For the fam, and for friends, here's what I've been up to the the past few days:

Wednesday

I stay up all night, packing stuff from in my apartment. At 5:45am, I call the taxi company (96811, Dazhong Taxi, Chinese-language) to dispatch a moving truck, but they say they're busy till 7am. I flop onto the bed till 6:15am, then call again. Not surprisingly, a van is available. The downstairs auntie holds the elevator for me, the van uncle helps me load stuff, and we're off. We unload in a jiffy at Jodi's; RMB 64 (USD 8), not too bad. I lug everything up two flights of stairs, making about 8 trips, shower, and take off to the train station. Train departs at 10:24am. I sleep continuously till the next morning, waking only for a boxed dinner from the dining car.

Thursday

The turtles that my bunkmate was bringing to Hong Kong—for supper, presumably—have escaped their plastic bag. I root for the turtles, but with the help of the train staff they are both recaptured half a car away. The train pulls into Hung Hom at 1:30pm or so. Hong Kong is warm and humid, on the border of uncomfortable. I get on the bus going the wrong direction, but a friendly Hong Kong dude offers to help and sets me back on the right track. I get the last empty single room at the Cosmic Guesthouse; they give me a free bottle of ice-cold water. I love this place. A few hours on the internet gets me caught up. Then I metro and walk to the Broadway Cinema to catch the new Wallace and Grommit; those guys are master storytellers, let me tell ya. Wonton in ramen soup, you tiao wrapped in rice noodle for dinner; I'd had the second at Bifengtang in Shanghai, but this was the "street" version. Stay up late sipping Grape Fanta and watching "Lice Planet" on TV. I need books.

Friday

Wake up early and catch Jodi before she leaves for school. Sleep in. Walk around to travel agencies and check out visa situation: not good, so I fall back on plan B which is to get a 30 day tourist visa on Monday and go back to Shanghai for an extension. Lunch at Pit-In is my Hong-Kong-rut Croquet Curry, and A&W root beer from the Japanese convenience store. Stop at PageOne to buy books: pick out RMB 700 of books (the amount in my wallet) then have an idea, ask if they take Lianhua network debit cards, find out that they do, leave my books at the counter and go back for more, total is ghastly but I don't care. Pick up a deck of UNO cards at Toys'R'Us for Aline. North to the China Ferry, I pick up a ticket for tomorrow's 8am to Macau. I stop off at the net cafe and write this post. Tonight I intend to hit up The Panic, and possibly Monitor Records, and shop for a Minidisc recorder.

Saturday

I had originally planned to go to Macau, but I might try to switch that to Sunday so I can hit up Tookoo's concert in Aberdeen.

To be continued...