Friday 13th.

At the best of times, this is never a propitious date, and the thirteenth day of an April that persists in regarding itself as March, was doomed to be depressing even if it hadn't also been Good Friday here in Russia. Sidewalks and minor roads like skating rinks early in the morning, rivers of slush and mud in the afternoon;  parks and open spaces still under a meter or so of snow, but no longer gleaming pristine white but greyish, pools of water from melted surface snow lying atop the compacted snow and ice that refuses to melt;  the River Volga still ice bound but now unsafe to walk over, so necessitating a long and expensive detour by taxi to a village a mere 3 kilometres away on the other side; walking in residential areas requiring the ability to simultaneously keep from stepping into hidden pits of water and avoid being brained by stalactites falling from overhanging roofs. 

The day began with a tirade from my better half, berating me for having spent a fair sum of money yesterday on a new battery for her laptop without first testing it at the service centre.  It had been on charge all night, without any noticeable effect.  A couple of hours later, unable to get through to the shop by phone, I went back to complain, was told to leave it with them for half an hour, after which it would work perfectly.  It did!  I wouldn't have understood the explanation, delivered in the sort of condescending tone that young nerds habitually use to greybearded computer illiterates, even if it had been in English, so was unable to explain to my better half why it had taken the geek half an hour to do something we'd failed to do in 24 hours.

To work in the evening, and a more dismal crew of people I've rarely come across.  Two teachers and several students have been keeping the Lenten fast, an essentially vegan diet, since the end of February and the cumulative effect of nearly seven weeks living on birdseed was compounded today by their determination to abide by the Church's recommendation of eating nothing at all on "Good" Friday.  Seeing how normally cheerful, friendly people can degenerate into morose and irritable individuals is enough to strengthen my belief that firmly believing in anything is bad for you.

Home in the evening and time to check my e-mail.  What's this?  A letter from Raoul of the China Saloon!  Not another reminder from a forum that members are supposed to post at least occasionally?  No, it seems that this letter has been sent to all 800(?)members, including those as inert as I.  Be nice to each other, newbies and oldies, is the essence of the message.

The advice is commendable, but I can see two good reasons why it may not be taken.

1) I quite understand why long established members lose patience with new members who ask questions and raise issues that have already been discussed exhaustively.  I can illustrate this anecdotally:  recently I was asked why I've virtually stopped posting to a forum that I used to be an active member of.  My answer was that I was fed up with reading and sometimes answering questions that I and other contributors had already dealt with, not once but several times.  I assume that China Saloon oldtimers object to repetitious queries about the same sort of matters that we regulars on the other forum (a Russian forum)have had a glut of, especially bureaucracy (visas, work and residence permits, marriage regulations, etc.)  It's no use storing our patiently written advice in "stickies" because newcomers habitually don't bother to read them before firing off from the hip.

2) Long term members of forums tend to become a little clannish, slightly cliquey, and often regard newcomers as intruders who have to be tolerated but not encouraged or taken seriously.  To be fair, that doesn't happen much in this forum, which is why I can log in to the China Saloon with the pleasure of knowing that anything I say isn't going to become a target for barbed witticisms by the forum fraternity (I suppose I'm going to regret saying that, I'm probably tempting Fate), but I've read some replies by barflies to new posters which smack of condescension, if not downright hauteur.     

Looks like you had an interesting "Black Friday" Larry. Hope you have a great weekend.

I started to have a great Friday the 13th. Went to my school to be told that Friday afternoon classes were cancelled which made me happy since I could leave an hour early. The coup de grace was that I was OFF all of next week since the students will have exams.

It was nice leaving early because I was going back to my Chinese hometown, but the distance to get from the school to the bus station required three city busses (it wasn't too bad, the middle bus was the bulk of the distance and it was straight on). Did not have to wait for any of the busses, they rolled up as soon as I got off the other bus.

Friday the 13th went to shit when I got on the Hangzhou （浙江杭州 bus to Dongyang （浙江东阳). It is a two hour journey and it always has been a two hour journey, even though now tere is a modern highway just built the last five years that goes straight to Dongyang itself. I have done this trip literally over one hundred times, probably closer to 150.

From 2001-2003 or so it was basically city and country roads, and not a highway. Between 2004 and 2008, the bus took a highway about halfway down to a town called Pujiang which is north of Yiwu and then ride the back roads to Dongyang. Since about 2008, the highway was completed all the way. This is important, bolded below.

First of all, it was a bus with seats that the arm rest could not but pulled down. I am a big guy and more or less try to give the poor guy sitting next to me as much room as possible. With these seats, it was more squeezed in. Even though I had an aisle seat, I took the window. No problems thankfully, a skinny guy sat next to me.

The driver was slow as shit. My Chinese wife drives faster than this guy. Dude is going like 70 KM/hr down this highway when he could bump it up to at least 90 if not 100. My only guess for this slow driving is that they are supposed to be at their destination a certain time and are not allowed to exceed that, maybe for gasoline reasons.

Then the guy after driving about 45 minutes stops at a service area in Shaoxing (the ones with the stores with nothing good in them and the Sinopec gas station). They only began doing this now. Out of a full bus of 30 or so people, only three or four hop out including the driver. I want to get home to mama (my wife). Most people on the bus are veterans of this trip, use the can in Hangzhou, not drink anything and get to Dongyang. No problem.

Then Grandpa Simpson gets off the highway in an unexpected place that I have not gotten off at in years to find out where I was, in the town of Pujiang. Pujiang to Dongyang is one hour by busy back roads. Annoyed, but sort of enjoyed seeing how the area has changed in the five freaking years I was last on this road.

Made it to Yiwu, then we went on some potholed road for awhile, and then here, there and everywhere, and finally making it to Dongyang about 20 minutes late. WTF? Like I said, there is a brand new, smooth as Anne Hathaway's ass modern highway so I don't get it why we went a hinky route like we did and hope it is not permanent. I would love to take the rail, but no train to Dongyang.

...service area...(the ones with the stores with nothing good in them and the Sinopec gas station).

I love these little observations Senor...I immediately knew that service station and the thousands like it around China.  

Anyway, maybe the highway was getting upgraded or there had been a big accident?  It took me over five hours to get from Shanghai to Hangzhou by bus once because we went 'off-road' for reasons I couldn't be bothered using my limited Chinese to find out.

Larry !!! It's great to hear from you. I love your writing style and enjoy hearing about life in Russia. (Sorry your weather is so yucky.)

Senor, love your writing style too.