Go pick up my passport from the Chinese visa centre. Their £30 visa charge is deceptively cheap; turns out they charge just as much for 'visa processing'. Daylight robbery. Oh well, at least I have all my visas now, unlike Steve, who's hated by the Chinese.
Take Christine around. She's getting very irritable and monosyllabic. I recognise it as travel fatigue; the difference is that I'd only be getting to that point after months on the road, rather than one week.
We meet with Subo, who will know next week what shape his life will take over the next two years, depending on the outcome of his interview at the Japanese embassy. This is followed by dinner at my favourite Georgian restaurant with my friend Paul, a fellow intern in Jamaica in 2006, and his girlfriend Kelly.
The dinner get more raucous with each subsequent bottle of wine, as my friends quote more and more scandalous anecdotes from my past life. Paul gives me and Steve tips on Beijing and how to get around. I produce a 2008 copy of the Moscow Times, featuring Solzhenitsyn's death on the front; Paul's a big admirer and I've been meaning to hand it over. My work plans go out of the window as I go for another drink with Paul and Kelly and resign myself to arriving home after midnight, worse for wear.
Make up for it today by sitting at my desk pretty much all day and working on the Peru chapter. I can't seem to focus on any single bit today, so I have to work with my limited attention span and jump from one part of the chapter to another. My goal is to submit all the maps on Monday.
Still no word at all from Trailblazer. This is rather worrying. Will give Bryn another three or four days and then I'll have to phone him. It'd be rather difficult to update the guide if I don't have the text that I'm supposed to be working on.
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