Progress report

Since I am now just over half way through my 'back to basics' month, it seems appropriate to pause for reflection.

I am perhaps allowing myself a few more 'exceptions' than I should. It probably didn't help my resolve to be starting off the month with a mammoth exception (which will probably get written up in due course). It's hard to resist a decent beer (and a malt whisky, at Amilana) once in a while - at the weekends, especially.

And, as I had feared, the major obstacle to the success of my project is the shortage of company. Most of my friends are a little too well-heeled these days to visit hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants often, if at all. And those that would indulge my nostalgic whim are bothersomely unavailable: The Choirboy is working a night shift; new drinking buddy, The Mouthpiece (of Evil), has to work fairly long hours at the Propaganda Factory, and lives way out on the unfashionable west side of town, and likes to get in the gym two or three nights a week (it's a miracle we lure him out to Nanluoguxiang as often as we do, really; but he's not a man to rely on for an early evening dinner hook-up); The Weeble keeps such eccentric - translatorly - hours that he rarely seems to be thinking of food until 10 or 11pm (too late for me!); and The Chairman - well, The Chairman is lost to us, not to be relied on for anything.

That having been said, things are not working out too badly. Apart from the big exception a couple of weeks ago, my nights out have been relatively inexpensive: an almost-FREE closing-down party for a failed bar this last Saturday, a FREE (and very alcoholic) media junket the Saturday before that. I have been keeping away from Sanlitun. I've hardly used any taxis. I haven't eaten any Western food out (apart from a Subway sandwich one day when I was hard pressed at work and unable to fit in a proper lunch break). I have kept clear of the wretched Tsingtao beer (Harbin beer only, on those occasions when I have been enticed into a bar). Aside from major expenses like big grocery shops and utilities bills - and those darned exceptions here and there - my day-to-day spending has been impressively low: it's only a few times been much above 50 kuai, and that balanced out by days on which I've managed to spend little or nothing; most days, I seem to be able to get by on 30-40 kuai.

I wonder if I could keep this up for more than a month. I'm not really missing anything very much. Well, apart from dear old 12 Square Metres. And by the end of the month, I could probably murder a pizza. But, really, it's not that hard.....