Red Lantern: Wanderlust

A dear friend of mine says about us that we are gypsies, homeless and our bum itches when we stay too long in one place, that's why we are always on the move. I couldn't agree more with him. It really seems like we are always around and about with a suitcase and a rucksack and in our pockets, a ticket to somewhere. The more you travel and move around, the more people like you, you meet.

I met at least two of those wonderful people when I moved to Guiyang in the southwest of China. One of them is Cindy, a Canadian lady who was the penultimate teacher to arrive at the school I was working at and Catherine who followed a week or so later. Cindy spent a few years in the Gulf region and since I lived and worked in Saudi for a while, we had this in common. For the others we were the 'desert people'.

I mentioned Catherine in my last post (you can read it here - opens in a new window). Catherine took the last desk with PC available in our small but cosy staff room and since we were facing each other, we had the opportunity to get to know each other better.

Catherine is French, got married at the age of 28, got divorced a few years later, has two boys (now adults, one in France the other in Thailand), has a desire for Wanderlust and is also a thoroughbred musician. She has been travelling and moving around the world for many years and is currently living in Canada. During her stay in Guiyang, she was the one with the most interesting life. She went out frequently, despite the long journey from Jinyang to downtown Guiyang and having to take a taxi. She also seized the opportunity to see as much of China as possible and travelled around the country at the weekends, sometimes alone, sometimes with her housemate Breanne. When she travelled alone, she looked out for musicians to perform with. She does that wherever she is as you can see from the photos below. Her favourite instrument is the keyboard, but she also plays the guitar. She bought a keyboard at some point and started jamming with many other people in many different places. Sometime at the end of May, she met two Chinese who performed in a club called Powerhouse in downtown Guiyang and they invited her to play with them that night. Then they asked her if she wanted to perform in a restaurant in Jinyang. She said yes and from then on they played every night outside the restaurant in front of people dining. She took one night off though, to come see me presenting my book about my life in Ar'ar in the Saudi desert (you can read about the presentation here).

This photo was taken on one on her last nights in Guiyang. I took my friend Yu Rou Shi, (the one with the hat), part of her name means Rain, with me and off we went on my electric scooter from Huaguoyuan to Jinyang. It was a cloudy evening and it seemed like it was going to rain. Unfortunately, somewhere between Guiyang and Jinyang, the first drops started to fall. I stopped and took out the double rain coat and got us covered. A few miles later, we got in the middle of a thunderstorm and arrived at the venue in the pouring rain. I drove to the entrance and when the staff saw us, they rushed to us with massive umbrellas to give us shelter. I parked the scooter under a parasol and we went inside. Catherine and the musicians were sitting at a table next to the entrance and told us that they had performed only a few songs that evening and then had to take all their equipment indoors, due to the rain. They wouldn't be performing that night, so we sat at the table until midnight.

My mobile buzzed at some point and I saw this photo of us. Since Catherine and I were the only foreigners in the restaurant, it was sort of normal that people stared, looked and took photos. Somewhere opposite us was a lady sitting at a table with her friends. When she saw us, she took this photo and sent it to my dear friend Yi, who helped me register at the gym in Jinyang (read the post here), asking her if she knew us, because the lady knew that Yi has a foreign friend. The lady who took the photo is the manager of said gym. So Yi's message read: I know where you are and what you're doing. Yi couldn't be there that night, but went to see and to meet Catherine a few nights later, at her last gig.

That night was the last time I saw Catherine and I hope to see her again somewhere, sometime soon.