(Hi! So, I wrote this little story years back and found it kicking around in an old folder of Love & Rum posts. It's a short story about alcohol, travel, love and international intrigue. Or none of the above. Go ahead, take a read...)
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Pour Peter A Drink: These Cocktail Photos Are Making Me Thirsty
Take a look-see at these cocktail shots Peter Olson took. I met Peter years ago through my brother in Calgary. They used to work together back when, taking pictures of things and people for money. Looking at these, I think it's nice to know that people pay Peter to take photos.
One night I drank him under the table and it took a day or two for him to climb back out from under it. Jameson felt a dent in their inventory and grown men wound up on the ground in a parking lot. It was probably snowing, but no one can say for sure. All I know is that it was a good night, and it's nice to know Peter and see his work.
Check out Peter's blog for more of his photography.
Rock & Roll in Vancouver: Japandroids do work at The Rickshaw Theatre
How the hell were your holidays? Sick of people asking that? Well, the holidays are over, you're coming out of a daze and you've most likely already broken two or three of your New Year's Resolutions. In a week the rest will all be forgotten while laying in wait for next year.
Speaking of holidays and a New Year's daze, dear friend, drink pal and photo contributor to Love & Rum, Tom Nugent recently went to the Japandroids show at The Rickshaw in Vancouver. Reid Stewart from Lifetime Collective was good enough to connect some dots and bring Tom and the band's manager together to get ol' Thomas into the sold out show.
Check out a few of the resulting photos below, and then head over to Lifetime Collective's blog to see the rest. Oh yeah, and a freebie of Fire's Highway recorded at the show.
An Island for Saturday: Sunsets, Sailing & Rum
The weekends have been good around these parts. The sun is almost a guarantee, the rum is a sure bet and the ocean is only a few steps away. This weekend we went for a sail off the coast of Cozumel with a few good friends.
A trip off the coast has its predictable stages
There is always excitement when departing the marina and the following calmness when the idea has settled as you coast into deeper waters. Then there's acclimatization, which is founded by rum punch and cold beer while you keep your eyes on the horizon. Bet on a cigar.
With good visitors and the right amount of drink, the dependable few will hang from the bow over the sea below. Then the diving begins. Swimming as deep as you can, eyes open, seeing as far as you can under the clear water with the reef all around. The salt burns your eyes, but not in such a bad way. Afterward you float on your back, staring at the sky, forgetting for a short while that there is land nearby with its weekdays and its work.
On the return to Puerto Abrigo is the sunset where the calmness begins again and everyone winds down after the sun has done its job.
We should all thank the ocean, our friends and most importantly, the rum.
The Lady of the House
I took this photo of Katy on our three year anniversary in Tulum where we'll be married this coming May. Things have been on an upward track since the day we met, and almost daily it seems like things continue to get better.
The Story of Us
It was summer. We had only just met and began to talk on my patio with friends in Whistler. The two of us were bundled up in jackets sitting across from each other. It doesn't feel like an August you have in other places. The air seems to hold less heat during the days and nights cool quickly as summer winds down. Shortly after August the town empties out and all the visitors leave until the snow falls. I met Katy just before she left.
On the patio, I poured some whisky to warm us up. She pretended to like it. We talked for hours about nothing. Whisky soaked talk of my favourite musicians and dreams of moving to the Caribbean, all said through a wall of cigar smoke. I figure Katy also pretended to like cigars. The girl humoured me and noted that moving to the Caribbean sounded nice, "One day I'll move there too and look you up," she said.
That was all small talk. Katy had left back to Vancouver and I was still living in Whistler. I had to find her.
The next time we saw each other was at a live show in Vancouver where Dan Mangan, one of the artists we talked about, performed. I bought two tickets and told her a group of us were going. They were, but no one showed. What was a group get together now had the sneaky undertone of a date. I told her it wasn't a ploy. I don't think she pretended to believe that.
The visits increased, we saw each other more and spent every moment we had together. It was all small talk, then it wasn't. More than three years have gone by and now the "See you when you get there," line of the Caribbean is our reality. We live together on the Caribbean Sea, sail, swim, fish and hang out twenty-four hours a day. Our lives have never been better, and I cannot be more grateful that a patio conversation with a stranger wound up to be a life imagined.
