the ins and outs of moving country. boring.
I just have to say, before I do anything else, that this is my new favorite song. My gym instructor played it one day - quite out of character for him - and it's friggin' gorgeous. Yes at first I thought it was a cover of Chris Isaak but whatever. It's still gorgeous.
I really don't know where to start. It's been a hectic three weeks since I last updated! The last week of work continued to be pretty boring, and then I had a lacklustre weekend, all of my own design really. I went to the gym a whole bunch - and here I have a sidebar. Some people say that going to the gym keeps them grounded, and that never really made sense to me before. I suppose I still don't get it in the same way that some people have described it (like Henry Rollins in The Iron), but I have to say that it's definitely helped save my sanity. Even when I don't have anything else planned, it's nice to know I have the gym to look forward to every other day. It helps me know when to start and end my days, and it's just... I'm glad I have it, is all.
Now, getting back to the last two weeks. My family has been in China visiting me, which was fantastic as usual. We started out in Shanghai and though we had some hiccups I think it all went quite well. Most of it was revisiting stuff for me - top of the Jin Mao Tower, The Bund and its accompanying Sightseeing Tunnel, Wukang Lu and Ferguson Lane - but it was all delightful. The only problem was that it was October holiday, which means there were about a billion other people at all the tourist sites, oops! Still, it was fun. Being in Beijing was much better. We did a lot of familiar things, but also took a day out to hit the Ming Tombs - one of the touristy things I'd yet to do - and it was delightful. All the Chinese tourists are off because they've just been doing their touring, so there was nobody there, it was fantastic. And because it's October, it's perfect picture-taking weather. I've got to get myself to the top of Jingshan Park soon. Maybe tomorrow. Anywho, we also went to see a revolutionary opera, Red Guards on Honghu Lake, which was a shitty story but amazing for fans of history and cultural propaganda (which I totally am). I also organized another hotpot night to introduce my nuclear family to my Beijing family, this time with the addition of Natalie, which was also great. We all spent time in Sephora afterwards. There's some other stuff I'm sure, but those are the highlights.
And now my dad's in New York! He's over to visit Fast Company and the old crew, and he'll be back next week, just before I get back.
Yesterday, the day after my parents left (necessitating a 5AM start, ugh, Sunday was a total write-off), I got boxes delivered by the shipping company I'm using to send all my stuff home. That was sort of annoying (the courier didn't know how to get to my street and then wouldn't turn into it, so I had to carry six huge flat boxes in the wind all the way to my house arrrrghhhh), but I packed them all up. Gutting my room earlier this year prepared me for a lot of it, and also the mad panic packing I did in some boxes I bought off Taobao had brought the rest to light, so it was more a matter of repacking and throwing some stuff out. I've got a lot of things to send to charity, mostly clothes, and I'm sure I'll uncover some more things over the course of the next couple of weeks, but it all looks good. Garth is also moving upstairs so there'll undoubtedly be a couple of days of furious throwing out of things from the living room, which will be nice and cathartic.
The biggest thing I did was take down the posters from my room. Putting them up was the first thing I did on the first day of waking up in Beijing, and the thing that comforted me and made me feel most at home once I'd done it. This would lend itself to being the last thing I did on my last day, but since that's impractical, I chose to think about it another way. Taking them down now will remind me every time I go into my room of my impending departure. I have a pretty nasty habit of not processing things, so I thought I would give myself a visceral reminder to start thinking about what won't be in my life anymore. Blah blah blah emotions. I left up some JE magazine cutouts though, because I couldn't quite make my walls entirely bare. Commitment issues, I has them.
Totally forgot to mention that I gave away bunny. The girl I found is absolutely the right person, and even sent me an update a couple of days after. Sweep will be perfectly happy there, and I'm very happy with my decision. It was hard to give her away, and I'll miss her of course, but it mollifies me to know that she'll be well taken care of. I spent most of the day I gave her away sitting on the floor in my room patting her and taking photos. Wah, my bunny. ♥
Today is my day off from thinking about things, but of course the move is all I can think about. Tomorrow morning I have the gym, and during the day I'll run some errands: go to the computer market and try to sell my old MacBook and iPhones for parts (the iPhone 3 still works fine, but the MacBook's battery is dead and the iPhone 4 is busted in all kinds of ways), then go to Yashow to get some clothes fixed/copied, get another suitcase, and maybe hit the Apple Store to get an iPhone 5 connector converter for the speakers I already bought. We'll see.
Then on Thursday, Derek arrives at some ungodly hour (7:30), and I have to go into the office for proofreading, woo! Fri-Sun aren't planned yet but I'm sure there'll be some shenanigans, and then next Mon-Wed will be a practice pack up of the rest of my things. That way I can finalize what's going in the shipping boxes and hopefully get them out next week. I can keep them until the last week but I would feel better not doing that. I'll organize the charity pickup for my final week, just so I can keep wearing my jackets until the last minute, and I think that leaves everything but last minute crap to take care of.
Organization. I has it.
