Day 71 - Shimou's Big Hurrah

This is Shimou with her Housemates Eating in the Background
(probably her cooking, I'd bet)

June 18th, 2015

Update: You'll notice that the formatting of each post has changed where they're slightly cut off. I'm playing around with it to see what works best. To read the rest of the article, simply click the aptly named "Read More" link.

Went to Shimou’s for lunch where I continue to annoy her with the random swearwords or obscure sentences I’ve learned / taught myself in mandarin. “Tsao” or however you spell it is the equivalent of the F-bomb, so they told me. I learned “Go” with the down-up intonation is dog, and that something that sounds like “Sure,” also down-up, is “shit.” “Dog Shit” is now something I can say. Funny that I can say “good morning,” but can’t seem to remember “yes” and “no.” Well, I can remember “no” because it sounds like “*bullshit.”

After lunch, I head home to procrastinate instead of going straight to the gym. This has been becoming a problem, the procrastination. HIIT the gym, then come home to find out that we.. have no hot water. Well, I guess this is what I get. After the shower, I tell Alex about it and he says that we can simply use the neighbour’s shower. Ah. 

I have just enough time to grab the burger/pint deal at Mustang before the meetup.com gaming night starts at the cafe down the street from it. Myriade cafe is pretty sweet, and it’s great to hear a tabletop game being dictated by someone with an accent. The effect of accents has largely worn off on me, though I’m getting pretty good at placing them.

Near ma maison

At the games night, we played dead vikings who fought our way through the trials of the afterlife, working to get into Valhalla. Woohoo! A storm is raging outside while we do so, and doesn’t let up by the time the games end. Well, I was going to go out anyway, might as well head to Mustang early.

I don’t have my passport with me, so going early is one of the only options to getting in places, though Mustang usually accepts my driver’s license on weekdays. I wander in, and the vibe feels strange.. like an event is happening. There aren’t any people that seem easy to talk to, but that could just be because I haven’t gone solo in some time. The spree’s been broken.

I approach a table of two, Aussie Nicole and Michael. Nicole is a mile-a-minute speaker who learned halfway through our conversation that her shoes were on the wrong feet. I asked what she did to make sure lives weren’t in her hands, but, oh wait, they totally are: she’s a nurse. Michael is a rather quiet fly-in-fly-out kinda guy. They’re best friends and she can’t go out on weekends, so he’s here to keep her company while they’re both in town.

Perth Cityscape from Russell Square

Nicole wants to dance, but Michael’s not a dancer. I volunteer. At this point, I’ve learned to bring ear plugs with me because the music is so damn loud, and I can actually hear people better with them. We dance, I get down to “uptown funk,” (such a good dancing tune) and I engage some middle aged ladies by dancing into them with my butt. Lynette, the cougar from Hip-E, showed up to look for her umbrella. We chatted until...

Shimou showed up for her last hurrah. She has a plane ticket booked for the next morning around 8:30am. I meet her friend/classmate, Shaf, and merge the groups I’m talking with, though not for long. Shimou’s friends arrive, but forgot their ID, which Shaf goes to investigate. After some time, of them not appearing, I investigate while Shimou buys 3 drinks at once. Circumstances forced things in an interesting direction tonight.

See, you can’t pay for drinks with debit unless it’s over $20, and Shimou didn’t bring cash. I check out the front and find out that they’re no longer admitting anyone into the bar, but I see her friends and Shaf, who are barred from entry. I tell Shimou the news. In response, she downs her second glass of wine and starts on the third. She hasn’t eaten much today, and is a quite small, asian woman.

We dance. I glance over my shoulder, then look back to find Shimou is absolutely plastered. Seriously, she could barely walk. The bar closes. Her friends, tired of waiting, had decided that Karaoke was the place to be! Anyone who knows me knows that I hate karaoke and really don’t want to sing in front of people… but I’m the only chaperone for a very intoxicated Shimou.

Performer Lee

After trying to convince her to jump up for a piggyback, but she obstinately refuses. I don’t think it’ll be a serious problem, but if the cops decide to be dicks... Well, it's just best to avoid that. Then again, this is Northbridge. We go to Karaoke. I listen to them sing Chinese songs until Shaf, who also doesn’t speak mandarin, picks some English songs. Mic thrust upon me, I take the opportunity to step further outside of my comfort zone. Yes, even diverting from plans makes me slightly uncomfortable, which will be crushed as time goes on.

We leave the Karaoke place around 2am, and Shimou insists I come back to her place. Insists. This means Shaf will have to give us a ride to her place, but he says he’s ok with that. He’s a pretty cool guy, into electronic music, and from Bangladesh. We had duetted a couple songs, like Creep (Radiohead).

At Shimou’s, she is both telling me she’s happy that, and asking me why, I’m there. She drunkenly makes me some food, which is still delicious. I ask her if she’s packed or if she has set her alarm, neither of which she has done. I insist she does, but she refuses. Well, hopefully she makes the flight...

*: Bù shì