Chapter 135

Got up reasonably early, for a Saturday. The three of us went for a walk, the girlfriend got drunk the night before at some kind of work party and left the car at her job. It was already too damn hot to be outside for more than a few minutes, I’m wondering how I will survive doing this camping road trip I’m planning for this summer, or if I should just give up and stay home in the AC for two and a half months.

I got behind the wheel and we drove west, we felt like eating Wuhan sesame noodles and only a few places in town have this elusive and delicious dish, one of them is outside the second ring road, in one of those industrial shithole small towns that are getting slowly absorbed by the city’s urban spreading.

“Look at how many huimian eateries there are here. You know what it means?”

“No”, the girlfriend replied.

“Lots of Henanren. Watch your purse when we get out of the car”

Henan province is an overpopulated, destitute and landlocked part of central China, exporting a lot of migrant workers with not always the best reputation, a lot of Chinese people think they are thieves. I lived there during my first year in China and have mostly good memories of it, but like to poke fun at their reputation.

The Wuhan eatery delivered masterfully, those noodles are magnificient, a true culinary treasure. Then the girlfriend drove, as I’d had a beer with my noodles. We drove to Decathlon, the sporting goods store, and browsed their camping stuff. We have tents and sleeping bags, but are in need of camping chairs. They didn’t have good stoves though, that’s something we’ll need to get elsewhere. Then we went to Metro, an army of shurgwaydingers were bundled up at the entrance, telling us not to bring the dog in. Fair enough, it’s a place with fresh food and all that, and they were friendly about it. Also nobody asked me to wear a fayssah mursk, which is always a plus. I went through the aisles as quickly as I could, filling my cart with meat and booze and various imported goods, while the girlfriend and the dog waited outside.

We drove home, put the stuff in the fridge and cupboards, then I watched a Dark Side Of The Ring documentary about Nick Gage. It was absolutely insane and my jaw dropped a few times watching some of the dangerous stunts that he and his fellow deathmatch wrestlers were doing.

Later in the afternoon, we drove to the mechanic and dropped the car there for maintenance and small repairs, then we walked back, buying groceries on the way.  I made a tom kha goong soup, the Thai recipe with lemongrass and coconut milk, and we also ate a big portion of spicy crawfish the girlfriend brought back from her work party. We watched The Office, we were halfway through season 5 and by then the show had changed considerably, it used to be a minimalist mockumentary showing the mundanity of white collar work but now it was becoming a wacky sitcom with mostly grossly unrealistic plotlines. Still entertaining though.

I wound down watching behind the scenes promos for the upcoming UFC 262. Should be a good one.