I thought I was also going to sit down and write about my emotions, but I've tired myself out writing about my plans so I think I'll leave it at that for now. I've got next to nothing to do for the next little while, I'm sure I'll get around to emotions.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.
Click to viewI really don't know where to start. It's been a hectic three weeks since I last updated! The last week of work continued to be pretty boring, and then I had a lacklustre weekend, all of my own design really. I went to the gym a whole bunch - and here I have a sidebar. Some people say that going to the gym keeps them grounded, and that never really made sense to me before. I suppose I still don't get it in the same way that some people have described it (like Henry Rollins in The Iron), but I have to say that it's definitely helped save my sanity. Even when I don't have anything else planned, it's nice to know I have the gym to look forward to every other day. It helps me know when to start and end my days, and it's just... I'm glad I have it, is all.
Now, getting back to the last two weeks. My family has been in China visiting me, which was fantastic as usual. We started out in Shanghai and though we had some hiccups I think it all went quite well. Most of it was revisiting stuff for me - top of the Jin Mao Tower, The Bund and its accompanying Sightseeing Tunnel, Wukang Lu and Ferguson Lane - but it was all delightful. The only problem was that it was October holiday, which means there were about a billion other people at all the tourist sites, oops! Still, it was fun. Being in Beijing was much better. We did a lot of familiar things, but also took a day out to hit the Ming Tombs - one of the touristy things I'd yet to do - and it was delightful. All the Chinese tourists are off because they've just been doing their touring, so there was nobody there, it was fantastic. And because it's October, it's perfect picture-taking weather. I've got to get myself to the top of Jingshan Park soon. Maybe tomorrow. Anywho, we also went to see a revolutionary opera, Red Guards on Honghu Lake, which was a shitty story but amazing for fans of history and cultural propaganda (which I totally am). I also organized another hotpot night to introduce my nuclear family to my Beijing family, this time with the addition of Natalie, which was also great. We all spent time in Sephora afterwards. There's some other stuff I'm sure, but those are the highlights.
And now my dad's in New York! He's over to visit Fast Company and the old crew, and he'll be back next week, just before I get back.
Yesterday, the day after my parents left (necessitating a 5AM start, ugh, Sunday was a total write-off), I got boxes delivered by the shipping company I'm using to send all my stuff home. That was sort of annoying (the courier didn't know how to get to my street and then wouldn't turn into it, so I had to carry six huge flat boxes in the wind all the way to my house arrrrghhhh), but I packed them all up. Gutting my room earlier this year prepared me for a lot of it, and also the mad panic packing I did in some boxes I bought off Taobao had brought the rest to light, so it was more a matter of repacking and throwing some stuff out. I've got a lot of things to send to charity, mostly clothes, and I'm sure I'll uncover some more things over the course of the next couple of weeks, but it all looks good. Garth is also moving upstairs so there'll undoubtedly be a couple of days of furious throwing out of things from the living room, which will be nice and cathartic.
The biggest thing I did was take down the posters from my room. Putting them up was the first thing I did on the first day of waking up in Beijing, and the thing that comforted me and made me feel most at home once I'd done it. This would lend itself to being the last thing I did on my last day, but since that's impractical, I chose to think about it another way. Taking them down now will remind me every time I go into my room of my impending departure. I have a pretty nasty habit of not processing things, so I thought I would give myself a visceral reminder to start thinking about what won't be in my life anymore. Blah blah blah emotions. I left up some JE magazine cutouts though, because I couldn't quite make my walls entirely bare. Commitment issues, I has them.
Totally forgot to mention that I gave away bunny. The girl I found is absolutely the right person, and even sent me an update a couple of days after. Sweep will be perfectly happy there, and I'm very happy with my decision. It was hard to give her away, and I'll miss her of course, but it mollifies me to know that she'll be well taken care of. I spent most of the day I gave her away sitting on the floor in my room patting her and taking photos. Wah, my bunny. ♥
Today is my day off from thinking about things, but of course the move is all I can think about. Tomorrow morning I have the gym, and during the day I'll run some errands: go to the computer market and try to sell my old MacBook and iPhones for parts (the iPhone 3 still works fine, but the MacBook's battery is dead and the iPhone 4 is busted in all kinds of ways), then go to Yashow to get some clothes fixed/copied, get another suitcase, and maybe hit the Apple Store to get an iPhone 5 connector converter for the speakers I already bought. We'll see.
Then on Thursday, Derek arrives at some ungodly hour (7:30), and I have to go into the office for proofreading, woo! Fri-Sun aren't planned yet but I'm sure there'll be some shenanigans, and then next Mon-Wed will be a practice pack up of the rest of my things. That way I can finalize what's going in the shipping boxes and hopefully get them out next week. I can keep them until the last week but I would feel better not doing that. I'll organize the charity pickup for my final week, just so I can keep wearing my jackets until the last minute, and I think that leaves everything but last minute crap to take care of.
Organization. I has it.
I thought I was also going to sit down and write about my emotions, but I've tired myself out writing about my plans so I think I'll leave it at that for now. I've got next to nothing to do for the next little while, I'm sure I'll get around to emotions.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.