What do harps and rugby have in common?

There is a man in Georgia named Giorgi.  This is not very noteworthy by itself, as it seems that at least a third of the men in Georgia are named Giorgi.  However, this particular Giorgi developed a fascination with Irish pubs and decided to open his own… in Georgia… despite never having been to Ireland.  He managed a pretty good facsimile just from photos he found online.  And because this particular Giorgi is such a fan of How I Met Your Mother, he named his new pub McLaren’s.  

Just a few days after opening his pub, who should wander in but two bona-fide, genuine Irish people from TLG.  Giorgi, being Giorgi and therefore Georgian, fell to chatting with Aine and Bernard, asked for their approval of the authenticity of his new pub, and eventually invited them to come and play there.  Since Bernard and Aine - who live in Telavi with me - knew that I play the harp, they asked if I’d like to come along and play with them.  Yay!

Naturally, we had to go to a rugby match beforehand.  Georgia was playing against Japan.  Since I know absolutely nothing of the rules of rugby, I was pretty much entirely relying on Olly to explain what was going on.  It didn’t help that the flags of both countries are red and white and both teams had red and white uniforms.  As far as I could make out, rugby basically consists of the two teams playing football with occasional breaks to have a giant huddle where they danced back and forth a bit. 

The only reason I figured out that the game was over was because everyone around me was standing up and walking out of the stadium.  The massive number of riot-control police ringing the stadium all looked vaguely disappointed that they hadn’t been called into action at all. 

Kelsey and I made our way back to the hostel to grab our stuff before heading over to McLaren’s.  Kelsey volunteered to be my roadie for the evening.  Since my harp is small enough that I can carry it in one hand, her role mainly consisted of trying to get me to help her finish off the bottle of vodka she’d brought with her. 

The pub was completely packed by the time we were ready to play.  Just about every corner was full of TLG people, with only a few Georgians filling in any space left.  

Andy, a British guy from Group 46, played with us on his harmonica.  There were so many people and the guitars were amped up so much that I just turned my harp into the rhythm section and beat on the soundboard like a drum.  My hand went numb after a while, but it was one of the most fun gigs I’ve ever played. 

At one point, we looked out the window to see a group of really huge Asian men in sharp suits walking past with a few smaller guys who must have been coaches or trainers.  It was the Japanese rugby team; at least, I hope it was the Japanese rugby team.  They were more than a bit confused when we all waved and jumped and shouted how much we loved them in Japanese. 

It was certainly one of the best paying gigs I’ve ever had.  Giorgi gave me all the beer I could drink – which Kelsey drank for me – and really tasty hot chocolate.