Friday Happy Hour

Happy Hour in Bermuda can mean two things.  There is the traditional decreased cost of boozy beverages at a set time M-F, which is a misnomer as it lasts about 2 hours.  Or the Bermuda meaning, in which Happy Hour refers to going out anywhere in Hamilton at any time Friday night.  Over the years a little circuit developed.  When I first arrived it was drinks in the courtyard of the Hamilton Princess, and walking back through town stopping at Opus, Lemon Tree, Pickled Onion, Moon, Cafe Cairo, and the Beach.  The Hamilton Princess would close at 9 or 10, and the Lemon Tree would open its courtyard at that time, so all of the businesses had adapted to the "flow of traffic."  To be fair, since Friday nights usually happen in heels, I rarely made it further than the Lemon Tree before I was content to head in somewhere where one could sit and not stand -- Coconut Rock, Flanagan's, Hog Penny, Port of Call are all good options.  And as time goes on, the circuit changes -- the Newstead is now an alternative start to the Hamilton Princess, and the free boat cruises on the Uber Vida (the floating yacht bar) depart from Front Street at 6, 8, and 10 also act as a beautiful way to see the island by sunset and divert some of the traffic flow.

So what does one do on a Friday night other than look fabulous and blow off a little steam?  Well, it's all about the friends.  It's an easy time and place to catch up with everybody.  And then you do what friends do.  2 Fridays ago a group of us went to Taste, a new restaurant/bar with a live band.  When going back through the photos from that evening, I realize that there are three phases of hanging out on Friday nights...at least with our little group.

Phase one is cordial socializing.  Oh hello, it's good to see you again.  What did you get up to this week?

Happy go  be reconnecting with one of my closest friends, who lives a world away nowadays

Phase two, jovial banter, joking, and storytelling of adventures gone by -- or theoretical projection of what future ones will be like.  This involves a lot of laughing and teasing.

Not sure what story was going on here, but I think this is Dev feigning plausible deniability and trying to blame Siobhan

Phase three -- the creation of new legends to be discussed in a later phase two gathering.  Phase 3 is often followed by dancing badly.

phase 3

Now that we have an understanding of the phases of a Friday, we will take a quick look at last Friday, which was predeclared to be an early night as there was a wedding everyone was excited to attend Saturday.  The real guest of honor this Friday night were our friends who had travelled from afar, Dev, Mike, and Nikki.  So stop number one on the itinerary was to meet at the Ferry Station for 4:45 to catch the 5pm free ferry over to the Newstead Hotel.

The fast ferry over

The Newstead has a beautiful happy hour location, with an infinity pool overlooking Hamilton and the harbour, and a beautiful view of the setting sun.  They also offer a free roast carvery for those attending their happy hour between 5 and 6:30.  It was the biggest roasted leg any of us had ever seen.

free snacks at the Newstead

They also went to some effort to create some yummy drink specials -- the sexy margarita, mango mohito, ice tea, sangria.  So we sat by the pool under our umbrellas and enjoyed a phase one chat as more friends started to arrive.  We very much enjoyed phase one in the sun, and maybe a little bit of phase 2, and were quite comfortable just hanging out there.  But we had other friends waiting on the other side of the water and took the ferry back to meet them for an 8pm cruise on the Uber Vida.

The iced tea and sexy margarita

Already on board when we arrived were Craig and Erika.  Erika, you may recall from separate posts, is indeed the girl who once baked mac and cheese with extra love for Canadian Thanksgiving, and also has a shelter cat named Headlights who she dotes upon.  I mentioned that she showed me a picture of him in a snowsuit, and so she sent me that to share in the blog because it is so cute AND hilarious.  Here it is.  Quite possibly my favorite photo of the week, if not ever.

Headlights in his snowsuit

These next pictures are taken aboard the Uber Vida in various stages of phase 1 and 2, and maybe a little of early phase 3.  Craig was the photographer and he kindly loaned me these for the blog.  We had another great evening in Bermuda!

Canadian military still in town.  Their high tech binoculars were getting a good workout as we went by

The patio of the Newstead as seen from the Uber Vida

The crew of this particular Friday evening, Keith, Mike, Carol, Nikki, Dev, Shibby, Erika, Craigk and myself

And yet again Craig goes home with a shot of himself and all the ladies aboard the Uber Vida.  Funny how that keeps happening Craig!

I went home early and skipped phase three so that I could be bright and fresh for the late afternoon nuptials the next day.  I suspect there were some phase three stories that occurred later that I will hear about one day though.

So there is another Friday night in Bermuda.  It seems to be Friday again today.  I may have to sit this one out!