Long time no see (London)

An ex-student Geoff, who’d inspired one of my teaching practices, dropped out of my Chinese classes when he moved to Cambridge but remained in touch over the years, arranging to meet up in a pub for a few jars whenever he came down to London.  For one of these visits, he’d appointed The Lamb in Lamb’s Conduit as the venue as they had good beer and not far from where he was attending a conference, and gave me plenty of notice.  That, in fact, became the problem as, come the day, I completely forgot about it--I always get sucked into the computer once I start working on it.  The next day, I received an email from him, with the simple message: “好久没见 hǎo jiǔ méi jiàn / long time no see!”  He’d sat in the pub over three pints of beer, waiting for me to put in an appearance.  He might’ve dropped out of Chinese classes but he certainly still knew how to use whatever he’d learned to good effect, even in irony!

(UK, late 1990s)