The enormity of the guang chang
I happened to bring an England flag with me, as you do when going for random walks around China, and had a chavvy moment and hung it up just inside the window of the living room so that I could see which apartment was ours from the outside. Sorry.
Pingguo Chavs
At mid-morning I went to the Police station with kids to register where we were staying. I should have done this the day we arrived in Pingguo, but the policeman behind the counter, who was the same as last year and the year before, didn't seem to mind, and went back to concentrating on his cigarette as I spent the next 40 minutes filling in the one-page forms for the kids and me, 30 minutes of which was spent writing our address in Chinese characters as I don't have the pin yin version. Then I found I needed passport photos too. From memory this is a big deal in China where you have to go to an official place and they charge about 80 kuai for 6 photos. Well I was prepared and had already got some home-made passport photos thanks to epassportphoto.com, a godsend for people with young kids (and a printer). I nipped back, dumped the kids and gave the three photos to the bloke and that was that sorted out for this year.
On the way back I topped up Tan's and my phone, and sorted a month's worth of Internet for 8 kuai up to 50MB (pretty cheap I think, so basically have internet/email/IM on the go now). I also noticed a couple of Western women getting their bikes fixed, one of whom looked like the wife of the American family who were living here a couple of years' ago with their three kids, who we got to know.
Back home I got an email (on my phone!) from the husband of the American family saying his wife had noticed someone who looked like me in the street, and was it me? And if so welcome back. They'd moved back last week like us after a year elsewhere to study Chinese properly (I guess Pingguo doesn't have the teachers). I gave him a ring and we arranged to meet up next week for a catch-up meal. He also mentioned that his youngest daughter was going to the "you er yuan" (school) that Leilei went to two years' ago which reminded me I intended to see if we could do the same this year.
Had a siesta and got up in time to take Leilei to school to see if they would take him for the remainder of the term. Xixi wanted to come too but they both needed a shower. The problem was that while Leilei was having his shower Xixi decided to lock herself in the bedroom. Try as I might I could not coax her to unlock the door. She sounded fine and chatty but just wouldn't play ball and unlock the door. I looked in vain for a key to open the door from my side, but after five minutes gave up and called Tan's 2nd sister to ask what else I could do. There was nothing for it and I told Xixi to stand away from the door. It took a couple of goes but I kicked the door in to find the little madam furiously squirting my expensive Christian Dior eau de toilette around the room with a wicked look on her face; she had already emptied my deodorant. She was completely oblivious to the fact that I'd just kicked in the door.
It was too late to shower Xixi so I took Leilei to school and asked if he could go for the remainder of the term. They said yes so I paid up 285 kuai and said we would come tomorrow, school closes 15th July anyway. Xixi also wants to go to school but the people in the office said at two and a half she was too young.
I took Leilei out to the place with the big screen opposite our house where he actually ate a decent amount of "chao fen" - fried noodles, and a barbequed sausage, and I watched Portugal take a 1-0 lead against North Korea in the first half of the match. Then I got a call to meet Boss Yang in "Number 5 Cafe" with Leilei (I could call him "Boss Sheep" but it doesn't sound so bossy). A Wu came to pick us up even though it's a minute's walk away from where we were watching the footy. He announced he was first taking us to a place to meet some more bosses. I countered that we were already invited to meet Boss Yang but A Wu said he'd told him we'd be a little later than planned. I hate this hijacking he tends to do just to show off his English "big brother". I said I'd do it but not for too long. We arrived at the skanky KTV bar I'd unintentionally visited with Xixi yesterday. It was pretty much the same at night and we went into a large room full of bosses in various stages of inebriousness or whatever it was. Despite having Leilei on my knee they tried to offer me cigarettes, and when I declined they lit up anyway sitting next to me. That was enough. Despite them having ordered some special milk for Leilei I got up and walked out. I didn't care if A Wu was going to lose face - anyone expecting me to bring a five year-old into such a place does not have much of a "face" in my book anyway.
We were opposite the guang chang so Leilei and I played silly games there like chasing after each other (silly because of the heat and humidity). We had a good few minutes together and I ignored the phone calls from A Wu. We made our way to "Number 5 Cafe" to meet Boss Yang, but of course A Wu was already there. I didn't talk to him much, and concentrated on the footy. As it happened Portugal were now leading 7-0 with just a few minutes left for Dear Leader to come on as sub and get an octo-trick to blast his glorious country to World Cup glory (I think I missed that bit when I went to the loo).
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