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[Lotus Eater]

The seasons are changing.  There are obvious signs - it's cooler!!  I enjoy watching the seasons change, but it is not only the changing clothes, fruit etc that I enjoy, it is also the changing of little patterns.

It has been too hot for the 2 beggars that habitually frequent the back street to sit there all day - but this week they have returned.  Soon the Tan knife sellers from Qinghai will arrive on their annual 'pilgrimage' away from the northern cold.  The yang rou pao mo shop will become really full at lunch time, the hotpot places will see an increase in business, the tanghulu sellers will be out selling their long skewers of sticky sweets. The roasted sweet potato men are already back selling.  The Bingshan places will swap into rou jia mo shops. The swim suit shops are now displaying woolen jumpers, hat etc samples that you can have made for you. The hot chestnut sellers are there waiting with their packets of nuts.

During the summer holidays many of the local shops close for refurbishment while 3/4 of the students are away.  Some shops close forever, with the space re-opening as bookshops, new restaurants, dongxi shops for the students.

Seasonal changes that, at least in my part of Oz, just don't happen.

I'm hanging out for snow!!  My students tell me that a mountain a couple of hours from here is already snow topped.

[decurso]

 One thing I used to hate about the change from summer to autumn is that BBQ stands closed, draft beer disappeared from the small restaurants and cold beer became harder to find than cheddar cheese. Fortunately here in the capital the BBQ stands are still going, the draft is flowing freely and the brew is still cold.

 I'm probably in the minority but I like summer here the best. Not only is it when the workload is lightest but I'm a hot weather person. The streets get so liveley with all the night markets and outdoor eateries. Only thing I don't like about summer is the monsoons and flooding.

[Mr Nobody]

Yah

Cold beer here in winter is impossible. I live down near Vietnam, so winter is still warm, but their idea of cold beer is room temperature, seriously. In summer, cold beer is about the same temperature as the water from the tap, warm.

I haven't had a draught beer ever in this city, I don't think it has any.

But we were talking seasonality. Despite the fact that really down here the seasons sort of elide into one another, come mid autumn day and everyone will start wearing winter clothes regardless of the actual temperature.

It's weird.

[Noodles]

That's the bad thing about down south, we don't really have an Autumn or spring. It goes straight from summer to winter - although you can't really call it winter when it only gets down to 10c. But that still feels damn cold when you have no heating.

I love the summer, everyone complains about the heat, but that's what a/c was invented for.