As if yesterday’s fog wasn’t bad enough… When I got up at 6:30 this morning it looked like it was still midnight, or as if we’d suddenly been fast-forwarded to mid-winter. I stumbled into the lounge room and looked out the window… or tried to. Yesterday morning at 6:30 I could see the vague, blurred sillhouettes of the highrises no more than one kilometre to the west. This morning? Well, I could see the apartment block just over the fence and the slum immediately north of that, and that’s about it.
And then on the way to work, at quarter to eight, crossing the footbridge over Xidawang Lu to BeiGongDa’s main campus, I looked to the north and saw the traffic light. I looked to the south and saw the traffic light. And that’s pretty much it. I could see the traffic lights immediately north and south of that bridge- neither is much more than fifty metres from the bridge- but that’s just it- I could only see the light, as in little green spots, as in I could not see the intersections those lights attempt to control. Nor could I see the machines emitting the light. Nor could I see anything more than the headlights of the cars approaching or passing through those interesections- again, literally, just the lights.
Well, the fog seems to have lifted slightly since this morning. Crossing back over that bridge at one this afternoon, I could make out the ghostly shadows of buildings roughly 100 metres to the north and south. Still can’t see the highrises west of my loungeroom window, though.
But the fog seems to have defined today. My first lesson was alright, but the second was like pulling teeth from a fossilised dinosaur while swimming through molasses with both hands and feet tied behind my back. Alright, slight exaggeration, but only a slight exaggeration.
Anyway, doesn’t matter, I’m done for the week, the weekend has arrived, and tomorrow we’ll be heading up to the village.
