www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
Lifestyle

Calamity of hailing a cab on Jan 1

By Linda Kennedy ( China Daily ) Updated: 2010-01-07 11:35:52

Unhappy New Year to you. And me. How many hours of how many New Year nights have you spent staring at a metropolitan horizon, looking for the light? Of a taxi, not anything unimportant like the Answer to Life. I loathe one thing about the whole business of "out with the old and in with the new". Partying on the eve of the annual transition is tainted by the impossibility of a good exit.

Calamity of hailing a cab on Jan 1

There is a diktat somewhere that says it must either snow or be bitterly cold at New Year; inclement weather waits for the countdown and then starts its meteorological malice. And until Stella McCartney does a little black dress in Goretex and Ugg branch out from boots to sheepskin stilettos, or a Chinese designer does an "Evening Occasionwear Glamor Parka" in sequined taffeta, please - no woman can make the transition from party to pavement without an outbreak of fashion-related flu.

Every year I vow: Never again. But New Year is like childbirth. You eventually forget how awful it was. The result of such New Year amnesia: Here I am again on a kerb. Again.

Is there somewhere more promising where we might boost the chances of procuring a taxi, I suggest to my companion. A tipsy headshake comes back; he is distracted by rehearsals of Mandarin enunciation for cab driver he is convinced the deity above will eventually deliver. I think about asking passers-by for the location of a taxi rank. It's what they're there for - passing-by carries social responsibility. They are service providers as soon as they walk past their front door. But waiting for that dream - read English-speaking and sober - passer-by isn't working. There are fewer of those than cabs.

Calamity of hailing a cab on Jan 1

And quizzing any other type of passer-by in Beijing will involve Mandarin charades. Expat websites say this was the most popular party game this year, an ironic twist on the traditional parlor game where players act out a popular expression and everyone else has to guess it. Mandarin charades has three categories: "Is it a book? Is it a film? Is it a life essential to you at that moment?" And how will I mime "taxi rank?" Semi-squatting with my arms out in front, going "vroooom". It might look like a lavatorial emergency, during which I mispronounce the Chinese for constipation and definitely use the wrong tone, when in fact I am attempting to convey occupancy of a car seat, driving, with a frantic expression on my face looking for the relief of a fast exit, but not in the way a "mimee" - the recipient of the gesticulations - might think.

Mandarin charades may be a fun game you can play all year round - even when you don't want to - but some expressions are just too hard to enact. And that is only the "taxi" bit. How will I do "rank"? Wrinkle my nose as if to indicate smell deserving that adjective? Will that feed too directly into previous lavatorial misinterpretation? (Yes). Salute the other person? Salute myself? Risk being taken away by the police for reasons of suspected mental imbalance, although at least that would be a lift to somewhere and a strait-jacket would be an extra layer.

Do the Chinese do New Year resolutions? I shall not allow my current location to impede adherence, normally short-term, to that tradition. My resolution: Petition the Chinese government to license a million new taxis by next New Year. Or stay at home.

 

Editor's Picks
Hot words

Most Popular
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 神马国产 | 99久久免费视频在线观看 | a毛片基地免费全部香蕉 | 综合 欧美 国产 视频二区 | 草草草影院 | 91久久综合 | 亚洲精品视频网 | 全部免费毛片免费播放 | 久久福利资源网站免费看 | 亚洲欧美网站 | 经典三级久久 | 国产成人丝袜网站在线看 | chinese情侣真实自拍 | 免费人欧美成又黄又爽的视频 | 国产高清一 | 91精品国产综合久久香蕉 | 在线播放亚洲精品 | 91热播 | 波多野结衣一区二区 | 在线看欧美日韩中文字幕 | 免费欧洲毛片a级视频 | 日本一区视频在线观看 | 久久视频这里只精品3国产 久久视频这里只有精品 | 亚洲精品在线免费观看视频 | 亚洲黄a| 韩国美女爽快一毛片免费 | 一级片 mp4| 日本精品夜色视频一区二区 | 久草男人天堂 | 一区二区中文字幕在线观看 | 特毛片| 美女网站在线观看视频18 | 欧美黑人巨大最猛性xxxxx | 黄黄的网站在线观看 | 视频亚洲一区 | 老外一级毛片免费看 | 麻豆一级片 | 亚洲一级免费毛片 | 欧美成人免费 | 91天仙tv嫩模福利 | 亚洲国产精品一区二区三区在线观看 |