Tag Archives: drinking

All the men at the bar bent over their phones

Posted on March 23, 2017 by

All the men at the bar bent over their phones and me among them, with Jimi Hendrix and sports recaps playing and the dull chatter that burbles and rolls like the tide spitting up their remains, making it all disappear … Continue reading →

Posted in humour, prose | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

As several disturbances head our way

Posted on September 1, 2016 by

I looked up and my family was gone, lost in the folds of Powell’s bookstore, Portland, the litmosphere they call it, and I wandered the displays sniffing cakes of handmade soaps, glassware designed for gluten-free beer, branded. All the Portlanders … Continue reading →

Posted in humor, travel, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 46 Comments

‘You got a decent enough do in the Brazen Head for a bob’

Posted on December 9, 2015 by

Running from our flat to the oldest bar in Ireland in the rain because you have to do that at least once in life, and it’s so close I make it there without losing my breath and find the same … Continue reading →

Posted in travel, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

View northwest from the Cairn of Greatest Sorrow

Posted on November 17, 2015 by

Some bars I’ll walk into and just walk right out, pretending I’m looking for someone. The bar, “Lochavulgin” or some other name that gets stuck in your throat: I throw the door open right on cue to a Foreigner song: I … Continue reading →

Posted in travel, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

The ‘angel’s share’: lost whisky, lost memories

Posted on November 15, 2015 by

After sharing the same room, the same car, the same bathroom, I can see where Stephen King was coming from in his story about the writer Jack Torrance who collapses into alcoholism, writes nonsense, starts seeing dead people. Charlotte’s going … Continue reading →

Posted in musings, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

‘Tell only happy hours’

Posted on November 9, 2015 by

Drink anything with enough alcohol in it and you’ll start tasting almonds, oranges, coconuts, pine needles, Christmas cake. But there’s no pretence in the tour at the Scotch distillery: our guide, who wears a badge saying Team Leader, points to … Continue reading →

Posted in travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Viking graffiti inside the burial chamber, Orcadia

Posted on November 8, 2015 by

Just as you’d think they would, the Vikings came upon a structure of religious and historical significance that had already been there a few thousand years, punched a hole through the roof because they couldn’t find the door, pulled out … Continue reading →

Posted in travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments