Reflections of a Dumb GP. Pt.2

There was more to being a medical student than just study. But fun, when you had no money and neither did your family, could sometimes be too expensive! Even more so when you had a girl friend and were planning to get married while still a student. Tuition fees were a constant concern but life wasn't all work and one needed a little money to function even very modestly.
My fiancee , was a self taught, talented pianist and I was a self taught untalented drummer. She was in great demand at parties and family gatherings in our courting days, so I had to do something. I started off by tapping on the piano, in the hope that it would drive everyone away, so that we could have what was called some "quality time" together. ('Quality time" to me meant getting rid of the rest of the family long enough to burn off some of the normal testosterone that every young man had coursing through his veins in those days when we thought there were only two sexes -little did we know!!). I continued drumming on every drummable surface, never expecting that it would later pay off and provide a means to help finance my way through medical school and to getting married.
A classmate of mine since high school days was a talented musician. He went on to become a very successful professional musician after having graduated from medical school. His mother had been a piano teacher, so he played piano almost from birth. Sometimes, when we were in high school, I went to his home to listen to him practicing a la Oscar Peterson. He had a drum kit in his music room and on occasion I would try to accompany him on the drums. He put up with my performance and even tried to improve it. He was well known in the Dublin music world, where he was professionally sought after and he knew Irene and I were hoping to make some money doing a gig or two around town. He recommended us to apply for a gig at the "Paradiso Restaurant and Night Club - where the stars dine!" He had played there in the past and they had approached him to return but he was busy with bigger,better engagements. He had recommended us.
"There's no way I am good enough for that," I said.
He laughed. "They won't know the difference!"
I applied and the manager interviewed. "Experience?"
"Lots," I lied. "I thought Ian (my friend) would have told you."
"And the pianist?"
"Oh, she and her family have just returned from living in Miami (true). She did many gigs there (untrue). She's good!"(true)
"OK, Monday night is quiet. I'll hire you for a one night audition and if it goes well I'll give you a three month contract."
It went well. We got the job at the Paradiso and played from eight pm to midnight five nights a week. After our nightly performance we would walk home, a forty-five minute walk as the public transport ceased at 11.30pm, so we could save the taxi fare. I had to be at medical rounds at nine am, mandatory for all second year medical students.
Guests often bought us a drink and as I had to work in the morning we declined after the first drink. The tuxedo clad manager drew us aside. He was Swiss, he was dignified looking and he was mean.
"You can't decline when guests want to buy you a drink," he barked indignantly.
"Well, I have to go to work in the morning, you know I'm a medical student, and I can't turn up with a hang-over."
"You have to accept when a customer offers you a drink." he replied.
"Okay, you can just give us some ginger ale or soda in an appropriate glass and we can sip on that."
"Yes, I can do that."
"You'll have to give us the cost the customer pays for the drink, of course."
He looked aghast. "I'm not going to do that!" he said.
"Then we won't accept." A thought occurred to me. "If you won't give us the cash, then you can give it to us in cigarettes," I said.
He agreed. For the next months, for the first time in my life I always had enough cigarettes.
The Paradiso was situated in the core of downtown 
Dublin and their sobriquet "Where the Stars Dine" turned out to have more than a grain of truth. Dublin was a great theatre city, so we did play for some of the performers and theatre crowd who drifted in after the show.
We carried on playing the Paradiso until the summer break, when we got an engagement at a very fancy hotel on the west coast of Ireland, in Waterville, Co Kerry, the site of the first transatlantic cable station from St. John, New Brunswick. It operated from 1884 until 1962 making real-time transatlantic communication possible.
A drummer friend who had his own small group was offered a summer season engagement at the Butler Arms Hotel, which he couldn't accept because of his job.
" They asked me if I could suggest anyone, so I gave them your name." he informed me.
I was more than grateful. If we got this job it might just cover my university fees and have a little left to go into the wedding fund.