Good beer; no butts; IELTS success; comeback rained out

It was like I saw the Yeti, or the Loch Ness Monster "Nessie". Right in my very own neighborhood I spotted a bottle of Westmalle Tripel, one of the many wonderful beers brewed in Belgium. I was walking home from a birthday party with Phuong and Joanna when we we noticed a new bar right around the corner from our house called "Craft Beer".  I asked for a menu and they had Westmalle Tripel. In fact, I saw it in a cooler and bought a  bottle for 170.000 dong ($7.50 U.S.).  The bar gave me a mango beer from Belgium at no cost that I didn't recognize. It was good enough, but the Westmalle Tripel was a special treat for the White Monkey. Remember, the  best beer I can get in Bien Hoa is Chimay at about the same price, and Affligem for cheap (about 39,000 dong a bottle), which is very suitable for the money that I earn. But not since I got a La Trappe Quadrupel  and a Chimay Blue (after a rough day) have I enjoyed a beer in Vietnam as much as I enjoyed the Westmalle on Friday night. Vincom doesn't carry La Trappe anymore, but I still have rough days. The Westmalle Tripel has a slightly fruity taste but also delivers a slight alcohol burn from its 9.5% abv.  Am I being critical? Of course, which is a privilege that I pay for.  For the record, I owe any beer knowledge I have to my friend John S., who is a brewery of brilliance when it comes to beer. I thought Purple Haze was the world's best when I met him.  He set me straight in a hurry.

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Saturday was my three-year anniversary of quitting cigarettes. For some reason, I've had the ability to moderate my drinking since I met Phuong. I have no more than a shared beer a day with my wife. That's a first for the obsessive-compulsive White Monkey. But smoking is another matter. If I don't quit altogether, my OCD will be in full bloom.  I'll smoke with coffee, when I drink beer, after meals, after sex, before sex, and during sex. I'm being a smart-ass, of course, but I'm unable to moderate my cigarette smoking. It's all-in at a pack a day, or nothing. I've chosen nothing and I've noticed a difference in my overall health. I sleep better and dream more, and colds and sinus infections don't last very long. I'm more proud of quitting cigarettes than I am of my 50,000+ pageviews for my blog.

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My former private English student Sam, who I taught for more than a year, took her IELTS recently and scored what I think is a very respectable 5.5. I think that's a tough but fair score for Sam. Her speaking and listening skills are first-rate and deserve higher marks, but like so many students I've taught, writing is tricky. Her reading is good but -- like me -- she's a slow reader and that doesn't help when you're taking exams like IELTS. I'm proud of Sam, who went from absolute beginner to extremely competent in a very short time. She's a bright woman. Good work, Sam!

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My highly anticipated return to the tennis court (highly anticipated by me, at least), got rained out on Sunday. I overcame the slight setback to my recovering left plantar fascia, caused by some clowning with Joanna, and I was ready to go. But an act of God put the comeback on hold, which means I'll stay No. 1 in the family rankings at least until we play next week.