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You can’t rule anything in or out, apparently, except ruling things in or out. It has now been officially proven.
There are some longstanding, hard no’s in my life. Especially to do with food. I even have a list of what I call poison. I don’t know what is happening to me. Sometime soon I’m going to say I like cucumber. That will be the end of life as we know it.
I digress. Cutting to the chase, this week I drank three shots of tequila. In one night. Everyone knows I hate tequila. Again, what is happening to me?
Perhaps it was situational. I was in my favourite bar in Manila, called Southbank. We discovered it when looking for coffee one morning before the Ultimate Frisbee tournament. The coffee was Allpress from Melbourne. It was the best coffee I’d had in a long time and not just because I’d been in America. Then we found out Southbank was also a cocktail bar. With great food. You can see where this is going. I only saw two things in Manila. Hours of frisbee, accompanied by 120% humidity. And Southbank Cafe + Lounge.
I’ve heard there are other things to see and do in Manila but I can’t confirm that. Frisbee and Southbank. That’s it.
The people that work at Southbank are the best in the world. They are in fact award winning bartenders. Their creations were truly works of art. And the service was top shelf. All of these reasons may have contributed to me drinking the tequila shots put down in front of me. It would have been rude to refuse. They may have been heavily discounted. (But we made up for it, considering we spent our entire food and drink budget at this one place.) I can’t explain it. But I did it. Down the hatch. Not once, not twice, but three times. (There may have been one other, separate occasion.)
I also can’t explain eating my first oyster in Vail, Colorado, with my friend Marlee. She and her brother have a thing where they send each other a photo eating oysters and drinking champagne when they travel. I didn’t eat an oyster in Aspen, the first day we did this. Of course I drank the champagne. There is nothing wrong with me.
The next day we went to Vail. We did a huge hike, at 14,000 feet. I deserved a prize. She ordered the champagne and oysters again. I may have actually been unconscious due to the altitude or more likely from the eye watering cost of one glass of champagne. $32USD. In any case, Marlee goaded me in to eating an oyster. I didn’t die.
And this brings me to yesterday. Global warming is in full swing here in Australia. We are five minutes out of winter and it is already 32 degrees C (90F). It was really hot and I wanted to sit-swim. I knew the heated pool water temperature would meet my non negotiable requirements of being more than 20 degrees (68F). But I also knew it would be packed to the gills with screaming children. And the extremely closely located ocean would have enough room for everyone. To stay far, far away from me.
The only problem was the pesky temperature. It was going to be 17 (62F) at the most. And I really, really don’t like cold water.
A true conundrum. Like when my Mum found a six pack of beer at the local park. Oh, the conundrum. “We don’t drink”.
“Free stuff.”
“We don’t drink.”
“Free stuff.”
And just like Mum and the six pack, I also can’t rule anything in or out. Mum brought home the beer “to cook with”. I drank the tequila. I ate the oyster. And I sat-swam in freezing cold water on a boiling hot day.
Because it was there.
Yes I’m with you: very recently I cheered for the Storm, and also the Roosters. Wha this the world coming to, honestly? The things we have to do, and thus can perform some convoluted self-justification ritual to cope with the cognitive dissonance which ensues. Presumably Alzheimer’s/dementia is where we just reach tipping point of too much cognitive dissonance to bother with ruling in or out, so we “nope right out”, as Miles used to say.
Obviously you are my older and much smarter sister. There are some big words in there and I don’t know what they mean. However, I was recently complimented on the correct use of the word churlish, in the context of buying two bottles for of wine for $36 instead of one for $24. It would never do to be described as churlish.