China Blog: Day 607

15:55 Beijing Time

Phrase of the Day: Wo de jia shi zhen de tai mang. (My life is far too busy.)

Promises, promises, promises. This blog is full of ‘em, and I constantly fail to deliver. So no more promises – I’m finally oing to admit that I can’t update this blog regularly, and that as of today, updates will be sporadic. I will try (and I do, honest) but I cannot guarantee any kind of regular posting schedule, at least while I’m in China.

Fio’s in the States at the moment, hanging out with her family after Book Expo of America. She’s back on Wednesday, but it’s the first time we’ve been apart since we moved in together and I must confess to it being kinda strange. I’ve gotten so used to having her sharing my living space that our apartment seems huge when I’m there on my own. I’ve done my usual routine of moving the laptop into the bedroom and living in one room only. It’s weird, going back to my bachelor lifestyle again. Anyone who’s ever heard Cleatus T. Judd’s It’s A Great Day To Be A Guy will know how I feel – having the house to myself has been fun, but I’m over it now and just want her to come back.

One thing I will say – I’ve become a whole lot tidier since I’ve lived with Fio. The house is spotless right now.

I’m glad she got a holiday. She was getting too stressed being in Beijing, and needed the break. I just wish I could have gone with her. I love her parents, and I still have to meet her sisters. I can’t say I’m not jealous of her getting away – I’d rather be anywhere else other than Beijing in the summer. The humidity is killing me. I don’t function in the heat – the second the thermometer goes above 30 degrees celsius my brain shuts down, my energy reserves become non-existent and my ability to pay attention to anything disappears faster than the Labour Party’s chances of winning the next general election.

Add to that the fact that right now, I’m churning out around 25,000 words of articles and book work a month, plus all my editing and tuition, and it leads to one braindead Scott. I have absolutely no idea where my head is at the moment, and I feel like I’m getting through life on autopilot because higher brain functions such as thought, creativity and sleep don’t seem to want to play.

Anyway, enough of my worryingly-deteriorating mental state. The last few months have been a whirl of writing and general insanity – I’ve met and interviewed Kevin Rudd, the Australian PM, resumed my Naval officer’s application after long months of regret, knuckled down to work on my second book,and set up a monthly Book Swap and Board Games event in an attempt to bring the gaming community here together.

News and journalism in China in general is dominated by the Sichuan earthquake. The death toll has almost topped 70,000, and still some places haven’t been reached. An estimated 20,000 are still missing. The whole affair is heartbreaking – and for me, it hits a particularly personal level. When I was writing the Sichuan guidebook, I spent a lot of time in Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the quake, and to see places where I’d stayed and met the people get trashed was…. I can’t describe. In fact, I really don’t want to talk about it right now.

I’m kinda beat, and I’m at the Book Swap now, so I’m gonna cut this short. I’ll try and put an update up on Tuesday – I’m headed back to Changchun tomorrow for a few days so I should be much more relaxed and able to write a verbose, witty entry and not just waffle on like I appear to have been guilty of repeatedly over the past few months.

I may also attempt to recount some of my stranger experiences and wacky adventures.

I can’t promise…. but I will try.

Zai Jian, guys!