.... to Room 101.
I can't quite believe it's really gone.
It had become quite a fixture in my life over the last 7 or 8 months (yes, it's featured in well over 40 posts here on the Barstool, possibly even outstripping my other great bar favourites, Jianghu and the Pool Bar), and a very comforting one at that.
Last night, I headed out to grab a bite of supper around 7pm, and I found my footsteps mistakenly leading me - entirely at the unconscious prompting of ingrained habit - towards this now-defunct watering-hole. And, for a moment, a fierce pang of regret seized my heart.
Oh, how I'll miss that charming walk through the hutongs, a walk which I suppose I have now been making at least 2 or 3 times a week for the past several months (and usually in both directions, out at the start of the evening and back at the end of it). When I first discovered the place, I had supposed that it was slightly irritatingly distant - a good 35 or 40 minutes' walk away from my apartment; but this was only because I was tending to walk back via the Pool Bar every night, which was a detour of a good 15 minutes (even without going in!). Once I'd sussed out a 'direct route' through the narrow lanes linking me to Andingmennei Dajie (not entirely straightforward: quite a few of them are through-ways between the two major north-south roads of Jiugulouwai and Andingmennei, but quite a few others twist and weave and lead you into sudden cul-de-sacs), I discovered that it was scarcely any further than the Pool Bar - if I stepped out briskly, I could manage it in 23 or 24 minutes (of course, it was always somewhat slower coming back).
I suppose I might come to miss the exercise too; that was a good healthy leg-stretch - especially in a year when the air quality was so relentlessly shitty and my health so poor that I just couldn't keep up my regular running habit.
On the other hand, it might be good for me to wean myself off Stella Artois for a while. That is a very tasty but very fattening beer, and having a supplier in my neighbourhood was leading me into dangerous over-indulgence. Maintaining my svelte figure has been a struggle this year.
Nevertheless, I am a little sad about this change in my life at the moment. And a little disoriented. No, very sad and disoriented.
Still..... one door closes and another opens, as they say. At least now I have room in my life to consider embarking on a new bar-relationship.....
3 comments:
In respect for your loss, I poured out a 40 last night.
That's a mild night in Va!
I don't think there are many other places in the world where your favourite shop/restaurant/bar/whatever has a significantly less than 50% 1-year survival rate. It's kind of stressful living here.
Many of your posts indicated to me that you are an experienced and sophisticated drinker, until I read this one.
Stella Artois is "...a very tasty ... beer".
No, it bloody isn't. Like most lagers, it's a cheap and nasty weasel's pee favoured only by Frenchmen, students and anyone who watches a lot of TV commercials and is impressed by them.
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