May 1st is a bit of a non-event of a 'holiday', for the locals, I think, as much as for us foreigners. For those of us stuck in the city, especially for us music fans deprived of our usual annual treat of the Midi Festival, it was hard to find anything to divert ourselves..... other than self-harm through alcohol.
I tried to entice one American friend out for the evening. He queried what was going on.
"Nothing...." I replied tersely.
"That was a 'nothing' rich with ennui!" he responded a little later. Yes, indeed.
At least May 2nd was enlivened by having a wedding to go to.
That, of course, entailed 3 hours of intense drinking in the middle of the day. After which, I felt the need to return to the safety of my apartment to recuperate. My drinking companion, Crazy Chris, who'd also been at the wedding with a visiting Aussie friend of his, had lobbied for a walk in a nearby park as a recovery plan, but the sultry weather and lousy air quality had militated against this for me. However, I was soon starting to regret my decision to attempt to return home by bus, since I got bogged down in heavy traffic and took the best part of an hour to complete what should have been a 20-minute ride.
I vented my frustration and despair via SMS to Chris - largely to prevent myself from lapsing into unconsciousness on the bus.
He taunted me that the park was lovely.
Searching for some consolation in my hellish situation, I returned: "Well, at least I shall be able to throw up in the comforting privacy of my own bathroom. Eventually."
He retorted: "Yes, but here in the park we can sell tickets to people to watch us puke."
"Please don't do that!" I replied.
"What? Puke, or sell tickets?"
"Don't puke. If you're gonna puke, by all means make money off it."
I hasten to add that neither of us did puke, nor, I think, was very close to it. But baijiu does have a nasty way of repeating on you.....
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