September Update
Blok M update, September 2005
Status report
September has been a good month all round . The bars are reported to be doing brisk business - Everest in particular, which rolls out the red carpet for refugees from Sportsmans. There are mixed reports from D’s Place, which some nights is doing well whilst others are not so good. The Reveller has put down a night in D’s to see for himself what’s making the place tick these days, and he’ll report back after Ramadan.
With the first heavy showers, harbingers of the coming rainy season, Jalan Pelatehan has yet again become a pot-holed shambles. The cheap and cheerful repairs to the holes - fillings of loose rubble and bits of stone - are washing away with the pounding of cars on the waterlogged holes, leaving the poor old place in as bad a state as it’s ever been. While the bar owners are lining up ever more gimmicky events for punters who, quite frankly, don’t give a damn about them, they ignore the mess that is - quite literally - on their own doorsteps.
A growing number of the guys in My Bar are unhappy with the blocking out of prime time every Friday and Saturday night for tits and bum extravaganzas. Now this is the regulars’ weekend time when the top priority is to have a good fling, get plenty of drink inside you, and carouse the night away in the excellent company of the Sweet Young Things. The Reveller for one is getting heartily pissed off by the endless succession of tawdry exhibitions - and is voting with his feet. When the antics start up, he gets up and goes. As the old saying so rightly puts it, familiarity breeds contempt.
To give an example of how ludicrous the business has become, one night it’s reported that the wet tee-shirt competition isn’t even really wet - just a token splash and a spray here and there, and some of the girls even keep their bras on under their tee-shirts. That says it all, really.
One of the Blok Chat regulars makes a comment in the forums that one night in My Bar the view reminds him of a scene in a period movie, in particular one of those portraying garden parties in Edwardian England. This was the belle époque just before the Great War, when Europe was crumbling, alliances breaking up, the whole of Europe sliding inexorably into conflict.
The Reveller looks afresh at the tableau in My Bar the next time he’s in - and has to agree that, in the period before things get really wild as midnight approaches, there’s a brief spell when the resemblance is quite uncanny. Guys and girls sit, stand and lounge in casually elegant groupings, with that airy gaiety which goes with the easy formality of a garden party. Conversation is relaxed and formulaic, general chit chat about this, that and the other, a pleasing badinage of social notes and comments. The girls pose so charmingly and so naturally, with that self-assured, poised nonchalance so typical of the Edwardian grande dame.
There’s a studied neutrality about the scene, as the guys discretely size up the girls and the girls mark out their victims for the night. It’s a sort of social no-man’s-land, neutral territory in which predatory instincts have been put on hold for the time being. An occasional raised eyebrow, quizzical smile or tilt of the head in a particular direction is the only sign of impending action.
This charming vignette vanishes as quickly and as unexpectedly as it started, as the girls and the guys move to their battle stations. But what a pleasure it is, yet another example of the charm and variety of life in Blok M. For those guys who, like the Reveller, delight in observing the pageant of life in the bars, it’s a unique and profoundly valued treat.
Some of the Sportsmans regulars have expressed appreciation at being told what’s been going on behind the scenes there, as they’d been puzzled by the turn of events and concluded that the management had completely dropped its marbles. Is this fair comment? Read on, and judge for yourself.
Paulus invites the Reveller to drop in for a friendly chat about the issues raised in the August Update - but when he gets there he’s surprised to be confronted by Paulus’ sister, who wasn’t mentioned in the invitation. Now the Reveller has no wish to meet this person, and had he known she’d be there would have politely declined. And with good reason, as she does all the talking and poor old Paulus doesn’t get a word in edgeways.
She kicks off by asking for a couple of corrections. First, Paulus’ title is not ‘Manager’, but ‘Company Director’; secondly, the money issue is regarded as an internal matter between Paulus and the company. It’s then hinted that the Reveller’s source of information may not have been objective, the lone voice perhaps of a disgruntled informant with an axe to grind. In response to this suspicion the Reveller counters that he’s heard substantially the same story from three different sources.
The Reveller follows this up by reminding the directors of the incontrovertible facts of the matter. First, bar prices have been hiked, loyal customer discounts cancelled, and the happy hour scrapped. Secondly, a reduction in wages has led to the mass departure of their most popular bar staff. Thirdly, there have been complaints from regular customers, some of whom have subsequently left Sportsmans. The Reveller expresses his opinion that if the bar is to regain its reputation and its customers, something must be done to restore confidence - and done quickly.
So the ball is now firmly in Sportsmans’ court, and we wait to see what steps they’ll take to make up lost ground. The Reveller hopes they manage to inject some sanity and commercial sense back into the business. He’d hate to see Sportsmans follow in the footsteps of Pentagon and Lintas Melawai.
Sadly, the Reveller has been asked to remove all pictures that show Sportsmans’ bar staff from the Blok M web site. The staff pictured in the Gallery have in any case moved on, so the photos are now of merely historical interest. In view of the tone of the meeting, and to avoid any future recriminations, the Reveller has removed all pictures of Sportsmans from the web site for the time being. If they want to turn their backs on much-needed - and free - publicity, that’s their funeral.
Epilogue
September is a pleasant month, marred only by the Sportsmans saga. But in the great scheme of things in Blok M this affair doesn’t amount to a pile of beans. Life goes on, and the revelling continues unabated. There haven’t been many new Sweet Young Things on the Blok, but a transfusion of slightly older girls has added a bit of variety to the fauna which the guys are pleased to see. So it’s tally ho, and into October as Ramadan looms ever nearer. Whilst others are unsure as to what the fasting month will bring, the Reveller remains quietly optimistic. Is he right? Read the October chronicles to find out!