ANDRE'S
Saturday, 10. January 2009, 06:03:45
Andre’s is my hang out. It’s where I know everyone and everyone knows me.
The real name is Café Andre and as well as the “lounge” where I reside there is a formal and beautiful dining room as Andre is as fine a chef as you can find anywhere. The man is a genius with food.
In the summer there is also The Anchorage and there are a few other places my friends and I go on occasion but most of the time if I’m not home and not working Andre’s is where I can be found.
It’s comfortable, warm and always welcoming.
Andre and Mary, the owners are good friends of mine. We sometimes share holidays including Christmas.
If I’m hungry and have no money, they will feed me anyway and very well besides.
Andre’s isn’t huge but the restaurant is classy and attractive. Andre recently acquired a grand piano that is just beautiful and adds to the room’s ambience.
Mary’s garden should be famous and included on any local garden tour. Three seasons of wonder can be gazed at from the window tables along the back wall of the restaurant and even the crustiest of rednecks can be found walking and enjoying the gardens every so often.
I’m always out there with my camera because it seems that every week there is something new to shoot or something old that I never noticed before.
Andre shoots a mean game of pool having played in many venues and for serious money besides. He is giving me lessons so one of these days I’ll put up my quarters with the best of them.
In the meantime I’m learning and sometimes when they’re playing partners he chooses me.
The others joke that he’s playing with a handicap, which is true, but he tells me if all I can do is sink a ball or two I have done what he needs from me.
We usually win but I don’t take any credit for that.
Since last winter when NH went non-smoking we’ve had to go outside for our cigarettes.
On a slow night sometimes we are all outside which is kind of strange but we’re getting used to it.
There is a fireplace so when we come back in, chilled, we can hover or sit in front of it and warm ourselves.
There are three televisions, right in a row, each one larger than the one next to it. Sometimes they are all on and sometimes only two are on, always the same channel and if there is a game it will be playing. If there is no game some of us will argue over what we want showing.
Reid performs there every Wednesday night and if he gets a cancellation on a weekend. He plays for tips but considers it a live rehearsal; besides, we are his “family” also.
He is usually accompanied by either Jan, a vocalist, Ben, who plays bass and sometimes any number of other fine musicians and vocalists.
Wednesday nights are always a good time. Some weeks the crowd is smaller than others but usually there is a fairly good crowd especially in the winter.
And we really are kind of a family there.
There are many singles none of which are necessarily looking to change their status, a good handful of couples and occasionally whole families as well.
If someone new wanders in they are, almost immediately, included in conversations, pool competitions, dart games and dancing.
We share our company, our problems and triumphs and sometimes our sadness when someone we love is ill or we lose them all together.
The main core of regulars have developed a strong bond, Andre and Mary are included in invitations to our homes for parties or shared meals and we are included in all of their special and holiday celebrations also.
Sometimes on a Sunday during the game or on Monday when the pool table is free for the competitions Andre will make something delicious for us without any charge.
Sometimes some of us bring something to them for sharing and although they don’t open until 4:00 pm there are a handful of us that go there often well before opening knowing that Andre is there and Mary might be in and out doing her errands before opening.
I don’t drink often and never at Andre’s because I’m always having to drive back to Claremont. I drink soda which Mary sometimes allows me to pay for and sometimes doesn’t.
I’m not the only regular that doesn’t drink alcohol for whatever reason. Andre’s isn’t just about being a place to drink alcohol.
Andre’s is about good friends and good times.
It’s the place to go to find out the news when there is a local crisis.
It’s the place to go if you need to find out where someone is, even if they aren’t there.
It’s the place where birthdays never pass unnoticed.
It’s the place to go to find a warm welcome and someone to talk to, a hug if you need one, a hug if you don’t need one.
We tolerate each other’s differences with fondness and, if necessary, give each other a stern talking to as well.
Being owned and operated by people with huge hearts it tends to attract good people.
Anyone looking for trouble isn’t tolerated and it’s a group effort to deal with any trouble that does, on rare occasions, arise.
No paid bouncers required, we take care of our own.
If wood needs to be brought in several go for it. A handful of our people make sure there is wood for the season to be brought in.
If there is a breakage or leak, one or more of our people who have the skills will fix the problem.
If Mary needs juice or milk, she can call one of us and have us pick it up on our way there.
