Last week the company decided that renting an apartment in the centre for no particular reason wasn’t a great business move, so I’ve been forced to move my few things out of there and resume the daily commute from Tongzhou. It’s a little worse now, too – previously I could take a single bus, then cycle the last leg, but now it’s too cold for that.
The winter has arrived here with frightening immediacy. I’d swear that it was summer only last week, now going outside has already become a chore. Winter here, as has been previously mentioned in detail, isn’t a lot of fun. Right now it’s got to the point where it’s too cold to take off your coat (even indoors), but we’re still a couple of weeks away from the 10th of November – the day somebody somewhere presses a button and the buildings of Beijing get central heating – and the spring feels like an age away. By the time I can wear a T-shirt again I’ll be a father. That’s an exciting yet depressing thought!
It’s been over a year now since I came back to China. I’ve got married, lived in six houses, worked for eight schools, become a headmaster (of sorts) and even learned a bit of Chinese. The next year looks like being just as eventful, but I’m too busy to think about it right now. In fact, I’d better get back to marking essays and stop writing this.