Calaidescope World

Mixed Drinks

Apparently, my cousins haven't gotten drunk in a loooong time. So when I visited them in Santa Clara, California last weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed watching them lose their marbles. Especially Neil.

My cousins John, Neil, and Leah, Leah's husband Mike, my friend Lorraine, and I started the night with a fantastic sushi dinner at Yuki Sushi to celebrate my birthday a week in advance. Yuki Sushi is what Leah describes as a hole in the wall near Sunnyvale with the best sushi anywhere. Anywhere outside Japan. Words cannot describe how GOOD the food was. OMG! I think I had at least 10 pieces of sushi. My favorite was the spicy tuna. To die for! Ah, and an important piece of information: we shared 3 or 4 HUGE bottles of beer.

Off we went to The V Bar in Santana Row (?). This was John's territory...so they say. It's a cool bar (one of the most popular in that area), and there's a courtyard with a fountain and a couple of little fireplaces (what DO you call them? They were more like pits, huh?). Nice ambience, cool sounds. We had one drink each. Not beer (another important piece of information).

Because we're cheap (drinks were US$10 each. Php560 for an Apple Vodka with Coke?!) and there were loads of drinks leftover from Leah and Mike's bar-b-que the weekend before, we moved the party over to the Nielsens'.


"with Leah"

John's friends Joel and Winnie (?) followed and we had a blast! There was a lot of beer, and Mike fixed us some appletinis, while Joel made some God-knows-what concoction that nearly knocked us all out. Apparently, not everyone can mix different kinds of drinks (some people should have stuck to beer).


"with Joel and Lorraine"


"Lorraine, Joel and Neil"


"with Neil and John"


"Leah and Mike"

I will leave "the morning after" to your imagination. Suffice it to say that Leah's grand plans to leave the house at 9AM and drive to Carmel did not push through. The farthest place we drove to was San Mateo (30 to 45 minutes away). And a not-so-wild night watching a DVD of "The Chapelle Show" at Neil's house (which he shares with his friend Benny) ensued.

One weekend is simply not enough to spend with this side of the family. We had so much fun, we had to place an overseas call to my sister Bianca so she could somehow join in. There will definitely be a "next time"....and HOW!

I miss you guys! (mwah!) And many thanks to Leah for sending the photos.

posted by Calai @ 1:50 PM