Persimmons... yum

Whew! I'm all better and recharged after that exam. As usual, I never know for sure if I'll pass. I just say to myself "I might pass". Seriously, these exams are done so that nobody knows for sure. If you know you've passed when you leave the exam, you've done something wrong somewhere.

Some other things were bothering me for the past couple of weeks, but they have sorted themselves out. Alison is back from Mexico, and she brought be some tequila reposado. If there's 3 things I learned in Mexico, they are as follows:
#1) Do NOT squeeze lime, lick salt and shoot tequila. The salt will aggravate the hangover if you get one. Instead, inhale deeply and hold breath. Squeeze lime and "shoot" tequila (no salt). Swallow together and exhale. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This gives a rush and enhances the citrus taste and the rechauffement of the alcohol. What else are you supposed to do when you're crammed in the back of an Unimog bombing down the Carretera Panamericana? Smile as you and your friends are waved through the army checkpoint.

#2) Do NOT drink the more widely available brands of tequila. Chances are the stuff you are buying is meant to have a long shelf life and is 50% preservatives. If you drink these brands, you will definitely have a hangover. In fact, the guy told us that natural tequila gives no hangover at all, and that a true Mexican would never drink Cuervo. Instead, try to drink smaller, less commercial brands. Yeah, its tough. I know.

#3) There are three types of tequila - mixing tequila, shooting tequila and sipping tequila. The mixing tequila is meant to be mixed for a reason - because it tastes like shit. This is the type of tequila one will typically get when they go to the local and ask for a shooter. Paradoxically, one will not typically get shooting tequila when asking for a shooter. One will have to ask for it by name, or frequent a local where the bartender knows their chops. Shooting tequila tends to be smoother and have a better taste than mixing tequila. Sipping tequila or tequila reposado is the best tequila money can buy. It's (almost) clear in colour and marked 100% agave on the label. I can't say if that is an industry control, but my bottle does have the mark, and I would hope that other reposados have as well. In the very least, it will be marked as tequila reposado. Would I shoot reposado? Maybe, but it's just so nice to sip, and it comes in a wee bottle big enough for 2 or 3 shots only.

I've taken dinner to Alison at work a few times, and that's why she gave me the tequila, packed in a bag with a Japanese dinner and a bag of truffles. I left the office one afternoon enjoying my iPod when all of a sudden somebody started whacking me with an umbrella. It was Ali. She had meant to meet me at work with the food, but we just missed each other so she ran after me down the block and hit me with a kidney shot to get my attention. It was scrummy. The truffles lasted me close to two weeks. Turns out Ali eats chocolate truffles every day. So I always end up wondering how she can be on a diet and stay so thin if she eats cheese and chocolate every day. That's some diet.

Bobby has decided to take the yacht on a trip to Oregon. Whatever. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it on my blog because now he figures I'm wasting the boat and that he can make more use of it by squatting on it for however long he wants. I shlepped all the Bombay off the boat because I paid for it and wished him a good trip. Secretly I am jealous. I mean really. Who's he kidding? It's not like he's going to mix the drinks himself, and I'm the only one who knows how to make his umetinis the way he likes. But when Bobby wants to slum it, he really goes for it.

He's decided to go to Oregon now because it's snowing here. Fuck. February was kinda nice for a winter month. Not a drop of snow all winter until Feb. 25th. 2 months bloody late! That day I went to an exam prep class and then went for sushi with some friends. I drove because I'm just that nice but the sushi was some serious business. The saba was about three times the size it is at other places and I got to eat it all to myself because most people don't like it. The House maki was huge - about 5 inches across. There was no way it could be held with chopsticks. It had to be eaten in stages.

