New Year’s Day

I am glad to report that today was a lot more successful than the day before.  New Year, New Me?  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.  After a good night’s sleep, I was feeling almost human and Corentin explained last night’s quid pro quo.  Phones without batteries, people calling me and I must have been on “do not disturb mode.’  The girls asked why I hadn’t called them too, as they would have said where they were.  Look, it’s fine.  It doesn’t matter, except it did matter, but there was nothing I could do about it.  Can’t change the past, it’s too late, can’t change the future, it hasn’t happened yet, so live in the present moment.  Probably a better idea to try and make the best of the day as humanly possible.

Today’s trip by bus, leaving at midday, was a welcome change. The next town was only 40 miles away, which made the journey feel entirely manageable—and, more importantly, it gave me the time I needed to move my little booty and try and find something for Kilian.  He had asked me for cooking chopsticks and I thought I would bring back some nicer model like the ones we had been using in restaurants during the trip.  Corentin told me about his visit to the market just down the road, and gave me directions that even I could follow.  With my suitcase packed I was off camera in hand, and with a sense of renewed confidence.

On the way I crossed paths with Anne, one of the percussionists who wanted to go and get some Chinese bowls like the ones we had been using in the restaurants but knew exactly what she was after.  So off we both went to the market.  I’m going to use a phrase that I used on Foshan.  A “joyeux bordel!”  The market was on the ground floor of a building that rose about as high as our expectations.  So pretty high.  As you will see in the photos there was stuff everywhere and each shop looked as if it morphed into the next one.  If you had ever wanted to start a restaurant business, they could cater for every single one of your needs.  They had stoves, kitchen tools, woks of all shapes and sizes, cookers designed specifically for woks.  All kinds of crockery to put said food into and serve it to your guests.  I could hardly believe my eyes.  You could buy sound systems, display cabinets, even those electric Mahjong tables that we saw in Shenzhen.  It was extraordinary, and it was full of people buying and selling.  Everyone back home always decries the made in China, but over 1billion people be wrong?  I was very impressed by the whole thing, and seeing things that we  I thought of my son straight away who, like me, is a bit of a foodie and who loves cooking.  All we really need is somebody who loves doing the washing up afterwards and we’d be onto a winner…

We both managed to find what we were looking for so all in all today was turning out much better than the previous night’s fiasco.  This success and eventual pleasing my son just put me in a positive mood for the day.  I got back to the hotel room to pick up my case and instrument and stow away my latest additions to the family cooking utensils.  And it was sunny ,and it was a relief to feel something fresh, something clear. What more could you ask for? It felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

The change in mood from the night before was undeniable—subtle but meaningful. After a rough start, today was a quiet triumph. Finding the market, picking out those perfect cooking chopsticks for Kilian, and stepping into the sunshine felt like small victories, but they added up to something more significant. It wasn’t a grand transformation, but it was enough to shift my outlook for the day.

New Year, new me? Maybe. But I’m taking things one step at a time. For now, I’ll settle for the fact that, for once, things felt a little more bearable. And in a world that so often feels overwhelming, that, in itself, is enough. Sometimes it’s the smallest wins—the unexpected moments of clarity—that make the biggest difference.

As the bus carried us to the next town, I didn’t know what the rest of the day would bring. But, for once, there was a quiet sense of relief—small steps that didn’t feel like setbacks. It wasn’t a grand victory, but for today, it was enough. Sometimes, it’s the smallest wins that make all the difference.