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it has just been waiting for me |
23 March 2008
so today is easter sunday, which i only just remembered a little while ago. there is more or less no such thing as easter in china so it's a bit of a non-event but it's nice to remember little ritualistic things from home. i might make a little easter twig tree later. i can make decorations from old coke cans and plastic, and hang some little plastic toys and strips of fabric for makeshift ribbons. i considered the possibility of painting eggs but i don't have any way of boiling them without rendering the kettle unusable afterwards. it could have been fun though. as i mentioned to sarah the other day on the phone, you can buy the most enormous packs of eggs in the supermarkets here. simply huge! a big cardboard package shaped like one of those gift bags you put birthday presents in, filled with dozens and dozens of eggs, complete with handy carrying cord. i saw an old man carrying one on the bus the other week. actually one of the other weird and interesting things about chinese supermarkets that i forgot to mention last time i wrote is that they have lots of free gift promotions, but of a decidedly odd nature. in england, the free gift is generally relevant to the product you're buying, eg. buy two jars of coffee and get a free mug. they have this type of promotion in china too, but chinese free gifts can also be totally unrelated to the product they come with. in the supermarkets over the past month i have seen, among other things: buy a bottle of cola and get two free identical packs of playing cards, buy a bottle of washing detergent and get a free towel, buy a bottle of shampoo and get a free umbrella, buy a tube of toothpaste and get a free doraemon lunchbox. it's funny that the gifts should be so irrelevant to what you're buying... but free stuff is always good :-)i think i might celebrate easter with a meal at ajisen ramen. not really a decadent thing at all actually, as like almost everywhere it's mind-bogglingly cheap. i don't have much in the fridge to put together a meal today, and it's nice to have japanese food. oddly comforting to be served genmaicha and miso soup. reminds me of home... this coming week i'm intending to teach the students about easter, and maybe some other seasonal festivals into the bargain. it seems like a good excuse for a fun lesson, and i think the students will be tired as this weekend they've been taking an external english exam. i need to plan it today and/or tomorrow morning and i'm dawdling a little. funny how one's work pattern never really changes, no matter what the surroundings. i'll get it done, and pull it off, make it good. i always do. but it might take a bit of procrastination before i get a sufficient sense of urgency... ... last night i was listening to my ipod before going to sleep and felt the urge to create a playlist of music that feels appropriate to my state of mind at the moment. it's mostly quite slow and lazy, a little wistful, maybe even nostalgic, but positive , cosy, and just right for dreaming in the indoors sunlight. a lazy spring weekend playlist London - Patrick Wolf (Lycanthropy, 2003, Tomlab) 5:55 - Charlotte Gainsbourg (5:55, 2006, Because Music) Small - Lamb (What Sound, 2001, Mercury) Into The Light - Themroc (2003, Wall Of Sound) Falling - Nitin Sawhney (Human, 2003, V2) We Float - PJ Harvey (Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, 2000, Island) Rain - Night Traffic (Hed Kandi Winter Chill Vol. 2, 2000, Hed Kandi) Glittering Cloud (The Plague of Locusts) - Imogen Heap (Plague Songs, 2006, 4AD) Isobel - Björk (Post, 1995, One Little Indian) Swollen - Bent (Programmed To Love, 2000, EMI) Weebles Fall - Slovo (Nommo, 2002, Rufflife) Sand In My Shoes - Dido (Life For Rent, 2003, Cheeky) Blowing Changes - Joshua Redman's Elastic Band (Momentum, 2005, Nonesuch) utterly utter [
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