Duke is on his way home, so the long goodbye is over. We went out with a bang though. Wild night at the new Hooters Apujeong. Beer and shots and decent enough food. And oh yeah, Hooters girls. Ironically, I hadn’t been to a Hooters in the States for many years, just never saw the attraction. And seeing as how they don’t even have hooters in Korea, what’s the point. Well, boys will be boys and all that, so it was a Hooters going away dinner.

Our kind waitress, Jen. She was a good sport about putting up with all our shit.

How may I serve you?

What are you looking at Duke?

Some of our merry group…

Duke receiving one of his gifts, an autographed Hooters T-shirt. Well, not really autographed, more like a bunch of insults from the people who actually like him. God only knows what his enemies would have written…

I know we were getting ripped by now because the “quality” of my photography is rapidly diminishing…

Dukey got a nice baloon from the Hooters staff…

…and they did a little dance for him…

…and we joined in. Duke was standing on a stool and I cut his damn head off…

There he is.

Methinks Duke is going to miss the Korean ladies…

Those girls sure do work hard. Big crowd, people waiting to get in. We got there early to caputre two large tables… I think they made some money on us, but I don’t know how much because Jim generously picked up the tab. He would brook no argument about it.

Ahem. I can’t believe I took this picture. I was drunk, ok? Anyway, what the wait staff lacked in breasts they made up for with other, er, ass-ets. I apologize in advance to any reader who is offended by my objectifying females. But really, isn’t that the point of Hooters?

Party on!

Bill and Joon, soon to be married. She is a sweetheart and Bill is a great guy. I’m very happy for them…

Joon and her friend whose name I don’t recall. I do remember she had braces and wouldn’t give me a big toothy smile. Alas.

Oh yeah, the other gift we gave Duke was a day calendar chock full of raunchy-ass pictures and rude and crude comments. Poor Jen had her tender sensibilities rocked by what she saw. Probably emotionally scarred for life…

Time to go, and the girls graciously posed for a goodbye photo.

Duke had so much fun he decided he wanted to be a Hooters girl.

So, after the party we took taxis back to Itaewon and continued drinking at Dolce Vita. I would say we threw darts as well, but it was more like trying to hit the dart board as much as anything else.

For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to draw on Duke’s body:

Duke’s sexual orientation was called into question several times during the night’s events. Something about him kissing Nolan. Nolan, you never told me that story!

So, after closing down Dolce Vita someone had the idea of going out to Don Valley for a Korean dinner (or an early breakfast since it was 2 a.m.):

Yeah guys, flip off the photographer, all the cool kids are doing it…

“Fuck you”, “No, FUCK YOU!”

Me and Grant at the end of a long night. Good thing we were sitting down.

And so the evening ended with some tears and fond farewells. Duke is one of a kind and he is going to be missed by many. Especially Ji Young.

Today I was not worth a crap. Big surprise. I did go out and pay my car insurance. Last year is was $350. This year it was $420. I asked why the increase and was told that the Korean government now charges extra fees for those with SOFA license tags. Which really pisses me off, not because of the money but on principle. We are here to defend their asses, why rip us off in the process?

I decided to take a “short cut” home. Took a wrong turn and wound up going through the Namsan tunnel and paid a 2000W toll. Got turned around bass ackwards and wound up going through the other tunnel and paid the toll going in that direction too. Well, if that’s the worst that happens to me I guess I’m lucky. Because I did accidently run a red light and almost got creamed to boot.

I came home around noon and haven’t left the house. Yeah, me at home on a Friday night. Go figure.