Summer days

Incredibly hot here today – it was 29 degrees at 8 in the morning when I was on the way to the train station and it’s got hotter than that since then, amplified by the post-apocalyptic haze that accompanies most sunny days here. I nipped in Shanghai this morning to go for a fitting for my tux – having it taken in a little bit round the chest so it’s more close-fitting – and therefore more efficient for hand-to-hand combat next time I get in a double-0 situation. While I was there I ordered 4 more shirts to be made, conscious of the fact I’ll be needing a lot of office-wear come September when I start at PwC. Shirts were only £12 each – could get them cheaper if I really bargained, but when they’re being made-to-measure for me I don’t like to haggle too hard, for obvious reasons. I’ll go back in a couple of weeks to pick up the tux and my shirts and probably order another couple of suits then – just need to work out what colour suits I need first, because nothing’s springing to mind… Think a dark grey one and maybe a navy blue with very fine pinstripes or something. Or I could just go way out there and get a shiny silver one – very en vogue in China at the moment!

On Friday we bought plane tickets to Hong Kong on the 17th June, the day I finish teaching (this was obviously not as easy as it sounds – it was a week long endeavour, made more difficult by the fact the airline website won’t accept any Western bank cards or my Chinese bank card, for reasons unknown). I can’t wait to go to Hong Kong – I’ll be there for my birthday on the 21st June, and we’re leaving the day afterwards. It’ll be me, Em and Sophie, Em’s sister, and Stu will be there as well, so it should be a nice little trip. It should be steaming hot in Hong Kong at the time, so might even be able to get onto the beach to get a bit of a tan on as well. Can’t wait for this, and will be a nice place to have spent my birthday – last year was in Norfolk, but the year before that was on the beach in Spain, and the year before that was on the beach in France. Exotic.

I’m also ashamed to say me and Em just fell off the ebike. Embarrassingly it was nothing dramatic – the incident occurred as we were driving along at slow speed and then I tried to go up a very smooth curve at a very shallow angle. The front wheel just skidded off and we fell over in slow motion, still managing to collect an impressive array of grazes and break the throttle and front brake of the bike! Rubbish. One of the great things about China though – I pushed the bike into town (only a very sweaty 20 minute walk away) back to the shop where we bought it, and the woman replaced the front brake lever and sorted the throttle out before charging us the grand sum of £2 for the job. Love. China.