Hi folks,
I’m back, with thanks to Tor. But more on that later, it’s time for a real update:
David’s been here a week now, which has been great. Really fun to have friends visiting in this city, though I wish I were on holiday to explore with him… He’s managed to take in a few sites I haven’t even been to myself, for which I’m naturally jealous. Unlike when Katie was here earlier in the year, the weather now is incredibly hot and humid. Summer, aka wet Hell, seemed to arrive just as he did. Virtually every activity outside the the presence of airconditioning (basically, everywhere save my ice cube of an office) has become a bone sapping experience. The deluges have been incredible (the captioned pic is a view of our street two weekends ago) causing general flooding (already a problem in our building’s sunken entryway) and battering down our lanky, sun deprived basil shoots (don’t worry, we pull them inside when it gets too crazy). But, as it was discovered last week, the rats are still here; only now they’re not inside B For Time Tea, but outside in the Cotton’s garden playing in the trees… all according to the expectations of our waiter. Enjoy brave guests!
There’s a pattern to entertaining guests: a dose of the city’s legitimate tourist spots (the bund, people’s square, yu yuan gardens, Cloud 9) interspersed with our own favorite experiential places (Dongbei restaurant, fabric market, Xiang Yang’s final day, World Cup at Freelance) and as many other classic China escapades as we can rustle up (the bike ferry, the subway, street eats, fish markets, and children peeing on sidewalks)
David’s in Beijing this weekend, another touriest adventure I haven’t checked off yet, but he’ll be back in town next week and our plan is to travel to Yangshuo for three days next weekend. Then he’s off to Thailand and we’ll be back to tottering around the large apartment and planning parties to fill the extra space. Actually, it will be nice to have a few solid weeks of relative quiet. It seems like we’ve been in continual travel or entertain mode for several months now.
I plan to spent the rest of today picking up my first foray into the world of (cheap) custom made clothing, contemplating the purchase of a second fan, gloating over the success of calling Dazhong taxi for a pick-up this morning (…Chinese baby steps) and, eventually, meeting the gang for Juliet’s farewell party (she’s off to Colombia U’s IR Masters program this fall).
Glad to be back online. Hope to have fun playing around with this site, more freedom than Friendster… at least now that I can access this website again anyway. H
