What
a difference a day makes. I’m
riding down the same road as yesterday. If you look back to yesterday’s post you’ll see it was
all about traffic. Today I am
similarly running late and was dreading what I would find on the Jingmi
Road. Miraculously, it was squeaky
clean. There wasn’t a soul on the
road.
Before we confronted it I was rather anxious. I called for a cab at home. Nothing came. I got my stuff ready, searched the house for my book, Iris
Murdoch’s “The Sovereignty of the Good” which I’ll write about some time, when
I catch my breath, as it is fascinating.
Book in hand, keys in hand, bag on shoulder, fourth sigh exhaled, I
threw my hands in the air and walked out to fight for a cab on the road. Wisely I wimped out immediately and called
my wife. She came to the rescue
and sped me over to the neighboring compound where more cabs tend to
congregate.
I told this gentleman, “Listen, I need to be there on the
hour. Safety first and all, but if
you can get me there by 11:00 I’ll give you a twenty yuan tip.” An affable gent, fortunately, he
reminded me that safety was most important, and then sped off, courting a
brisk, but measured, Goldilocks-ian pace:
不疾不徐[1] It’s about twenty minutes now, after
we reached that gentleman’s agreement and for the whole way down here to the
fourth ring road we’ve been flying.
Now we’re moving along the east fourth ring road and it’s
congested but at least we’re making a good 25 MPH. Nothing to shout about but as anyone who read yesterday’s
entry understands, it could be significantly worse. Superstitiously I am, of course, considering the lull before
the ultimate comeuppance. Anything
could happen and indeed, twenty-five has, like a cloud passing over head,
dropped to fifteen, as we accommodate incoming traffic to the right. It’ll be all right.
Woke to a few bits of good news on the business side this
morning which helped with the exercise routine. I confessed to the guard who hails from northern Shanxi as
he unlocked the gym door for me this morning, that I’d had a few the night
before and frankly wasn’t really in the mood to be at the gym at 6:00AM. He acknowledged that this was a
reasonable thing to complain about.
And now, with a full twenty-two minutes to spare, I have
arrived. I need to find a place
that has coffee.
Confession time: I am way too wound up. The nice young man took my order. The nice young girl came by and I
repeated my order insisting that I was in a hurry. The nice young girl spoke to the nice
young man and confirmed that I wanted a nice little triple espresso, ASAP. The nice young lady spoke to another nice young lady with a
vacant look who brought me over a bottle of San Pellegrino. I explained to the nice young lady with
the vacant look that it was not what
I ordered and that I wanted my drink immediately.
The nice young lady with the
suggestion of space between her ears went back and conferred. At this point I bounded over and
reiterated my nice order. This nice order seemed a
surprise. “Three shots? In one glass? To-go?” Oddly I wasn’t feeling nice any more. “YES! Three shots of espresso in one take away cup, fast, fast,
fast, fast, fast. Thank you.”
Now I have my espresso. I tried to speak in a nice tone to the girl who brought
it. I really want to be nice
today. But I am wound up, and I
know it. Yes, I also know that
three shots of espresso do little to unwind a man. I’ll try to feel my heart beat as I did this morning at the
earliest hour when I tried to will it slower, to throb somewhat less frequently. This is more effective than arching my
head back and considering the tacky decorations at the faux opulent JW Marriott
here at Jian Guo Road between the third and the fourth ring road.
Reading this over, later before I post it, I am playing over
the first of two albums by Tony Williams, the drummer who came up in Miles’
band. These occur consecutively in
1964 and 1965 a few years before the next acid-drenched release in 1969 “Emergency”
with John McLaughlin with which I was already familiar. Wayne Shorter is playing beautifully on
this cut “Tee” from 1965. This is
my favorite period for that magic horn player by far. I think I have finally unwound. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Williams_(drummer)
No comments:
Post a Comment