24 Karat Gold-Plated Sushi and Grumpy Old Women
Hmmm…it appears that I haven’t written a blog for a while, which is not my fault by the way, it’s all the IB’s doing…but now that I’m done, and have nothing better to do at midnight on a sweltering Wednesday (or I suppose it’s Thursday now isn’t it?), I have decided to recall the events that happened earlier this evening, or in the pre-evening (lol Sheldon).
It all started when I received an invitation to go to the ‘Yearbook dinner’ which is where all the Yearbook members come together and celebrate all the hard work they have put into the, well, the Yearbook (which is super duper awesome by the way). The festivities began at 8pm and took place at a restaurant called ‘DOTS Experimental Sushi’ which I found to be quite an amusing name…what exactly were they experimenting with or on? Were the guests Guinea Pigs? Would I receive mysterious, glowing, radioactive Sushi?? But anyway, that would have been cool…
Anywho, I had done nothing but sleep and watch Wall-E….which is really cool btw…for the whole day and when it was finally 7:12pm I decided to get ready. I went and took a shower and carried out all the necessary ablutions, when it suddenly sort of dawned on me, I didn’t really know where this place was…typical Matthew…I thought . After quickly getting dressed and slipping on my awesome shoes I ran to the computer and went to my facebook account and began to hunt for phone numbers…but alas I could find none and so I went onto facebook chat and prayed I would find a fellow yearbooker on the chat, and lo and behold there was Lenny! Quick as a flash I clicked on his name and typed the message, ‘Do you know Silvia’s number?’ as fast as I could. I then sat and waited apprehensively for his reply…his reply was, ‘No, sorry’ or something like that. Damn it! I thought…but then I asked, ‘Are you going to the yearbook thingy tonight?’
‘Yes’ he replied…
He then continued to give me directions to the restaurant, and I thanked him and logged out of facebook.
Good. I thought. I just need to catch the U3 to Zieglergasse and walk towards 103 Mariahilferstrasse…cool.
I then picked up my fully charged phone, my wallet, that contained 46 Euros, my house keys and, by far the most important accessory, my iPod with the headphones already attached. I said goodbye to my mother, my father and my sister as I listened to the awesomeness that is Jack Johnson.
I stepped out of my apartment and moved towards the small, fragile elevator that took me to the ground floor.
It wasn’t long before I was across the street and near the other elevator that would take me down to the Nestroyplatz station. I bought a 24 hour ticket, which cost about 6 Euros, as I mouthed the words to the chorus of ‘Anything but the Truth’. However, my terribly relaxed mood was quickly destroyed as I spun around to see that a small pale looking lady had entered the elevator. Now, being the kind, friendly people who Austrians so often are, I knew that if I didn’t run for the elevator and nearly kill myself in the process, I would not get onto the elevator and would be late for the Yearbook dinner. So I ran, and leapt onto the elevator as the door was closing. But my victory was short-lived, as in my haste I had forgotten to validate my ticket (there was a blue-box thing just outside the elevator and there were none of them down in the U-bahn station, well they were located down stairs but they were by the stairs, which was quite far away) so I decided to exit the elevator and quickly validated my ticket. I muttered an inaudible ‘Entshüldigung’ and re-entered the elevator, my head-phones now slightly lop-sided. The pale, pointed faced lady, with her dark shark eyes, didn’t smile in an understanding manner…instead she gave me a sharp icy look and muttered ‘Danke’ quite loudly. At first I had no idea what she was talking about, so I uttered ‘Bitte’ and smiled. But as her grimace deepened and her eyes darkened, I came to understand that she wasn’t saying ‘thank you’, she wanted me to say ‘thank you’. But why? She hadn’t helped me, she hadn’t made any attempt tho hold the door for me. So she wanted me to thank her for having the audacity to hang around me for a few extra seconds. And most of all, when we got down to the station it wasn’t like the 4 extra seconds had cost her a train, for the train she was going to catch was about to arrive…in 2 minutes. So as I stepped off the elevator, I simply looked at her once more and smiled my biggest, cheesiest and cheekiest grin and gave her a small wave. Her face was like a lump of melted putty, all bent and flexed into what must have been a very uncomfortable position that was full of hate and disgust. Now, most of me, about 65% didn’t care, but the remaining 35% couldn’t help but feel bad, even though my logic told me that she was being ridiculous… I couldn’t help but feel a little bit bad.
Anyway, I was soon on the U3 and even sooner than I thought I was exiting the station and was walking up the steps towards the busy street. At first I had no idea where I was really, but I then remembered that a map I had looked at said that DOTS was located West of the Zieglergase station so I looked for the setting sun, but alas all the stupid grey buildings were in the way so I decided to find 103 manually.
Very soon I was at DOTS but I couldn’t see anyone else anywhere…and I was feeling quite apprehensive and lost…but this only lasted for about 34 seconds. After this time had lapsed I saw a familiar face walking towards me…Hayden Lemire. Cool. At least I wasn’t lost alone now. We said our formal greetings and he called various people and asked them about their current locations. Soon afterward he spotted Mr. Bancroft and Sophie…yeah! All was not lost! Whilst we waited for the rest of the team to arrive Hayden commented on how expensive this restaurant was and how it had could cost 2 people about 250 Euros just to eat there. We both laughed at the thought of the Yearbook team’s bill at the end of the evening. ‘It would be like 21 times that amount!’
A few other yearbookers arrived shortly afterward and Mr. Bancroft took us inside.
