WHAT KEEPS ME WARM IS MY HEAD

On the way to the West, there is no province named Gun Ferret (槍鼬 'cheung yau'), named perhaps after a furry small brigand that roamed that area. But there should be. It's just past Oklahoma. For some reason my dream conflated the pioneer trail, Chinese Turkestan, and the bus up Pacific Avenue. Which was packed with villagers standing in the aisles.
And white people. Too many white people.

Can't figure out if this is the Losartan, the Metoprolol, or the Amlodipine Besylate. Or just the brain fermenting in the middle of the night. Perhaps from the salt fish in what I had for lunch.


In late afternoon, deciding that despite the frightful cold it was not good to sit at home and stew, I needed to get out and exercise the legs, I had gone down to Chinatown for a cup of hot milk tea and a dan taat. After which I smoked my pipe and listened to a local woman buying dried shrimp after the shopkeeper had been reamed by an officious dickwad.
Which he took with relatively good grace.
Might be a relative.

Sometime Chinese people are remarkably patient with each other.
That usually happens when you've got no clue what's going on.

There used to be more places where one could get a cup of milk tea and decide upon a delicious pastry in Chinatown, as well as nearly twice as many chachantengs. But local demographics have changed a bit. Bubble tea places have multiplied. Which is a truly ghastly state of affairs. Artificial fruit flavours, matcha, and rubbery globs of tapioca.
Not, strictly speaking, an adult choice.


It mirrors the proliferation in the wider society of "coffee" joints that add vanilla or strawberry syrup, soy milk, sprinkles, and wipped cream to blender beverages. Protein powder and wheat grass extractives upon request. Where the counter staff can't spell, consider themselves incredibly sensitive, artistic, or gifted, and are uber entitled.

A few of those in the Financial District have closed down.
There is thirty percent less busines down there.
Many people work from home.


The number of gyms and yoga studios seems to have stablized.
That probably means something. There are none in C'town.
At some point things will have to change.
We need more caffeine.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================