Clear clear skies + time away from kids

I am accustomed to haze here in China. Not just in Pingguo, but the only other places I've really been to; Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing. I thought it was just pollution until I lived in Pingguo, but I can't believe this place is polluted anything like the large cities. So it was a welcome surprise that after I woke up (before everyone else of course) it struck me that outside was particularly clear. It made the whole place feel overwhelmingly different. Despite the time I've spent here over the last eight years I've always been aware that I am abroad but today it just felt normal, like home. I'd never before considered that haziness would be such an important factor on how you feel about a place. It was lovely to clearly see all the details in the mountains, and I spent a few minutes on the balcony just contemplating nothing in particular in the relative quiet of 7am Pingguo.

View of the guang chang from our balcony on a clear day

View west from our balcony on a clear day

I found out that the teacher's house is open seven days a week so I got the kids their breakfast at the normal dou jiang place and took it to Waipo's to eat. A few days ago we had a scare as apparently Waipo had had a stroke again (she had one a couple of months ago). Her right arm and leg lacked feeling and Tan had to go over there to help her out. I don't know how, but apparently Waipo got better quite quickly (I had been fearing the worst after hearing the symptoms). Well today I saw the medicine that had been bought for her. Each dose was kept in a plush wax-like round cover in a little gift box, at a cost of 300 kuai. I guessed this was traditional Chinese medicine and wondered how much the packing cost out of the 300. Anyway, she swears that it did the trick. I claim placebo, probably intensified by the packaging. I'd love to talk to some people here about scientific trials of medicine but I fear it would fall on deaf ears, like politics. It is an interesting point though, because as China becomes more mainstream in the world, it will have to be subjected to greater scrutiny in such markets as medicine, and I for one will be very interested in how it works out. Lin Hong rang me and asked me to take Xixi to her place so I did after she'd eaten, and left Leilei there for a bit. I told Lin Hong that Leilei and Xixi were going to school today with Nong Kaicheng and A Da, so she said she'd pick up Leilei from Waipo's and take them both there later.

Waipo's expensive stroke medicine (if you call 300 kuai expensive)

Back at home I wanted to relax for a bit and sort out our newly-borrowed tv. That nearly happened when I got a call from A Hua, Nong Kaicheng's mama, to say the teacher had rung her to ask where the kids were. Well I told her that Lin Hong had taken them there...at least to the best of my knowledge. So I called Lin Hong to find she'd taken the kids out to play, with no intention of going to school. I nearly argued but it dawned on me that the kids were on holiday too and it may be a little unfair to expect them to go to school every day. However, Lin Hong could at least have told me!

Well I had some time to myself as Tan was safely in Shanghai, helping her ex-boss try to do some business with an Australian company (and finding out their accent is very difficult at the same time). So what better use of my time than to wipe Vista off Awl's broken screen laptop and install a fresh XP? I'd found out that the tv had a detachable back that I hadn't seen before, and behind that was a VGA input along with HD and other stuff. So a nice geeky late morning ensued, during which I went out and bought some jiao zi and had a couple of beers. This meant I was able to sleep from 3-5pm, and though I should have felt refreshed, when I woke up I felt ill. Waipo called me to eat over there and although I didn't feel like it I went anyway as I probably needed the food. I picked at some duck and rice and then made my excuses and left.

I have committed a serious crime here in Pingguo. I have been here nearly ten days and not gone for a head wash. Given that I was feeling off-colour and that the wife was away and the kids were being taken care of, I thought that would be just the ticket so I gave A Wu a tinkle and he said he'd meet me by the old KTV place. The only interruption to this plan was Waipo calling me to ask me to bring some dry clothes for Xixi as she'd managed to wee herself at home, probably by being too excited to go to the loo. Thankfully I was able to get A Wu to take me to Waipo's to leave the clothes, and Xixi wasn't too insistent on coming out with me. So much the better as after we picked up a Sichuan friend from A Hua's shop, we found one of the places we went to last year and I had probably the best head wash I can remember at least in the last three years. Again, a teenage girl with stronger finger muscles than appearances would suggest, washed and wet-massaged my head and neck and face and upper back, before moving on to other places of the upper body. I cannot stress enough how much the difference is in comfort between a warm, wet massage, and a dry one. I don't care if the dry one is more professional and better for the body, the soapy wet one is far far more pleasurable. We'd used the expensive shampoo, apparently but I was more than happy to pay the 100 kuai for the three of us for the hour's experience.

I realised I no longer felt ill, and was happy to go back to A Wu's office for a couple of beers with some blokes. I called Waipo to say I'd go to pick up the kids around 10.30pm and she said "mei wenti" (no problem) so I had no guilt in not doing so. Then she called back a minute later saying the kids would sleep there tonight. Result! At A Wu's office we actually had a glass of his home made wine. This sounds dangerous. Non home made wine is barely palatable at the best of times so I was quite concerned. It wasn't wine in the strict sense of the word though, it was more like wine mixed with vodka and sugar. I guessed it was around 25% alcohol so supped slowly, until everyone decided it would be convenient to move on to beer.

Sichuan friend!

A Wu's office wall adorned with photos from yesteryear

This continued till gone midnight, when A Wu declared himself hungry, so we all went for a bbq at Tian Yang Po's place, which is the favourite of everyone I know around here. It was very nice, and we didn't eat or drink too much, and I went home totally exhausted by 2am and had no problem falling into the arms of Morpheus.

Our favourite bbq place, with Ai Yi and her duck fingers! (Well, tongues)