Interesting people you meet working in a bar...

I work in a really small bar on Södermalm. It's in the "so called" Sofo area although that title really isn't working for anyone...

...anyway. It's a cosy little bar. Very music orientated, lp's on the wall, record player behind the bar, that kind of thing. I normally work during the week and the clientele on those days are pretty much our regular customers, with whom many an interesting conversation is often struck up.

A great example of this occured on Monday night just gone. There is this older guy who started coming in to the bar about a month ago. He always comes on his own, stands at the bar and reads his newspaper. As time goes by the routine becomes that he'll come in, give you a nod, order a beer and then quietly get in to his daily read. He has a friendly face and it gets to the point where, after a few weeks, you feel like you have to strike up some small talk. Especially on a quiet night like Monday just passed.

So that's what I did. And people sometimes turn out to have the most fascinating lives. Tor Björn, the guy who's name I now know to be, had recently quit his job as a consultant, working for some faceless company just outside of Stockholm. He'd grown tired of it and felt like he needed a break from it. I asked him what he wanted to do after he'd had sufficient time off and he told me he'd like to get back to doing what he did for years previously. That turned out to be that he toured with a vocal choir all over the world. I understand it that he was some kind of production guy for it as well as being part of the choir. Kinda the last thing I was expecting!

From there we got to talking about and sharing experiences of touring the States, about Russia where he did a production in Murmansk for 4 weeks one time. I'm really fascinated with Russia and I'm desperate to go there one day, either playing or travelling as a tourist. He told me all about his journey on the Trans Siberian Railway and other places he'd been too, like Africa and China..a whole load of places. My normally dull last couple of hours waiting to close on a Monday night flew by over cups of coffee and chat with Tor Björn. I just found the whole thing really interesting. I see people come and go out of the bar all the time, and the ones who normally keep to themselves I often find myself wondering about who they are and what their lives are like. I'm glad I asked Tor Björn about his..

On the flip side. Tonight two younger guys came into the bar who obviously thought they were very interesting and probably a bit arty, when in fact they were a pair of wankers!

In hindsight they seemed to be performing some sort of social experiment. They were both dressed in long trench coats, panama hats and sunglasses. My friend Linus, who was working in the bar with me, wanted them to take their shades off so he could see their eyes and judge whether they were sober. They weren't. Well one of them wasn't, the other was just plain fucked up. He had these huge goofy teeth which made us wonder if he was handicapped. We couldn't understand a word he was saying. On top of this, now and then he had drool dripping down from his mouth on to the bar. The four of us stood there staring at each other in silence whilst the rest of the customers looked on. For a moment I did think he was disabled, but there was something not quite adding up. The other guy started whispering to Goofy and cuddling him, telling him it was alright. We were in a bit of a shit situation because it was like, fuck, is this guy disabled or just really drunk or drugged up. You don't want to get into that...anyway, it all got too weird, they got asked to leave and then Serious Guy gets all threatening with Linus saying he'll be back. Whatever. We seen them later wondering about the other bars on the street and getting kicked out from each one.

Later on I looked up to see them heading back through the door and just happened to notice Goofy putting fake teeth back into his mouth.

I wonder if they were making some sort of film study...I think Serious Guy mentioned something about a camera at one point...will be interesting to see if they turn up on Youtube I guess.