The Omega Man

I had a particularly quiet New Year's Eve this year.

Just about all of my friends had left town. It's always bad around this time of year, but this year was exceptional. I mean, heck, last year people were making an effort to get back for New Year's Eve - whereas this year some of them were bugging out just before it.

The Choirboy, The Poet, Big Chris, Dishy Debs & Sexy Sarah - all taking extended breaks in their various ancestral homelands. Ditto my oldest long-time expat friend in Beijing, Karen (visiting her native Canada for the holidays for the first time, I think, since I've known her). The Man In Black has vamoosed to Thailand (something about "a belated honeymoon"). Photographer buddy Nick O'Pix is taking a holiday in South China. Even The Suave Bengali took a last-minute decision to to take a break somewhere.... And then The Chairman received an invitation to a Chinese wedding celebration somewhere down south on New Year's Day, and disappeared in a flash (the bride was one of his great unrequited [allegedly] crushes, and he was only invited at two day's notice; so it's quite possible they didn't really want him to go...). My new pool nemesis, New Dad, is mostly rather too busy being a new dad (I did send him a text message to alert him to my imminent arrival in the Pool Bar - but by 1am, he was already long since in bed). And his buddy, the almost-as-strong-a-pool-player DS - whom we shall refer to from now on as the Kungfu Man (he is rather good at it!) - was yet another of those taking the long break at home this Christmas.

Yes, things were mighty quiet during these hols. I was left to pursue my kicks solo on New Year's Eve - although I have to do that quite a bit anyway, so am well practised in it. A meal, a walk, a quick drink in Jianghu to say Xin Nian Kuaile to everyone, and then a rock gig at Yugong Yishan - where I did happen to bump in to Tennessee Tom (I had kind of assumed that he would have been on holiday with Nick O'Pix - they are long-time flatmates, and do most things together) and Gorgeous Stella, the loveliest of my Chinese friends. So, it wasn't a completely unsociable evening - but not the great party we had last year.

As so often, the 'impromptu' stop-off at the Pool Bar for a couple of hours made my evening.

Damn, the city feels eerily empty at the moment, though. I really have almost no incentive to set foot outside the apartment until people start returning in dribs and drabs in another week or so.