This is my place and has been since it opened just over seven years ago. There is nowhere else where I am so comfortable as I am there not even The Anchorage and I’ve been going there since I was old enough to sit up.
I know it won’t last forever, nothing ever does. Eventually some kind of major change will come since that’s the way life goes.
But who knows? Maybe Andre’s will go on until I’m too old to get myself there anymore or my life takes a change I can’t anticipate right now.
That would be very nice…
WIDGETIZE
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ombolan # 10. January 2009, 13:01
minette061554 # 10. January 2009, 15:14
it's so cold I had to do something warm LOL.
ombolan # 11. January 2009, 19:03
here also, very very cold.
but spring will come soon.
minette061554 # 12. January 2009, 02:20
ombolan # 12. January 2009, 15:55
we are all behind that tumor in the moment.
i have to keep the people calm and relaxed.
at the end it's my little bastard and nobody else's bussiness.
minette061554 # 13. January 2009, 04:30
ombolan # 13. January 2009, 11:44
obama is comming sooner (7 days).
minette061554 # 13. January 2009, 15:29
ombolan # 14. January 2009, 14:22
the world doesn't scratch me at all.
minette061554 # 14. January 2009, 14:36
ombolan # 14. January 2009, 17:43
minette061554 # 15. January 2009, 04:48
I think I'd rather snow since it is usually (not always) warmer when that happens.
ombolan # 16. January 2009, 09:48
minette061554 # 16. January 2009, 14:16
I hate AOL.
really!
ombolan # 16. January 2009, 16:04
there are many AOL haters.
when i can believe the comments here and there.
snow in april?
yes, i remember skiing in the alps during april.
but not down to the valley bottoms.
minette061554 # 16. January 2009, 18:07
AOL has the very best mail features of anyone but they've actually done away with good features and added many that never work.
today I had to do one of their updates and afterwards they wouldn't load at all...I've got it sorted out now but it's a constant pain in the butt.
ombolan # 16. January 2009, 20:17
but force the design and user friendliness.
NH is to cold for me.
i don't like the cold anymore.
minette061554 # 17. January 2009, 03:54
ombolan # 18. January 2009, 13:47
same like the head now.
the whole world is turning around me.
i'm the center?
minette061554 # 18. January 2009, 22:08
ombolan # 19. January 2009, 21:54
and me, i'm quite stable.
let the world turn arround.
if you're good, God lets you die young and reurn to paradise.
i'm kind of super-evil.
i have to stay in this prison-globe long, long time.
i fear he doesn't let me go before 100.
minette061554 # 20. January 2009, 04:47
ombolan # 21. January 2009, 15:16
i'm exploding slowly.
and faster, faster, faster - bumm
realy hope to help my people for some months (
minette061554 # 22. January 2009, 05:13
yes!
ombolan # 22. January 2009, 10:05
i'm big, tall and strong.
95kg (209.44 pound) without being "round", more like slim/hungry.
to much bad news maybe.
minette061554 # 22. January 2009, 14:24
I hope for no more bad news, for you or me.
ombolan # 22. January 2009, 18:18
i'm not complaining.
i just try to learn to close the door behind me without a slam.
and i deny to become religious.
why people believe beyond death it's dangerous?
if there is a God, there is no danger.
maybe they don't believe in God realy.
i just don't want to make my people nervous.
but i have to prepare them slowly for the time after.
my death is my own problem to myself.
nobody can help me.
my death is my death.
i'm sorry for the people i leave behind.
minette061554 # 22. January 2009, 18:27
those you leave behind will be sad but ok eventually.
it's the cycle of life.
still...
ombolan # 22. January 2009, 18:51
it doesn't look good in the moment.
but - who knows.
maybe i crawl around for again 43 years.
with pain (who cares) but beloved.
i hate the pain and all the liars around me.
they have their pants full of mixed manure,
play the strong
and fear to tell me the truth.
but droplet for droplet the truth is rising.
it will be my first death,
so i have to take attention
not to miss any detail.
i'm a journalist from heart.
i want to write a good report.
and as IT-specialist i hate corrupted data.
lot of work to repair data bases.
minette061554 # 22. January 2009, 18:57
I'm lucky to have met you.
