After several days of constant rain, the sun finally appears, and then today’s highest temperature is 17 celsius. Today is one of those rare days that enjoying sunshine is an obligation.

But we didn’t obey to the sunshine, or maybe only briefly. We went grocery shopping after siesta, because there were a few ingredients I had to buy for making salt baked chicken (盐焗鸡) next week. The chicken I ordered online; the mixed herb powder for marinating the chicken I also ordered online. But the online Asian store I shopped at doesn’t have coarse sea salt or lotus leaves, so I had to visit the closest Asian market. Sunshine found itself on me when I got out of my car and walked to the store, and on my way back too.

It wasn’t too bad doing grocery shopping on a Sunday afternoon. Yet I wouldn’t recommend it, nor would I try this again if I could avoid it. There was too many people, much more than on weekdays. More people means more noise, more bumping into each other, more recklessness. And the din made my head hurt. Once coming back from the store, I asked my partner, “can you tell that I was triggered by all those people in the store?” He was about to reply but was cut short by me, “it’s fair that you couldn’t tell since I hid it so well. But I was for sure triggered and annoyed. I guess I’d only be more triggered if I go back to China.”

I’m pretty sensitive to all kinds of sound, that is. I had always preferred somewhere quieter and more peaceful if I’d given the opportunity to pick.

The past weekend seems like an eternity. Is this due to the intensity of time I experienced on last Friday? Possibly. I had to go through a couple of interviews in three hours, luckily they were not back-to-back, I had some half-hours to breathe in between. But a dense Friday surely makes the following Saturday and Sunday look surreally long, to the point of stretching two days into forever. I’ve been reading, exercising, and cooking in these two days. Now I’m bored of all these things, I turn to writing.

Writing is, and has been, one of my favorite activities to engage in. Even though I don’t write as often as I used to. I’ll try.