The High for the Day is Minus Two.

Nicholas Quirke was horrified to discover on consulting Siri that the high temperature for the day was minus 2 degrees and the low was minus 12 on 14 December 2020. He had never been very concerned with the temperature of the temperate climate he hailed from where the average for this time of year was 6 and rarely dipped below 0 but here he religiously consulted Siri each day to ascertain the number of layers he needed to wear. The dazzling sunshine belied the freezing climate that had descended on Beijing and it seemed incomprehensible that such a day would freeze his ears on his short journey to the subway. There was ice on the roads and he was going to have to be careful and make sure his wheels did not skid. He was leaving early for a script meeting with Lun and their translator, Ausslyn. As he was working that evening he thought it would be a good idea to meet in Chaoyangmen, somewhere near the school. Lun chose the Little Nap Cafe in the Galaxy mall where he had dined the previous day. It was comfortable, warm and bright and he managed to make his Pu’er tea last from 10.30 – 3.30. He had bought with him the programme that The Beijing Film Academy had published in 2019 to celebrate 70 years of the Peoples Republic of China it was interesting to look through though there was not much about the history of the college or its most famous graduates. The good news was that Lun really liked the script Nicholas had assembled so far and where there were some questions over the content they managed to find a solution and come up with a stronger scenario. He was struggling to find the voice of a 16 year May Thai boxer in him and he had kept any dialogue from the protagonist to an absolute minimum. Lun was keen that they find an actor who could play the lead roles and they looked at a few actors who might suit the role. The actor that he felt visually suited the role best was a friend of Lun’s whom Nicholas had actually seen in ‘The Sacrifice’. They would try and meet with him in the week. He had been enjoying the meeting a lot and was surprised, when Ausslyn asked if he needed to get to his class, to find that it was already 3.30pm. It was his two favourite students, Jean and Lucia who chuckled, talked, fought and gurgled their way through the lesson and got very excited when he found a soft toy they could ‘Throw’, ’Catch’, ‘Kick’, ‘Hit’, and ‘Get’, in an attempt to physicalise the words. He was creatively and mentally stimulated by his day and was relived that the now constant sub zero temperatures had not affected his ability or desire to get out into the world. It was nice though to be home and to be in the warmth. ‘’I’m your Woman’, proved to be a puzzling and long study of a woman on the run from some criminals with a child that was not her own, it’s dreary tone proved to be sleep inducing and perfect for a good nights kip.

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