First of all, I hear the U.S. is having some sort of crazy heat wave. My sincere condolences go out to those of you who are stuck in the heat. I thought of you today as I buzzed around town under sunny skies in the cool breeze. I thought of you again (wishing I were you) as I was splashed by there-is-no-telling-what from the balcony of someone's alley patio. It is best not to ask what the splash might be. Just keep going. Just keep going.
Second of all, today is my little brother's 29th birthday, so I'd like to give a loving shout out to him and his cool self. I miss you, Jack.
Now to the title of this post, my love affair with Ling Du. Ling Du is not a person (duh). Ling Du is Coke Zero.
Though neighboring countries, like Korea and Thailand, have Diet Coke, and when I go there and I drink it like my life depends on it, our sweet resident country prefers Coke Zero. It took me a while to get used to it, but it has grown on me. The BIG problem is that I appear to be the only person in this city of many, many millions who drinks Coke Zero, and since stores here don't pay any attention to expiration dates but leave things on the shelves until they are gone, it is really only good to drink for a couple of months out of the year.
Commerce here is nuts. The entire city gets one shipment of something and they split it between the thousands of tiny shops. Therefore, the expiration date on every single bottle of Ling Du is always the same. Currently, it is June 19. I'm still drinking them, but give it a few more months and all of those June 19 bottles will have developed that expired-diet-soda taste (when the aspartame has morphed into something more similar to cleaning solution than artificial sweetener). When that happens, I will have to stop buying Ling Du for a good 4-6 months until the next shipment comes in.
This affair is more on-again, off-again than a 9th grade romance. Ling Du, you break my heart, you really do.
