One summer night out

Me and gang met online this afternoon, when the sun was up and high, and exchanged our mutual agreement that life in summer was slow and boring. In the end, two bored people decided to go out for dinner together. We walked back and forth along Bloor trying to find the right thing to eat in this scorching weather. Korean food is a bad option really, unless you don't mind sweating like a fountain after a bowl of spicy bone soup, with dishes and dishes of kimchi as appetisers. We settled with Japanese sushi and decided to stick with our old favourite restaurant. The Japanese waitresses there spoke rather incomprehensive English and when the girl asked us 'Would you like tea or water?' in a strange accent, I replied 'water' after a brief hesitation. The girl took our order and left. Gang had a ridiculous amused expression lingering on her face. 'I didn't even say water. I said 'wat'? coz I didn't even catch her.'Obviously, the girl mistook 'wat' for 'water'. Not much difference.

Our meal was interrupted (brutally) by the boss who turned out to be a Chinese, who couldn't hold his (feigned?) excitement that we're also Chinese. (Hey, take a look around! 1/4 of Toronto is Asian population...) To put it bluntly, he hang around our table like a fly, buzzing and buzzing. We had to hold our chopsticks in successive suspension to wait for him to finish his little talks, while he'd apologize profusely 'Don't stop eating! Listen to me talk but don't stop eating!'. He was hospitable enough to change two sushi pieces to unagi since there was no unagi in the combo we ordered and we both love unagi to death. Of course he didn't shy telling us all the promotions, new additions in the menu, customer service, upcomings in the restaurant and what not. 'Don't forget to tell your friends to come!' This's the real business man speaking. After the meal Gang took out her cell phone which has a handy programme called 'tip calculator'. A perfectly impersonal, mathematical, economical calculation returned a value around two dollars. We left 2.25 worth of coins. The boss mused for a while. 'One dollar each...' He looked at us and said, somewhat disappointed. And when we were on the way out the door, 'Give me a five!' The boss extended his open hand and beamed a brilliant smile. I, very reluctantly, gave him a low, followed by a high from Gang. Can't we leave the restaurant in some obscure peace?

Summer night in Toronto is just perfect for outing despite all the 'interesting people' you meet. Bought 3 packages of strawberry and a whole bag of cherries. Life is perfect perfecta perfecta!