Spain/China 2023, continuing (19)

[aadler]

Fifth day in China – July 16 Sunday

Up by 6:20AM to shower and shave. Somewhat before 8:00, I went downstairs at Susan’s request to bring her back coffee and a crescent roll from a nearby shop called Baker & Spice. Back in the apartment, I made noodles for my own breakfast while she was having what I brought back.

We’d been planning to attend Mass with Kevin and Mei‑li today, but there had been warnings of an approaching typhoon for the past couple of days, and now it was projected to hit just about the time we would be getting out of church. There was concern about trying to get all of us and Susan’s wheelchair into a car during heavy rains, so we decided to defer family Mass attendance for another week. Kevin called in a lunch order for delivery to our apartment (chicken wraps), and we had that when it arrived.

I napped for a bit, and apparently the bulk of the rain happened while I was sleeping, because I was never aware of any of it.

During projected lulls in the weather, Susan and I went back over to the Yins’ apartment. Logan was back from taking care of his father (he and a brother trade off on that), so today’s dinner — when it came — was one of his efforts, and included roast duck and a particular type of noodles he’d brought back from his hometown. He took up cooking as a hobby in his retirement, and as we found five years ago, he’s quite good at it.

(He still bears some resemblance to premier Xi Jinping, but less now; he’s cut his hair a bit, and Xi has put on weight and is showing his age more. When we visited before, it was funny having family photos that seemed to show the premier of China serving dinner to us. I asked Kevin once, and he confirmed that other Chinese, too, have noted the resemblance, so it isn’t just our stereotyping Western eyes saying that.)

Following the meal, it was determined that it might start raining again soon, so Kevin walked us back to the apartment (stopping on the way to pick up a few new supplies at 7Eleven). Once he had us home safe, and talked with us for a few minutes, he headed back.

(Susan is looking again at living in Shenzhen. Even though I’d like to do more RV touring of the U.S. first, the last year has shown that we’re certainly capable of holding up to overseas living on the basis of expenses and income. I have a feeling we’re going to be talking of that quite a bit in the near future, and coming on over to stay — for at least some months — next summer is not unlikely at all.)

In the later part of the evening, I did some work on my planned submission for this year’s summer_of_giles. Then some reading, then to bed.