Not a bad one, all things considered.
Friday night was the regular Dolce Vita darts tournament. Chris H. and I played about as bad as you can play without losing. We wound up “good” enough for a first place finish. My partner in the second tourney was a little off (to be charitable). You know, in a blind draw format I just accept who I get without complaint. Lord knows I get a solid partner as least as often as a weak one. But damn, it is one thing to get a beginner and another thing to get a beginner who won’t take advice. And I don’t mean advice on technique, I mean basic darts strategy. For example, we had an 18 out (yeah, that was my doing, sue me) and he hits a single 9. No problem. I suggest a 1 double 4 but he tells me he doesn’t like the double four and throws a 3. Well, a 6 out is an out but it is fraught with peril. I of course proceeded to hit a 3, but salvaged a win with the good fortune of hitting the 1 double 1. Not that it mattered because we then got smoked in the cricket leg for a first round exit.
Anyway, I got Alistair for the 3rd tourney (see the good/bad does even out) and we played some decent games for the win.
Between tourneys, a couple of acquaintences from work came in and sat at the bar next to me. After they left the bar girls were laughing and talking in Korean and I said what’s so funny? They said “we have never noticed you were handsome before we saw you next to those two guys.” I am sure they didn’t realize that they had paid me an insult rather than a compliment, but that’s sorta the way things are in Korea. You either laugh or get bitter. Life is too short for bitterness, right?
Several hours later I encountered the same two gentlemen in Grand Ol’ Opry. They were feeling no pain (well, I am sure they were the next morning). Discretion and the rules of Itaewon preclude me from saying anything more about their antics.
Saturday night was the bachelor party for one of my Canadian buds, Von Jackass (aka Scott). We had the back room, 3 kegs of beer, and Seung Youb on the grill. Well, SY wasn’t on the grill, the pork and chicken wings were, but you get my meaning. If inebriation is a measure of having a good time, Scott was the happiest guy on Earth that night. After one of the many toasts in his honor I told him that there are only two times in a man’s life when he doesn’t understand women. Before marriage and after marriage. I noticed a lot of head nodding, so I guess it must be true. But then I was talking to a room full of drunk men, so who knows?
Later, Grant, Alistair, Matt and me (4/5s of next season’s version of Sliders) moseyed over to Blue Frog to throw some darts. We paired up and played some doubles for money and wound up splitting two sets, which was where we chose to put the darts away for the night. Sharp pointed things and drunks are not a safe and sane combination, not that we cared.
After a lazy Sunday playing CIV IV (did I mention I got my high score? I did.) I figured I would go out and, yep, you guessed it, throw some darts. There was a wedding party for Daniel at Dolce so I just said my hellos and moved on. Bless U was having some event that seemed to involve Formula 1 racing and Nigerians, so I didn’t even climb the stairs. Manila wasn’t open yet. Which left me with 3 Alley Pub as the best remaining option.
Turned out to be a good choice because my English buddy Neil was sitting at the bar and we had a nice chat whilst waiting for a dart board to open up. Neil is one of those “lucky” few who actually read my pathetic blog. Better yet, he purports to like it! That’s actually how we met as it was a friend of his that I saw fall out of a moving taxi which made for one of my great moments in blogging (I wasn’t kidding when I said this is a pathetic blog!). Anyway, he proceeded to ply me with shots of Jagermeister (which makes me gag, but good manners dictate that I accept the generous offer when made). After 3 or 4 I had a pretty good buzz going and Rodney and I threw same nice games. His darts have really improved the past year or so and I told him he needed to get his ass up to “A” division where it belongs.
Given that us Americans had to work on a Korean National Holiday (Buddha’s birthday), I made it an early night and journeyed back home (stopping for a beer at Manila Bar on the way).
And that my friends is the story of my weekend. Don’t hate me because I have such an outstanding life. Some of us are just born lucky. Or not.