day 238: 下河清 (xiaheqing) - 上坝 (shangba) = 19,4km

I took a little detour and walked through the fields, because there were so many pretty sunflowers:

Some were just waiting to blossom:

I thought it was very beautiful.

But then my poor caboose tipped over and I had to do some repair work:

Me, the man with two left hands, repairing my caboose, ha!

Luckily it wasn’t that bad, so I was somehow able to fix it.

…then it started raining:

Did I say raining? I meant to say it came pouring down as if someone was taking an almighty leak on us all:

Walking didn’t feel so nice this way, but things have a tendency to always get worse: the water on the street somehow turned into something very chemical and very disgusting, and the stuff came splashing up at me whenever a car or a truck passed by:

…you know what I think a situation like this calls for?

New York Hardcore - the 3-step program:

1) Put in your earphones and choose a band that is angry. They don’t necessarily have to be from NY, but something like Madball, Agnostic Front, Skarhead or Warzone would probably work best. Sick Of It All did the job for me today.

2) Turn it on LOUD.

3) Make a face that you think will best describe the mood you’re in:

Got that alright? Getting used to feeling like a lean mean fighting machine?

And what’s that: the songs are so short? The total playing time of a typical HC album is only about 30 minutes altogether?

Well, that’s very good actually, because now it’s time for our special move, which has also been dubbed “the hardcore-finger”:

Here’s what you do: you have to wait for the best parts of each song, which are mostly the chorus hooks or some stompin’ guitar riff - you should know them by the time you’ve listened to a song two or three times.

Once that good part is there there you can now work on your own accentuation of it by moving your hand with your extended index finger up and down, pointing in the direction you’re going to.

So there you go - you are now an angry person with an angry look, listening to angry music and making angry movements while walking down the road in some deserted area in Western China - congratulations!!

…make sure not to forget one thing though:

Sometimes a smile can be pretty brave.

Soundtrack: Sick Of It All - “Fred Army”

—total: 3091,4km