Circumstance does inconvenient things to you. I was starting to get the hang of playing Anos Dourados by Tom Jobim in the (unfamiliar to me) key of A. Now I'm going to have this tune running through my head for the next couple of days.
Made a last minute purchase of a tube of Picaridin based insect repellent. I hope I won't need it, but you never know outside of the cities. The last time I needed this was for my 2009 trip to northeast Brazil. On my departure from Recife, I gave that tube to a French backpacker who was just starting off.
I haven't even read the travel guide yet, although I did read an earlier edition borrowed from from the library. I'm getting more improvisational. I'll probably read it in the departure or transit lounges, or on the plane.
It was a quiet Monday night when I set out. Late commuters were going home from work. Everything was running normally. One day, when I set out on that journey to the undiscovered country, the world will go on as usual without me. Borges wrote something to the effect that one really dies when you are no longer in living memory. I never knew my grandfather; his name would mean nothing special to me. I expect the same to be true of my name in 50, 70 years time.
Besides the people waiting for a train home or to the airport on platform 23 at Central, there were a couple of pigeons patrolling. Most adaptable birds those, they have taken advantage of our artificial lighting to work overtime.
Advertisements for India at the airport reminded me there there were still lands to see in this life. I've read that Nepal and Bhutan are attractive. That germ of an idea lifted my sombre mood a bit. I think I've got into a bit of a rut recently.
Unfortunately I won't be able to update this blog from China due to the Great Firewall, so you'll have to wait until I get back.
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