All that jazz

Finished the job for the client by mid morning, and met him at 2.30. All went well. More changes needed, but signoff scheduled for the end of next week. Back home afterwards I went for a lie-down which stretched longer than intended, so I was late getting in to town to meet my mate Alan. There was no sign of him where we'd arranged to meet, so I though he might have gone outside for a smoke and headed out that way. Sure enough, there he was -- and so were hundreds of others. half of whom were photographers. It turned out there was an exhibition opening next door of paintings by U2 drummer Larry Mullen, and one of the Rolling Stones was there. I was too hot and bothered to even think of recording the occasion, which maybe means I need to hand in my Blipfoto union card right now. Silly me, I was more annoyed with the blocking of the road than excited by the photo op.

We had a couple of drinks, then a Lebanese meal in Sinners restaurant. The plan was to go to the Blue Note jazz club, so we did that after eats. I got a bit shirty at the door because of the 20-euro cover charge, but the manager handled things really well, sang the praises of the band who were over from Chicago o somewhere like that and offered to give us our money back if we didn't like what we heard. She invited us in before we made up our mind, and the noise put me off even more than the cover charge had. Alan and I weren't exactly a one about what to do, but the manager came to the rescue and suggested that maybe we'd like to go downstairs instead where something else was on that we get in to for only 5 euro.

I'm so glad she suggested this and that we didn't just walk away, because we ended up having a brilliant night. A jazz foursome entertained us with some great music making, singer, lead guitar, bass guitar, drums. The sound level was ideal for the small space, and the whole experience was really great. Alan had a bit too much too quickly and bailed out at the break. I stayed on till the end, showing my appreciation by banging my good hand on the bar counter. When downstairs finished I went up to the big band for the rest of the night. There was no comparison. What they'd asked 20 euro for was pretty crass commercialised faux jazz compared to what I'd wallowed in downstairs. Still I stayed until the end, tut-tutting and enjoying a few late drinks.