you had to be there!

Day 45 • Friday • 19 Sept 14 • Today’s High 36º

Where do I start??

As I may have mentioned before, I love my Pub Grub, especially my Fish & Chips. I’ve sampled McGettigans which is pretty good, then a a friend of Poss’ suggested we try Fibber Magee’s which I understand is a bit of an institution in Dubai. It’s in a real obscure place and you find yourself walking down a back alley just to get there (Perhaps that should have been our first clue!). Apparently, there’s a great tale behind how this Pub came to being in the middle of nowhere but there’s no ‘official’ story. When I looked it up online prior to going, the photos pretty much showed a typical Pub, so we figured, no worries and headed down there with another girlfriend. Little did we know, that as soon as we walked through their double doors, we would be entering the Twilight Zone.

Are we still in Dubai? Before us stood revelers as far as the eye could see, swaying and singing My My My Delilah at the top of their lungs, looking like they might possibly have been there since noon – it was now 8pm. We were probably the only ‘foreigners’ in the place (save the staff) and quite likely, one of the few sober ones. For a moment we stood there, frozen, each secretly thinking if we should make a run for it. But then, perhaps spurred on by the hypnotic voice of Tom Jones, we decided we’d just make a night of it and with a deep smokey breath, plunged head on into the chaos!

Fortunately we found a table at the back and there we sat, almost mesmerised by the scene unfolding in front of us – the dancing, the random snogging, the singing – you name it, it was going down! By this time, ‘Delilah’ had left and Michael Jackson’s ‘Love Never Felt So Good’ had arrived – I know! Talk about contrasts! But hey, they had started to play our kind of tunes so we weren’t complaining and before you knew it, we too were singing & swaying at our table – this is getting contagious!!

Hunger finally set in and we placed our food orders. The prices are pretty good for Dubai but unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the food – I had to send mine back twice as it was undercooked. But to be fair, I think a good time is more the name of the game here.

Then the night got really interesting for Poss because suddenly out of nowhere, a guy parks himself right next to him in what can only be described as an invasion of personal space. If you know my Poss, you’d know that he takes his personal space very seriously. My girlfriend and I couldn’t actually hear what this guy was saying (the music is pretty LOUD) but apparently he opened with “Are you from New Zealand?”. When Poss replied “No”, his comeback was “It’s ok. I’m not racist!”. Huh??? We really must have looked like a trio of aliens! Not that it seemed to matter to this guy because once he started talking, there was no stopping him. He was quite literally all over my poor Poss.

Feeling quite at home, he started helping himself to our chips (complete with tomato sauce) – erm ok – and then he wanted some of my soda – again, erm ok and we passed him the can. What he did next is something I have never seen in my life ! Unable to find an empty glass, he proceeded to pour the soda into an ashtray – yes, an ashtray (thank god a clean one) and drank it???!!! Eeeewwww – what was this guy on??? We were gobsmacked and kept telling him to stop but he just kept on, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

By this time, the waiter that had been serving us noticed something was amiss with this picture and asked if we were being bothered, to which my girlfriend replied, a loud resounding yes! And before you could blink, a rather large bouncer was at our table asking this guy if he could please come have a chat. What does this guy say? Yeah ok, in a minute, lol! If some big ass bouncer asked me for a chat, I think I might accidentally pee my pants before even managing to bat an eyelid! Alas, our visitor finally gets up to leave and that was that, we never saw him again! While I do feel a little bad, I give full props to the waiter and the bouncer for calmly diffusing what would have only become an even more awkward situation.

Drama averted, we stayed on to listen to the live band who weren’t bad and a couple of high fives later from complete strangers (everyone is very friendly), we decided to call it a night. At the end of it all, while we did “Enjoy the Craic” (it was an experience to say the least!) it was just a little too much “fun” for this little princess to garner a repeat performance. But if you’re ever looking for a rather interesting watering hole in Dubai, look no further – you’ll be well entertained if nothing else!