Fixing a government official's satellite dish and going to Deng Xiao Ping museum

We went out in the morning to play table tennis but it was so hot Xiao Li gave up after three games and we went to play badminton. During badminton he received a phone call and said we were going to Baise where his brother-in-law would fix a government official’s satellite dish.

So one hour later we were in Xiao Li’s brother-in-law’s car for the two hour drive to Baise, where he duly fixed a satellite dish while we went our with some friends to visit the Deng Xiao Ping museum which was quite interesting.

Sitting at Deng Xiao Ping's desk from when he stayed in Baise 80 years ago.

With Xiao Li's sister and another mate in the museum - they wanted me to stand on a lower step!

At the war memorial - we all had a go on the gong which was surprisingly quiet


Later of course we went for a meal in a nice restaurant with the government official and some of his friends/business partners. We drank quite a lot of 3.1% beer in tiny glasses and some of them got quite drunk (can’t imagine how they’d cope in an English pub with pints of 5% Stella!). They thought it was great and very funny that I could say “My wife is from Bangxu” in Bangxu language, which bears hardly any resemblance to Mandarin: Shao ya ngou nduk wen Bang Hee instead of Wo lao po shi Bang xu ren.

One of very many toasts - not surprisingly you always down in one.