Yesterday Kamyar and I went to the Isis pub by the river, just the two of us, something we hadn’t done for a long time. We got our two pints of Guinness and went to sit outside. There was the faintest hint of autumn chill in the air that always almost simultaneously makes me sad (as I remember the feeling such weather used to give me when I was little) and extremely happy (as I remember that I am now thirty and do not go to school anymore). We sat under an apple tree by the little pool and fountain.
As I took my first sip from my pint Kamyar said, ‘So I turned you into a Guinness lover too.’
‘Yes you did.’ I said and then got thinking while taking another sip. ‘I can think of a good few other things as well that just because of you I became familiar with and now like a lot?’
‘Like what?’
One finger ‘Guinness’ two fingers ‘Grand Prix’ Three fingers ‘Names of cars’ Four fingers ‘Tom Waits’
‘That’s good’ he said, ‘I think it’s really bad if a person doesn’t know the names of cars.’
‘Now can you think of anything that you used to dislike or didn’t think much of but now like or find interesting since being with me?’ He got thinking for a while.
I finally came to his rescue, ‘How about lamb?’ He seemed relived and very thankful, ‘yes lamb’ he said, ‘I never used to like lamb before and now I love it.’ He took another sip. ‘Khoreshteh aloo esfenaj (lamb spinach and plums stew with rice)’ he said a few seconds later, looking very pleased with himself for remembering this. ‘Yes’ I said, raising my eyebrows and shrugging my shoulders, ‘but isn’t that just the lamb thing again? You probably didn’t like that because you didn’t like lamb.’
‘Marmite’
‘Can you think of anything else aside from food though?’
There was silence again for a while as we both got thinking. ‘How about hanging stuff to dry?’ Asked Kamyar, ‘Does that count?’
‘If you consider hanging clothes to dry to be one of your hubbies or favourite pastimes now days, then yes I guess it does count.’
A fly landed in Kamyar's pint. He rescued it and flicked it out into the garden.
‘But I think you should definitely count Khoreshteh aloo esfenaj as one because I never used to like that dish but now it’s in my top five most favourites.’ Pause ‘I think maybe I could even go as far as saying it is my number one.’
‘Ok I’ll count that as well’ I said ‘but even so the bottom line is that at best I have managed to change your mind about a couple of food dishes while under your influence I have gone from not even knowing the name of a single car to watching Top Gear and Fifth Gear to not only watching the Grand Prix but also knowing the names of nearly all the drivers and knowing enough about the whole thing to be able to make comments like, ‘I think Kimi Raikkonen is a better driver than Alonzo but he has just been very unlucky with his car this year.’ I knew I wasn’t being fair. I’m sure if there actually was a Formula 1 type race for Aloo Esfanaj Kamyar would become just as fascinated with it as I had become with Grand Prix. ‘to’ I continued regardless, ‘even allowing your toy cars…’
‘Burago’
‘… whatever, to be put around the flat. Now that my friend is what I call taking an interest in what the other person is interested in.’
‘How about leaving Iran and coming to live in England?’
‘Yes now I really had to twist your arm about that one, didn’t I?’
‘Cuddling’ he said at last, ‘Now that is something I never thought I would one day want to do so much of.’
What a cutie.