Moonlight, frost, warm glows emitting from little eateries spilling onto the Shiyan pavement, and scuff marks from roller skates on wood-laminated floors.
My evening last night. I haven’t worn roller skates since the mid 80′s, but last night Lara and I went roller skating. She took me off my known map of Shiyan and into the dark underbelly of shady neighborhoods. We went up 4 flights of stairs and *poof* recreation area. Table tennis, internet access, badminton, rollerskating and even a dance-area slash club.
As I suspected upon realising where we were headed, the biggest size they had was way to small for my dainty little feet, mere size 12s. But, for the sake of fun, I crammed them into the skates and off we went. What we won’t do for love and fashion.
It was good fun. We happened upon a weird little Chinese boy who was instantly infatuated with this foreigner who ventured into a neighbourhood where, I’m sure, no foreigner has ever been before. He latched on. So after the skating area had closed for the night, we ducked into the club next door and Lara dragged me onto the dance floor so as to try and shake him.
It was one of ‘em bouncy dance floors. I’ve encountered such things in Malaysia before, mechanical dance areas that bounce along to no particular rhythm, least of all the music. This one was manual, as it was poised upon industrial sized springs and moved with the bodies of the crowd, who in turn were not moving to the rhythm of the music either.
Like the language, you have to ignore your overwhelming desire to follow your instincts and instead do what is right. So I found my legs bouncing along with the floor and my torso bopping along to the music. It took me a moment and was quite difficult at first, but also like the language, I started to manage it eventually.
After what seemed far too short, the club was closing and we said our goodbye’s. Earlier the day Tina had given me an early Christmas present; an electric blanket.
I had a fabulously warm night, some excellent sleep and this morning, like the other reindeer, shouted out with glee: “This blanket will go down in history”.