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i went to bed last night at a reasonable time - 11:30 - and woke up slightly sweat-soaked, trying to kill off the virus by heating it to death. having skipped dinner, i was hungry this morning. with nothing to eat but eggs, i left the apartment soon after i got ready for work to look for some breakfast. since the 2 nearby meat buns places closed for business recently, there's not many options for takeaway morning food. there's the bakery, but the delivery truck often arrives late so the shelves are often bare. all they had left was some coconut-covered rice flour dough balls (RMB$6). i ate hungrily while waiting for departure time, washing everything down with some warm tea.

on the bus i sat next to ms.yang, just so i would avoid having an open seat and risk having my office stalker xiao shen squeezing next to me again. ms.yang said her cellphone suddenly broke over the weekend, and with her roommate on vacation and her computer alarm clock not going off according to schedule, she narrowly missed the bus this morning.

i finally broke and went to the office clinic to collect some cold medicine. they issued me some black and white pills and a new cough syrup i never tried before. i was reluctant to take the pills because they're too strong, but i tried the syrup. unlike what they gave me last time, this one actually had the taste and consistency of cough syrup. it was a blend of chinese medicine, but surprisingly effective, and my cough (as well as my runny nose, surprisingly enough) was reduced to just a whimper.

i officially got my vacation authorization papers signed today. when i went to go ask mrs.gu about it, she told me i'd have to wait 3 months before i could take my vacation. i told her my contract clearly stipulated i'd get a vacation every 2 months. she said the rule applies to everyone, regardless of contractual bindings. having said that, i still managed to get my papers signed by mr.ma and mr.wang. maybe it has something to do with who i know. if this is clearly a example of preferential treatment, so be it. i'm not ashamed to get an early vacation, however which way i manage to do so.

the question now is: where am i going to go? i'm probably not going to go anywhere. i'm actually kind of vacationed out. just being in china is like a vacation, so to have a vacation within a vacation is just too much. i also don't really want to go anywhere. and i want to save some money. so i was thinking either west and hang out in chengdu for a while, or east and follow the course of the yangtze river, visiting some river towns along the way. it'd be nice to have a easy vacation for a change, where i'm not racing against the clock to get to somewhere, or fighting against the elements.

monday otherwise was uneventful. after dinner i returned home. originally i planned on going for a run in the gym, but i could feel the cough coming from inside my chest, so in the case of a chest cold (compared to a head hold), best to get some rest and not risk it developing into something more serious like pneumonia. instead of the gym, i went to the chongbai supermarket instead, and purchased RMB$120 worth of food, mostly snacks. i got some bread and ham, or what poses as ham here in china. i also got some mayonnaise, going to make myself a sandwich one of these mornings.

returning to the apartment, i stopped by the bakery. the trick is to buy at nights, when they still have plenty of items in stock. i got myself a wedge sandwich for RMB$6.