Thorns and Roses (or why the fu** aren't there any cabs in Shanghai tonight?!)

I've tried to add entries to this blog after thinking them through beforehand and then writing them down later, but it just doesn't work that way for me. So, in the interest of immediacy, I rant. When doing long backpacking trips we used to play a game called thorns and roses, in which you point out a rose, or something you're enjoying; and a thorn, something that's pissing you off.

A stock example of each for Shanghai would be that I love the variety of food (rose), but that babbling in Shanghainese dialect just isn't easy on the ears at 7:45 in the morning on the bus, ladies (thorn).

Why couldn't I find a taxi tonight from 9:55 to 10:35 in Xuhui District of Shanghai. The New Year's holidays are still more than a week away, so that excuse doesn't hold up. Never, in my time here, have I had this hard a time finding a cab. Even if it was New Years, all the cabbies are Shanghainese, so they aren't going to leave, and since there are 60,000 of them, why would they take time off when there is lots of money to be made.

I ended up taking two buses home (and they were stuffed, just like rush hour, except at 10:40 at night). So I am left extraordinarily pissed off, and wondering what the hell? Even on Christmas, and (Gregorian) New Year's, the longest I waited for a cab was 15 minutes. If it was something I knew about in advance, no worries, that's okay, I can make arrangements to not be 4 miles from home in sub-zero weather. But no, thanks to you, Shanghai, it all seems completely random and designed to piss me off.