Lunch with Ranald

23.10.2015

I got to Beijing at about 6 a.m. and I was so out of it, I went to wait in line to buy my ticket home, even though I already had it. Halfway through the line, I realized that fact, and exasperatedly left the station for Bear's house.

I fell asleep on the subway and missed my transfer, but it didn't matter because Bear wasn't awake yet. When I got to his station, I had to call him and wake him up, but I really needed a nap. He let me sleep and Ranald called at 9 to say he was coming over.

It takes him about two hours to get across the city, so we went out for an early lunch in the "art zone" down the street. Pierce Brosnan was across the street taking pictures with random people looking miserable. I suddenly felt like I was in LA again, eating hamburgers on the patio with good beers in the sunshine.

We talked about the random stuff that happened in our lives for the last 18 months and visited a strange steampunk exhibition which was a topic of conversation a few minutes earlier, strangely. We also got caught up in some sort of music video shoot but we had no idea who the famous popstars were.

Bear was still at work when we were finished, so we walked around the hutong area till we were hungry again. We couldn't find anything really remarkable, so we settled for cold peking duck, for tourists. Not very good, but good enough, I guess. We were both tired, so Ranald headed home and I had to track down Bear before I could go home. He was at home now, so I took the subway over, but on the way I met a jazz band on their way to a gig. I desperately wanted to go but my head was about to explode from dehydration and I felt like I would pass out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I had to decline, and go home where my head did in fact, explode and I slipped into exquisite unconsciousness.

Sleeping on the subway