Like all restaurants it had its pros and its cons…Well, the decorum was strange, (con) to say the least and we ended up having our own little room to ourselves, which was very convenient (pro). Mr. Bancroft then commented on how the chandelier hung from the bare ventilation that hung mechanically from the ceiling (con), which was something I hadn’t noticed. It was on odd sort of place, and the chairs we got were difficult to get into and out of. One had to be double-jointed or maybe even quadruple-jointed in order to sit down and stand up without having to resort to amateur gymnastics (con).
Once everyone had arrived, the drinks were ordered. I had a normal coke of course. Very typical of me, and apparently very ‘boring’ of me (as I usually am) as Lenny said to, I think it was, Xiaozhou who simply rolled her eyes at the remark as she had ordered a normal coke as well.
Anyway, I can’t remember most of the conversations that followed as I took part in hardly any of them and decided to test the heat conductivity of the chop-sticks I had been given. Now at first they appeared to be steel but on a closer inspection I believed them to be to made of some kind of plastic that was spray-painted…or at least it was steel I had never held before…but the heat-conductivity experiments continued. I began to rub down on the chopsticks to develop heat via friction, and as I did so I timed how long it would take for the heat to spread from one area to another, but the experiment didn’t really work…of course. Now, and this always happens, Silvia and her minions looked over at me and asked, ‘Matthew, what are you doing?’ and as I always reply I said, ‘I don’t know’ as I often don’t feel like explaining myself…
The experiments continued with me staring into my glass (which was now devoid of any coke) and I experimented with the magnifying properties of the glass and was fascinated by the kaleidoscope effect the glass had on the light. Again I was confronted by the question, ‘What are you doing?’ and again I replied, ‘I don’t know’.
Then the food arrived…. 
I ordered the Misosuppe, and the Steak and Cheese Maki thingy…
The Misosuppe was good, but a little bit salty for me…but it was good overall (3.5/5 Yes, now I’m a food critic)
Then the main-course arrived and it was delicious (5/5)…what made it especially nice was the fact that it was plated with gold sprinkles, 24 karats At first I tried to collect all of the gold off of the sushi but found that as I did so the gold simply faded away and meshed to pieces of the sticky rice and simply disappeared. Disappointed that my get rich-quick-scheme had failed I continued to eat the rest of my Sushi. Afterwards I felt like a million-buks! PUN INTENDED…
My side of the table then began to argue over the importance and significance of sport…and the differences in the etymologies between the word ‘sport’ and the word ‘game’. This argument soon revealed those who were enthusiastic and excited for the Fifa World Cup and those, like me, who were not. And I mean, I’m not disappointed and upset that the Fifa World Cup is occurring…I am, as I have always and will probably always be, indifferent…I don’t care…However, I do hate it when someone assumes that because I’m South African and the World Cup is being hosted in SA that I would immediately be excited and patriotic about it. And of course, I am not saying I’m not patriotic, I’m just not super duper patriotic, I mean I’ll support SA in the World Cup but if we go to war, then SA can piss off…I ain’t gonna kill anyone just because my country says so. So I wouldn’t go to war for my country, and unlike most blindly patriotic and biased folk, I have no illusions about South Africa…at all.
Anyway, the feast was over and the grade 11s had to return home early because they have or had school tomorrow…or today…it’s currently 1:21am in the morning. And they had to study for History…oh yes…I remember when I had to study…and go to school…fun times.
Anyway, (wow, I say ‘anyway’, a lot) soon after, we grade 12s had to leave…and went down to the train station, Hayden and Calvin went on a bus though, so it was only, Franni, Silvia, Linda, Isuru and I…Juhee, Yayra Cecilia, and Jane had left earlier on I think. I then got separated from Linda and Franni as Isuru, Silvia and I stepped off of the U3 onto the Stefansplatz platform (and I was glad too as there had been some very strange and fearsome fellows sitting behind us on the U3).
What was this? It appears that Xiaozhou, Surbhi, Yangyang and Yayra had stepped off of the same train…but they had left a good 20 minutes before us…So jokingly I asked if they had got stuck in some kind of time-vortex or if they had been messing with relativity. Xiaozhou replied that they had simply got on the wrong train or something or the other…So we all walked to the U1 station…except in a moment of confusion Silvia and Isuru broke off from the pack and went up the escalators instead of down them…anywho, Xiaozhou, Yayra, Yangyang, Surbhi and I soon arrived at the correct U1 station…and after 7 minutes of small-talk and spending time amongst Xiaozhou’s so called ”awesomness” or so she said, I wasn’t convinced, we bordered the train. At first no one sat, as if we had done so the group would have been broken up, and so Yayra was held back, and did not sit despite the fact that she really wanted to sit.
Soon just about all the seats were clear and so the group sat down…but alas, I was to get off at the next station -.-
I then tried to fix my headphone wire-thing (it’s been a bit weird at the moment) by shortening it and tying it in a knot, but I was only scoffed at once more and recall Yangyang saying, ‘It isn’t going to work’. Thanx a bunch…
Soon I was off the train and said goodbye to everyone…and began to walk towards the stairs when I suddenly noticed I was walking in the wrong direction…I quickly spun around on my heels and walked swiftly towards the stairs on the opposite side of the U-bahn (the elevator was too full for me to get on, damn mothers with their prams) and sped past Xiaozhou, Yayra, Surbhi and Yangayang. When they realized it was me, (I was quite embarrassed), and that I had been walking in the wrong direction most of them must have laughed but I could see Xiaozhou was laughing the most (I felt my face go red)—–thanx…I live to be ridiculed….
JK I don’t mind… 
