hardcore till i die
I'm not sure what happened to me after Golden Week. The annoying thing about the reshuffling of the weekends, is that the next week when you go back to work again, you don't get a proper weekend. So i worked Tuesday through Saturday, Sunday off, back on Monday for another week. Then the next weekend after that i was in recovery for not having a full weekend the week before.
The older i get, the more having to do five days a week wipes me out. I need two days just to recover from the five. I have no energy to do anything at all on those two days. I just lie at home in bed. Laundry and groceries. That's it. So throw in a couple of one-day weekends and i am toast for a month.
One of the pieces of good news is that they finally opened the river walk slash greenway to cyclists. When they first opened on National Day, there were security guards stationed at every entrance and exit turning back cyclists.
This is the weird way new parks open in China. First the land is all scruffy and polluted and there are squatters and chickens and mangy dogs. Everyone goes in and does whatever, including littering and trashing the place because human beings are terrible. Then the government fences it off completely while they build a park. Then they do a "soft open" with security guards everywhere. Cycling, fishing, loitering, photography, it's all banned. During the soft open it seems the only people they want inside are high class types who do nothing but walk children and compare designer jogging outfits. I guess that's when the party members do their stroll-through to self-congratulate and talk about Xi's Chinese dream and what a civilized society they are building. Eventually the security guards taper off and the atmosphere loosens up till it becomes a normal park.
It's remarkable that i've seen the cycle happen several times already in just a couple of years of living here. Shenzhen is gentrifying at a blistering pace.
The up-side is that i can now ride a share-bike almost 10km along the river without having to get cut off by yet another fucking asshole in a Porsche SUV who thinks being rich gives them right of way. These folk are marginally less annoying in their running shoes and yoga gear. Traffic aside, it sure is nice to be able to pedal non-stop for 30 minutes to the smell of flowers and cut grass. I think it'll chill me out.
Still gotta work, though, hey. I really wish i could live where i want and do what i want without having to be employed. I feel like my life since i left Canada is just... some months of living happy and carefree and traveling about... then years of unremarkable work... then snatching a few more months of joy.
In January work is flying me back to the UK. I feel guilty for flying, but i feel less guilty if work pays for it. Because it's another business trip i might not have a lot of freedom, but i am going to try wangling a holiday on the end there. Holidaying in China is much cheaper than holidaying in the UK, but it seems like a waste to fly all the way over there for just a couple days in the office.
I'll be 40 in February. It might be amusing to visit the town of my birth. It's probably hideous. Home of the British Army. Origin of happy hardcore legends Hixxy and Sharkey. Bonkers!
Sharkey - The Awakening
The older i get, the more having to do five days a week wipes me out. I need two days just to recover from the five. I have no energy to do anything at all on those two days. I just lie at home in bed. Laundry and groceries. That's it. So throw in a couple of one-day weekends and i am toast for a month.
One of the pieces of good news is that they finally opened the river walk slash greenway to cyclists. When they first opened on National Day, there were security guards stationed at every entrance and exit turning back cyclists.
This is the weird way new parks open in China. First the land is all scruffy and polluted and there are squatters and chickens and mangy dogs. Everyone goes in and does whatever, including littering and trashing the place because human beings are terrible. Then the government fences it off completely while they build a park. Then they do a "soft open" with security guards everywhere. Cycling, fishing, loitering, photography, it's all banned. During the soft open it seems the only people they want inside are high class types who do nothing but walk children and compare designer jogging outfits. I guess that's when the party members do their stroll-through to self-congratulate and talk about Xi's Chinese dream and what a civilized society they are building. Eventually the security guards taper off and the atmosphere loosens up till it becomes a normal park.
It's remarkable that i've seen the cycle happen several times already in just a couple of years of living here. Shenzhen is gentrifying at a blistering pace.
The up-side is that i can now ride a share-bike almost 10km along the river without having to get cut off by yet another fucking asshole in a Porsche SUV who thinks being rich gives them right of way. These folk are marginally less annoying in their running shoes and yoga gear. Traffic aside, it sure is nice to be able to pedal non-stop for 30 minutes to the smell of flowers and cut grass. I think it'll chill me out.
Still gotta work, though, hey. I really wish i could live where i want and do what i want without having to be employed. I feel like my life since i left Canada is just... some months of living happy and carefree and traveling about... then years of unremarkable work... then snatching a few more months of joy.
In January work is flying me back to the UK. I feel guilty for flying, but i feel less guilty if work pays for it. Because it's another business trip i might not have a lot of freedom, but i am going to try wangling a holiday on the end there. Holidaying in China is much cheaper than holidaying in the UK, but it seems like a waste to fly all the way over there for just a couple days in the office.
I'll be 40 in February. It might be amusing to visit the town of my birth. It's probably hideous. Home of the British Army. Origin of happy hardcore legends Hixxy and Sharkey. Bonkers!
Click to viewSharkey - The Awakening