Rain prolongs play...

Last Saturday evening I was out at The Pool Bar with The Chairman and his visiting brother (one of them: he has many brothers - and a sister or two - and it seems they are visiting serially). I was tired, after another succession of late music-nights; and not playing particularly well; I was fully intending to head home before midnight. And indeed, I was just about to do so; and had persuaded my companions to do likewise.

But it had started to rain just after we reached the bar. Quite unexpectedly - rain is quite a rarity in Beijing, and there had been no indications earlier in the day to suggest the likely onset of evening precipitation. But raining, it was. Very, VERY hard. So hard that it would have been tough to get a taxi (as in every other city in the world - but more so - vacant taxis become an endangered species here when it rains; I suspect it's at least partly because most Beijing taxi drivers - well, most Beijing drivers, period - don't really know how to drive, and are afraid of the greatly increased likelihood of accidents in the wet,...... and so pull off the road until the downpour subsides. No, really!). So hard that we would have got drenched in seconds, just trying to wait for a taxi (none of us had thought to bring raincoats or umbrellas for the evening). So hard that.... we went back inside, had some more drinks, a few more games of pool.

An hour or so later, we tried to leave again. Still pissing down. We went back inside, had some more drinks, a few more games of pool.

And so...... despite the best of intentions, it ended up being yet another 2.30 or 3.00am night for me. A good night, though.

Did you notice my reference the other day in my What makes a great bar? post to the desirability in a bar of interior darkness and a paucity of windows to the outside world (such that you can happily lose track of the time of day, or the state of the weather)? The Pool Bar doesn't have any windows at all (at least, not on the ground floor level - I've still never been upstairs): it's like being in a cellar. One of the reasons I love it!