Don't Carry Bicycle Pumps

The clouds are low and I can’t see very far on this first morning back.  There’s a bike and I’d like to use it, but the tires are flat.  But apparently there’s a hardware store somewhere across the street, in front of the mall.  I’m up long before everyone else and I make my way across the courtyard and out towards the southern exit. 

I don’t know the name of this mall.  My stepson has met the owners who seem to be a nice couple.  There are many features of the place that are very thoughtful, but the overall feeling is dirty and not especially well maintained.  The entire two basement floor appear to belong to a massive supermarket.  I check and confirm.  No.  They don’t carry bicycle pumps.  A walk with double-confirms.  As warned, they have no cheese to speak of, either.

My stepson had spoken of a hardware store outside, but the attendant at the supermarket suggested I head to Carrefour.  “Is it walkable?”  “No.  You can’t walk.”  I do the circumference of the mall outside, searching for this hardware store but find nothing.  This will have to be my cardio for the day. 

There’s a gym in this compound, but it doesn’t open to till 10:00AM.  No one seems to want to serve the up-and-early crowd before work.  I’ve seen it before, but I’ve never done a routine there.  The equipment is old but it’s an upgrade over the solitary pair of dumbbells I have back in New York.  I’ve the place to myself and try to gauge just where to set the weights, though on some of the stacks’ measurements have long worn away.  They’ve a poster of the Eiffel Tower and beside it, of California Avenue rising up impossibly in 1950s San Francisco, which I go over to take a closer look at between sets.

Back up on the thirty-first floor the clouds have parted and I can see all the way to the northern hills that form part of the mountainous horseshoe that surrounds Beijing.  I treat myself to an overdue shower and a shave.  Later that night we dine at an unassuming lao Beijing joint in the mall and celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival the day before it arrives for the folks back in New York.

Friday, 09/13/19