Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The neighbourhood bar ?!

There is a bar in my neighbourhood and the only mistake the owner did is being friendly and close to my house (if you are looking for silly drunken stories..naah..ah..you are in the wrong place). We have a node-and-smile-when-our-paths-cross relationship and I have abused it twice already....

It’s a Saturday night; it was cold and snowing like crazy. A friend of mine decides to surprise me by showing up at my door step at 11pm...sounds like a good plan, right ? I missed a few details: she has a 1-yr old kid and she realized that she forgot his ‘dinner-bag’ only on arrival. He refuses to go to sleep or wake up without a big glass of milk. Here is the embarrassing part: I had no milk in the house (In my defense, I was on a coffee break and I cook my oatmeal with water). For those not living in Germany: No stores are open on a Sunday and all stores close by 8pm on a Saturday. Gas stations will be open but the nearest one is at least 3 km from my place and the little guy was already hungry. Neighbours (or people I see in the stairway often) will not be pleased if they are disturbed close to midnight. I just wrap myself up and go out thinking I will have a brain wave once I get to the street and lo ! there is a bar. Bar also serves coffee => bingo, a place with milk. I pop in, explain the situation and ask him if I can buy 2 cartons of milk from him. He has this totally perplexed look on his face and I did all I could to not laugh at that. Finally though, he went to the kitchen and came back with what I wanted and while I was leaving the bar, 2 more people were coming in and once again, the same perplexed looks but this time I laughed :D!

Few weeks later, same situation, only this time I am looking for sugar for guests who cannot live without coffee. Same bar, same story and I walk out with a packet of sugar cubes.

I am pretty sure that if I did this one more time, he will hang up a sign saying ‘only drinks, no groceries’. I wonder if I should feel sorry for the bar owner or be embarrassed about my pathetic grocery stock or be proud of my ‘healthy’ eating habits…hmmm....

11 comments:

  1. I think you should stock up on Milk and Sugar as you seem to have lot of guests.. Or even better suggest the bar to someone who likes to catch up on a casual drink ;)

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  2. ennathu milk illai sugar illaya??? atleast beer'avathu irukkuma???

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  3. @Musing Gal
    I have a really small kitchen and an even smaller refrigerator, so stocking up is really not an option.

    @SK
    edhu ? athula milk/sugar illadhadha illa barla vanginadha ??

    @Bharath
    beer illai ana pakathulaye bar irukke :D

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  4. You are good in managing situation even though it looks hard. Generally people in Germany used to live in compact apartment??

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  5. @Murali
    I dont know what 'compact apt' means but if you mean living with roomies, I did'nt do that even when I was a student.

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  6. when i was reading the story.. the first thought tat came to my mind was.. since u cudnt get milk for the baby.. u went to the bar.. to get a bottle of beer for the baby

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  7. @Shiju
    ada rama....you should give my sanity a little more credit !

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  8. u always have ur camera arnd rite next time pls take a pic of tat perplexed look (never seen a perplexed german :) )n upload it in life thru convex lens

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  9. @Deepak
    won't that make me Google street view that captures not only places but also people by violating everyone's privacy?

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