| We did make it to Tower Records today. We bought Daft Punk. You seen that video for "Around the World?" It kills me! I love watching those people in skeleton suits wiggle around. The rear-end pelvis part is hilarious!! Makes me wanna get one of those costumes. :) |
Four day weekend is almost over.
On the Eve we rushed out to the Hard Rock Café for drinks. Dave had a particularly bad last day of the year and suggested it would take a little more than good food to put him at ease. No problem. We sat there, in the non-smoking section, sipping and watching the movement of the place. Been a really, really long time since I drank anything. And, actually, I can’t remember a time when drinking felt so good. Just sitting there, feeling the sting of the liquor in my mouth before it merged with my bloodstream, making me feel absolutely relaxed. One veggie burger and 3 drinks-a-piece later, we came home and watched Morrissey videos until the year passed. Was difficult to tell exactly when that was since all of our clocks were set differently and there was no hoopla on TV counting the minutes. We guessed and then hit the hay.
We did absolutely nothing for the next two days.
Yesterday we’d had enough of the house and ventured out. Walked by the big Buddhist temple downtown - can’t remember the name right now. It’s not very beautiful, just big. I like all the Buddhist paraphernalia stores lining the street in front of the temple; they’re better than the temple itself. I like to think about monks shopping for clothes, or beads, or little gold Buddha’s: "Oops, looks like we need another little buddha, better go buy one." Makes me laugh. We went for tea in Insa-dong to a little house that looked like it really was part of somebody’s house that they’d converted just to make extra money. The ajuma there was jovial and very willing to explain the traditional customs for tea drinking. Mostly she was teaching Koreans. Afterward we walked east from Insa-dong. The area was poor and old. I like seeing the old houses, restaurants, and tiny alleys. We walked down the small alleyways, peeking in at little eateries and stores. Eventually we wandered back to the main drag, Chong-no, and hopped a bus for Itaewon.
I bought a Liz Claiborne shirt for $6.50. (!!) It’s the real thing - it’s just been pilfered from the factory. Then we looked at ski pants. Just looking at them got me so excited to go skiing. There is a foreigner’s ski weekend in Feb and I would totally love to go. I’ve been hesitant to plan for it because Dave doesn’t ski, but he seems OK with it so now I’m gonna try and get a reservation. Last night I couldn’t fall asleep because I was too excited thinking about skiing.
Around 6pm we walked all the way to the other end of Itaewon to the Thai restaurant. When we ordered, the waitress asked if we wanted spicy. Dave said yes and that was that. When the first dish came, we dug in and man oh man it was so fucking hot I nearly died!! Even Dave, who eats hot sauce on everything, had mucous fleeing his body. I couldn’t eat it all and felt like I suddenly had a head cold with severe congestion. It was weird. And my mouth just kept burning and burning after I stopped eating the offending dish. When subsequent dishes arrived they tasted absolutely bland in comparison, but still so good. Coconut milk is where it’s at. For the longest time afterward I felt like I feel after exercising. Serious capsaicin induced endorphin rush.
It reminded me of eating szechuan at this trendy place in Taipei. Yvonne’s husband’s friend, Victoria, took me there after I’d lamented not eating very much Chinese food during my trip. (For some reason we ate a lot of Italian it seemed.) I don’t remember what the dish was - some kind of chicken thing. It was dark, as trendy places always seem to be, and I totally didn’t see that I had scooped up a ferocious chili with my spoon. As soon as I put it in my mouth my body rejected it: tears and snot poured down my face, and I hacked like I was choking on it - like my throat had just totally closed. Heh, my valve closed. The chili plopped onto my plate and I just sat there effusing fluids. I’m sure Victoria was totally embarrassed. She is someone who is very aware of appearances - one of the beautiful people - and, man, I’m sure she totally wanted to die sitting in that little restaurant across from a hacking woman.
Today, provided I can get around to showering, we might go to Tower Records. Woo.
|
future
past
index
|