. I went for a stroll to drop off my business cards at the Q1 apartments, and then returned to work, knowing the work day was nearly over.

This Wednesday we didn't have Ladies Night because of the ski school party on Monday, which I heard was quite good. I had intended to go home and rest and then walk down later in the night but I was pretty well exhausted and didn't want to have to put forth the energy just to check it out. At the end of my work day I texted a few people to see if they wanted to head over to get $2.50 beers at Fraser's but I ended walking over by myself and ordering one, just to get the night started and finish up the work day. There were a few people in Fraser's, more than usual before 6pm, but I got bored almost immediately and wandered over to Harry's.

Harry's is practically my living room at this point. I wish I could afford a quiet drink or two in there, but instead I just hang out on the leather sofas by the huge fire and ask Nat to pour me non-alcoholic drinks all night. He's gotten quite good at making my favorite n/a cocktail, a mix of cranberry and orange juice with just a bit of club soda and an orange for a garnish. I'm not convinced that pouring sodas out of the bottle for each drink is the best way to do it. I won't contest the fact that soda out of a gun can be a bit yucky, and sometimes flat, and definitely less classy, but I'd rather have my soda cold when it hits the glass. When I've had diet cokes both there and in Skybar it just doesn't taste the way I like it.

I had a very relaxing evening chatting with Nat and playing pool. When he suggested we play at first I said no, but then told him that I'd be happy to play on one condition: that I don't have to try. I actually play far far better when I'm just messing around one on one, instead of playing doubles or playing out in a social setting. I had more fun playing pool than I have in a long time, and made a few more of my around the back corner shots. I seem so wobbly I have doubts I'll even hit my ball let alone sink it, but I have a fairly decent success rate on that shot and actually used it to get the 8 ball in later that night.

I played a game with Jared as well, which was nice, because his shots aren't as dead-on as Nat's are, so I feel the game was evenly matched. After our game the bar was slowly getting a bit busier as it was after 9pm and getting closer to the start of the pool competition. I was curious to see what else was going on in town and had found a flyer laying on the table outside at Fraser's that Melt, a new bar/club around the corner from Harry's on Shotover St was giving free champagne tonight. I left my jacket and backpack safely with Nat and made my way around the corner, the night air still being on the warm side.

When I arrived at Melt I was honestly the only person in there, other than the barman of course. Steve from Ireland kept me entertained for at least a solid 90 minutes, telling me about his travels around Asia before he arrived in NZ, including his night out in Vietnam where he and his friends were taken to a place where they would play with snakes, kill the snake, cut it open and scoop out its heart with their fingers, then take a shot with the heart and blood in it and wash it down with some sort of liquor. Well, that's a new one.

Around 10:30pm I got a text from Rich, a guy I had met volunteering for the Winter Festival and who I had texted about going for a beer at Fraser's earlier, and he and Stefan and his friends were downstairs at Daruma. Thankfully I didn't have to leave Steve all by himself – a handful of blokes had just walked in – and I went downstairs to the sake bar. I was convinced to have a sake bomb with Rich, Stefan, their friend Wade or Wayne, and three girls whose names I don't remember who work at Bombay Palace – though I do remember one of the girls is from Bali. Though I enjoyed doing a group drink, the girls had bought 1% beer to use for the sake bomb so they wouldn't get too drunk, which we promptly made fun of once we looked at the label.

I convinced the group to head up to Melt to get free champagne. I thought the boys would maybe get a cheap drink there or something, and felt sorta bad that it was just us four girls getting free drinks and no money was going into the bar, but at least more people know where Melt is now, even if they do have very strange men's toilets with no dividing walls...

Anyway, the gang was going to head to Buffalo club, and I myself went back to Harry's where the pool competition was just ending and I was talking with Nat again. Just after midnight I walked over with Gaz, another bartender from Harry's, to Skybar. Thoroughly exhausted at this point, not having been out so late yet this week and still sort of recovering from both last week and my exhausting night at Les Alpes, I stayed for just a short while then took a cab home around 1am. Skybar was having its pimps and hos party, and while the bar definitely wasn't dead, it could have used a few more people. I really enjoyed the decorations, especially the bed they had draped with tiger print throw blankets and fancy pillows. Skybar is a nice cocktail bar for sure, and I wish they could get more people in there. It's in an odd location on the side of town, next to banks and the shopping mall, not really on a nightclub row like where Barmuda is located.

I had the cab drop me off on the intersection of Dublin and Edinburgh so I could get my little bit of a walk in so I could sleep better, and played a bit of Star Ocean before relaxing into sleep for Thursday.