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Serendipity, Knob and Thomas Jefferson

Oh! Oh! Oh! USA! Talk about the exact opposite of Mexico – at least Mexico City and Horn Cow. In those two places, everyone lives behind high walls and sturdy gates. And according to my friends (one of whom experienced being held up at gunpoint in his own house) they really have to.

Here in the USA it’s the opposite: You can just skip across people’s lawns and right up to (and into?) their house. Take the gaff above, for example. Actually no, that gaff you had to pay to get into. But then again it’s Thomas Jefferson’s house! Yes, the Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the USA and not a bad violin player! Among other things.

It happened by accident, and was a long and horrible story: I was visiting my dear dear friends Ellen and Kelly in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Kelly knew I’m particularly and quite surprisingly fond of a cocktail he makes, Old-Fashioned. Surprisingly, because I don’t really like any whisky-related drinks.

Anyway, out came the interestingly named KNOB:

and before I knew it it was 4 o’clock in the morning and I went to bed without drinking water and without taking the contact lenses out of my eyes. So ill. So, so ill. In fact I haven’t been so ill since last time I visited the USA two years ago.

That was the day Steve and I had to drive seven hours.

As the afternoon sun lowered itself over the history-riddled billowing fields of Virginia, I could feel myself getting worse and worse, not better. Perhaps I could stop at a toilet and commit some light suicide, I thought. We took a sharp right turn off the highway and found ourselves in some absolutely charming and delightful meadows. But no toilet, no truck stop.

“Oh look, there is a sign to Monticello,” Steve said. “The?” “Thomas Jefferson’s house! That he designed! I’ve always wanted to got there!”

OK. We had to stop although it wouldn’t get us to our destination, Kill Devils Hill (yes!) until midnight. Who cares? It’s Jefferson! He stood on that porch and looked at the same incredible vista!!!!

Maybe he went through these corridors at night to get himself a glass of milk from the scullery. Or maybe not.

Huge, huge experience! And today we’re going to look at the place where The Lost Colony got lost, hopefully we can find them. Although they’re probably dead by now, this being 428 years ago.

廁所 (Chi soh – toilet)
威士忌 (Wai si gei – whisky)
唔舒服 (m syu fuk – not well)

Well and Truly 2016

It’s well and truly next year! First I thought, I can’t wait for 2015 to be over, but then I stopped myself. The faster next year comes, the sooner I’ll be in the grave. So I want time to go more slowly, not faster. And one way to make time pass more slowly is always to look at something new.

Like this monastery we visited yesterday, Song Zan something, in Shangri-la, also known as Diqing, also known as Kham, a part of Tibet until someone decided that it wasn’t Tibet anymore. But as the Canadian we met on a bus who had been two days in China could inform/lecture us: Although it’s Yunnan, there’s a lot of Tibetan influence.

I think everybody should aim this year for acting like the cross- or should I say individually flamboyant- dresser above. So what if the fashion for men in Song something monastery, or rather, lamasery, is maroon robes. Style is style!

西藏 – Sai Jeung (Tibet)
好有型 – Hou yau yeng (stylish)
加拿大 – Ga La Dai (Canada)

Buy SCMP On Sunday

Next Sunday I have a feature in the South China Morning Post (Post Magazine) about Cantonese. I probably won’t say much that I haven’t already said here, but please read the thing anyway?

The photo session was quite good fun with me and a photographer walking around Central asking people to write down some new Cantonese slang. Oh, how they struggled to think of something! Which rather contradicted my article which was partly about how proud HK people are about Cantonese slang (while at the same time saying it’s rubbish and too difficult for white people… anyway, please read it.)

CORRECTION! It will be published Sunday April 14th.