a pensively snowy 31st
It snowed for the first time this winter yesterday morning... it was a beautiful blanketing flurry of dirty snow that kept the sky an unearthly opaque yellow for the whole day. The added benefit is that this snow has thoroughly cleaned the sky (well, relatively speaking, of course) and now the sky is a pleasant wintery grey, the ground below a mixture of black roads and trees and white covered everythingelse.
Sitting up here in my 12th floor apartment, cozy in my study with a pot of rooibos tea and candles, the cat curled at my feet, and Damien Rice on my stereo... a very relaxing morning. The day started with a champagne breakfast (my attempt to start a tradition of sorts). Rather than go out to the ridiculously expensive champange breakfasts at St Regis and the like, I thought that I would make something on my own, and not only was it cheaper, but a lot more fun. Strawberries and angel food cake (freshly baked!) with some chocolate toffees, a very nice dry champange, and soft boiled eggs with a rye crackers with tomato pesto spread... mmm....
Across the "river" is a train depot, where the lovely snow covered trains are moving slowly across the landscape, and I find myself getting lost in my own thoughts. Not quite capable of writing a coherent post in my lj... but then again, since when have I been able to write anything coherent, especialy in my lj?
All this snow (and champagne?) has reminded me of my first time in China (winter 2001) and walking on the snow covered Great Wall, listening to U2's Unforgettable Fire on my cd player... I forget which song, but something about a spiraling staircase... it was perfect. The wall was so beautiful with the snow frosting... mostly because the snow also covered up the countryside around it, hiding all of the plastic trash and bedraggled homes... instead, it looked as if I had stepped straight into history.
A friend was staying with me earlier this week, and she pointed out how she felt that all of these sites she went to had no authenticity, you never felt like you were actually there (well, no more so than you feel like you're actually in Tokyo or Paris when you're in Epcot Center). I agree. One of the reasons I like Ritan Park so much is that if you avoid the climbing wall, most of the rest of the park has been left relatively untouched. True, there weren't people chanting "nurturing life tunes" or practicing taijichuan in the park during the Emperors' reigns... its still not something that screams of plasticated modernity (like, say, the giant dinosaur figures at Purple Bamboo Park near Xizhimen).
The internet has been more than spotty since the earthquake in Taiwan, which has resulted in my being fairly cut-off from the rest of the world. Not that this is a bad thing. True, it makes my job really painfully difficult, but other than that, it has stopped my internet ramblings and helped me to get to this pensive place that I'm sitting in now. Well, I'm going to step away from babbling for now and think back on the past year and what was good and what needs to be improved, and work on some resolutions for the next year... ciao.
Sitting up here in my 12th floor apartment, cozy in my study with a pot of rooibos tea and candles, the cat curled at my feet, and Damien Rice on my stereo... a very relaxing morning. The day started with a champagne breakfast (my attempt to start a tradition of sorts). Rather than go out to the ridiculously expensive champange breakfasts at St Regis and the like, I thought that I would make something on my own, and not only was it cheaper, but a lot more fun. Strawberries and angel food cake (freshly baked!) with some chocolate toffees, a very nice dry champange, and soft boiled eggs with a rye crackers with tomato pesto spread... mmm....
Across the "river" is a train depot, where the lovely snow covered trains are moving slowly across the landscape, and I find myself getting lost in my own thoughts. Not quite capable of writing a coherent post in my lj... but then again, since when have I been able to write anything coherent, especialy in my lj?
All this snow (and champagne?) has reminded me of my first time in China (winter 2001) and walking on the snow covered Great Wall, listening to U2's Unforgettable Fire on my cd player... I forget which song, but something about a spiraling staircase... it was perfect. The wall was so beautiful with the snow frosting... mostly because the snow also covered up the countryside around it, hiding all of the plastic trash and bedraggled homes... instead, it looked as if I had stepped straight into history.
A friend was staying with me earlier this week, and she pointed out how she felt that all of these sites she went to had no authenticity, you never felt like you were actually there (well, no more so than you feel like you're actually in Tokyo or Paris when you're in Epcot Center). I agree. One of the reasons I like Ritan Park so much is that if you avoid the climbing wall, most of the rest of the park has been left relatively untouched. True, there weren't people chanting "nurturing life tunes" or practicing taijichuan in the park during the Emperors' reigns... its still not something that screams of plasticated modernity (like, say, the giant dinosaur figures at Purple Bamboo Park near Xizhimen).
The internet has been more than spotty since the earthquake in Taiwan, which has resulted in my being fairly cut-off from the rest of the world. Not that this is a bad thing. True, it makes my job really painfully difficult, but other than that, it has stopped my internet ramblings and helped me to get to this pensive place that I'm sitting in now. Well, I'm going to step away from babbling for now and think back on the past year and what was good and what needs to be improved, and work on some resolutions for the next year... ciao.