Let’s see. I had turned the lights out at 12.30 and woke up at 7 from the alarm. Not enough sleep yet again. So I was very slow in the morning and while I did write morning pages and then rolled out my yoga mat a glance at the clock showed me I didn’t have enough time. So I rolled the mat up again and made breakfast.
Breakfast had me in full on hyper focus on the logistics of our excursion up to the point that my husband got angry at me for not even looking at him and swiping on my iPad constantly. Which is completely understandable.
I did a few of my usual morning chores but not all, packed everything from my usual purse into a backpack, added some almonds, a water bottle, a cap against the sun and an umbrella. I also loaded my power bank but then forgot to take it with me. Which I only noticed after I came back, so I guess that was alright.
We left only ten minutes late which must be a new record for this event and set off on our bikes. We had the wind against us all the way which felt pretty demoralizing. Half the way is pretty nice, through fields and woods and small streets and the rest is a bike path next to an expansive street as straight as a ruler.
We left out bikes near the entrance of the park unlike the years before and that turned out to be an excellent decision. The festival is always packed and it is hard to find a space to leave the bikes. This way we could lock our bikes to an almost empty bike rack and stroll leisurely through the park.
We arrived just in time to see the lion dance and all the performers filling the stage for the opening act. After that we went to get something to eat first thing. Unfortunately, the place with excellent Thai food where we ate last year wasn’t open yet so we had some Vietnamese fried noodles and spring rolls. Should have used more sauce (there was a selection of sauces to add but I didn’t really take any):
The cardboard box had some Chinese writing that I took a picture of because I could only read a character or two:
This apparently says „good appetite“ (好胃口）and „lunch box“ (饭盒). I am certainly no expert but Germans say „Guten Appetit“ (good appetite) to each other before a meal. As far as I know nobody else does this, so maybe someone German used Google translate to design this because the grammar on „good appetite“ is all wrong, at least for Chinese. But who knows.
After eating we went back to the open air theater and watched Thai dance for a while. The sun was shining and it was really hot by then. There were no empty seats on the shadow side so we sat right in the sun. I was very happy to have brought an umbrella to use as a parasol. It really makes a difference. I did end up with a heat rash on my thighs anyway. (Note to self: don’t wear jeans on hot, sunny days when you sit in the sun for a long time)
During the next break we got up and wandered over to catch the last few notes of Japanese flute music, looked at all the stands and the Chinese garden and then decided to head home again. I did take some pictures. They are not very good (as usual) because I took most of the one-handed, and I can’t show most of them here because I can’t crop the audience out. But here is the Thai consul greeting everyone at the opening ceremony:
Some Thai dancers:
And a rock and some greenery in the Chinese garden:
We didn’t stay all that long, we arrived at 12.30 after an hour of biking and were back home at 4.15. We’re not used to mingle with masses of people anymore.
Back home I fell into a bit of a slump, my legs were sore, my back hurt, I had that rash and was exhausted and tired. Which was alright, though.
I spent the time until dinner playing silly iPad games and scrolling through social media, the did more of the same even though I had other things to do. In the morning my husband had found that the water in the BRITA filter was looking iffy so we had drained it and I had promised to clean it later in the day. Also, my husband had started a load of laundry some time in the afternoon (right after I had decided to leave it until today) and then didn’t have the time to hang it up so I said I would do it.
When I finally got moving again at 9 the boy showed up saying he wanted to take a shower, so I hung up the laundry, did the dishes and cleaned the filter, then took a really quick shower, started writing this post and put the filter back together.
By then it was already after 11 and too late for watching something. I read a bit and went to bed.
Today I’m hoping to finally make progress on sewing the dress…
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