Author: Martin

XXXVII. 13.11.25-10.01.26 a new fringe

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The commute is up to about an hour again, enough for trains of thought to develop. There are options now: regional train or S-Bahn. You need to change once in any case. That’s new. What exactly is an S-Bahn, Stadt-Schnellbahn? The atmosphere is different to the atmosphere among commuters on a Class 365, or on its successor, the 387. These felt like real trains. The Class 700 was a step towards a connected metro feeling: connected carriages, harder seats, more like the S-Bahn, especially when on a stopping service, but with toilets. On a commuter train to London everyone is, by definition, aiming for the same place. The S-Bahn is a cross between the London commuter train and the underground. You don’t know where people will be getting on or off, you don’t develop that sense of common purpose that you get after forty minutes of sitting or standing together. In November before the move, when the commute was only about ten minutes long, I observed three young rascals sitting on the floor in the …

III. Slowing down

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In every beginning there is wonder, but also banality and stupidity. It’s all too easy to reflect on what you’re doing and lose faith. You’re just another idiot trying to balance on a board. Why? The first time I tried I lost the board and fell almost as soon as I tried to get on it. Better next time, move towards the middle, fall again. This is how it goes for everyone. Style emerges from the first moment. Are you stiff, do you flail, do you grimace, or smile? You meet people and then you watch them surf and then you see them again and how they surf is part of the impression. The lady with short black hair, wizened face (J.): stability. A stable entry, and then smooth from one end to the next. She her arms behind her back to practice. I told her that I admired her style: stable, smooth and that I’d try to imitate the way she got in, slowly, steadily, getting balanced by the wall before setting off. Settling …

II. Back and forth

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After the first beginner session, I wonder about getting onto the wave on my own. I’d like to book myself into an advanced session where there’s no assistance. But I’ve decided on principles for this project. One principle is to ask for advice or permission before moving to a next level, however small a step that is. And so I call reception and ask whether an advanced session is a reasonable next step. The person who picks up the phone sounds friendly. Her voice is young, but hesitant about endorsing my plan. A new kind of beginner class is being set up for people like you from August to support progression to the advanced level. Sounds good, I say, but I’ve booked myself onto the “Pure Surf Day” next week, and I’d like to get up on my own before then. And I don’t mind failing, I say, I just want to experiment. Her attitude changes: Yes, that will be fine! We just want to avoid disappointment. She says that some people complain after advanced …

I. Breaking

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Happiness is supposed to be hard work. You have to work for your moment on the wave. It doesn’t just come to you. I think it’s supposed to work like this: you find your way to the shore with all your equipment. And then you lie on your board and you paddle and paddle. The elements bear down on you. You get knocked about. You paddle like a dog to get behind the wave where the water lumps up like inflatable speed-bumps, growing, and growing and scary and then you paddle out ahead of the wave so that it takes you along and then you stand and balance until the wave exhausts itself or you fall. I don’t know what it’s like for them when they go surfing in the ocean, I mean it must be such a trip. Paddling man… The paddling alone will, you know, fry ya. (laughs!) Nick Carroll, Keep Surfing, at 13:50 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz9bA0CovQQ) There’s another sort of surfing where the wave appears to be endless. It stands there waiting for you. …

XXXVI. Grab Rail

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From BER (Flughafen Berlin) to Spandau: S9 all the way. I couldn’t find the Berlin Express line. This is slower but there’s enough to do and see: read, revise, see Berlin go by. There’s the Bundestag, the distinctive tiled interior of Hackerscher Markt station. The Hauptbahnhof looks imposing but its glass roof is fragile. The panes are individually cut to fit into the curved roof. When panes break it’s difficult to replace them and wood is used instead. A man sat down next to me. He wore Jeans, he was young. He started looking at me and smiling and I noticed he was building up to something. Then he suddenly asked me about how I was using the camera on my iPad to broadcast myself. I told him I was only watching a recorded classroom video on Chinese Grammar, not broadcasting myself. He seemed disappointed and moved away. Later a girl ran down the carriage and started throwing herself around the pole in the middle of the carriage. I couldn’t understand what the girl was …

