late night tales

[+] tale #1

the theme: awesome movies, free beers and good korean food

the set: downtown victoria. the block across odeon theatre and famous players theatre. 30 minutes bus distance from where i live (or an hour if i take the bus that goes to my campus first). four months after i first came to canada. one day before i went nowhere and put my lazy ass mostly in the house all day long. ten minutes after two awesome, awesome, awesome movies. 10.45 pm. a korean businessman (kb), a korean friend (kf), and a spoiled brat (me).

the story: yes, i finally made myself watched two great, great, great movies with my friend, in two different theatre (although they're just one block away) in one day. the last samurai and the lord of the ring's the return of the king. I would be glad to share the movies, but they're not what this tale's about. it's about what happened after we watched those movies. when we walked down the road on yates street, still in a deep conversation about the movies we'd just watched, when suddenly a guy ask something in an odd language to my friend. he answered using that language too, so i supposed the guy's a korean as well. they then had a conversation using that language, and sometimes the guy used english too and looked at me. then we had a conversation:

[kb]: so do you guys just watched some movies?
[kf and me]: yeah.. (confused)
[kb]: good. ok, suppose sometimes later on you just watch a movie again, and then you passed over here, you heard nice music from the inside of a restaurant, a korean restaurant, and you haven't had your lunch or dinner. Would you come in?
[kf]: most probably yeah..
[me]: well it depends..
[kb]: depends on what?
[me]: depends on whether it's expensive or not, and the atmosphere, and.. (lost words)
[kb]: yeah, we have to maintain the price, but the atmosphere is really good, and the food are good, definitely. so would you come?
[me]: maybe..
[kb]: ok. i'm gonna open a korean restaurant right over here. (pointing at the store in front of us where we'd been standing). i already have three of them at vancouver, and i'm gonna open a branch just right here. i believe this is a great place, people who just watched movies like you guys should be interested, and that's way i'm freezing my ass right now in the middle of the night, doing a research to find out about our potential customers just like you guys right now.
[kf]: that sounds great. they don't really have good korean restaurant in this city, you know?
[kb]: really? well, I'm pretty sure ours will be great. We will have.. (he listed down korean food names of which i couldn't even pronounce them, let alone remember them). they are great. for the music, at night we will play jazz, do you like jazz?
[me]: (almost shrieked) yes!
[kb]: yes, so we will have some jazz at night and maybe techno during the day, so we will have a slow down atmosphere over here. right now we will set everything into place and by late february we will open.
[me]: that's fast.
[kb]: yeah, but we already bought this place, and the setting shouldn't take too long. so my name is peter. and i will remember your face and the three of us having this conversation, make sure when we open the restaurant on February you will come by and look for me, and I will buy you guys some beers. how bout that?
[kf]: (in an instance) sure! We'll come by!
[me]: ok. sounds good too me! (grinning)

well there's one restaurant owner tried to promote his supposed-to-be cool new branch to us, but the thought of having some free beers on two months time really hitched us good. i'll look forward for that. :)

[+] tale #2

the theme: grown-up madness

the set: two days before christmas. one day after i watch the last samurai and lotr's the return of the king. three hours after i was labored to help the mad grown-up re-arrange his used-to-be nice and cozy living room into a total angle disaster kinda tv room. two and a half hour before i start writing this post. a house somewhere in the gordon head area, about 45 minutes walking distance or 30 minutes bus distance (because i have to take two different buses) from my campus, uvic. 9.30 pm. a mad man (mm), a mad grandma (mg)and a spoiled brat (me).

the story: for a little introduction, in case you haven't know yet, i rent a room in a house and share everything with the house's owner, this 42-year-old childless not-so-good-relations-with-women (i heard stories) love-to-hang-out and stressed divorcee. apparently he's a good son too (well, at least partly), for he has been letting his own 80+ mother from kingston, ontario to stay in the house during this christmas period since the 15th until the 28th. you've heard part of their morning rituals before. so anyway, i was just peacefully sitting on my lazy couch in my warm room reading dave eggers' you shall know our velocity! with full concentration when suddenly i heard funny noises and screams came from outside of my room. curious, i put down my book and took a look outside the door, wondering what the hell was going on. and here's what was going on, more or less:

[mm]: (excited as hell) i still can't believe i did it! woo hoo!!! my first time ever!!
[mg]: (laughing) oh boy, oh yes you did.. (shrug)
[mm]: (still under uncontrolled excitement) you know what? we should take a picture of this moment! yeah!! i'm gonna take my camera in the garage!! oh, i still can't believe this!! (walked enthusiastically to the front door and just realised that i've been watching them from my door looking puzzled)
[mm]: oh, emil! (grabbed front door's key) you just have no idea what had just happened! i won!! for the first time in my life, i can beat her (pointed at his mother) in scrabble! it's just too good to be true!! woo hoo!! (laughing uncontrollably) i just need to take a picture of this! i'll go get the camera and you'll take the picture, ok? (opened the front door and went to the garage)
[me]: (still puzzled and thought, wth? you win a scrabble game and behave like a mad man? get a life!) oh, ok then (tried to smile)
[mg]: oh, dear, he just won this scrabble game, have you ever played scrabble before, emil? he scored (she mentioned a score) and i only scored (she mentioned a lower score). and this is the first time he did it. (laughing)
[me]: (grinning and laughing too) yes i had. oh wow.. (tried to look impressed)
[mm]: (came abruptly from outside the house with a polaroid camera) ah! here it is! woo hoo!! i just still can't believe it! i won!! i won the game!! (screaming and shouting in a very annoying sorta way because he kept moving around us) my first, first time beating you!! (pointed at mg again) i kicked your butt!! i won!! (made a funny dance and thumping his feet repeatedly on the floor)
[mg]: (her smile faded) yes you won but that's not a polite way to say it. i'm still your mother..
[mm]: ok, i won. (tried to calm himself down) i won!! and you lose!! (seemed like he failed) woo hoo!! ok, ok, emil, so here's what you do, take a picture of us using this.. (handed me the camera) mmm.. (took the winning scrabble with him) ..over here! (walked his way in front of the fireplace) come on, mom, come over here!
[mg]: (shaking her head and smiling) ok, dear. (walked toward him)
[mm]: make your face look sad, mom, ok? (grinning and smiling widely)
[me]: (laughing)
[mg]: i can't.. i always smile when someone taking a picture of me (tried to frown but failed, instead smiling even wider)
[mm]: just tried to look sad mom. ok emil! (holding the scrabble game with a total pride)
[me]: ok, one.. two... (click!) (laughing again)
[mm]: thanks emil. oh.. my first time!! ever!!! i finally won!! woo hoo!! (did the silly dance again)

and so it went. even after i came back to my room i could still hear him screaming in disbelief and thumping his feet to the floor repeatedly. their enthusiasm faded after 20 minutes more or less, but then repeated when mg went to the bed and tried to sleep. if i'm not mistaken, i even heard that mm's going to frame the scrabble game so it'll be one of his unforgettable memories. *shrug*. madness...

[+] tale #3

don't really have a third story. it's already long anyway. merry christmas everyone... and have a great groovin holiday... :)