MAY 12, 16 .. BEFORE AND AFTER SUNDAY’S BALLET .. SLEEPING BEAUTY

Because of yesterday’s winter snow storm I will begin this Post with a brief look back at yesterday’s weather and give you an update about today’s weather on Thursday, May the 12th, 2016.

Today dawned with clear skies and the temperature well below freezing at 14F / -10C. It felt a little winter crispy.

Yesterday May the 11th, 11 o’clock in the morning. Photo from my bedroom window.
Today May the 12th, 7 o’clock in the morning. A very respectable amount of snow remains on the ground.

To show you all of the cars, in the below photos, I ‘panned-down’ from the above view.

Yesterday May the 11th, 11 o’clock in the morning.

Today May the 12th, 7 o’clock in the morning.
Yesterday May the 11th, 11 o’clock in the morning. Photo taken from my kitchen window.

Today May the 12th, 7 o’clock in the morning.

Today May the 12th, 12 noon. A little snow melt progress.
Today May the 12th, 6 o’clock in the evening.

The sun is out and Spring has returned.
Notice the small tree-bush above and below on the far right.It is amazing to me, that a mere 24-hours ago, the small tree-bush looked like this.
Now we have a lot of water to deal with.

With sub-freezing temperatures during the night we still have a little winter in the Month of May.

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Last Sunday the 8th was quite a day. In my MAY 8th Post I discussed my attending the ballet Sleeping Beauty.

I wrote that I could have titled it .. WHAT A DAY ..

https://babakaps.net/?p=20826

I focused on Sleeping Beauty in the above Post so that I did not detract from the ballet.

However .. Taa-Daa .. BEFORE the ballet .. I enjoyed a four course lunch (really a mid-day dinner!) with friends here in Ulaanbaatar at the Hot Pot Korean Restaurant.

Last year Deegi and Saina introduced me to the Hot Pot Korean restaurant. Because it has become one of my favorite restaurants I have decided to show it again in this Post.

Below is my table-of-choice or if you will my favorite-table. Odd but 95% of the time that I visit Hot Pot ‘my table’ is vacant.Below in the center to the left by the window is ‘my table’.
Panning to my right from the above photo we see the below view of Hot Pot. I consider it to be an up-scale dining venue.Sitting at ‘my table’ and looking to the right. My favorite waiter is at the service counter on the left in the distance.Whenever I walk into Hot Pot and he is on duty our eyes meet. We both smile and nod. Nothing is said.

Voila!  Out comes one of my bacon potato salads.

I think that maybe the one below was the best.
This too was outstanding.

So last Sunday when I walked into Hot Pot I went directly to my favorite waiter (I was so pleased that he was on duty) and with my ever increasing abilities I performed a Charade for him.

Charade(s) (used with a singular verb) a game in which the players are typically divided into two teams, members of which take turns at acting out in pantomime a word, phrase, title, etc., which the members of their own team must guess.

I held up four fingers and with arms waving I gestured that four of us were going to eat together and NOT to bring a bacon potato salad until we ordered. Smiling from ear-to-ear he nodded that he understood.

Deegi and Saina and Cindy arrived shortly thereafter.


We four were seated at ‘my table’ and Deegi was busy putting together our order.

Smiling from ear-to-ear ‘my favorite waiter’ appeared with .. Taa-Daa .. you guessed it .. a bacon potato salad and proudly set it down in front of me.
Let me .. Allow me .. To tell you .. This language thing is really an issue. You think you both know what you have worked out but you just never know for sure!

When I worked four exciting years in West Germany from 1974 to 1978 we all were under strict orders to never ever communicate any formal business in German !  You think you know what is being said and agreed upon and in reality you may not have a clue what your foreign counterpart is thinking.

Fine. No problem. I was going to have Deegi include in our order a bacon potato salad anyway. But I had to sit for fifteen minutes with this beautiful bacon potato salad in front of me knowing I could not touch it. None of us had plates to share it in any event.

Taa-Daa .. Here we go loop de loop .. Here we go loop de li ..

Below you see two separate entrees. The bacon potato salad and the family dinner. Note that there is an open area (a vacuum) to the left of the family dinner and above the bacon potato salad. A vacuum wants/needs to be filled.