A language is a long way

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From the guanxi substack newsletter: https://guanxi.substack.com/. If you would like to support this project, please subscribe there. This is post about working through frustration in language learning… It includes various citations from the Zhuangzi, prompted by a WeChat comment of encouragement from Liz, a language teacher who has been a coach to me ever since she assessed my level, helped me get over my fear of speaking Chinese and placed me on a year long course of Mandarin-learning adventure. Don’t worry, a language is a long way, but it’s interesting! (Liz) Teacher/Language Consultant at GoEast Mandarin: Here’s a referral link (https://goeastmandarin.referral-factory.com/RiHNMR/join). Signing up through the link gives you a free lesson, and gives me a free lesson when I renew with GoEast. ‘Way’ is the perfect word to reflect on when frustrated with anything (much better than the over-used ‘journey’), and Zhuangzi is a master of such reflection, hence all the citations… The Way cannot be treated as Something, or as Nothing either. ‘‘Way’’ as a name is what we borrow to walk it. (Chuang-Tzu, A.C. Graham – ‘Rationalising the Way: the …

XXXV. Striking Out Again

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It’s a day after a rail strike and the 7:38 train to London is full. I’m on a priority seat, on the inside by the window. The woman on the outside seat let me pass to sit there. She had to get up and stand against an incoming stream. It wasn’t easy. People were rushing through the train to get to the few seats still available. I was lucky to be on the platform at the right place to be first in line standing by the train doors as they opened. A cyclist exited generating an eddy to move in through, un-rushed but firmly and with purpose because I could see a few empty seats. A few seconds determine whether you will sit or stand for fifty minutes. There’s a smell of tea tree oil from the person next to me. Masks do not filter smells. It could be worse. One passenger in twenty wears a mask. Sometimes when people look at me I sense a disapproving or condescending smile aimed at the motive behind …

Grab vegetables 抢菜, Study Notes, I.

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From the guanxi substack newsletter: https://guanxi.substack.com/. If you would like to support this project, please subscribe there. The lockdown in Shanghai is a challenge for the city’s residents. For some it may be an inconvenience, for others it has caused heartache, or worse. It’s a difficult time. As ever it’s worth trying to look beyond the news. For English-language views of what it’s like living in Shanghai at present, have a look at Jaap Grolleman’s most recent posts (https://jaapgrolleman.com/). For a cheerful and optimistic yet sensitive view, see 阿福Thomas’ latest video from Shanghai. Here in the UK, lockdown is a memory. We should keep the memory alive. We must keep learning from what happened.1 Resilience builds on memory. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. What’s the first thing that you think about when you see the situation in Shanghai on the news? Does it affirm your views about China. Does it challenge them? In any case, it’s worth distinguishing between news and real life. News from China is outdated by the time it is covered by western media. …

Just begin again… Learning 中文 after the Olympics. Can Olympic inspiration change your life?

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From the guanxi substack newsletter: https://guanxi.substack.com/. If you would like to support me, please subscribe there. Can the Olympics change your life? Yes, why not? Sport models life. Elite sport distills the drama of life in the way theatre does. Everything is heightened: the years of practice and dedication, the suspense, the ups and downs, the triumphs and the disappointments. It would be strange if we couldn’t find something in the grand theatre of the Olympics to inspire us. It seems that all true things must change and only that which changes remains true.1 I’ve rebooted my efforts to learn Mandarin Chinese. The following is a set of thoughts and reflections on how this happened for me. Rewinding briefly, in the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year, I was fascinated by Anna Kiesenhofer’s victory in the cycling road race. She broke away from the field early in the race, then built, and then held her advantage to the surprise and chagrin of favourites picked for the win, mainly riders of an over-confident Dutch team. Here are …

XXXIV. Two trips, apart

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This is a well-behaved train-set of passengers. A man with a colourful Amalfi coast themed shirt and a matching mask types noisily. And there’s a mother with her baby. The baby babbles and sings. What’s going on, asks the mother? The baby starts exploring the top of a bottle with its mouth. Direct sensory contact. Singing a sort of whale song. A girl on the table by the side has a water bottle with motivational text by the volume markers. It’s a kind of water clock with instructions on how much to drink by when. The last marker corresponding to 5 pm reads: “You’ve reached your goal, refill.” In the privacy of her row, the woman quiets the baby and a man in round glasses with his hair tied into a little greying bun looks at the baby happily. His round glasses sit low on his nose by the mask. This avoids the glasses steaming up. Outside, scrolling text on the outside of the train says “thank you NHS.” Once upon a time people stood …