Trials and Tribulations of being a live music venue owner..... Chapter 3

PLEASE READ IN ORDER to make the most sense - I forgot to say, maybe grab a beer or vino!

This morning as I'm writing this {monday april 3}, I've started to feel anxious and those lil stomach knots... I'm trying to delve into why.... I think I'm worried about what people are going to think and say after all this is out, worried that people will say I'm just having a bitch and whinge.... as I've come to terms with that, realising people are gunna do and think what they wanna anyway, I can't change their perceptions, just as these writings are facts and happenings but from my perspective.

Although these writings are focused on the s!%t show that is happening in the background, my next round of short "a day in the life of's" will 100% be about all the absolutely AMAZING shows, people, treasured and soul touching momemts and how we're so proud and honoured to be a place that allows people to be themselves and to have attributed to people's growth on multi levels.... this is our reward every.time.... sharing that with all of you!

Now, back to where we left off......

Chapter 3

January 2022!

Hired a fabulous chef and creator to put together a new morning menu. Was bangin!! So bangin I was even getting up for sunrises to also come in.... eeeegghhhhh haha I did start to enjoy it though! Some stunning sunrises!!

A few days in.... I got hit hard with the rona. I was on 10 days straight as i also worked a second job. I needed to! I thought i was just fatigued, but I was out for 2 weeks!! I felt good the second week but had still tested positive, so spent my birthday in iso {lucky my 40th was so effing big it'll cover my next few!}. My crew were all experienced enough to run the place, so there were no problems there at all, I have much faith in all their epic skills. The issue ended up being that although we were open 5 days a week through the day, it was not going to be applicable to our weekend food quota. As we were open only 3 days over the weekend in the evenings, food:drink ratio is not audited on a weekly or monthly calendar, it's daily. So next hurdle! Another expensive one....

We changed and tweaked the day time operations but was a hard slog. That time of year in Cairns is hard enough to survive even when established let alone starting something up.... the timing after Xmas and NY and everyone back at work aaaaand school.... at least we were given the opportunity to and are forever grateful to licencing for that.

Nowwwwwww remember the last chapter I mentioned a new fam on the block?

Enter.....the Voldermort of the story! {He who must not be named...} Although he wasn't always voldermort, it didn't take too long for this character to come out.

They purchased the unit site unseen from Melbourne while in lockdown, these guys were super excited to be in the tropics as well as being behind a known music venue as they've been watching our live feeds and love all sorts of music too! We got along well!

The family came up over Xmas and NY and for the rest of the school holidays and they even came in to have a bite and try our new day time menu.

We'd had conversations about the extreme diversity of genres we support and have play and if there was ever any issues please come down and talk to us. We also know there had been a request to body corps for them to install roller shutters to give them the choice of not listening to musos with our approved db limit and for when they weren't here. They said all good, we love it! We're going to be hardly ever here and we would never encroach on a business doing their thing, especially being here well before us and after everything that's happened, we know how hard it's been.

We were so thankful that the universe had bought us people on the same wavelength as us and the previous other tenants of the unit for the last 5 years. Until........

Volde, he shall now be known as, installed cameras. They noticed the large amount of "itinerants" that frequent not only Cairns but our back car port. I received a phone call with Volde going to town on how disgraceful these homeless people are and that he's not having them live for free on a property he's paying for and how they should all be rounded up and taken far away.... and that watching the cameras was far more entertaining than TV!

Admittedly we did have a bit of extra furnishings there being stored for a friend who was between houses, and while we didn't have a resident homeless in there {they're fiercely territorial, loyal and don't p!$$ where they sleep, they're like built in security for us, yes we used to turn a blind eye. They just want somewhere to sleep that's semi safe. Should be a given right! Sleep deprivation is definitely a form of torture...} So, given no resident homeless dude, the unfortunate junkies started hanging round..... we called the divergence centre, street Chaplin and then the cops all of which couldn't do anything unless the delinquents were there at the time.

After a couple of weeks, taking us into March, we'd noticed a regular hanging round, no more others, and found out he was walking across our carport roof onto the balcony of the lower unoccupied unit. The owners also found out and got rid of his stuff, which is fair enough! We had a chat to him and he asked if he could stay for a bit. We said only for a little until he found something more permanent just to give him a break. We also told him we'd leave our toilet area unlocked so he could use them and splash his face in the morning etc.

Jimbo, was his name, ended up making a wonderful little set up for himself, including using a bookshelf to block infront of him and to store his tea cup and saucer, shampoo and soap, a couple of books, toothbrush etc... we were honestly like oh ohhhhhhh we gunna get in shizzle for this but he assured us it was not for long and Volde and fam weren't due up for another 3 or 4 weeks, as I do get it, homeless can be quite confronting for people, especially kids.... however when you get to know people and their story though.... Jimbo was the kinda guy that had respect and showed mutual kindness. You just get vibz from people, there's some that you're ok having in your space and circle and some really not! And that's OK, we all can't be the same, life would be super boring!

I soon after received emails with requests to clean the area up as well as get rid of jimbo. Photos were taken, one of my landlords though, commented on how well jimbo had done and how tidy it was from the past, even before us. I went out to tell jimbo he had to move on.... an older guy in his 50s or perhaps not... he actually had tears in his eyes, and it broke my heart.... he started to tell me more of his back story and that he just couldn't get a break. No doubt he's done some pretty hairy stuff to have been on the streets on and off and ended up saying he should just go to jail so he'd at least have somewhere to sleep and know when his next meal was coming, he could handle the potential floggings for that....

God, I've got tears writing this remembering this convo....

So I'm gunna leave this one here to go get a tissue and have a shower!

* these pics are from our community feed on Xmas, relates to our respect for community