Sometimes I remember why I'm here

A snapshot of my life, because I'm too busy right now for anything more extended than a snapshot:

* Ice-cold beer served in a chilled clay mug at the local izakaya. Bamboo mats and friends, and an all Japanese menu that we can't read, so sometimes there is random pointing.

* Open-air terraces overlooking serene, cicada-droning Xihai Lake.

* Staying up all night one year before the start of the Olympics, 08.08.07, trying to crowd into Tian'anmen Square to watch the festivities and mainly just taking in the mood. Getting cordoned off by police. "Working" all night to support our photographers who were out shooting from dawn to dusk - but our "work" came in the form of banana- and ginger-spiced rum, blowing bubbles by the Houhai bridge and watching the sky grow light. No sleep until 10am that day, after the brightest sunrise at the Temple of Sun, and champagne, and much photography.

* Baking, and becoming unexpectedly famous for vegan chocolate cake - unexpected because I almost never baked before, when things like ovens, baking soda, chocolate, butter were ubiquitous. Now that they're a rarity, I find myself making cakes every week.

* Sitting on a rooftop drinking whiskey, clambering up to the top, talking, spilling things. Someone buys me a cowboy hat, and we laugh, because it is ridiculous looking. Someone else has a guitar, and then I eat a pickled pepper on a dare. And it's just another Sunday night before work.

* A beach volleyball match between China and Beijing - my first time in a stadium. Such dazzling lights!

* Playing frisbee beneath a forest of office towers, with the security guards watching amusedly. I jump like a starfish, apparently.

* Late night bike rides through tiny hutongs, and from Fourth Ring to Second Ring, and down Chang'an Dajie at 2am with the wind blowing and the streets quiet, and a lone man leaning against the lamp post. Yes, I love Beijing.

* And those gorgeous days of blue sky after the smog, after the rain - you don't have that same exhiliaration when you see blue skies everyday.