And no more Tony either…
Another weekend, another farewell party. This time it was Tony and Mo saying their goodbyes to Korea as the Army has deemed they are needed in San Antonio. When I returned to Korea after a 13 month hiatus, most of the old faces were gone. Tony and Mo were amongst the new faces I met and enjoyed spending time with, if only for a little while. Such is the life in Itaewon I suppose. I will say they put out a nice spread of food and free beer for their friends and we all had a good time. I wish them both best of luck in the future.
As in the tradition at these farewell parties, a darts tournament broke out. Traditionally, the guests of honor do not win said tournament. Last night I drew up Mo as my partner, and Tony was paired with Dolce Vita proprietor Jim. And sure enough the four of us met in the finals, guaranteeing that at least one of them would break the tourney jinx and go out on a high note. After a long and drunken match in which none of us could hit the outs for which we aimed, I snuck in a double 1 for the win. Tony was philosophical about it, saying if I win Mo gets the money, if she wins she gets the money. So I guess it all went according to plan.
After the party I wasn’t quite ready for the subway journey home so I headed up Hooker Hill to a country bar I used to favor, The Grand Ole Opry. It’s been years since I was in there, but the ajumma who runs the joint remembered me as did the waitress, so that made me feel pretty good.
The guy in the cowboy hat was doing the Texas two-step and making the girls smile. There was a time when I fancied myself a pretty fair country dancer, but alas I was without a partner last night.
And since I promised Thirsty more posts about darts I’ll briefly mention Friday night’s action at Dolce. I teamed up with Shane and we both struggled all night, but somehow managed to make it through the winner’s bracket undefeated. We met Wan Jun and Steve in the finals and they dispatched us pretty quickly in the first set. We were down and almost out in the final leg of the match–behind on points and 17s wide open. We had bulls closed, and they needed one more bull for the win. And then I managed a double bull on my first dart which put us up on points, hit a double 17 with my second dart, and then a single 17 for the win. Yeah, I was lucky, but it was still a sweet finish.
We both went home W20,000 richer…