The nephew wants to go out...
This is the beginning of every bad night out in the world. Tonight, Bespoke, a new (ish) club down on tenth ave...he has friends, they know the owners, they'll get us in.
There's a line up, long, a thirty-something crowd, girls in club dress, inadequate to the weather, it's -20 outside, any wait in this is too long, but the nephew pulls me in from a side door...
Inside, a wide variety of fit and attractive partiers in their mid 30's, all fashionably dressed, the dance floor is full...there are leather booths above it where the VIP's have little encampments, buckets of Corona on ice, Grey Goose, their own private waitresses to serve them...it's amazing, I haven't been to a regular club for quite some time, this place, it's impressive, and watching the money change hands in the leather booths, hundreds of dollars at a time, look at the very mixed ethnicity of the crowd and you realize it's a bit of a UN for drug dealers, I didn't know Calgary had this many but there's no explaining - legitimate explaining - the flow of money over the bar, through the booths...
It's one of those places that John Wick would have a field day in, just by being here you're pretty much guilty of something...
We grab a couple of drinks, cigarettes, pop outside, the nephew, he's already drunk and talkative, we speak with a couple of Bangladeshi men with English accents, well dressed, ties, they like us, invite us back to their booth, we go along, it's all marvelous, they pay, hundreds of dollars, buckets of Corona, bottles of Grey Goose, then leave us to wander off on their own errands...
...the Nephew, expansively waving his arms, "Happy Birthday, buddy...you want to go to Nelson? Lassie come home! What have you got in Nelson? A laptop full of porn, a box of masks...." then sets to work on the bar, drinking 3 beer at a time, trying to finish the liquor before the waitress takes it all away, last call, he's on a mission for sure, it's terrific, but I'll never afford this, even if I could just keep up with this conspicuous excess it would kill me...