London Calling Podcast; Is AKIC the Karl Marx of the Wuxi Expatdom?; Open and Closed Tunnels; Only One Egregious Thing Happened in Local Traffic; Things I should have taken a Photo Of; Succession Season One

• Another podcast I like listening to is London Calling with James Delingpole and Toby Young. They look at politics from a British, but not BBC, perspective.

• I am also listening to a history podcast about the Russian Revolution. The host begins his narrative with the formation of the International Workers Association (Later known as the First International) in 1864. He quickly focuses on the life and thought of Karl Marx. Interesting, I thought to learn of his time in London. He didn't speak English and was an outcast from the German emigre community. Sounds like my time in Wuxi. I don't speak the local language worth a damn and I am not on speaking terms with other expatriates. Not that I am complaining. I am not. I think that is a good thing that I am exiled from other expatriates. They have sold their souls. Which is not to say that I haven't, but I am intent on reclaiming it.

• Along with the Wuxi Metro, an extensive network of underground tunnels is also being built Wuxi. More and more tunnels are opening as construction proceeds; but some now are also closing. At Shenglimen Station where I had gotten off the Metro to go to a Burger King, I was surprised to find the tunnel I always took to the mall containing Burger King had closed. The tunnel entrance was at one side of a below level open air square. Looking around the square, I saw another tunnel entrance with a sign indicating it would lead to another shopping mall. Curiosity got the best of me, and after going to Burger King, I took the tunnel to the mall. Not much of interest was there except a Dominos Pizza which I am sure to take Tony to one day. [I imagine the DP will be shitty. But it was always shitty in North America, as I recall.]

• Before I drove Tony to school on the morning of October 18^th, I was thinking in an anticipating way. Normally, if something egregious happens in traffic that raises my ire I will blog about it here. But this morning, I was thinking how it would be nice if nothing egregious happened so that I could make a sort of blog entry that I normally don't make. That is, a blog entry where I can say nothing happened. So this morning, on my drive to and from Tony's school, only one egregious thing happened – a driver made a wide blind right turn into the left most lane that I was in – but it didn't let it cause me to make a complaining entry. It was all cool.

• Things I should have taken a photo of but didn't because I was watching the seventh episode of the first season of the HBO series Succession on my phone: the tracks of an enormous crane being used on a road construction project near Stately Kaulins Manor; a small three-wheeled motorcycle wagon carrying seven construction workers wearing matching yellow helmets.

• On the topic of the HBO series Succession, I have to admit that when I watch a comedy show or a show with interesting characters or a show with interesting dialogue, I like to adopt the swagger and speaking manner of the characters. That is, I want to imitate them. I would love to do this with Succession but some of the talk is so mindblowingly harsh, that I hesitate. Still, the show is quite funny and entertaining.