Off to Tianjin for the weekend. If I regularly posted on Saturdays and Sundays, I would note my trip as the reason for bloggus interruptus.

In light of the fact that I rarely post on the weekend, however, I will simply point out that this post is entirely unnecessary. You may therefore stop reading here, comfortable in the knowledge that you are not missing anything important.

For the bored or adventurous, read on.

Goals for the Tianjin trip

1. Feed my wife seafood.

2. See some old buildings.

3. Remind myself what the ocean looks like.

In case something goes wrong and I find myself utterly bored, I have heeded my usual travel advice and packed an eclectic selection of reading material. This is important as you never know what sort of mood in which you may find yourself. For the next two days, I have the following at my disposal:

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins — The classic tome on evolutionary genetics, dumbed down for folks with limited scientific knowledge (or even lawyers with limited brain capacity). I’m hoping that I can use Dawkins’ theory to morally justify my appalling behavior towards tall, blond people — read the book, and you’ll understand the joke.

Marvel 1602 — Neil Gaiman takes the Marvel superhero universe and transplants it into Elizabethan Europe. If you think that the mix between European History and comic books is a good idea, this is highly recommended. Come to think of it, this is actually your only option (that I’m aware of). It’s quite possible that I’ll be the first person in China to have read this series. Not because it’s new (I think it’s from ’94), but you gotta figure that the target audience for something like this is frighteningly narrow.

If these prove insufficient, I can always turn to the Charlie Stross stuff on my iPhone or, if I’m desperate, study Chinese.