When I stay home all day, there are times I put on the big screen, YouTube videos of big bands like the Glen Miller Band or Jazz Bar music. I then sit back on my husband’s chair, (it swivels around), with my feet on the stool then close my eyes and just let my feet move to the rhythm and think back to my previous life 🤣.

Hotel bars have a dubious reputation and many that I’ve been in my life on my travels at National and international conferences, have usually been empty and frankly, depressing. I can’t remember if they had a pianist but I do remember how usually, they had a bored waiter behind the bar. Or many times, it was closed up.

In some ways, I wish it was different – like the movies – but then again it’s likely to be that I must have been in hotels on the “lower and cheap” end of town where the LAST place you’d want to hang around in was the bar of the dodgy hotel you were staying in. That’s my likely excuse.

However there were a few other instances that came to mind when for whatever reason, the hotel bar was the best thing to hang out because it was too far from anywhere else, it was too dangerous to be outside at night, or the company was just right.

First example I’ll never forget hanging out with Jane Hart and Jane Bozart (the two evil Janes as they are amusingly called) at the Hotel in Karlsruhe. With nowhere else to go nearby on a freezing cold night, ordering a bottle of wine and nibblies, we laughed and hollered out loud much to the surprise of the quieter Germans around us. That’s what usually happens when you put an American, Brit and Australian together.

My time at Karlsruhe LearnTec is remembered for the fun times with them and the hilarious stories the Janes would régale. I loved every moment of that Karlsruhe trip – and the town which I explored.

Well anyway,…where was I?

Secondly, let’s talk about American bars. I love them. Usually I don’t venture outside by myself in American cities especially at night so the bar is the best place to hang out and meet people from all around the world. I’m lucky I’ve not had any dodgy experiences and I usually chat to anyone and everyone.

A great hotel bar experience I had a few years back in Florida. I had wandered down to eat my dinner at the bar and chatted with the waiter. The bar was full of older gentlemen with their wives and partners. Some of them were wearing their jackets and pins so I assumed they were veterans. They were obviously there for some veteran gathering.

Naturally I had to strike up a conversation with a man and his wife near me. I find people fascinating. However, I did notice the wife viewed me suspiciously. As I kept asking questions and told them about my own experiences in the Australian Navy and working with different US Services over the years, the tone changed.

I was introduced to others in their group (“hey, here’s the Osssie!” and then spent the evening laughing and hollering to their hilarious stories. They were “spinning warries” and I was doing the same. It seemed that the hotel bar then seemed to come alive, groups of people would come and go, join in and laugh along.

It was a great night and one in which I’ll always remember. There are people who just in your life for one night only and that you can chat and laugh with. The next day at breakfast, you usually get a wave hello from the other table; or sometimes a “what’s your plan for today?” when they stop by your table or over the bain-marie of scrambled eggs, and then a goodbye, because you’ll never see them again.

Everyone goes home.

All you have then are the memories that return when you listen to jazz bar music.