Best things happen when plans fail.
My nutty weekend in a nutshell.
Well, I went out with Cherie (Chinese Paul's girlfriend) and one of her friends that she wanted to introduce me to. Went out to an Indian restaurant downtown, it was great, though a little pricey. Cherie's friend, Sammy, was very nice but nothing leaped out at me, I think we may become friends. Sammy is 6 months younger than me, teaches English at a kindergarten and is fairly good looking. She had a cold, so maybe that had something to do with it.
We stopped for some Strawberries over ice shavings from a block of milk ice with some sweetened condensed milk over top, mmmmm...
After, we went to a music pub where there was a live band. The lead singer was a very pretty girl all dressed up in punk clothes, she had an army skirt, boots, fishnet top, a studded belt and leather bracelets, maybe we might get some good music. The best song they played, was "Black Cat" which is maybe a 70's song? They also sang a bunch of love sonnets, slow songs, and old songs, even the theme song to Doremon (kids cartoon). The songs were as far as punky as you could get but she sang them well, certainly a shock to everything I have ever known to see a punk bopping her head to the side while goofing around with a kids cartoon song... no there were no kids... Taiwanese people like crap like this. Anyways, it wasn't completely her fault, the songs were by request and a Punk-rocker was playing for a Blues crowd... by request.
On our way out, I saw three Taiwanese girls point to me as they were talking excitedly but I had no idea who they were. One gets up and runs out, "Colin!!!" It was Candy, the really nice girl who doesn't speak English. I was supposed to see her on Sunday (the next day). Things were good.
As we were walking to the car, I saw two girls on a scooter stopped in the middle of the street looking down at the scooter, I saw a blond ponytail out the back of one of the helmets and knew they were foreigners. I offered a hand, but when the visors turned towards me, I saw it was Emily (Jam's roommate and my friend) and her friend. Weird night, for a guy who doesn't seem to hang out with people, I bumped into a lot of em'.
Sunday, I woke up late and called Candy, she had promised her friends to go to the beauty salon or something, they were all going for haircuts, styles and massages, I was invited but I was just leaving the salon as I called her.
My hairdresser seems to be on permanent vacation since Christmas, I always get the, "Come check next week" speech. So, as I'm having this compulsion to howl at the moon at night, I decided to risk it. I decided to get a haircut from a different shop, then I can always come back and no one's offended. One of the teachers at school has nice hair, so I asked him where he goes. "It's down this alley close to here and it has two Ss on the door, one's backwards." So, off I went in search of the fabled symmetrical Ss. I found it and it looked like a 'Mom n' Pops' thing, whatever, I was told to stick with the younger woman. I sat down on the bench and an older lady told me to come sit in her chair, I politely told her that I wanted the young woman as she cuts my friends hair, she wasn't offended.
When the young woman finished with some rich gangster, she invited me to sit, Ii told her I wanted it "Western" and not fancy. She brought me some tea and sat me in her chair. Ohhhhh..... head, shoulder and back massage, tea, massage, more tea... The tea cups have a little lid, smart for a hair salon. Then comes the cut, looks good, but a little too much off the bald spot... just like my old hair dresser. Then she asked if I wasted a massage, shave and a face cleaning. Sure, whatever, I'll take what I can get. This was an OLD SCHOOL hair salon...
Well, the shampoo was cool, they use a bottle of soapy water, put some on your hair and play with it for like 20 minutes, so nice, the suds get scooped into a bucket and more water applied. Then, over to the sink, not much different. Now for the shave, I don't really know what she did, but she showed me a new razor blade, then put some stuff on my face and went at me with a straight razor!!! It was fine and she was quick, then a steamy hot cloth over my face and she cleaned the sleep out of my eyes and everywhere else she could find it. Then my ears, more steamy cloths... Then she used a metal spoon thing and started digging in my ear, not very deep, but in all the cracks and stuff. Then she lights some crap on a stick on fire and cleans my ear, then it gets weird... yeah, it's not weird enough yet. She turns me head to the side and gets a huge glass bottle looking thing out, it has a little spout and some crap inside. She lights the crap on fire and jams the spout in my ear!!! Wow, really hot, but not too hot. It felt nice and I think it melted the wax out of my ear or something, whatever, more cotton swabs and pokey things and then a repeat on the other ear. More steamy cloths, another massage and "Thank you!" ... the ONLY English words I heard from that place. I paid my bill (CAN$12)and called Candy.
Like I said before, she had some plans and I had had "The Works" so I wasn't going to join them. So I went home, grabbed my glove and drank beer and played baseball with the foreigners against the police, we won. After baseball, we drank more beer and decided that tonight's dinner was STEAK! Paul (Vancouver), Phil (Canada) and I ran to the 24 hour shop and bought 28 cans of Asahi (Japanese) beer and Ryan and Penny (Toronto and Taiwan) bought steaks at the grocery store. We all showered , changed and met at Ryan and Penny's apartment. Good time, we watched the Toronto Maple Leaf's game, played some games and had steaks... did I mention that Phil has been a cook for 10 years and is an expert chef? BBQ'd steaks, fried mushrooms, onions and peppers along with baked potatoes and home made spring rolls for a starter... mmmm...
Then, Paul and I went to John's place to play some PlayStation II Olympics video games and have some non alcoholic beverages. I went home at about 3:30AM cause I had to work this morning.
This seems to me a much bigger nutshell than I anticipated.