Alison and I went to an izakaya on Wednesday and ate ourselves daft. I started with a greyhound and then an ume cooler and topped the night off with a large format Sapporo. I had to keep my head because I was doing some qualitative research for another blogger here. I had to find out how they prepared their hottate. Not what was in it, but actually how they did it. It wasn't easy, I tell you. Our regular chef had the night off so I had to ingratiate myself with the new guy. Turns out he used to grab a quick lunch at Kakihara's shop, so it wasn't impossible. I was temporarily distracted by courses of fried chicken, hottate, ika and hot onigiri, but I finally got an answer out of him. I don't think the answer was going to help Blue Lotus, but Ali clarified what I really wanted to know and I was more than happy to pass on the information. One last dish, and Ali decided to pull out all the stops. She ordered mintaiko - sauteed udon noodles dressed with spicy cod roe. It didn't look too good, but it was absolute heaven on the tastebuds. Maybe it would be better with a smaller gauge noodle, but even the thick udon didn't take anything away from it.

But on Tuesday, I went to pick up Ali at work since she was finishing her shift at the same time. As I waited, the paparazzo showed up again and the dude actually said hello to me. What nerve, like he actually knows me. He sauntered on his way, apparently there as a private citizen but maybe also because there is a great big warning on the front of the shop that says no photography is permitted. I decided not to tell Ali because I didn't want her to get upset and because the dude had been pretty passive. I made a unilateral decision and took Ali down to the old Indy circuit and taught her how to drive a manual shift. It was getting dark and it eventually started to rain, but she got the hang of it. She stalled Baby four or five times, and got flustered a bit because she didn't have a lot of time to get used to the gear tree. She kept missing third, and didn't really have a good chance to use it but we had fun in first and second. She's not ready for the road or anything, but at least its one more thing she can do. We were tooting around the remains of the circuit (backward): down the finish straight, turn left into the pits and accelerate down to the hairpin. Turn left again onto the finish straight and repeat. I don't think we went any faster than 40 km/h, but then an undercover unit arrived to question Shopping Cart Dude. The old track is wide open and is used as a shortcut by cyclists and pedestrians. We were careful to manoeuvre around Shopping Cart Dude and thought nothing of it until we saw red and blue flashes coming from a dark coloured car. I have been very careful to teach Ali how to identify an undercover police unit, but we never saw this one arrive. I hastily told Ali to stop the Jeep and get out. We switched places because she didn't have her license and we were technically trespassing under tort law, and left the track.

We went back to my place and watched March Comes in Like a Lion or Sangatsu no raion, a little gem I videotaped about 14 years ago. It stars Cho Bang-ho as Haruo, the amnesiac brother and Yoshiko Yura as Ice, the seriously messed up sister. This is not a film that a lot of people will want to watch, the subject matter is very delicate bordering on taboo. But it's just a movie right? I taped it off a programme that used to show highlights of the local film festival on a weekly basis. This is the only Japanese film I taped and that's why I asked Ali to watch it. I'm not sure what happened to this film at its release, but I don't think it played too widely on the international circuit. It's a pretty powerful film, stacked with pregnant pauses but the audio is messed up. The strangely chosen Andean music plays loudly, but the dialogue plays at normal levels. Growing up, Ice develops an unhealthy attraction to her older brother, and when he is injured in a motorcycle accident she decides to take advantage of his amnesia and well, you know. She invents a character for herself which I guess helps her as much as possible, but he slowly gets his memory back and realizes that his girlfriend is his seester. She realizes that the fantasy just isn't going to work, right at about the time the movie ends. I'm not sure why the film is named thus, but I can guess it's not really material to the story. Alison and I walked to work the next morning. It started to snow (fuck) - I guess March doesn't want to come in like a lamb.

After waking to a snowfall this morning, I shlepped to work in my trainers because it was Friday (bad move), and had a pretty easy day at the office. So easy that my boss decided to give me more work for next week. Sure... let the other contractor leave early because she has nothing to do, but make me stay and pack a load of shit on my desk because other more experienced staff can't keep up. Deep breath, smile! I met up with K-Bear after work to catch things up, and the fucker told me all about his holiday in LA. Hmmm, coincidence? Did he happen to go to LA for a holiday at the exact same time the Oscars were held? I don't believe so. He didn't actually attend the ceremonies and I don't think he intended to, but he did get to a few parties. One day...