ombolan # 22. January 2009, 19:08
minette061554 # 22. January 2009, 20:23
ombolan # 23. January 2009, 12:41
he has thrown me out of paradise for "constant moaning".
minette061554 # 23. January 2009, 15:17
I believe what I want
I am a woman after all
which means I don't always listen
ombolan # 26. January 2009, 15:50
minette061554 # 26. January 2009, 19:32
I don't know what to hope for with you Ansoo. except for peace within yourself and around you.
ombolan # 27. January 2009, 12:06
i just don't understand why people act "funny"
and afterwards they ask themselves "why could this happen?".
the answer is "because you did it".
i hate cretinism.
but i'm wise.
i know you can do nothing against it.
it seems to be worse each year.
or maybe it stays the same and i develope.
so the distance is caused by myself.
no hope. there will be no saviour.
minette061554 # 27. January 2009, 14:58
I am glad that as I age there are less times when I have to ask myself why I did something.
ombolan # 27. January 2009, 15:29
here you'll find an example.
the toilettes of the rich are only clean,
because they can pay people to clean it.
minette061554 # 27. January 2009, 18:26
ombolan # 27. January 2009, 21:35
if they could see ...
i fear our highdeveloped world is braking down by cretinism.
but ok, it's just the fear of a man starting to get old.
but i swear,
we didn't do such kind of things in our youth
(speaking for my long forgotten friends now)
and we were no angels.
sometimes i feel like living in a bunch of maggots
without nearly nothing of culture
eating up our well organized world.
maybe it's good i leave this world soon
with good memories on my mind
ond no experience of being food for the human maggots.
the maggots in the ground have more rights to chop me.
minette061554 # 27. January 2009, 22:42
it's disgusting.
still, I wish you were staying longer my friend.
ombolan # 28. January 2009, 11:17
i have searched a little bit the web for You
and i've found some realy cruel disasters
without going to the Moon, Mars or even further.
people out there have to live under realy hard circumstances.
they have no longer the force to keep their places clean.
disasters and huge catastrophes
are we realy developed?
minette061554 # 28. January 2009, 15:27
people do have to live under hard circumstances.
in America we like to keep it looking good outside so nobody looks in.
ombolan # 28. January 2009, 16:15
my mother has educated me for a wrold
which mostly doesn't exist.
in africa - sorry, in the Sénégal - you'll find such places
maybe in a dark corner of Dakar.
in ivory coast i saw other circumstances.
but they started to clean up a bit.
and there is the war going on.
no, white people (degenerated?) or very poor people in china (non-payed)
produce places like this (for china i saw photo documents on tv).
i didn't see toilettes of india yet.
the romans have known hygiene.
but after the breakdown the knowledge was lost in europe.
in europe we discovered it again during the 15th century.
but it took about 300 years more to understand it.
minette061554 # 28. January 2009, 20:43
same here in the US, there is good and then there is bad. we don't usually show the bad on tv.
I think you can find it almost anywhere but also you will find the other, better side also.
ombolan # 29. January 2009, 10:25
i don't wonder to find such pictures with google.
here they show pics like this in the tv
to make another country small.
look what they do to there people.
the last i have seen came from china, i think.
the toilettes of a little factory,
where people are not payed (that's what they told the camera).
they were producing bricks, when i remember well.
why they don't clean by themselves?
yes, i know. they are tired from the work.
the toilettes in turkey and africa look strange,
but they are clean.
they use those french toilettes.
only the nacked concrete or raughcast bricks
and a hole in the floor, maybe with porcelain.
mostly with broken tiles in concrete.
a can with water and if modern, a tap to refill the can.
otherwise you take the water with you from outside.
no paper. therefore you have the water.
and you can clean the place with it.
only in big cities you'll find dirty places.
at bus terminals, big markets and so on.
minette061554 # 29. January 2009, 18:10
anywhere I work I have clean toilets. it isn't hard, once it's done it's easier to keep up with.
nobody wants to do it, they just want the toilets cleaned by magic I think.
we are having quite a conversation about toilets
but it says a lot about people also.
ombolan # 29. January 2009, 18:59
but nobody has a solution.
i think i come back 5000 years later
to see if they have fixed this error.
cleaned by magic
so people who clean toilets are witches and wizards.
is this discriminatory or rather stupid.
minette061554 # 30. January 2009, 03:41