ONE WEEK IN MY LIFE

This was an almost nothing week, but I did eat and drink some.  Started with sukiyaki and karaoke in my apartment with John and another friend, who prepared the food:

The featured scotch was a gift from John, a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label.  We also tasted my recent tax-free purchase coming back from Japan, a Yamazaki Umetsu.

Most importantly, the three of us talked about the Blue Revolution and how to approach a billionaire for support.  A meeting has been scheduled in my office tomorrow involving the UH Foundation and members of Blue Revolution Hawaii.  I should mention that the Gold Tree is blooming outside of my campus building:

Had a haircut at Rainbow Hair Styling and went next door to Lucky Belly for my favorite ramen, a Belly Bowl, with a glass of rose':

At home for dinner I enhanced the usual fried poke and onions by starting with slices of Japanese Wagyu Beef from Miyazaki:

Began with a 17-year old Nikka Single Malt Whisky over a spherical-shaped ice:

Added a glass of cold beer and some hot sake:

My most significant dinner of the week was a giant rotisserie chicken (I would say, 5 pounds for  all of $7.99) from Don Quixote, with a sea asparagus and onion salad, plus a couple of drinks and chips:

Wanted to support my colleague Wenhao, who grows the asparagus.  It looks like I ate half the chicken, but I ended up filling four different ziplock bags with chicken for future meals, and also produced a quart of soup.

I should add that the significance of this meal was not the chicken.  It was the volleyball tailgate, where my University of Hawaii men's volleyball team, since week-one ranked #1 in the nation, got easily swept by BYU, ranked #2, the previous evening.  UH lost the first two games on this second night, but reversed swept BYU to win 3-2 in overtime.  Under any circumstance, the greatest recovery from disaster in the history of college volleyball.

Flush with confidence, I decided to watch Hawaii play Oregon in baseball.  Drove yesterday to the Manoa Campus, parked close to the stadium, and walked to Sushi King, where I ordered soba and tuna katsu curry with Sapporo draft and a junmai ginjo hot sake:

I left in the sixth inning with Oregon ahead 13-0 and Hawaii yet to get a runner on base.  That's baseball, because Hawaii beat Oregon on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Two important things.  First, the Dow Jones Industrial average today crashed 2,013 to 23,851, a 7.78% decline, the largest point drop ever.   On February 5 a month ago the Dow fell 1,597, previously the one-day all-time fall, a 6.26% slide.  Not particularly cataclysmic, for on October 19, 1987 the Dow closed down 508 points, or 22.61%.  Today, a bear market.  Tomorrow, who knows.

Interestingly enough, you can't blame COVID-19 for this disastrous day.  Saudi Arabia is pissed off at Russia (Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) for ditching the OPEC alliance on Friday.  Production was increased at a time when demand has dropped.  The result?  The Brent crude futures tumbled 22% to trade at $35.45/barrel.  U.S. oil is even lower, $33.15, a decline of 20%.  Hey, that's not all that bad, for gasoline prices should decrease.

In case you missed it, we are now on Daylight Savings time.  The difference between Hawaii and the East Coast rose from 5 to 6 hours.

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