I was so hung over from Monday night that I did nothing all day on Tuesday. I basically woke up, ate a little... slept. Cleaned... slept. At about 2:00 PM I watched some TV. There was some Japanese samurai drama on, but it was in Japanese with Romanian subtitles. It looked interesting enough but as I didn't know what they were saying I couldn't follow it. I changed channels and found a sport channel. It is pretty much dedicated to football (Soccer). So I watched that for the rest of the afternoon. It also had news and results from other sports. Football is the primary sport in Romania, as with all of Europe and South America. Rugby Union is also popular in Romania. They have a national team that plays in the Rugby World Cup and a domestic Rugby competition.
One of the messages that flashed across the screen mentioned a football friendly between Romania and the Socceroos on February 6th. ""Awesome", I thought to myself, "Miss C likes football too, so maybe we can watch it together". I hope Australia win otherwise I am sure I will hear plenty of jokes.
Miss C is an avid supporter of 'Steaua Bucuresti', the biggest and most successful club in Romania. I have followed there results since I knew this about Miss C. They lead the Romanian league this year, mostly due to a player named Raul Andrei Rusescu, who has been a prolific goal scorer this season and is the best player in the competition right now. I guess outside of the Romanian league the most famous Romanian football players are Adrian Mutu (Former Chelsea and Juventus striker), Christian Chivu (Inter Milan centre back) and Gabriel Tamas (West Bromwich/Albion centre back).
Steaua are owned by a man named Gigi Baecali. Miss C told me he is very famous here in Romania. He lives in a house not far from Arcul De Triumf and it has solid gold ornaments on it. She told me that they have Carols By Candlelight here every Christmas and Gigi will come and hand out 50 lei and 100 lei notes to everybody.
At about 5:30 PM, I was feeling pretty tired when I received a message from Miss C asking if I wanted to go to look in a store and then play some pool. I told her i did and she told me should be here soon. I went downstairs and met Miss C and Mr M in the carpark. Miss C cheered because I successfully managed to exit the apartment and the building. I got in the car and we drove to a small shopping centre. The shopping centre was like any you might find in Australia. This was a department store called 'Emag' that sold electronics and other items. The only difference i could see was that they had various counters for different reasons. The floor assistant or salesman would enter your details and the product you bought, then you would go to another counter and pay and you have to come back and pick up the product the next day. Miss C did what she had to, then we drove out to play pool.
We arrived at the 'Billiard Cafe'. I guess it's just like a bar, in the front is a bar area with some tables and in the back is a lounge are with plenty of lounge and table set ups and 3 pool tables at the end. Miss C had been "Asking me if I was ready for her to kick my ass" for a couple of hours. I laughed and didn't think I had to worry too much. Mr M had asked me a couple of days before whether I was any good and I was more concerned about him beating me.
Mr M and I played the first game, he was a pretty good player. The bartender came and Miss C ordered some drinks. I had a Peroni. They have 500 mL bottles here and this is what we received. The first game is taking awhile as we all hadn't played for awhile. Mr M is beating me. I took a sip of beer and then sank my 3 or 4 remaining balls. Mr M still had one ball. The rules are the same as Australia, except, here they play that you must sink the black ball in the opposite pocket to the one your last normal ball was sunk. I found this out as I was about to take a shot on the ball. I hit the ball it went into the wrong pocket and I lost. We were also playing for 50 Bani coins (The equivalent of our 50 cent coin).
Mr M got to remain playing and it was Miss C's turn to challenge. I watched and was very impressed by how good a pool player Miss C is. "Shit....Now I am worried" I thought to myself. Miss C won and now it was my turn. I sank 4 balls on my first turn and choked with Miss C that if I sink them all before she sinks one, she has to run around the table naked. She didn't think I was very funny and I told her "It's a rule we have in Australia". I was on the black ball and Miss C still had a few balls left. Again I accidentally sank the black ball in the wrong pocket and lost. "Stupid fucking Romanian rule" I muttered and gave her my coin. Mr M beat Miss C in the next game, and then I won the next 2 games.
At about 10:00 PM we left the pool place and drove to a place called MaxBet. I had seen these all around Bucharest when we driving around. I thought they were a betting shop like the TAB. They are actually gaming rooms, just like the clubs in Australia. It is a room full of pokies and gaming machines. Mis C and Mr M have a penchant for roulette apparently. So we sit at the roulette machine. There are four sides with 2 seats on each side. Miss C and I sit on one side and Mr M takes a seat on the opposite side. Miss C arranges for 200 credits to be added to our screens and I pay the attendant 40 lei. Is 10 lei (about $3.00 AUD) for 100 credits. We play and I haven't used the machine before so I ask Miss C for some help. She explains a few things and I start placing bets. I am doing pretty well. Miss C soon runs out of credit and I give her another 20 lei for some more credit. I am just betting on colour and odds/evens and have doubled my money before too long and Miss C has lost all hers again. I give Miss C 10 lei because she wanted to go and play a pokie just near the roulette table.
I am neither winning or losing now and hovering around the same amount of credits, double what I started with. Miss C lost all the credits on the pokie and comes back and watches me for awhile. Miss C tells me I am lucky and I say that "she must be my lucky charm". Mr M comes over about 10 or 15 minutes later and we just place stupid bets until all my credits are gone and then we leave.
It is after midnight at this stage and we decide to go to a restaurant. It's an Italian restaurant. We order some food. I get a tagliatelle dish with broccoli, cherry tomatoes, bacon and chicken in a creamy sauce. Miss C orders some prawns in a creamy slightly garlic flavoured sauce and Mr M has some kind of pasta bake with olives. We eat, and we all taste a little of the others dishes and then we drive home. I am very tired by this time. It's now about 1:30 AM. The restaurant was just around the corner from my apartment. Miss C comes in to make sure I get into the apartment without any problems. She stays for a cigarette and we talk a little. then she goes as Mr M is waiting to drive her home. We text a little then I fall asleep.
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