Canadian grave near Vimy. June, 1917.
Cough, cough. Sniff. Cough.
At about midday yesterday, Sabine departed Vancouver to wend her way past Alaska to Kansai International Airport in Osaka. The part about Alaska surprised me at first, until I remembered that the world is, in fact, spherical, despite the flat maps they show you in school. Kids, don’t be deceived. The world does not begin on the left with Hawaii and end on the right with the Bering Straight. It’s round. Yes, I was shocked too.
In Japan, apparently, it’s traditional to give omiyagi — gifts — on practically every occasion to almost anyone you have ever known or met. Okay, I may be exaggerating, but the amount of gift giving going on there seems a bit on the excessive side. Here’s an example. Sabine hopped on her flight, leaving Cubicle Dweller with all kinds of interesting omiyagi, such as strange snacks (which I’ll add to Project Snack 2 eventually), as well as some kind of nasty Japanese cold. I should have been firm on that point… thank you very much, but I’d rather not have a Japanese cold. This figures. It’s a holiday Monday, and I’m stuck at home with a runny nose that doesn’t even speak English. How do you say “go away” in Japanese?
What do I use to fight a Japanese cold? That’s right… Japanese Dristan. I suppose this is the equivalent of Neo Citron here in North America. Dump the powder into a mug, add boiling water, and BAM — instant hot, lemony drugs. Mmmm. Druuuuugs.
Unfortunately I only have one of these things and I’m not sure if the drug store is open today. So after this one wears off, all this cube dweller can do is loll around feeling sorry for himself while watching Star Trek reruns.
Warning: may contain adult language and hollandaise
“Eat your fucking lettuce,” the waiter said, thrusting my emptied breakfast plate back at me. This isn’t normally what you’d expect from your waiter, but this isn’t a normal café. This is the Elbow Room on Davie Street. Their motto: “Food and service is our name, abuse is our game.”
If you’re from Vancouver, you probably know all about the Elbow Room. It’s the only place (that I know of) where the serving staff will freely berate the patrons. It’s all very good-natured yet surreal at the same time.
I’m not big on the insults, but the food is absolutely amazing. I had the BC Benny — two English muffins, cream cheese, smoked salmon, two poached eggs, and hollandaise, all on a bed of lettuce. Mmmmm, hollandaise. I’m drooling at the memory of it.
Anyway, I managed to avoid eating the lettuce on the grounds that it was too healthy and avoided the waiter’s ire. Presently, the people at the next table got into a mock squabble over the tip, with expletives flying, at which point Sabine pitched in with “Oh, you’re offending my virgin ears!”
Without pause, he shot back, “That’s about the only part of you thats still a virgin!”
Well, Sabine may have lost that little exchange, but she can trade insults with the best of them. She gets along best with the smoking, tattooed, soccer-playing guys in Japan. She must be a real shock for the traditional types there.
The people next to us finished the dregs of their coffees, and waiter came back, bellowing “You’re done. Get out.”
After a few more expletives, they settled the bill and left, at which point I noticed that they had left a little note on their table, scribbled on a matchbook: “This is your FUCKING tip!!” (with little happy face.)
Early morning fire
Apparently I’ll sleep through pretty much anything. As reported by Sabine in her blog, in the early hours of the morning, flames tore through my neighbour’s house across the street, and fire crews battled the blaze as flames shout out through the roof. Or so I’m told. I didn’t witness this, because someone didn’t feel that it was important enough to wake me for.
This morning my neighbors are assessing their loss and picking through the debris for possessions. I can only imagine how that must feel, to lose your home and everything you own. They’re on the street now, with only the clothes on their back and a few sooty blankets. No one seems to have been injured, fortunately. I just hope they have a place to stay while they get their lives in order.
Mask
