And so, after I'd left work to rest, what did I do? Or, rather, where did I go? Well, a bit earlier, a couple of new cafes had opened up; Boston Tea Party, which loads of people had been going on about, and Grumpy Whiskers, which a couple of friends had recommended to me.
I'd gone to the first the day before, so it was the turn of Grumpy Whiskers, which to be honest was the one I was really looking forward to. Put it this way: I haven't been back to the other one since, and have no real desire to. Grumpy Whiskers is different in two ways: it is a licensed bar as well as a cafe, and they put a lot of events on.
So I go along there after work and have a drink - a hot chocolate, that is - and just chat to the staff a bit. And discover they are having a poetry slam that evening. I haven't been to anything like that for ages, so I thought about going along. If you don't know what they are, think of rap battles (like in 8 Mile) with less aggression-though not necessarily less swearing.
I get home and contact a couple of friends to see if they're up for it. It seems one of them is, so I wander along with the aim of meeting him there; but things didn't quite work out like that. I get there and it's already started, someone's up on stage. It doesn't take long to figure out the (very loose) format-basically someone gets up and performs a poem, and then someone else does. No order, no MC, but a lot of friendly cheering. Apparently, it's going to be better organised next time, but from the point of view of entertainment, it worked well enough, I thought. I enjoyed it, anyway.
And a couple of other things happened during the evening. The friend who I was going to meet couldn't make it in the end, but he texted another mutual friend, who just happened to be in town then, so he came along. I hadn't seen him for months, so it was good to have a bit of a catch up. And the other thing was that, while we were chatting and listening, I started to write something. I just thought of someone challenging me to get up, and my response; and started rhyming with it. It started off quite well; but then I got stuck. I still haven't got much further.
I go in the next day, the first of my days off (I had to go into town anyway), as I'd been chatting to one of the staff about the tattoo parlour upstairs. I'd asked about getting a celtic cross design, and he'd told me the guy to talk to would be in the next day-so before I could come up with a reason to put it off, I went in and chatted to him. We looked at a few designs, and the upshot of that was that I booked and paid for it to be done the following Tuesday (i.e. the one just gone). Which I could hardly believe I'd just done.
So, the week came and went quicker than weeks sometimes do, and I found myself back in there. He'd prepared a stencil of the design to work from, so he put that on, and then went to work filling in the ink. I was slightly concerned about what the needle would feel like, but not really worried; and there wasn't anything to worry about. It felt slightly ticklish more than anything; which was a little irritating when my arm twitched a couple of times, but it didn't bother him. To be honest, at one point I almost dozed off (well, it was quite warm). So, to anyone wanting to get one done but feeling afraid, I would say there is definitely nothing to worry about.
And then it was all done, and I had my arm wrapped in clingfilm, with instructions to leave it on for a couple of hours and then wash it, and put cream on it a few times a day-fixed with sellotape, so taking that off was actually the most painful part. And to come back in a couple of weeks for him to check it, and reink it if it needed it. The human body is the most awkward canvas in the world, apparently. And that was it. I left there with a fantastic design of a celtic cross, which I will probably put up photos of when the healing process is done; or at some point, anyway.
And about the only other thing I would like to say about the place is that they do fantastic waffles - definitely worth a visit for. And I will be visiting again. And again.
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