STILL DOING THAT

Years ago after my girlfriend and I broke up I started hanging out in Chinatown more. It's close to where I live and as good a way of getting away from it all as any, and seeing as besides speaking fluent Dutch I also speak Cantonese and German, albeit badly, it feels comfortable. No, speaking Dutch and German actually doesn't help in any way.
Except when I express existential despair or talk about philosophy.

After a while I realized that it also helped me recover from job-exposure to the neo-fascists in the suburbs. None of whom dare to visit Chinatown because there are people there.

When Covid hit, it was the nearest environment where folks wore their masks, and where one could buy rice stick noodles, bitter melon, chilipaste, and fatty pork.

Plus my doctor, the clinic, and the pharmacy are there. Like rice stick noodles, bitter melon, chilipaste, and fatty pork, that also was incredibly conducive to mental and physical survival. Well, pipesmoking too, and I should mention, pursuant thereto, that all Chinese people either have relatives who still smoke, or are that relative. So they're far less likely to throw a temper tantrum at someone visibly enjoying tobacco half a block away than folks in Berkeley, or in fact say anything at all. Unlike Anglos, they mind their own damned business.

And one additional factor, which should absolutely not be overlooked, as that there are no fast-food franchises in that neighborhood. That, too, lowers the number of objectionables. Even pizza is hard to find unless you're at that one place that has 披薩 ('pei saat') on the menu. Which we're not going to mention, because I don't want to encourage outsiders.

I tend to be a loner, and I can do that there.



It's also where I acquired many of the stuffed animals that keep me and my antisocial apartment mate from wigging out entirely.



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