Setting up wireless router

I didn't really feel like going out for lunch, but there was no food in the house and the wife and kids were going to meet A Ni in the Ming Dian hotel. We took a three-wheeler to get there but we were a little late as Tan couldn't find her sunglasses and refused to leave until she did. A Hua was also there waiting for us. Then A Wu and Boss Yang came too, moaning about having drunk too much last night. There was another westerner having a meal in the restaurant too...seems like Pingguo is becoming quite international. After the meal I took the kids back for a siesta...a near necessity in this heat.

A Wu invited us and a number of other friends to a nice big dinner at the same restaurant as a year ago when A Wu started his company. There was a table for the ladies and kids, and one for the blokes as it should be. Actually the one genuine good thing about this arrangement is that the kids and ladies don't get exposed to nearly as much smoke as they would otherwise. We played cai ma and I once again won more than I lost. Now I can even beat A Wu half the time. Boss Yang reminded me that he had taught me some table tennis two years ago, and now I remembered him properly. He invited me to play tomorrow and I accepted eagerly. I really enjoy this sport despite the fact that here I've been beaten by pensioners.

Clockwise from pink: Boss Huang, Jie fu, a mate, me, A Wu, Boss Yang, A Dong, A Wu's big brother (I think)

The ladies' and children's table at A Wu's meal

Xixi getting my attention

We later moved on to KTV - the same people were invited but there weren't quite as many people as at the meal. I had to do the traditional party pieces of "Pengyou" in Cantonese and "Ni shi wo de mei gui hua" in Mandarin, plus the chorus of a new song I'm being told to learn "You mei you ren ceng gao su ni" ("Did anyone tell you?").

Our bill at the karaoke place. A Wu had written my name as he thought it was (Doin nike). I signed my name in Chinese about 3/4 of the way down slightly on the right (should read 彭多明)

The main plus point about today was that I managed to set up the old wireless router I'd brought from the UK to work with the internet connection here. I was doubtful that it would work as the house just has an ethernet port in the wall, and the router is meant to be used as a DSL modem/router. However I thought I had nothing to lose by putting an ethernet cable from the wall into port 1 of the router, and configuring it as I would for a normal DSL line. Hey Presto it just worked! I ran an ethernet cable from the router to the house's PC, and then set up wireless security and we had connectivity for my laptop, Tan's netbook and both our phones. It sounds geeky but it's really important to have that link to the family and the rest of the world.