Day 125 - Airline Resolution and "Pies"

Goodbye, Dogs Prohibited.
You're just too heavy for me.

August 10th, 2015

Shimou still holds that she isn’t going to come. She thinks it’ll be too difficult to say goodbye to me there, and then have to fly back by herself. I think that’s silly because that will force her to say goodbye sooner - tomorrow at the latest. She tells me to buy my ticket.

We eat breakfast, and the stress of the ticket still hanging is bothering me. If I’m flying out today or tomorrow - I’d like to know which. I clear the table after Shimou and Ella are finished eating, and set down to work. I’m about to buy my ticket when Shimou stops me from clicking the confirmation. She agrees to come, gives me the information I need to book both ticket, and awaAAAay we gooOOOoooo! Phew, bullet dodged. On the upside, by delaying that extra day, we got a cheap ticket with Virgin. That is the way to fly, man. They don't charge extra for luggage, have more space, and you each have your own video screen and USB charger at each seat. In the end, it cost $10 more than the dirt cheap ones, which would have still charged for luggage.

I finish packing, then realize I have to go back through everything to find the Chinese SIM card that Shimou had bought me on her trip to Beijing. It’s nowhere to be found. Damn it.

Lee giving me a cut

Shimou promised her friend in Melbourne that we would bring him/her* an apple pie from a specific bakery in Perth. It’s supposed to be known for it, and I don’t have anything else planned for today. We cab into town because she’s not sure we'll make it before the bakery closes. I’ve walked past this bakery so many times, but never knew it was anything special. While she pays for the cab, I get out and “beep” to myself a few times, imitating the debit machine. I'm beginning to see why people have told me I'm an eccentric…

We buy these “pies” to find out that they're about 2 feet long, and 3 inches wide. 

“That’s not a pie,” I say, “It’s a tart.. or maybe a strudel.”

“It says apple pie! It’s an apple pie!” Shimou insists. I disagree. I still want to try this non-pie, though. Since we're in town, I suggest we grab a coffee at Dôme. During our caffeination, I launch into a polisci lesson about why we need each of the political philosophies, even if we don't like the other ones. Don't ask me how, but this segues into how to set up an online business, starting from ideation and moving to validation. The online business is only theoretical right now, but soon I'll be putting it into practice. Partially, I was explaining it to see if I understood it well enough to do so.

Goodbye Mustang, you dirty old bastard

We carry our recently acquired treasures to the station and take my last train home. It might even be the last time I ride the Perth train. Again, I purposely avoid focusing on that fact because it will probably lead to a sense of regret or depression. I double check I packed everything, and spend my last night listening to a debate between Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly while playing Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, again. That game has so much replay value!

Shimou packs and does what she needs to after I move to the bedroom and finish all the released episodes of Steven Universe. I have mixed feelings - mostly positive - about that show, but it definitely has some deep, believable characters. Now for the last sleep I’ll have in this part of the country.

*In mandarin, "he," "she," and "it" are all one word "tā." The characters are different when written, but they're the same when spoken. Because of this, I don't know which gender her friend is because she keeps using both "he" and "she."