We Laugh About It Now

Crawling along the north fourth ring road, on our way over to the airport express way.  Coming from the west, we’re passing the tremendous bulb-like sign for the Shun Jing Spa Hotel.  I remember taking my wife there for her birthday a year or two back and it was horrible. I suppose I probably have a blog post about it somewhere.   We all went as a family.  It was supposed to be one of Beijing’s best spa facilities. I believe I’d found an article in Time Out Beijing.  It was shabby, ill kept and over built.  We laugh about it now.

Up ahead we’ll swing around the clover leaf we’ve been approaching at seven miles per hour for the last twenty-five minutes and spin on up into the airport express way.  Ideally this will be swift moving.  I know that stretch better.  It will likely move at this hour.  But it won’t be quick. I’m looking down at the expressway beneath me now.  Definitely not “quicker.”

I nod off in the back of this cab.  At some point I felt guilty.  My good friend and colleague is beside me.  He was talking on the phone and I opted to lay my head back.  But now, he was quiet.  I thought, suddenly, that I wasn’t being a very good ride mate.  I pushed myself up out of sleep only to realize that he was now asleep as well.  I don’t know why this cab driver is avoiding the side road.  Beijing remains a place where it is annoying when people obey the law. 

Now we’re down on to the expressway.  It has a bit more momentum than the ring road we just got off of.  I think it is probably best for me to put this entry down for a while because I’m cognizant of just now boring it is and will remain, so long as I am writing in and writing about traffic. 

I’ve made my way off.  I’m flying over Hebei en route to Hangzhou.  Air China has young people dressed up as pilots and stewardesses for the inflight entertainment. Every time it is supposed to be cute and they come in for a close up, it hurts.  It is all so fake it really is painful.  I’ve seen all these inflight filler nonsense clips so many times now.  Once again, Air China is showing people how great Universal Studios and Italy are to travel to.  It pulls me, unwittingly, from Yuan Shi Kai and my history book.