I've had a good day today.
I'm
stuck in Hong Kong trying to renew my Chinese visa. My first day was
not so good. My partner kindly bought me a first-class ticket to
Shenzhen, the ultra-modern city across the border, a few days ago.
Unfortunately that seat was set against a support and couldn't retract,
which meant, with my bad back, I had to stand most of the way down. I
stayed in a run-down hotel that night, crossed the border with some
hassles, and then was berated by the woman at the visa office, after a
long wait, for not providing all sorts of details that they never asked
for before. Even the librarian in Wan Chai was mean (or maybe I was
tired). Then as I got into the subway, the door closed first on my
backpack, which I had been lugging around all day, then on my arm. An
Australian lent me a hand (his only one, as it happened. What is the
prior probability of that, Richard Carrier?) I started laughing,
finally, and told him, "This has been such a strange day, it's only
fitting that the subway would attack me."
Today was very different.
