I popped down to my local bar and nurtured my £5.30 pint of beer - any beer at that price should be coveted to a degree.
It was a dark and dreary 8:45pm - something akin to mid-day in the UK. It was at this point that a slender dark haired girl sauntered across the small bridge separating the doorway from the main bar and lent seductively on the railings, her single shoulder exposed (why she only had the one shoulder is another story entirely).
She had caught my attention (between her teeth) and eyed me as if she were on heat. I checked I had dressed properly that morning and as I looked back up to give her that inquisitive, "What are you looking at?" smile, she started to sing.
Initially I was a little embarrassed for her, I often have this affect on women but it had rarely given way to a full blown expression of their feelings through song. Opera, no less. For a moment I was concerened lest it be something from Madame Butterfly - I've not seen it, but I think it ends with a woman jumping from a height - with this girl's current location on that bridge I was ready to grab her...
Thankfully (although equally sadly), it turned out to be something else entirely and no grabbing from either party took place.
It was, as you might have guessed from the title of this minor blog entry, opera night at the local bar... The young lady in question was followed by at least a couple more singers who had come direct from the Opera House to ply their trade in the sawdust of their local bar; absolutely fantastic!
