Spain/China 2023, continuing (29)

[aadler]

Fifteenth day in China – July 26 Wednesday

When my alarm went off at 8:00AM, I turned it off and went back to sleep. Didn’t get up till 11:45AM, when I did my shower and shave. Susan woke about half an hour later, and while she was still getting herself to sorts, Kevin called to say he’d got her some cough medicine and was bringing it up.

We dressed to go out, and — which was apparently an idea that Susan and I had reached independently without need for communication with each other — invited him out for lunch. (Now that we have a reliable payment method, i.e., cash.) There was a restaurant just around the block, which I had noted during previous explorations … and, again, each of us had chosen that as the place we wanted to go, so there was no argument or discussion. (I know I’m in ’the habit of providing the name of the places I go to, but I can’t in this case because their name was only posted in Chinese, which of course I can’t read.)

(Small amusing item: Susan’s system doesn’t have much tolerance for spicy foods, so Kevin was careful when ordering to specify that nothing could be too ‘hot’. The response was, “This is a Human restaurant. Not-spicy means we have to leave off our best dishes.” If that was the case, then their run-of-the-mill stuff was pretty darn good, and more than we could finish … and, as it happened, cost the three of us less than Susan and I paid yesterday for breakfast at Baker & Spice.)

Back in the apartment, Susan napped some more while I did other stuff. Our late start on the day meant that the day went very quickly; she woke at 5:40PM, and dressed immediately so we could go over to the Yins’. Our meal was up to the usual standards (better than yesterday, in fact), but Logan and Laura were very quiet and not speaking to each other at all; Kevin quietly asked Mei‑li what was going on, and she said she had no idea and wasn’t going to inquire.

(Something unexpected: when we reached the apartment, we found that Amber had — apparently because she felt like it — invented a restaurant, and prepared a menu, including a cover with company logo, and an inside listing of the different dishes and their prices. Imaginative and off-the-wall, pretty much part of our overall family tradition.)

Mei‑li took Amber for her piano lesson, and Susan was having some back pain — which she hopes isn’t a kidney stone — so we went back to our apartment almost immediately. Kevin visited with us for a bit before going on his way again.

(He’s having to work out a visa problem, which he knew was coming; once he left his job and started his own company, he could no longer qualify for a work visa, so has to get it replaced with a family reunification visa. He’s been preparing for that for some time, but now he’s in a status where, if he leaves mainland China again — even over to Hong Kong — he can’t come back in until he has a new visa. So, he’s staying put until that process has been completed.)

Susan lay down to ease her back, but didn’t go to sleep immediately. I read and worked things till nearly midnight before going to bed.