The cheerful looking wood artisan shop keeper - cheerful that he'd just made a week's wages or more that morning
It took two blokes to lift the table onto the back of the san lun che pick-up, and they did so without straight backs which is rather non-health and safety, but I thought better of telling them that. I might as well tell the driver to wear a helmet. Then he followed me the two minutes to our new house, and we offloaded it and found out to our collective chagrin that the lack of electricity had hit our place too. He asked what floor we were on, and didn't look to happy when I said "shi si lou" (14th floor), but there was no way I'd expect anyone in their right mind to carry that up one flight, let alone thirteen (here the ground floor is the first floor). So we left it at the bottom and I said thanks. As we left I told the security guard I'd left the table there, and to make sure no-one half-inched it. He looked at me slightly incredulously and said nobody would steal that.
Arriving at our building to find there is no electricity hence no lifts
I unusually had lunch at home with Er jie's husband, and managed a bit of siesta in the heat of the afternoon thanks in part to a post-prandial large G& lemonade. At 5pm Chuan Chuan, Qiqi, Qiqi's dad, Xixi, and myself got ready to go swimming. We picked up Leilei from Nong Kaicheng's house and drove to the place where they are building even more towering blocks on the road to Nanning. There they have an olympic-sized swimming pool and a kiddies' pool with slides and even a see-saw. Although it was supposed to open at 5pm, when we got there at 5.15pm there was a crowd of people, mostly kids in their swimming costumes, waiting outside. It transpired that the pool was being cleaned, and we ended up waiting till 10 to 6 before we were allowed in, by which time there were well over a hundred people. This makes sense as for this month it's free to get in. By the time Leilei and Xixi were having fun with Chuan Chuan it was gone 6pm, and I'd had a phone call earlier in the day from Uncle Yellow inviting me out for a meal at 6.30pm. So I had a dry time, made my excuses and left on foot. I hadn't got as far as the entrance when I got a phone call from A Wu asking where I was. I said I was on my way to meet Uncle Yellow for a meal so he said he'd pick me up in 10 minutes. I said I'd start walking up the road so I'd look out for him.
The kids having fun with Chuan Chuan at the swimming pool - Xixi is on a see-saw
It was a bit of a silly thing to walk up this main road in the blistering sun, and I thought this may be the reason that I suddenly heard men in helmets whistling at me. I stopped, and noticed there were about three of them gesticulating at me to go back to the pool. Had I done something wrong, like trespassing? As I neared the pool I could hear one of them shouting "pao pao!!" which means "run!", which I did as best I could in flip flops. Then I noticed that they had stopped the traffic too. I was a bit worried now as to what I had caused. So I went up to him and asked what was up and he said "pao pao!!" again and pointed up the road. Then I realised he meant "explosion!", and I barely had time to turn around when I heard a loud "boom!" from the other side of a wall, and clods of earth leapt into the air and distributed themselves all over the road. It was fortuitous that they hadn't knocked over the electricity pylon situated a few yards away. Anyway, that was it and we were allowed on our way - no clearing up of the road or anything.
A Wu hadn't turned up and I was nearly home so I gave him a bell and he said "3 minutes" so I told him just to come to the house. I got home 5 minutes later and changed into long trousers and a shirt, before A Wu rang to say he had arrived. I got in the car and we drove up to the guang chang and then turned right instead of left. I explained that the restaurant I was going to was the other way and he said that first we'd go to another place with some police to eat. I told him no, I'd been invited by Uncle Yellow to eat at 6.30pm and it was already that time, but he dismissed it as not important. I forcefully told him to understand that if he wanted me to go to a meal with the police he should have told me before, as Uncle Yellow had when he invited me earlier. So he reluctantly drove me to the restaurant I intended to go to then pointed to the clock on the car, which read "6.40". He said I should eat for one hour and then, at 7.40 call him. I neither agreed nor disagreed, but said I'll call him when finished. Inside room "202" of the restaurant was Uncle Yellow, his wife and a couple of friends I knew from having eaten dog with them back in November 2008. Of course dog was on the menu, and it was very nice too. So was the wild grass, horse, pork, duck and other luxuries. As the meal wore on, the other blokes' wives and sons turned up, which made it more of a family occasion. We had a good time catching up on old things, and I'd forgotten about A Wu, but he dutifully called at 8pm and I told him to wait a few minutes. I was actually stuffed, and didn't really feel like gan bei'ing much more, so I explained that I needed to go and see some police for a bit. They were fine and told me to call them when I'd finished as they might still be there (judging by the amount of food I could believe them).
When we arrived at the large private room with the police and bosses I was greeted by a large cheer from a dozen or so half cut gentlemen. I was led by the arm by who I think was the chief constable, and proceeded to gan bei with every other man in the room (the two women were exempt). I was just grateful that we had the thimble-sized glasses, until I got to the penultimate gentleman who had a normal sized glass, and proceeded to fish one out for me, insisting I down a large one. I somehow managed, then completed my round feeling bloated, and realising that the new chopsticks in front of me would never grip any food in my hands. But, I manfully mustered on through tirades of cai ma much to their delight, until others started to leave. Boss Yang managed to sleep for 40 minutes during all this, then wake up fresh enough to start drinking red wine (with a single ice cube) again. We finally left around 11pm and went back to A Wu's work where we had a little watermelon. Well it was big, but we had a little bit. Tan and the ladies were there. Lin Hong rang Tan to explain that there was a tea table outside the lift at the bottom of the building. I hadn't told her about this as I wanted to surprise her, but had to explain it was my purchase. Apparently there was electricity there, so A Wu took the phone and told Lin Hong to give 10 kuai to a couple of workers and tell them to take it into the house. The ladies left in a san lun che a bit later, not waiting for me as I locked the gate. Probably I smelt a bit of 3% beer.
The meal with police and bosses - the pretty girl in the front is Boss Yang's little sister, Boss Yang is in the green to her right
Alone, at 11.30pm, I wondered the streets for a couple of minutes when it dawned on me that the restaurant I'd left Uncle Yellow in over three hours ago was very close by. On the offchance I gave him a ring and he told me to come over. They were still eating and drinking, and while I could do little of the latter I had a bit of pickled vegetable and chatted to the new blokes who had turned up in my absence. We probably all left well after midnight.
Back home there was still no leccy. Very frustrating as they had said it would be back at midnight. Who "they" are I still don't know - I just get told from time to time that "they" say there will be no electricity tomorrow.... Well Leilei was up, but I got him to sleep easily. But it was very hot so I popped out to the seafood place more for the chance to get an electrically-assisted breeze (yes that side of the road had leccy) than to eat. But it is quite a job to walk the 20 yards there through the various tables without being requested to drink a beer with a bunch of locals. As I hadn't for well over an hour I allowed myself to sit down with some students for just one beer. They seemed grateful that I did so but I politely refused more beer, saying I had to meet some friends. Which was sort of true as the next table I bumped into had some blokes I knew from Bangxu, and we had a bit to eat and drink until the Beijing girl, who is married to one of the locals here came over and told me my friends were waiting at the other table.... So I table-hopped yet again and had to cai ma yet again. I only came out for a breeze and I came back at 2am rather the worse for wear. Then, magically the air conditioning sparked into life, just as I was dropping off. Oh, the relief...I slept a full three hours until...I remember the moment clearly...it stopped again at 6am. Just like that no bloody leccy again.
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