The center-piece of our mid-day dinner. Meat and potatoes with ten side-dishes.

Nothing could be finer.When what to my wondering eyes should suddenly appear in the midst of the above!

Do all of you see the large bowl of chicken soup below the main dish. There must have been half a chicken in the soup. This was entree number 3.
It was excellent!
Just feast-your-eyes on the food! The main dish. Bacon potato salad. Chicken soup.
Saina and Deegi were off and running. I did NOT realize that Cindy was patiently waiting for her own special ‘Cindy-entree’ to appear. You can see that I had not yet touched the bacon potato salad. What was I doing? Snap Snap Snapping photos. That is what I was doing!
Whoa! What is this? More food!

Sushi (soo-shee) cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar, usually shaped into bite-size pieces and topped with raw seafood (nigiri-zushi) or formed into a long seaweed-wrapped roll, often around strips of vegetable or raw fish, and sliced into bite-size pieces (maki-zushi).

Sweet, patient little Cindy had been waiting for ‘her’ very own entree .. Vegetable Sushi!Cindy was the only one who ate the Vegetable Sushi. What she did not finish Deegi and Saina took home for Cindy.Our mid-day dinner was so much fun. Having known Deegi and Saina and Cindy for roughly ten months and having made a trip with them North to Sukhbaatar and back last summer we are now very comfortable with each other.

I treated them to our meal. I will add that this was much to their dismay. They had told me that ‘this one is on us Cap’.

“Dream on.” I said to myself.

With a very respectable gratuity / tip the bottom line cost of our meal was 55,000 Mongolian Tug or US $ 26.99. Go back through the above photos and just feast your eyes upon what we got for US $ 26.99 food and tip included.

As we parted company they stressed to me that ‘next dinner’ they will pay. I will honor that. I paid for our first two dinners and fair is fair to allow them to treat me.

The ballet Sleeping Beauty was so enjoyable.

After the ballet ended I set out with a mission-in-mind.

“I am going to walk West out Peace Avenue and go to the State Department Store and visit Cinnabon.”

As I was walking along my friend Tulga caught up with me and we two had a most pleasant visit. Neither of us speak each others language! So how on earth do you manage a pleasant visit? To truly understand you would have to live as I do totally immersed and surrounded by people who don’t speak English.

Charades(s) (used with a singular verb) a game in which the players are typically divided into two teams, members of which take turns at acting out in pantomime a word, phrase, title, etc., which the members of their own team must guess.

When you spend a lot of time daily performing Charades you really get good at it.
I am so proud of my Mongolian friends.I have a team you would not believe. Tulga is a very calm and gentle person. I would not call upon Tulga to walk with me up a dark alley in a bad section of Ulaanbaatar. Nope. My team roster is strong and very deep with special talent.

“Yo! Mendee (МЭНдЭЭ) I need someone to ride shotgun with me.”

“I will be right there Cap (КАП)!”
I will let you all decide which is Mendee and which is David.

IF I were to decide that Mendee and I may need just a little bit more assistance I will make a quick call.

“Yo Nergui (НЭРГУИ)! Mendee and I need a little assistance.”

“I will be right there to help the two of you out!”

Just looking at Nergui above makes me smile to myself. I want him on MY team. I do not want to play against him.

Here we go loop de loop .. Here we go loop de li .. The State Department Store.

Decisions! Decisions!

Do I go downstairs on the first floor?

Do I go upstairs on the sixth floor?

Patti! What a grand surprise to see you here with me!

We will eat at the Cinnabon upstairs on the 6th floor of the State Department Store to celebrate your little visit-in-spirit.Let’s you and I eat this one-bite-at-a-time!
Beauty is in the eye-of-the-beholder. Cinnabon Pecan Bon you are so very beautiful in our eyes.
Here we go loop de loop ..
Here we go loop de li ..
Here we go loop de loop ..
On a Sunday night ..
In Ulaanbaatar ..
In Mongolia ..
What fun ..
What Joy it was! It did not fit to ‘lick-the-plate’ because it was cardboard!

What a day Sunday May the 8th was!

With Gratitude and With Much Joy .. Cap ..

• ← MAY 11, 16 .. WINTER HAS RETURNED TO ULAANBAATAR
• MAY 15, 16 .. THE BALLET .. SCHEHEREZADE →