Was awoken during the night by what sounded like my living/working quarters being swept.  Thoughtful though this would have been for an intruder (although I'm a little perturbed by having a burglar criticize my housekeeping standards) I was relieved to discover it was merely some rats.  I was also pleased to learn that the many hundreds of tanks which were driving up the street yesterday were part of a regular training exercise on the Yangtze as opposed to a major deployment, or a parade of missiles and personnel.  I tried to google the number of tanks in the Chinese army to gauge the scale of the movement, but oddly that search yielded few results.

During my daily wanderings through the side streets I attempted to stop for a cold drink, but instead seemed to accidentally order a local noodle dish and what I think was pulped dragon fruit.  I was then joined by a young boy (who stroked my face for 45 mins), an elderly man with a thermos flask and 4 ancient matriarchs who began a game of Mahjong.  I was glad they didn't invite me to play since I can't even grasp the rules of Bridge, and find Snap too intense.

Today I visited the new SFAI campus - an hour away and refreshingly full of trees, and a very good sculpture show - to arrange to do tutorials with some students, which will no doubt emotionally scar them and be detrimental to their career prospects.  The journey was enlivened by a fuel tanker doing a u turn on a 6 lane motorway and what appeared to be a Tai Chi flash mob in the central reservation.  The concrete tower blocks are unending, and infinitely variable, creating a forest, with the smog replacing the mist of the jungle.  All the elevated roads and intertwining bridges make the landscape seem like a scene from The 5th element.

Today's top supermarket product; 'Artificial Pickled Cabbage Fish Flavour Noodles'.