So even if most of today was wasted, it was wasted well, and therefore good.
lzh and I got lunch at Soho then sat in O’Farrell’s for a bit then she went off and looked for “漂亮的衣服”, coming back with a pair of knickerbockers from her favourite store, while I sat in O’Farrell’s pondering life, the universe, and whether I’d stay awake long enough for lzh to get back from her clothes shopping.
Then we found ourselves in one of those classic Beijing situations, except that this city seems to be getting actually civilised again. I mean, people are politely discussing who will take the open seat on the bus instead of fighting over who gets it. So we got on an already crowded bus home and were amused by the good-natured bantering of a group of older people discussing who most needed the seats the younger, fitter passengers were giving up, you know, along the lines of “Sit down, ya silly old coot, you’re more decrepit than me!”, and then the bus died. Died right dead. The driver tried to crash start it using the slight downhill from the Tonghui He past Dongjiao Market, but kept dropping the clutch too early, so we never got enough speed to make it to the real downhill into the Baiziwan railway cutting where he would’ve had a chance of crash starting it, so the bus died and we were stuck. Another bus pulls up alongside, and everybody fit enough ran across and jumped on that. Yeah, two full busloads squashed onto one bus.
And on my way to Soho to meet lzh I totally screwed up the buses resulting in some weird series of detours that I still don’t entirely get, even though I can show you exactly which roads I took.
So, just the usual randomness, but it’s been a good day, despite the murky air.
Now, I really need to get studying.
