Up Horse Head mountain before tea with Horse Boss then poor prawns

Went for lunch with the wife and kid at the cousins where her mum’s staying. Afterwards I went for a walk on my own up the mountain path. It’s not really the thing to do at 2pm on a 35 degrees plus day in the sunshine, but I really wanted to get a couple of shots of the view that I could stitch together; one of Xiao Li’s friends makes signs for advertisements and said he could print out such a photograph for me.

So I bought a couple of bottles of water and made the trek up to the top, pretty much drenched when I got there. I met a couple there with whom I engaged in conversation for about half an hour and shared their oranges. It was one of those conversations that do your confidence in Chinese no good. I understood less than half they were saying and had to ask them to repeat themselves on numerous occasions. Still, they were very friendly.

It’s just one of those things about staying in a place where the majority of people speak the local lingo amongst themselves…it doesn’t really help your Mandarin that much…oh well, I’m not complaining!

I went to the top of the pagoda on the mountain and enjoyed being by myself for nearly the first time in two months.

A picture made from two pictures of the view from the Horse Head Mountain.

At the bottom of the mountain I popped in to Xiao Li’s friend’s computer shop (his name is Ma Tao but because he’s the boss everyone calls him Ma Laoban – literally Horse Boss). I was invited upstairs where we drank tea with the boss of the curtain shop next door for three hours solid. This time, maybe because I already knew Horse Boss, the conversation was flowing and we were talking about eating and drinking culture, and that how in England people bought rounds as you have to pay each time you order…they find that sort of thing really interesting. We all found it amusing that neither of them knew what Chinese year it is (it’s the dog). Anyway we all had a lot of fun (and only tea, not beer), so my confidence in my Mandarin was somewhat renewed.

In the evening Xiao Wei, Tan and a fat aunty went to the bbq place. I noticed some friends as we entered and went to sit with them for a glass and a bite. This time there was lamb and dog, plus some prawns that tasted…not very prawny. Tan came over a few minutes later telling me I shouldn’t eat with strangers – I explained that they were my friends and that Xiao Li was coming anyway, but she didn’t look convinced. Well Xiao Li came and we had some food with the girls before going back to chat with our mates. However I started to get a very dodgy feeling in my stomach. The kind that requires a visit to the toilet. I told them I needed to go and they said I could use their loo (they own one of the places at the bbq). I didn’t really have time to explain that I couldn’t crouch, so I went anyway and pretended. By then it was getting worse so I ran out, bid a quick farewell and got the closest three wheeled cab to take me home where I made it just in the nick of time.

Apparently it was the prawns, even though I only had two.