Chapter 59

I woke up at 8, lazed in bed a bit then watched the UFC card. A Brazilian fighter named Mayra Bueno Silva grabbed the fence to prevent being taken down, and the referee immediately took a point instead of giving her a limp-wristed warning. So even though Silva won two rounds out of three, the fight was ruled a draw. Good job, ref. Most fights were a bit subpar and ended in a decision, and I had to leave just before the main event to go to the driving school.

We got driven to the practice lot way out of town, and I practiced backing up without the help of the small round mirrors on the edge of the hood. At some point, there was an ominous beep and a thermometer icon flashing on the dash. I called the instructor, who was outside checking to make sure I don’t cross the lines.

“There’s a problem with the temperature”

He and another employee leaned in. “Oh, the temperature is too high uh? No problem, keep driving.”

“Are you sure? There was a... sound” My Chinese sucks.

I did a few more maneuvers, until there was white smoke coming out. I turned off the engine and they opened the hood. There seemed to be enough cooling fluid but the smoke was coming from somewhere under there. So we waited, and waited, and ultimately just went back to the city in another car. It still counts for my mandatory driving practice hours, even though I was behind the wheel for about 20 minutes. Earlier I would have been happy with that, but now I do want to practice and make sure I don’t flunk that nitpicky and surprisingly difficult test.

I got home and watched the UFC main event between heavyweights Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Cyril Gane. It was a dud, a slow affair in which neither fighter really engaged. Gane is now 5-0 in the UFC, a prospect with a lot of upside, but you have to put on more exciting performances if you want to please the brass and the fans, and get rewarded.

It was a lazy Sunday overall. I exercised a bit, ate too many snacks, and sat around reading about overland travel on the internet. The girlfriend has also been exploring blogs and forums on the Chinese side of things, there are people who drive their own cars to Europe and back and it’s manageable. We’ll see if we end up doing just that or scrap it out of our sabbatical itinerary.

I kept going down the Top 500, with albums by Chic, Creedence Clearwater Revival,  Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys. The only one I really liked was CCR. Chic had one good disco classic (Good Times) and a bunch of filler, Bob Dylan’s album was quite bland compared to the other albums I heard of him, and at least The Beach Boys didn’t suck as much as on the other album that was also on the Top 500 earlier.

Dinner was leftovers, with the last of the creamy seafood pasta and this morning’s dumplings, accompanied with olives and Italian cold cuts. We watched The Office, as always. I went to bed early and started Dan Grec’s second book, the one about his three-year overland trip around Africa.