I’m Back! New and Improved!

I’m Back! New and Improved! In New Jumbo economy-size packaging!

We, as you all know, I’ve been back in the glorious ‘ollo’ for about a week. The weather these days has been hot and muggy and heavy rain storms. Streets have been flooded repeatedly and yard work has been advancing at snail speed.

I know I’ve said it a thousand times while I was back home on vacation but I gotta say it again... we’re sooooooooo fortunate to be living in Canada whether in health or in sickness, in luxury or modesty…we’re just so damn lucky! My batteries are re-charged, I feel like I’ve been surrounded by love and support these past few weeks and I’m ready to complete my mandate here in glorious Ollo.

I’m back alone in the apartment as Rox will be spending a couple of months in Chile with her family. I only went out a couple of times with the rest of the team because I have kinda been enjoying my time cocooning in the apartment with the cats. Typing e-mails while watching movies until passing-out on the couch… I even cooked for myself a few nights.

One morning, while walking through the park to get to the shipyard bus, I realized that one thing I enjoy while in China is that I’m allowing myself to be quirky (ridicule) I usually feel very self conscious back home and here, I really don’t give a damn. The other day, I was running late to get the shipyard bus. I usually have to walk 5 minutes through a park to get to it. Because there are about 6 other people already in it, I don’t want them all to wait for me. In any event, that day, I was speed walking while brushing my hair. You know, with the hips swinging from side to side and the arms up in the air… Hey, I guess I’m just blending-in!

Work hard, play hard…drink hard.

So, I'm sitting in the front of this rickety old taxi. Naturally, I reach for the seat belt but the buckle has been removed. I look over to the driver and he has the belt stretched over his shoulder but isn’t buckled in either. If he wants to kill himself fine but I don’t want to go flying through the windshield. I’m too tired to change taxis at this point… I’ll simply keep typing to get my mind off the road.

As you can figure, since my return from vacation in Canada (helas already 1 mo. ago), I have been working long hours every day of the week. There is so much going on at the yard, some good, some bad. I had my first big disagreement with my counterpart from the yard and he went ballistic and true to my character, I remained calm… This episode must have drained me as only a few days later, I fell sick again. High fever, the works. I even had to take a day to rest at the apartment. It’s been over a week now and I still feel like crap. Runny nose, aches, pains and a deep cough… The problem is that I really can’t afford to take another day off as I’m alone again (management-wise) Oh well, Kev will be back next week and I’ll take some time to rest.

The long hours and cold haven’t prevented me from enjoying the week-end night life which basically consists of heavy drinking at a KTV. To put things into context; the project team now consists of four Canadians, Kev and myself (excluding the Ukrainian and Chinese inspectors) So, because we all have nothing better to do, we often meet-up on a Saturday or Sunday evening for dinner and/or a few drinks. This is how I discovered the KTV (K is for Karaoke) One evening, the guys decided to rent a room in a purposely arranged building to karaoke. Guys being guys, they also hired some female companions to drink our beer and make the guys feel cosey. In case you are wondering, although the guys offered, I remained unaccompanied! So after a few coolers and singing to ABBA, we get the party started and start dancing to some rotten techno music. One thing’s for sure, straight men can’t dance!
At around 2 am, I’ve had my full and go home. The next morning was painful and believe me, I really would have stayed in bed if I could.

The following week, we were all invited to celebrate Michelle’s going-back to school. We were about 50 of Michelle’s friends and neighbors gathered in a large no-frills dining room. Food and beer was abundant and we all had a very good time. By the end of the evening, only a few people were left. Mathieu (one of the Canadians) starts to play the spoons ~ with the Chinese porcelain spoons. I join him and the duet is quite entertaining. We must have gone through a dozen spoons as they kept breaking into a thousand pieces every couple of minutes.

Some of the locals were impressed so we gave a few spoon lessons. When it was time to leave, we were all feeling a bit gitty. Kevin decides that we need to go for a massage. So we take a taxi to a foot massage place at 23:30, and we’re escorted into separate rooms (I share mine with Kev) and we let ourselves be fondled for about one hour. I must admit that I did fall asleep. One hour of bliss for about $12 bucks. At one point, Kev was wondering where the others were so he opened a door of a room next to ours. I am told that this Chinese man was getting the massage below the waist. Hum hum…how convenient.

After the massage, we’re all awake and perky and go for a few drinks at a bar/disco close to my apartment. Reg. and I were dancing on the speakers and I soon meet my Chinese dancing partner who insists that I stay and dance with him. The bar must have closed at around 2 am and my dancing partner invites us all to have a few drinks in a private room at the back of the bar. Turns out that this guy is the local pusher and the room is filled with karaoke singing girls drinking water and high on something. Of course, I was offered stuff and of course I politely declined. The effect of this drug is to make you dance and bob your head from side to side. ~ no thanks.