Hugs and Blessings to All

One of my girls commented on the fact that the banquet meals we attended were all the same.  “Yeah, and the fried rice had crab in it.  I couldn’t eat it.”  This prompted me to lecture them on what the first place I’d stayed in, in rural Shandong had been like, back in 1996.  There was a simple room with a door and a mattress on the floor.  It was summer. There was a fan.  The breakfast was dried fish and congee, pickled cabbage and boiled water.  I remember being surprised at the paucity of choices, and how none of them were especially desirable in the morning.  The breakfast, always the most challenging of Chinese meals, was wretched.   We’ve come a long, long way, I told them, knowing this must sound hoary, and repetitive. 

This joint has a very nice gym.  Needless to say, back in the day we did sit-ups on hardwood floors and . . .  On the first day of New Year, it was open mid-morning and I did my thing.  Today, when I called they suggested that, because it was New Year the work out room would not be open.  “Yeah, but why is it open on the first (and most important) day of New Year and not the second.  Doesn’t make sense.  Are you sure what you’re saying is accurate?”  She didn’t have an answer for this other than that she would check. 

Down at the desk the two ladies now gave me the update: “It’s open.  Just use your key.”  “Yeah?  OK.  I certainly don’t need anyone there as long as the electricity is on.”  This gym is in a separate building, outside, and seventy meters down, by the lake.  I walked down listening to “Better Must Come” by Delroy Wilson, looking forward to using their sleak new machines.  There was no one there though, and my key failed to activate anything as I swiped it repeatedly across the sensor.  After a bit of cursing, I turned and trod back up to the main lobby. 

“Sorry.  The guy who has the key won’t get in till noon.” It’s 10:00AM.  I won’t be going back to their gym.  No one wants to wait till noon to have the same Lazy-Susan banquet meal either.  It’s hugs and blessings to all.  “prosperity in all you undertake”, “drive safely”, and perhaps we won’t see one another till this time next year.  Soon, we too are on our way with the Apple maps man from the U.K. mispronouncing Chinese place names, competing with Carmen McCrea on the speakers for attention, until he freezes and my wife panics and we swap Hugh Grant for the Baidu maps' chick. 

I have my girls captive here in the car, so I read ten pages of Tolstoy and ten pages of Turgenev and then I loose myself in my own book by Lin Yu Tang “The Importance of Living” but whereas reading aloud puts me to sleep, silent reading does not and Lin and I continue on until we reach the familiar ring roads of the capital. 

Saturday, 02/17/18