Dossing before ping pong

I hardly needed to stay more than a minute when I dropped off the kids at school today. Then I got back home and stayed in bed for another hour. Then Tan got a call and went out to meet Chen Mei for lunch and I dossed. I dossed like I hadn't dossed in many years. In fact I'd nearly forgotten how to doss but it came back quickly. I just lay in bed and played a little Angry Birds, or "Fen nu de xiao niao" as it's called here. And it felt good, and not at all guilty. Actually Angry Birds is big business here, not so much the mobile phone game, but all the kids have these little toys, and either a sling to fling the birds, or a little pusher to push them into the pigs (the birds have a ball bearing to roll on). Leilei and his friends enjoy playing this - hopefully not too much at school.

I thought I had a bit of an excuse for dossing as we needed someone to come in and finish off around the door. But when I rang Lin Hong I found out that we needed to leave the cement another day in order for it to dry. Would have been nice to be told...on the other hand I had a great morning in.... For lunch I lazily went out and got some more diao zi and ate them at home with some more watermelon juice.

Stabbed my straw in the right place

I finally managed a bit of a snooze in the afternoon, so in the evening, as the kids were out swimming or something with friends, I got my first opportunity to really play some table tennis with the elders. As soon as I entered at 8pm I was welcomed like an old friend again, with huge genuine smiles! One bloke ran up to me and gave me a hug!

A number of people came up and played me - not for points but for practice - and I knew they were being gentle...but I felt myself getting back into the game and I was definitely better than the 60 year old woman I played (I remember losing to her last year). Try as I might I couldn't get others to take my place, and by 9.30pm I was feeling nauseous. But I didn't want to give up or disappoint, so I played on until Haiwei came down to finish me off. I mustered all my strength to manage a few smashes and realised that I can now smash backhanded. But when it was time up at 10pm I could barely walk back to the bench to pick up my top (it would have been silly to attempt wearing a top in this heat). Haiwei then asked me to come and drink beer but that was the last thing on my mind. I slowly walked the 200 yards back home and got myself showered before Tan said she was going out and I needed to pick up Xixi from A Hua's shop. That I did a bit later after regaining my senses, and I found out that Leilei was spending the night with A Hua's son Nong Kaicheng again. At least with Xixi I had a good excuse not to go and drink beer with Haiwei.

Once Xixi was home and showered and in bed with me next to her, I once again received a phone call from A Da. It was just a two minute chat really about how he was and how school was, but I couldn't help thinking that was something he should be doing with his own dad...