Chapter 95

We peeled ourselves out of our hard beds early to get a head start. We had a four-hour trip home and the girlfriend wanted to avoid traffic on the highway, as all those sad Shanghai city dwellers go back to their urban prison at the end of the three-day holiday.

We had heaping bowls of egg fried rice for breakfast and packed our meagre belongings. There was a horrible stench in the car, yesterday I put my shoes in there and should have wrapped them in a plastic bag or something. So after thanking and saying goodbye to the nice owner and his family members hanging out or doing chorse, we rolled with all the windows down. The dog loves putting his triangle-shaped aerodynamic head out and get some of that nice wind.

The whole area seemed pretty wealthy to me overall, with very little, if any, evidence of the crippling third-worldiness I saw whenever I ventured to the Chinese countryside ten years ago. And this is Anhui, a landlocked province that used to be pretty damn poor but has gone a long way since, alongside the rest of the country. The road was well paved and maintained, farmers around us were wearing straw hats and worn out padded jackets but they seemed very healthy, and most farmhouses were huge renovated things with brand new cars parked in the yard, some of them being high-dollar German brands.

“This place is pretty cool. Look at all those hills around! We should buy a farm and come live here” I suggested, only half-jokingly.

“No way. There are chong-chongs here”

The girlfriend is dead scared of insects. I remember just yesterday how there was a very inoffensive earwig in the room and she squealed in terror.

We got on the highway, and because it’s a holiday we didn’t have to pay the toll fee. For an hour or so there were very few cars on the brand-new highway, and in fact we didn’t run into much traffic at all until we reached the city a little before 1 o’clock. We went to the pizza restaurant, which was 3/4 full with families and groups of girls eating, we had the margherita and the prosciutto pies, and I quenched my thirst with a nice Paulaner Hell Munich lager.

One of the pleasures of travelers is coming home, even after such a short trip. Even more pleasurable is coming home early enough and kick back for a bit before getting back to work. We threw our stuff in the laundry, did a bit of cleaning, made margaritas, and I put on a succession of music from the Top 500: some weird 70s rock by British band Roxy Music, a Stevie Wonder LP, a live rock album by MC5, and my favorite of the four, Gillian Welch’s soulful folk music and great voice.

It was still quite sunny, and the girlfriend wanted to buy a few things from the corner store. We went out with the dog and after buying milk and dish sponges, we sat in the park square and shared a cider, enjoying our late afternoon. On the way home we ran into a British coworker and his girlfriend who were coming back from a long walk. “I could get used to those three-day weekends”, he said. I can’t say I disagree.

My legs were a bit sore and stiff from the hiking, and I had consumed a few alcoholic beverages already, but still felt like moving a bit so I went to play badminton. Like a derp, I didn’t see the message saying they went to another gym, so I went to the central municipal sports center and saw it was closed for the holiday weekend. Nonplussed, I just rode the extra 3 km, the weather was still nice even after darkness had fallen and I was listening to Ryan Long’s podcast, he was riffing and ranting about various topics.

I played a bunch of doubles games with various partners and... lost them all. “Win some lose some” is one of my life mottos, “Win none lose ‘em all” is not quite as motivating but I had a lot of fun and tried my best against those lean mean badminton machines. In fact now that I’m writing this, I am thinking longingly about the next time I’ll go back on the courts.

I got home, poured a coffee porter, drew a hot bath, and put a chicken pie in the oven. I slid into the hellish hot water and relaxed, while the next Top 500 entry played. GZA’s Liquid Swords is one hell of a good album, probably the best solo Wu-Tang project (though my favorite is probably Method Man’s Tical). It doesn’t have nearly as much filler as Ghostface’s albums, but I have to say I’ve always thought those ninja movie samples were extremely dorky. Still, great beats, great flows, great lyrics.

I ate my pie with a side of green peas while watching some videos by The Road Chose Me about overland travel. One topic touched was bringing pets on the road, with a vaccination booklet. Hmmm, that’s food for thought. I don’t think we’ll bring Triangle Face along though, for various reasons, the main ones being an added layer of complication on a trip that already lines up to be a pile of bureaucracy and also for his own sake, he’d love running around in different destinations but at times we wouldn’t have a choice but leave him alone while we go to non-pet-friendly places, that’s a bit cruel.