The Second Coming -English
194 days on, after submitting countless documents, blueprints, declarations and all the other crap that officialdom thrives on, City Hall has declared that O’Malley’s may reopen. It will reopen exactly as before (well, OK, we made a few changes, but the powers that be don’t know that!) and the only real change is the contents (or the lack of thereof) of my bank account. The bank actually owns my backside. 194 days on and we will reopen not one decibel quieter, not one germ cleaner and not one brick safer. Therefore, 194 days on, I am still somewhat perplexed as to why we could not stay open while trying to satisfy the insatiable appetite of officialdom for paper. 194 days that included the end of the Rugby World Cup, Formula 1, Hallowe’en, Superbowl, Christmas, New Year, the bulk of the Champions League, and, alas, St. Patrick’s Day (!).
On the occasion of this first post of the new series of bilingual blogs, I want to thank some of the people that helped enormously to bring about the Second Coming of O’Malley’s. (I promise to make future posts more interesting)
First and foremost, I want to thank the staff, who did not give up on O’Malley’s despite dire financial difficulties that they all went through. It will be due to their perseverance that we will reopen with all familiar faces.
I want to thank Marcel for the incredible support through what seemed like the stations of the cross, as well as Suely and Lilian who worked uncomplainingly, despite not being paid full whack.
I want thank Councilwoman Soninha and her team, especially Luis Nader. They took on the challenge of reopening O’Malley’s despite a complete lack of interest on behalf of the Mayor’s office. Soninha dragged me in front of the pertinent officials and put the matter on track. Counsellors Donato and Marta Costaand their teams also helped in drawing attention to the matter.
I want to thank d. Eloisa at City Hall, who calmed me down when I was about to throttle people and helped move the process on, desk to desk, culminating in the reopening next Monday.
I want to thank Mark for taking on Murphy’s Law so that St. Patrick’s Day would not be without irish music. Murphy’s Law came for the 9Bth straight year. (Last year was the 9th, this year was the 9Bth and next year will be the 10th year.)
I want to thank my friends, many more than I thought I had, who knew when to talk about the bar being closed and when not touch on the subject. I am thankful also for having had the opportunity to find out who are real friends and who just used to say they were. Just that in itself may have made the whole rigmorale worthwhile.
I want to thank my wife and companion for putting up with me and giving me tender loving care for 194 ill humoured days and 194 sleepless nights.
Right. Enough of the sentimental crap. I have a thirst on and I miss my usual position by the pillar at the bottom of the stairs. I’ll be exactly there on Monday and daily thereafter for the longest while.
Slainte
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on 15 de Abril de 2008 @ 03:24
Hi Ali, Marcel, Carlão and other fellows,
It has been a while since I left São Paulo (5 months so far). I moved towards a new professional challenge in Dubai, UAE, which consumes pretty much all of my time here. But, still, didn’t block me to check O’Malleys website every single day, in order to verify if this nightmare was over.
Since our bar closed, I’ve been talking with friends over the Internet, 14 f*cking thousands km away (or other, not sure yet ;P), always wondering how could such a big part of my life just “finish” like this. For those who know me, probably remember how I could fail in university (2 years! Reason: Lack of attendance ;P) and spend only 2 hours per day working in order to reach my destination (Al. Itu 1529, which I used to recommend to others from the top of my mind) and meet Peter and Chris at exactly 4:30pm to start our pool contest (bothering those gently people that used to work there selling tokens for the pool table, who stated all the times “Sorry, tokens are still not available”) and ask for the traditional whisky bottle, 20 tokens (Ok, when I started to improve my crappy game sometimes just 2 tokens were necessary for the night
) and tons of red bulls.
Man, now I feel happy and excited with this marvellous and outstanding new, but at the same time sad because now I live in this shitty place. You guys don’t have a clue about how I miss my environment.
Well… Since I feel my post must have some objective, I really would like to congratulate the guys that stayed strong and hope that from now on everything goes exactly with the same spirit of before (ok, maybe now Ali doesn’t fall from his seat anymore, but he will be the same bastard for us 4 ever ;P).
I hope I manage to take 2 weeks leave in July. If that happens, without shadow of doubt I’ll be in my second home pretty much from opening until close (I miss being pulled out from the place and hook up with the crew friends to have breakfast).
Like they say here, see you in July Insha’Allah!
All the best and leave some booze for me! (AND TAKE CARE OF THE DAMN F*CKING POOL TABLES!) ;D
Domingo Montanaro, a.k.a. “MM”
on 15 de Abril de 2008 @ 13:13
And so the ordeal comes to an end…
The only way to express what I felt yesterday while I entered O’Malley’s again as I so often had done in the last 17 years is:
*A GARGANTUAN SIGH OF RELIEF*.
The day I learned O’Malley’s had been closed down I compared my feelings - rather hypothetically and surely in bad taste - to my poor late mom having been arrested. O’Malley’s is, afterall, MY HOME AWAY FROM HOME - even though I don’t live that far.
Ali, thanks for being so resilient - it is your bravery in standing the ludicrously surreal bluetape that enabled me to feel the pleasure of seeing mom out again.
on 15 de Abril de 2008 @ 17:24
PS - It’s not everyday that one can come twice.
on 17 de Abril de 2008 @ 02:30
and this was the first of the last 6 years that I had St Patricks without O’Malley’s …
Thanks God It’s Back…
Cheers