Tea with Ma Laoban then a lunch of wild chicken

It's been getting hotter and hotter over the last week. Normally the drive to get some breakfast is the most refreshing part of the day before it gets scorchio, with a welcome breeze in our hair. After dropping off the kids I went to see Waipo at Er Jie's house. She has sorted out a tv for us to borrow for the next few weeks, and although it's only around 20" at least it's a flat screen one. Before taking it home I had to go to the university as I'd promised Awl I'd check out the vacancy they have for an English teacher. It's a rather grand building and worryingly I was running out of battery as I arrived. The security said the place was on holiday but I managed to find a person to speak to. Apparently they want someone long-term so it may not be a goer. Plus they said that the teacher really needs to speak Mandarin too, and be aware the pay would not be as good as, say, Nanning. So it's not looking very likely. But the conversation was for me very notable as it was calm and logical; facts and concerns were layed out and responded to. Risks were somewhat calculated and we came to an amicable conclusion that it would be best for Awl to come to Nanning and work in an English school there for a while, while determining if it was the sort of place he could stay in for some time. Personally, I have no doubt that a single man in control of his faculties would not have any problem whatsoever living here.

Pingguo University in all its splendour

Back from the university I took the telly to Ma Laoban's computer shop to check it out. I want to use Awl's old laptop to be able to watch stuff on on the tv. The screen is very broken so it is a good candidate for removing Vista and replacing with XP in order to speed it up and make better use of its 2GB RAM. We soon found out in Ma Laoban's shop that there was no computer input for the tv, meaning I'd have to find an innovative solution if I wanted to stream stuff from the laptop...

Anyway, while at Ma Laoban's place a couple of people came around and, as is customary at his place, we sat down to drink tea. His place is the perfect alternative pub. Around his tea table we have the ingredients of being male-only and drinking, the only difference being the beverage. I liked Ma Laoban's new tea table and asked how much it was. 6000 kuai apparently. I asked how much for the raw material and he said that was free but it cost 1000 kuai to get some people to take the wood from a river to the local artisan who would carve it. Then, 5000 kuai to carve it according to Ma's requirements (a watery flavour). Well we drank a different brew to the usual Tie Guan ying this time and after a few glasses I could feel myself shaking a little. I don't know what it is but it affects me. At least it meant I would be awake for the afternoon which was just as well as Li Yi, one of the gentlemen drinking tea with us, invited us to go for lunch with him. It was 11am and Tan had just reminded me that she was going to Nanning at midday to fly to Shanghai to do some work for her ex-boss till next Friday.

Me with Ma Laoban and a mate at Ma Laoban's new tea table

This turtle is carved out of Ma Laoban's splendid tea table

So I called Tan to say I was going out for lunch and she said there was a bloke in the flat doing the plastering. Luckily he finished before midday so I popped over to drop off the tv and give her a kiss goodbye before going back to be taken to the Da Xue Cheng place I'd picked up some cement from a few days ago. This was a rather pretty place with a swimming pool and ping pong table. We had a statutory waiting time before the meal, during which I managed to beat the three blokes that I was to be eating with rather convincingly. Then we went for a quick tour and I saw the speciality of this place: "ye ji" (wild chickens). For all these years I had thought that when I ate ye ji someone had gone into the mountains and caught such a fowl with a net or something. I didn't realise that it was simply a breed of chicken - one that was clucking around rather un-wildly here in front of me. With their rather fetching plumage they actually make normal chickens look rather wild.

A rather un-wild wild chicken
Well, they certainly taste nice, and in the best tradition no part was wasted (the soup was particularly good). I was somewhat pleasantly surprised that two of the blokes wouldn't touch even a shot glass of 3.1% beer as they were driving. It seems to be extreme here - either you don't touch a drop and drive, or you drive after a bellyfull. Well one of the blokes fancied a couple of beers so who was I to disappoint him? We managed a few rounds of cai ma until it was time to go.

I actually managed a bit of sleep before picking the kids up around 5pm. This time I took them to Waipo's place and left them there to play. I heard later that they went to Lin Hong's place to play and Leilei ended up sleeping there.

Lu Hai called me at 9pm to invite me to have some seafood at the place I frequented last year after work. They have moved a few hundred yards away to a place where they now have a building with air-conditioned rooms. Despite this improvement there is no other place close by outside, which means eating there lacks the atmosphere of yesteryear, with a great many other outside eating places and their accompanying nighttime noises. The boss-cook was delighted to see me and we sat down outside and drank a few beers for old times' sake. Then his wife and daughter came and it we had a laugh like last year until he had to go back to the kitchen and make the bacon so to speak. His wife said to Lu Hai that he couldn't drink any more due to a liver problem, which probably explained why he seemed more sober than was his wont last year, but not why he indulged in a few with us. Still, a few is better than a skinful I suppose.

The cook's wife, him and his daughter - nice friends