I’ve been busy. Busy entering some expat blog contest. What’s worse than a dime-a-dozen expat with a blog? A dime-a-dozen expat with a blog thinking they should win a contest! They are awarding prizes based on the number of comments made on your entry. As you can see from all the comments on this blog, I’m totally going to win! Seriously though, I’ll be shamelessly self-promoting once my entry has been processed.
I’ve been busy getting my hair cut. My hair was so bad, it was starting to look ragged even when pulled back in a pony tail. So, looking for a simple cut, I marched into a salon this morning ready to give up 30 minutes of my day. Ha! I should’ve known when it took 10 minutes to sit down (someone to take my coat, someone to offer me a menu of drinks, someone to put my apron on, someone to put my Starbucks on the table, someone to carefully place my purse on a shelf…), I was in for a painfully slow experience. Like most things in China, my simple hair cut took twice as long as it should have. At one point, I thought the hairdresser was either: a. afraid I was going to get unreasonably upset at the slightest misstep, so was going extra slow in case I needed to stop him; b. being watched by some famous guru in the biz and he was looking to impress; c. totally in love with me and/or my hair or; d. Just messing with me to see exactly how long it would take before I ripped off my apron and went postal. (I did not, for the record. I just cursed under my breath about all of the really important things he was keeping me from, like lunch and writing my award-winning blog article.)
I’ve been busy breathing the air outside. I hesitate to say “fresh” air but at least “fresher”. I actually saw some blue in the sky today! In case you haven’t heard, Shanghai’s air pollution has been “beyond index” – meaning they didn’t actually think pollution would ever actually get this bad. I could go on, but really my feelings on the pollution haven’t changed much in a year. So, in case you missed it a year ago…my thoughts on pollution.
Heading home for the holidays so likely won’t post again until 2014. Happy holidays! Thanks for reading.
Kathleen Siddell 