Ninth day in China [October 9]

[aadler]

I woke up at 6:30, found Susan asleep on the living room couch. Maybe she came out and dozed off again, maybe she switched from the bedroom because — she claims — I snore; either way, I let her go on sleeping, and read some more Flynn, this time the opening chapters of “Gone Girl”. (Already read “Sharp Objects”, already seen the “Gone Girl” movie; Kevin has one more Flynn with him, and that’ll be my first opportunity to read one that’s new to me.)

Yesterday, while at the Yins’, I discovered my feet were puffy. This is unusual for me; I think the last time it happened was, maybe, 2007. Not as bad this time, but it hadn’t really gone away after a night’s sleep (and it was enough that on the trip ‘home’ yesterday I wore my shoes but not socks, that would have been too uncomfortable). Is this about to become a new norm? I’m of an age where the beginnings of physical degeneration wouldn’t be completely unusual, but that doesn’t mean I welcome or even expected it.

About 8:00 AM we got a text from Mei-li that she and her mother would like to pick us up for lunch after they make a doctor visit. Susan woke up about the time I got the last post, and we did a little light housecleaning: I swept, Susan started the daily laundry.

Around 10:00 I took a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some things Susan and I could munch on till lunchtime, but got hit with some snags. Mei-li and her mother had finished sooner than expected at the doctor’s, and were on their way to pick us up. By the time I returned to the apartment building, they were already in the downstairs garage, and — because I had our only phone — I couldn’t let Susan know till I got to the apartment itself. She’d expcted a few more hours (was watching further episodes of Sleepy Hollow online), so she still had to get dressed before we could run downstairs to join our hosts.

Second: I had thought “pick us up for lunch” meant “take us out to lunch”. Nope; we all went back to their apartment.

(Note: at least in Shenzhen traffic, Chinese use their horns a lot. Not frustration or bellicosity, either, it’s more in the nature of a conversation, informing nearby drivers not only of your position but of your level of determination. Yeah, I’m coming through, I really mean it. — Okay, you’re moving over, just don’t forget I’m right here. — I’ll let you by, but it was kinda dumb to pull out in front of me like that. A kind of civility, actually, and definitely understood communication.)

(Another note: bicycle travel seems to be strictly local. Lot of scooters around but all of them are electric. Kevin told us he couldn’t remember seeing even motorcycles that were non-electric.)

Susan watched online videos (really getting caught up in Sleepy Hollow) and played with her granddaughter; I mostly read from “Dark Places”, the third Gillian Flynn that we’d left at the Yins’ (since Kevin hadn’t read it yet, but then I didn’t bring “Gone Girl” with me when I thought we were just going out for a bit). We had lunch, nap, more visiting. Kevin was able to come home in time for dinner, but left again almost immediately: private tutoring, which earns him almost as much as he gets from his formal job.

The Yins had plans for us tomorrow, so to enable us to make a convenient bedtime, at 8:00 PM Mei-li and her mother drove us back to Kevin’s apartment. We did general relaxing and settling-in, and then to bed at 10:00 PM.

Next day

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Shenzhen sounds like an interesting place to drive.


Gabrielle

[aadler]

Interesting place to ride, definitely, though I’ll probably never try driving here.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good day.

[aadler]

Had worse days. Lots of them.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

This horn language in other countries is interesting. In Jamaica they honk their horns constantly at each other, to let people walking along the side of the road (there isn't anything like a shoulder) they they're coming up, to say hi to other vehicles as they pass each other, and some much more complex conversation that I never did understand. It's a cool change from the simply, "hey dummy! Get out of my way!" that we have in the states.

In my humble opinion Sleepy Hollow went bad in the latter half of last season. Possibly Susan will not find that the case for herself.

[aadler]

She’s somewhat into Season 2 right now, and having problems getting the episodes to load. If we can’t get past that, she may have to wait till we’re back home to watch further.