Back From Beijing
Back from Beijing where we luged (sp.?) down the Great Wall at Mutianyu. I am now obsessed with tracking down all available luge sites in Europe – I love luges! Lunch afterwards in a place called The Schoolhouse, set up by a charming couple, him American her Chinese, who retired to their country house in Mutianyu and are now doing their bit to support the local economy via this and other activities like building local holiday homes.
Saturday to the Forbidden City. This was an ordeal as we hiked across the burning anvil of a never-ending succession of huge courtyards, each one designed to bludgeon you into submission: Who’s the best emperor of them all, eh? Many jokes about the Sublime Hall of Get Me the Hell Out of Here, and the Pavilion of the Eternal Queue for the Water Conveniences.
The family as a whole was like a series of illustrations from a medical textbook, with the exception of Larry who continues robustly normal – she is a changeling. Curly had her usual range of eczema-related ailments. LSS somehow managed to scratch his cornea without noticing it and spent the whole weekend with his eye weeping and squinting against any bright lights. (His doctor is beginning to suspect him of Munchhausens, which incidentally was the subject of an episode of House that I watched on the flight back, in an effort to find out why grown women come over all weak at the knees at the sight of Hugh Laurie. Hugh Laurie, for God’s sake!) Mo has suddenly started wetting the bed, presumably brought on by move-related stress. (I wish people would just act stressed, if they’re stressed, instead of coming out with physical symptoms.) And as for me, an innocuous-looking insectbite on my left thigh suddenly blossomed into a horrible oozing lump, which I personally reaped much entertainment from poking and squeezing, while the rest of the family suppressed their retches/ran away screaming/fainted dead away etc.
Also after all that smugness about writing a page a day, I am now 2 ½ days behind!
Saturday to the Forbidden City. This was an ordeal as we hiked across the burning anvil of a never-ending succession of huge courtyards, each one designed to bludgeon you into submission: Who’s the best emperor of them all, eh? Many jokes about the Sublime Hall of Get Me the Hell Out of Here, and the Pavilion of the Eternal Queue for the Water Conveniences.
The family as a whole was like a series of illustrations from a medical textbook, with the exception of Larry who continues robustly normal – she is a changeling. Curly had her usual range of eczema-related ailments. LSS somehow managed to scratch his cornea without noticing it and spent the whole weekend with his eye weeping and squinting against any bright lights. (His doctor is beginning to suspect him of Munchhausens, which incidentally was the subject of an episode of House that I watched on the flight back, in an effort to find out why grown women come over all weak at the knees at the sight of Hugh Laurie. Hugh Laurie, for God’s sake!) Mo has suddenly started wetting the bed, presumably brought on by move-related stress. (I wish people would just act stressed, if they’re stressed, instead of coming out with physical symptoms.) And as for me, an innocuous-looking insectbite on my left thigh suddenly blossomed into a horrible oozing lump, which I personally reaped much entertainment from poking and squeezing, while the rest of the family suppressed their retches/ran away screaming/fainted dead away etc.
Also after all that smugness about writing a page a day, I am now 2 ½ days behind!
posted by FBT at 7:31 am
4 Comments:
Sounds like our trip to BJ. So many courtyards, so little to look at. Had they finished all the construction?
No, there were many Pavilions of the Mystic Scaffolding and Green Enshrouding.
Acshually... I kinda liked the maze effect of all the pavilions. Of course the weather was great for walking - 15 degrees...
Now your talking
15 feet from the mirror and still the yellow hard core is on target
I know most people believe that at this point they should be going yuk but those who have never taken pleasure in an oozing zit, or picked their nose and eaten it can cast the first stone
ooh thats grossed me out.
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