Martin Nolan and I are doing a series of five concerts in ten days while he's over here from Dublin in March for a few weeks. We've just played to a nice audience at the Brentwood Bay Village Empourium - a full house, and are looking for some place to grab a bite to eat. I usually don't eat much before I sing and stay away from dairy products and cider as they tend to gum up the vocals.
At 10:30pm or so on the Saanich Peninsula there isn't much of a choice, actually nothing is open, so we follow the long and winding road back towards View Royal on the outskirts of Victoria. The only place open seems to be a Mac's so we pull in. I'm just about to grab a tuna sandwich when Martin spots a sign. "Hot Dogs 4 for $10". After about 15 minutes slathering various condiments on mostly ourselves, we depart and head for Chris and Betty's (in-laws) place where we have graciously been offered a bed, as we play a house concert in James Bay area the following night.
So there we are at 11:30pm chowing down on a pound each of rubbery who-knows-what washed down with red wine and already feeling the possible onset of the roaring farties. Surprisingly we don't die in our sleep and set out for a day of rambling and adventure in Victoria once Martin does a patch job on his uilleann pipes which seem to be losing air faster than he can pump it in.
Martin is happy with his emergency purchase of a shirt for tonight's concert. His own is sitting proudly on the back of a door in Nanaimo. Obviously the check list of essentials was not very thorough. So we're almost ready to set up for the concert but again have to attend to wants of nature and we are in search of grub. We drive around a bit and Martin has a yen for fish and chips. We're in James Bay area and I spot a place, a tiny little hole in the wall just up from the liquor store. I tell Martin that although I know the area, I've never heard anything about this place. So we take our halibut and chips to the Dallas Rd. waterfront and with a million dollar view in front of us we wade through possibly the worst bundle of grease and grunge we've ever experienced. "You can't eat scenery" is an expression from back home, but in this case we'd have been better off.
Life on the road can be a great experience but I'm reminded again that to do it well there's a certain amount of thought and planning involved to avoid the heebee-jeebees and to stay healthy.
Onwards and upwards.