It's been a mixed sort of year.
It started off with me confined to my
apartment in Baiyin with my leg in plaster, missing planned parties
and a holiday in Shanghai. Not, it has to be said, my most optimistic
hour. While that was happening it also became clear that I wouldn't
be able, for various reasons, to continue in that city for another
year. As that's where Teresa lives it still didn't raise my spirits.
I would be there for another term and then have to move. So, in June,
I moved to Yangshuo, which is about a thousand miles away. The
intervening months were, as you might expect, a bittersweet time. We
determined that we would try to maintain our relationship but both of
us knew that such a long distance would make things difficult.
Down in Yangshuo the job and the school
turned out to be pretty good and the city certainly has a lot of
advantages (and a few disadvantages). I'm happy in my school and I
have a great (if very cold) apartment. I have plenty of western
friends here though virtually no Chinese ones – it's a town full of
ex-pats. I get to go to bars and quizzes and even to perform my
writing in front of people who speak the same language!
All that is good.
Not so good is that I have seen Teresa
for a total of ten days in the last six months – just two visits.
We talk a lot on the phone but it looked for a while as if we would
split up – we actually agreed that we would – but somehow we are
struggling on.
I'll be up to visit her in January
before a brief trip back to the UK and then it's back here to run
another teacher orientation course before starting the new term.
With less than a week to go to
Christmas things are looking quite good for the next couple of
months. I'll be out reading poetry on Tuesday night, at a Christmas
buffet in one of the bars on Wednesday night, hosting a Christmas
quiz on Christmas Day, chilling at a movie in my local bar on Friday
night, back for more poetry the following Tuesday, at a half-prize
closing down party in Demo bar on the day before New Years Eve, at a
New Years party on New Years Eve and finishing school on 10th
January to fly to Baiyin on 12th. The expat community
here is nothing if not lively.
Fun as all that sounds. I'd still
rather be having a quieter time in Baiyin. At least when I had my leg
in plaster Teresa could come and visit me every day. I don't think
I'll be able to move back to Baiyin as there isn't a job there for
me, but I will probably try to get somewhere closer than here next
year. I'll be looking into that as soon as I get back from England.
Anyway, as it's Christmas, it's time I
wrote another festive greeting for everyone.
All My Christmases At Once
I've spent Christmas in the jungle, in
the desert, up a mountain;
I've spent Christmas in the places even
Santa doesn't go;
I've spent Christmas in a busy bar that
overlooks the fountain
In the square in Cuzco, another
Christmas without snow.
Kathmandu for Christmas Eve, and Prague
for Christmas Day
I've spent a happy holiday wading up a
stream
I've been so many places where you
couldn't drive a sleigh
With just a single reindeer, never mind
a whole damn team.
Christmas dinner has been turkey but
I've also eaten rice
I've even eaten reindeer (though
Rudolph doesn't know)
In Nepal I had goat curry, though it
wasn't very nice,
And as I said before, another Christmas
without snow.
I've spent Christmases with strangers
and others with my friends
I've spent Christmases with family and
some all be myself
I've been to workplace parties where
everyone pretends
They haven't seen the mistletoe that's
hanging on the shelf.
This Christmas I'm in China, although
I've changed my city,
And I'm sending you this greeting from
Yangshuo,
This year I'm spending Christmas in a
place that's rather pretty,
Though as I said before, another
Christmas without snow.
Merry Christmas,