Well, I went out with Cherie (Chinese Paul's girlfriend) and one of her friends that she wanted to introduce me to. Went out to an Indian restaurant downtown, it was great, though a little pricey. Cherie's friend, Sammy, was very nice but nothing leaped out at me, I think we may become friends. Sammy is 6 months younger than me, teaches English at a kindergarten and is fairly good looking. She had a cold, so maybe that had something to do with it.
We stopped for some Strawberries over ice shavings from a block of milk ice with some sweetened condensed milk over top, mmmmm...
After, we went to a music pub where there was a live band. The lead singer was a very pretty girl all dressed up in punk clothes, she had an army skirt, boots, fishnet top, a studded belt and leather bracelets, maybe we might get some good music. The best song they played, was "Black Cat" which is maybe a 70's song? They also sang a bunch of love sonnets, slow songs, and old songs, even the theme song to Doremon (kids cartoon). The songs were as far as punky as you could get but she sang them well, certainly a shock to everything I have ever known to see a punk bopping her head to the side while goofing around with a kids cartoon song... no there were no kids... Taiwanese people like crap like this. Anyways, it wasn't completely her fault, the songs were by request and a Punk-rocker was playing for a Blues crowd... by request.
On our way out, I saw three Taiwanese girls point to me as they were talking excitedly but I had no idea who they were. One gets up and runs out, "Colin!!!" It was Candy, the really nice girl who doesn't speak English. I was supposed to see her on Sunday (the next day). Things were good.
As we were walking to the car, I saw two girls on a scooter stopped in the middle of the street looking down at the scooter, I saw a blond ponytail out the back of one of the helmets and knew they were foreigners. I offered a hand, but when the visors turned towards me, I saw it was Emily (Jam's roommate and my friend) and her friend. Weird night, for a guy who doesn't seem to hang out with people, I bumped into a lot of em'.
Sunday, I woke up late and called Candy, she had promised her friends to go to the beauty salon or something, they were all going for haircuts, styles and massages, I was invited but I was just leaving the salon as I called her.
My hairdresser seems to be on permanent vacation since Christmas, I always get the, "Come check next week" speech. So, as I'm having this compulsion to howl at the moon at night, I decided to risk it. I decided to get a haircut from a different shop, then I can always come back and no one's offended. One of the teachers at school has nice hair, so I asked him where he goes. "It's down this alley close to here and it has two Ss on the door, one's backwards." So, off I went in search of the fabled symmetrical Ss. I found it and it looked like a 'Mom n' Pops' thing, whatever, I was told to stick with the younger woman. I sat down on the bench and an older lady told me to come sit in her chair, I politely told her that I wanted the young woman as she cuts my friends hair, she wasn't offended.
When the young woman finished with some rich gangster, she invited me to sit, Ii told her I wanted it "Western" and not fancy. She brought me some tea and sat me in her chair. Ohhhhh..... head, shoulder and back massage, tea, massage, more tea... The tea cups have a little lid, smart for a hair salon. Then comes the cut, looks good, but a little too much off the bald spot... just like my old hair dresser. Then she asked if I wasted a massage, shave and a face cleaning. Sure, whatever, I'll take what I can get. This was an OLD SCHOOL hair salon...
Well, the shampoo was cool, they use a bottle of soapy water, put some on your hair and play with it for like 20 minutes, so nice, the suds get scooped into a bucket and more water applied. Then, over to the sink, not much different. Now for the shave, I don't really know what she did, but she showed me a new razor blade, then put some stuff on my face and went at me with a straight razor!!! It was fine and she was quick, then a steamy hot cloth over my face and she cleaned the sleep out of my eyes and everywhere else she could find it. Then my ears, more steamy cloths... Then she used a metal spoon thing and started digging in my ear, not very deep, but in all the cracks and stuff. Then she lights some crap on a stick on fire and cleans my ear, then it gets weird... yeah, it's not weird enough yet. She turns me head to the side and gets a huge glass bottle looking thing out, it has a little spout and some crap inside. She lights the crap on fire and jams the spout in my ear!!! Wow, really hot, but not too hot. It felt nice and I think it melted the wax out of my ear or something, whatever, more cotton swabs and pokey things and then a repeat on the other ear. More steamy cloths, another massage and "Thank you!" ... the ONLY English words I heard from that place. I paid my bill (CAN$12)and called Candy.
Like I said before, she had some plans and I had had "The Works" so I wasn't going to join them. So I went home, grabbed my glove and drank beer and played baseball with the foreigners against the police, we won. After baseball, we drank more beer and decided that tonight's dinner was STEAK! Paul (Vancouver), Phil (Canada) and I ran to the 24 hour shop and bought 28 cans of Asahi (Japanese) beer and Ryan and Penny (Toronto and Taiwan) bought steaks at the grocery store. We all showered , changed and met at Ryan and Penny's apartment. Good time, we watched the Toronto Maple Leaf's game, played some games and had steaks... did I mention that Phil has been a cook for 10 years and is an expert chef? BBQ'd steaks, fried mushrooms, onions and peppers along with baked potatoes and home made spring rolls for a starter... mmmm...
Then, Paul and I went to John's place to play some PlayStation II Olympics video games and have some non alcoholic beverages. I went home at about 3:30AM cause I had to work this morning.
This seems to me a much bigger nutshell than I anticipated.
posted by Colin at 9:48 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds like a great salon! They do the ear cleaning with the lighting of the wax pipettes in your ears here too! (We had a program on it at one of our meetings.)Must have imported that custom. Breta
fickle women, they want to do something, but only on their time...
Reg
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