Day 113 617 days to go. Distance today: RAINED OUT!!!
It s 10am Thursday 22/3/2012 Guanshu. Its so wet eeeeeow. A huge storm hit town last night just as I was tucking myself into bed for some pre zzzzz tv. We lost power with the first clap of thunder and lightning mmmmmmmmmm total black out. I have packed and unpacked my kit so many times and have this routine of everything having its place in the rooms I stay. Thank goodness for my obsessiveness and I son found my head torch and Ipod and tucked myself into bed with them instead. Theres always a plan B J It sbeen serious rain ever since. Ive been up watching the puddlesgrow since 7.30am with no sign of it easing up fort now at least.
Its life as usual for the local folk getting on with their day with the rain. I can even hear the firecracker men scaring off those dragons. Dragons must love the cloud cover to hind behind but perhaps the rain is a bit of a bugger for fire breathing. Last night I planned km per day to give us three days up our sleeve for inci9dentals. I hadn’t figured on using one first up but that’s mother nature at her femal best. I love her despite her mood swings J I don’t fancy being in ‘waiting’ mode all day so Ive paid for another night and will do something cool and constructive for the day starting with a post to you fine folk.
Last night I saddled up to stir-fry egg noodles and greens. Everything else was more than I wanted to pay but it was still yummy. I handed over 10 yen and that’s what I got. The café lady didn’t cope with me and no meat so served a side plate of preserved stinky cheese on the house. Oh my goodness now that was a taste explosion. She laughed so hard watching my reaction. After the shock of th extreme taste, its quite Moorish. I’m such an extremist so most outer spectrum stuff gest my attention at least once, with stinky cheese now on the list J It smore a restaurant style café here with the menu which is bazaar given its roadside style cooking. I couldn’t read the menu except the prices so the other aromas were savoured at a distance. Im currently brunching on the leftovers burp.
The CCTV-5 sports channel is on as background noise with the women’s world ‘curling’ championships. Wgat a crazy sport. It swomen at their domestic best cleaning the ice to pave a good bowl for the team. All the while the chicks are screaming ‘hard!!!’ to insight some serious brooming. A fine display of feminism turning domestic duty into a sport. Just joking for all you curling fans out there. Im sure it’s a good sport. Remember Im on the road from ignorance J On that cheeky note I think Ill go Asian squat by a puddle and contemplate belly button fluff.
It’s 12.10pm and Im back upstairs in my room tucked under the doona very happy to be dry and out of the weather. Its still raining but the it seems a little lighter which has lifted the spirits that maybe tomorrow is clear enough to continue without risking freezing my bits. Its so cold. Everything is steaming even when I go to the loo so under the doona is the place to be. There’s a little old lady seated in the rear of the café busy shredding greens and doing food preps. She’s been there all morning and I guess that’s her everyday. So to keep to promise that today will be cool and constructive. I’ve decided to start writing the Asian experience to date for ‘shecyclesolo.’ It’s the perfect day and opportunity for some reflection and start to play with words to capture events since the 1/12/2011. Arriving at Chiang Mai airport with Rube still boxed on the trolley seems a very very long time ago. Talk soon x
Its 8.30pm and Im back in bed under the doona wearing two sets of thermals, beanie, scarf, gloves, down jacket and socks. Have I mentioned its cold. That seems to be the tricky bit to the weather here that if it rains the temp plummets. Add a wind chill and eeeek. I spent the last few hours downstairs in the café writing and hanging out with the café family. I thought Id try them on my book of family photos. So I left the pocket album just sitting on the table. It didn’t take Ma 5 minutes to spot the pink heart cover and over she came. Sooo cool!!! We went through each page talking and asking questions and listening and trying my best to explain and laughing. Then did it all again!!!! And again with a lady walking past joining in. And again with the daughter. And again with Mrs Ping next door. And so it went on.. And so fun yayayay!! One of my better ideas (Thanks Mops x) I had the album still out from Wuhan as Leo Giang wanted to see family photos. I then enjoyed some writing with the daughter reading out loud over my shoulder as I typed. She is sweet and the waitress in the café who gave me the stinky cheese last night. We’re buddies so it seems. She’s got all the English sounds sorted out but doesn’t understand the meaning of the words. You can tell she’s a smart cookie. Very smart and friendly. So that was my evening unfortunately cut short by the ‘too cold’ factor for me. I scoffed some dinner from the supplies and the shivers are slowly settling with the layers under the doona. Its been a cool and constructive day as hoped with a big dob of fun on top yay. Talk soon x
shecyclesolo 