Like You Never Went Away
You’re everywhere. Empirically attractive, imperially gorgeous. Positively pulsating with pulchritude. And as for this current megalopolis: it’s the acme of urban aspiration and cultural inspiration. Amongst the jade and jardines and jacquard silks; amidst the mist shawled vales and curlicued dragons and parasol clutching mandarins; centrist centring on the premier international consumption hub to the east of the world’s longest central axis, we’re doing our germane best for Sino Anglo Irish relations. Recalling the sinistral Ming and Qing dynasties; admiring the syncretic Xi Jinping era. Our very own white lotus revolutionary revelation has begun. Focusing on the glimmers. Hypnogogic mesmerisation; pedagogic realisation. We’ll always remember you dancing under city lights. 
In years to come, looking back over Lavender’s Blue, reflecting on its modest commission to simply brighten the reader’s day, this record of a midwinter’s visit to Beijing – pics and prose capturing the paradigm of a paradisal time – will surely be seen to have delivered that meek mission. Although the ending of Marcel Proust’s 1913 The Way by Swann’s does caution, “The places we have known do not belong solely to the world of space in which we situate them for our greater convenience. They were only a thin slice of contiguous impressions that formed our life at that time; the memory of a certain image is only regret for a certain time; and houses, roads, avenues are as fleeting, alas, as the years.”
Wherever there’s the high life there’s Lavender’s Blue. Especially on days ending with a Y. Perhaps it really is then an infrangible storehouse of exquisite epiphanies with a strong dose of chimerical aestheticism. A finely hewn form of winsome writing and formidable photography. Savour each missive from our Champagne fuelled truffle laden foam light caviar heavy production line of epigrams and epiphanic imagery. Dithyrambic ramblings are us. Think Felicità. Like very fine wine, Lavender’s Blue is an acquired taste. But – health warning – those who remain intellectually alert enough to sup at this fountain will end up addicted. We’re talking opium level.
