definitely not the duke

in which we climb the social ladder and drop again.
regatta day. it was a go the pond was calm and even though it was threatening rain it hadn’t. the holiday was a go. gathered all my things – camera, post cards, film and a long sleeved shirt and headed down. also took my flash drive in the hopes that i wouldn’t have to drag my computer to the airport to post the blog.

took my usual way into st. john’s which was a good thing as torbay road and kings bridge road were closed due to the regatta. also knew that i wouldn’t be able to park anyplace close and that parking was free so parked downtown by wordplay.

jim was out ally behind the desk asked if the computers had usb ports.
-will would know.

after a few tries angie’s computer accepted the flash drive and a lot of problems wee solved.

jim came back and was heading out to pouch to drop off some books, i was heading to the pond.
-looks like rain.
and it did. not a lot i could still walk in it. i had a cap to keep it off my eyes. so out i went. first to the post office, to mail the post cards -which bit into my budget a bit then out along duckworth street to quidi vidi road where i saw new tasteful resently constructed town houses – all blocked off, the r.n.c. checking i.d. – only letting cars in that lived in the area.

a bit subdued – despite the shuttle buses coming in from the village mall across town – it resembled a bad taste of… with a county fair. people were competing for stuff animals, molson canadian gear, blow up swords the like.

made more images of the empty pond between races than the people. went also for the inflatable amusements that people were either jumping on or sliding down – liked the titanic.

while walking i hear there he the one who photographs. it is the skateboarders from pouch down for the day at the regatta. make a date to photograph them, tonight won’t do a bit wet, and they head on their way.

think about photographing the downhomer mascot and make an attempt but don’t think anything will come of it..

on the pleasantville side of the pond ran into shirley and cathy with her daughter. again found it strange that i would run into my next door neighbour in pouch in so many people at the regatta. chatted a bit, shirley wants me to photograph russell’s garden as he complains that no one ever photographs it.

cathy was made aware that i took the snap of russell. she then wanted to hire me to photograph her daughter. said that i would be over to pick up the lettuce russell offered. again they mentioned that i want to be a hero photograph is garden. he complains that no one takes pictures of his garden.

no sooner did we part company than i ran into the person who was on the ferry back from bell island. exchanged greetings, what we had been photographing and where we were planning to go.

the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to appear even so signal hill was still enshrouded in fog and the clouds were now covering now uncovering other hills on the shore.

i was awaiting at least one race before leaving - it seems that it was lunch – being at the regatta i had traditional fare – two vegetable samosas.

the event seemed like a minor league baseball game in which the actual event is overtaken by the peripheral elements. the boat race itself seemed an anticlimax after seeing tent cities of people who arrived early to experience the day. there was an area of caravans awnings out people having their canadian between races.

i particularly liked the marching band’s rendition of wipe out.

headed back to wordplay to check my e-mail. jim being there asked if i wanted to go to the duke?

left the car at wordplay and walked over thus began the evening.

after a couple of pints jim had a party to go to in king’s bridge road. would i care to come, why not. we had time and since the regatta was right there…

jim nodding to everyone, i recognised the kid who wanted to charge me to take his picture. joked a bit and he ran off.

much more crowded this time chalk it up to the evening sun. went for more samosas to soak up the smithwick’s but didn’t count on washing it down with a canadian.

over to the party where between chatting with the more well healed classes of st. john’s i sampled a northern light. the people who owned the house were a professor up at memorial, and an object finder – a nice way of saying buying something obscure for on price and then doubling it.

all seemed well travelled - a few had been to south america – the pantanal and buenos aires. some went to portugal for euro 2004.

we went to find food and draught beer. took gower as jim waxed nostalgic about the look of the street and it being typical st. john’s. i thought view of the narrows and could i afford it. another aspect typical of st. john’s was the smoke coming from a house near gower and bannerman. the city being all wood and having burned many times there was a bit of a panic. right now there is a section of water street being rebuilt from a fire this spring. the people said that everything was under control it was a stove fire we kept saying call the fire department as it would be quite possible that the block could go up.

we decided not to use my cift certificate to django’s, thinking new and tacky – as this is the only reason we would end up in george street. we went to greensleeves had a spinach salad which was cantaloupe, honeydew melon with a dash of spinach to wash it down a smithwick’s. strange place a mixture of desperate younger people mixed with tourists. one group took forever to line up so that they could have their picture taken. got up got my camera went down, made their snap, and sat down again while they were still fiddling. being duckish i hope that i didn’t shake too much due to the long exposure.

we crossed the street to the bar upstairs that serves tapas and sushi on fridays. other days it gives a nice view of the multitude in george street and gassy smithwick’s
the only things it had going for it were being a smoke free bar and the televisions in the toilet.

moving on – after two halves of smithwick’s to christians. he jim and i were among the youngest in the crowd. again there were too many people trying desperately to have a good time. only lasted a pint here.

on to c.b.t.g.’s the best bar of the evening live music they completely drowned out the bad cover bands playing in george street for the george street music festival – who does covers of band on the run? quiet empty we could chat but i had to drink guinness twice i asked for halves twice i got pints.

it was now 3am so back to the smokeless bar for one last half before a portion of chips – everyone else was having poutine and the drive back to pouch.

jim crashed in the back bedroom i hoped that terry and the duke wouldn’t hear of our night away from mcmurdo’s steps.