Australia Angst And Anger

Well, as many of you may know, at one time I was planning on going to Sydney, Australia to have my last drink on New Year's Eve at a bar named Vanilla Room. This was at the behest of one of the owners, a Mr. Beckett Tucker, who sent me the following email:

Hi Dan,

My name is Beckett Tucker, I own a bar in Leichhardt which is in Sydney, Australia called Vanilla Room. It is pretty good and we take our drinks here very seriously in fact I import some liqueuers especially for my bar. We love what your doing and think you are a champion, so much so I am prepared to pay for your flight to Sydney to have your final drink here. I am not kidding I will even put you up at a hotel in the city and you could if you want enjoy the best new years eve celebrations in the world. Email me back if you are interested. Or call me on + 61 2 407 904 607. That is my cell number.

Kind Regards

Beckett Tucker

I did email him back and indicated that I would be more than happy to go but that I would like to take my wife with me. He then sent me this email:

Dan,

You will not believe the timing of your email. I literally sat down today with my partner and convinced him that we have to invite your wife over as well. So if it
is ok we with you the offer still stands and we would love to have your wife to Vanilla Room and Australia as well.

Your last email was great, we all sat around and read it last week one night after work. And let me tell you a little thing about Vanilla Room Margarita's. We are famous for them. There is no substitute for fresh lemons and limes. Although I love tanquarey I love martin millers gin even more.

Anyway Dan my good Man there you have it.

2 x Return tickets for you and lovely wife to Sydney (though you'll never want to leave)
5 star accomodation while you are out here.

I'll even take you and your wife for a personalised trip up to the Hunter Valley Wine Region.

How could you say no. Sleep on it, drink on it, either way let me know, keep in touch. We'll chat soon.

Kindest regards

Beckett Tucker

As a result of these invitations I turned down several other offers and even changed the proposed end-date of my quest from my birthday, December 4th, to New Years Eve to accomodate Mr. Tucker. In order to begin making plans I asked him what my specific arrangements would be and if it was okay to mention my appearance to any local media that might be interested. I got these two responses:

Ok Dan this is a done deal I am meeting with the travel agents today
will let you know how we go what you will need etc. Really excited, do you have a contact number I might be able to reach you on so we can speak specifics and so you
can put a voice to an email.

Kind Regards

Beckett

and

Hi Dan,

Please by all means mention us that would be really great, infact I was going to do a press release in Sydney if you are ok with that I will of course send it to you before we release it for your approval. My plan is to fly you both into Sydney a few days before New Years eve have a few drinks at a few places in Sydney and then finish with ours on New Years Eve. We are going to have a big party to celebrate the occasion. I hope this is all ok with you.

Kind Regards

Beckett

After assuring him that this was a grand idea and giving him my telephone number I awaited what I hoped would be more definite information about my trip. Sadly, I then didn't hear from him for a couple of months and after sending him a couple of emails asking where we stood on things I got this email from him August 11th:

Hi Dan,

Yeah all still good just finalising press release, Tiffany my pr girl will be emailing you soon with some questions re: how you are going etc., really excited,
will chat soon when I have some more solid info for you.

Kind Regards

Bex

Since then I have heard nothing despite numerous emails asking if there was any further information because I really did have to start making plans on my end. I even asked him to let me know if the offer had been withdrawn so that I could make other plans. Nothing. I can only assume, at this point, that what I and the Mysterious Chinese Woman had looked forward to with great anticipation is no longer to be.

This was my second to last email to Mr. Tucker and was sent on October 22nd and, again, no response:

Mr. Tucker,

I haven't heard from you for quite awhile regarding my visit to Sydney and the Vanilla Room. Are we still on for this? I really do have to begin making some advance plans if we are. Also, I am fast approaching bar number 900 and the fellow who did the Associated Press article for bar number 500 said he will probably cover it. I know he will want to know my plans for bar number 1000 because he has already asked me about it. I have told him my plans to go to Sydney but also told him that nothing had been finalized. He said to let him know when things were. You may recall that he said the Associated Press in Sydney would more than likely cover my visit to the Vanilla Room. He said he thought it would make quite a story.

If there has been a change in plans I would understand, but please let me know for sure one way or another.

Thanks so much and, again, I certainly appreciate your most generous offer.

Dan

After once again receiving no response I finally could wait no longer and had to make the decision not, under any circumstances, to visit the Vanilla Room in Sydney, Australia for bar number 1000 and sent him this email on October 28th to announce my decision:

Mr. Tucker,

As I move toward my final countdown toward my 1000th bar I am afraid that I will have to reject your offer, if, indeed, it still exists, to come to your bar in Sydney. As you know, I have tried repeatedly to get in touch with you to make definite travel arrangements but have heard nothing from you since August 11th. This is despite the fact that in one email, dated June 28th, you said that you were meeting with your travel agent that very day to make final arrangements and would be letting me know what they were.

I really cannot express how disappointed I am with this turn of events. All the way up until August 11th you continued to assure me that everything was still on track. As you can imagine both my wife and I were very excited about this trip. Why you would extend an offer and then do nothing to follow through on it I simply cannot imagine. As you may well imagine, I also turned down several other rather generous offers to visit bars for number 1000. For you to have made your offer without actually honoring it is, in my opinion, simply reprehensible. To not even have the courtesy of notifying me that the offer was no longer on the table is, in my opinion, even worse.

I did what I could on my end to publicise your offer, in print, on the radio, on television. I now truly regret that I did this but, as you can imagine, I will try to make amends.

You have certainly managed to throw a lot of cold water on what has been a very enjoyable journey and have managed, single-handedly, to turn its end into something less than the enjoyable finale both I and my wife, and even the Mysterious Chinese Woman, had been looking forward to with great anticipation.

Sincerly,

Dan the Bar Man

All I can say is that Mr. Beckett Tucker has done an excellent job of throwing cold water on what has been a most enjoyable journey through 1000 bars.

By the way, if any of you are inclined to let him know what you think of this turn of events, you can email him at:

Beckett Tucker

Of course, I am not even sure if he even gets emails at this address anymore. All I know is that he doesn't answer mine.