The Crane Bar, Indecision & Slow Watching

A few comics and notes for the end of January.

One of our weekly rituals is attending a traditional Irish music session at The Crane Bar. There are loads of sessions at different pubs around town but most of them are at night. The Crane Bar’s Sunday session starts in the afternoon which means we can go with Lucy. “Can we go to the pub today?” she often asks. It’s cute.

The Crane is cozy and seems family friendly. But it is often a chore to keep Lucy occupied. We stuff her backpack full of notebooks, colouring pages, Legos, and snacks. The best distraction was when an older man squeezed in at the next table and rolled a tea candle back and forth with her for almost an hour.

The music at the pub is lively and not too loud, so we can talk to each other. But every few songs someone, usually a man, often older, will sing an acapella song. The bartenders clink glasses as a signal for everyone to be quiet. So, of course this is when Lucy gets a little extra chatty. Danny has a harder time with this than I do. I don’t think the musicians mind. Week after week Lucy gets smiles from them and even the occasional trinket.

After weeks of not going over the holidays, our return was eventful. There was a family there with a boy Lucy’s age who had a similar interest in Lego and Playdough. Lucy joined their table and never looked back. On the other side of us was a young woman sitting alone nursing a Guinness and reading a book about the Arctic. One of us started chatting with her. For the rest of the night we took turns. One of us kept an eye on Lucy and talked to the family, who lived around the corner and went to all the same playgrounds as we do, and the other talked with the woman who was on her way back to Australia after a year of traveling and living in the Arctic Circle. 

As we were leaving the pub, Danny turned to me and asked “Are we locals?” I’m not sure, but that afternoon did feel like it.