I’m returning to work and it’s really great.  I’ve started reading and writing again.  There is a lot of stuff I should have done in the last couple of months and  now I’m dealing with the backlog: two edited volumes I’m supposed to edit, an article on boredom and war (yes!) and of course my old project on the Yuanmingyuan.

But there is no stress.  It’s all fun stuff.  It’s great to deal with things that don’t concern me and my body.  The life of the mind is far more interesting than the life of the body.  It’s a great escape.

Actually I find that I write much more easily than before.  I suppose in this respect 4 months of cancer is the equivalent of a vacation.  My mind is nicely rested.

The picture to the right is a poster that goes with a conference on “the unthinkable” in Taipei in December.  It’s my anthropology friend, Allen Chun, that’s encouraging us all to be creative and bold.  I’m trying to do my bit by writing something about “the idea of the exotic.”  Lets hope I’ll be able to eat proper food by mid-December.  It’s so awkward to hang out with other peoople otherwise.

Btw, I just noticed that my hypersensitivity to smells is gone.  Great.  It was terrible to walk around smelling everything so strongly.  The stench of tea eggs (eggs cooked in tea, don’t ask, it’s a Chinese thing) in the High Speed Train station was the worst.  I now know what it’s like to be a dog.  Well, I’m not a dog anymore.

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