The View from the Sixth Floor

I now both live and work on the 6th floor (of different buildings, of course). 

Continuing with the number six trend, I'm in my sixth week at this new vocation as a writer and editor of Biz Interactive English Magazine. I’m quite delighted by this position, as I get to research all sorts of topics (even economics and finance, which I knew embarrassingly little about.) More importantly, day in and day out, I craft words into new and original pieces of writing. Once the October issue comes out, I'll be able to scan a few pages of what I've done so far, but November will be the first volume where nearly all the English content is "penned" by yours truly. I feel that this past month and a half has really let me dust off my writing cap and some measure of whimsy and ingenuity has been creeping back into my written word.

In some way, nothing’s made me feel more like I’ve stepped into the ranks of 上班族 or “office workers,” than acquiring a few accoutrements of the trade. I've got my gel wrist pad, tea stash, cutting board and fruit knife (with a built-in peeler!) and -- drum roll, please -- a metal lunch tin. I expect you are re-reading that last sentence with a "je ne comprends pas" feeling. Ha! Gotcha. Unless you're from this part of the world, it would be a mystery. In fact, on my first day here I opened what I thought was a small refrigerator and stared at its insides, trying to compute what I was looking at. 

this is not my photo, but the feeling is the same

It is, in fact, a “steam box” for your metal containers full of food that you place in upon arrival at work and retrieve again, all warm and ready to go, at lunch. As I write this, I've realized the "steam" part in the name must be from the old-fashioned models. Ours just seems to use electricity, so in fact is more like a low-temperature oven. Anyway, here is my very first lunch, cooked by Rich in a barbecue bonanza for Mid-Autumn Festival.

Happy workdays to the rest of you, wherever you may be! J