Registering with police and getting SIMs then back to normal life

Leilei woke me up at 4.30am. I went to his room to get him back to sleep but was accompanied by a cock cockadooledooing and a dog barking its head off in response. Despite the din Leilei got back to sleep but then Xixi was awake. So I swapped to her room and fell back asleep with her, exhausted, till around 7am when she woke up properly. There was no going back to sleep this time so I got her dressed and took her out to get breakfast. We went to the same place we frequented last year as it is still close to our new house. It was as though we had never been away. The same fare at the same prices; we bought three cups of dou jiang (soya milk), some fried long things that are supposed to go with the dou jiang, some fried dumplings and some steamed buns. We took them home and Xixi got through the dou jiang in no time (as it had a pink straw), and managed half a bun.


A very common view - that which you see when waiting for the lift

At 9am the others still had not emerged so I grabbed our passports and Xixi and set off to the police station for our annual process of reporting our whereabouts to the local authority. All aliens have to do this if they are not staying in a hotel. We had to wait for the correct policeman to get to his desk so Xixi and I played hide-and-seek in the station for 20 minutes or so. We duly filled in the forms that do have English as well but it is not well translated so we had to ask for help. This was the same policeman we'd had for the last 2-3 years and he knew us quite well by now, and helped us fill in the form and this year didn't even charge us for photocopying our passports. And I learnt a new word: "fu yin" - photocopy.


Xixi playing hide-and-seek at the police station

The next most important job was to sort ourselves out with SIM cards. I had sent last year's SIM cards back to Lin Hong asking her to keep them charged every few months so we wouldn't need new numbers but as she was in the process of decorating her house she had forgotten. No worries, Xixi and I set out to find a China Telecom shop. But not before we stopped off at my favourite place to pick up fresh watermelon and honeymelon juice. We also popped in to one of my favourite tea places for a couple of cups of tie guan yin cha, my favourite summer tea - naturally slightly sweet and very refreshing as although it was not even 10am it was probably in the high 30s outside. Xixi and I walked for further than I expected before coming to the China Telecom shop by our market. I looked at the list of non-expensive phone numbers (i.e. those not ending in "8") and picked a couple that were nearly identical except that mine ended in the year of my birth and Tan's in the year of her birth - very cute. Within minutes I had a new number and Internet on the phone, and felt a sigh of relief. The next job would be to call all my friends to let them know my 2011 number (and hopefully the one for the future if I can sort that out).

Home again and this time Tan had woken up. I gave her her SIM and within minutes she was engaged in Pingguonese chatting with A Ni. I've heard it so much now I'm understanding more than half. Not that it should be that hard as it's mostly Mandarin but with a very, very strong/wrong accent. Also at home were Lin Hong and her daughter Tian tian, as well as Chuan chuan, Tan's 2nd sister's daughter. Tian tian and Chuan chuan took the kids out, apparently to go swimming, while we were invited to go to lunch with A Wu and A Ni, meaning A Wu, A Ni and three bosses. Because a meal without bosses is like tonic without gin (quite refreshing actually). Then Tan announced that she and A Ni would not go to the meal but go for a massage instead. Fair enough. So I walked the five minutes to Li Jia He Xian (Li's Freshwater Fish), the best restaurant in town, to meet A Wu. Funnily enough I met A Ni at the door of the restaurant, who told me which room to go to. And of course her and Tan joined us for the meal and I knew very well I was back in China! The bosses arrived and were very good-natured. They worked in the bank and I suppose A Wu was doing his usual thing of showing off his English friend. As they were not from Pingguo I told them a bit about the place, and managed a few gan beis with them. Then A Hua arrived and gave me a bunch of keys saying "ni de che!". Yes! She had brought over my trusty electric bike I've been using for the last five years or so.

The meal was excellent as usual, and I learnt why there were no fried bee cocoons (as there weren't last year); the season for them is September/October, which makes sense as we used to eat them all the time before Leilei started school and we could fly at that time. The last three times we've had to come in the summer and missed that particular delicacy. The girls left, this time to really go for a massage, and I made my excuses as I was knackered after a busy morning on three hours' sleep, a full meal and a few light beers. So I said my goodbyes to my new boss friends and got on the dian dong che (electric bike) only to find that it had been mutilated to the extent of having a pole inserted in the base near the front, coming up to waist height. I knew straightaway that this was for inserting one of those huge umbrellas to protect you from the sun. Very much a ladies thing and I'm glad A Hua hadn't left the umbrella in or I might stand out. So I rode back to the house in my long trousers and fairish hair, taller than anyone in town, glad I wasn't standing out at all.

Sleep was easy to come by and as only three people had my number, and I was undisturbed from 3-6pm until Tan called to say we were eating at Er jie's (her 2nd sister's) house. I said I'd be 20 minutes but was nearer an hour as I hadn't put the hot water on and had to negotiate a cold shower but still no shave since London. Er jie's house is where we lived for the two months last year so I know it well. However, only Wai po and Tan were there. The kids had just gone out swimming as the pool only opened at 6pm (goodness knows where they were before). I had a few mouthfuls of ribs before making my excuses once again and leaving. I needed to go to the supermarket to pick up a couple of things for the house. Actually all I bought were three glasses, some bog roll and some shampoo, but I also happened to notice that they still have Gordon's Gin and Smirnoff Vodka on the shelves (in case Awl comes over later). A Wu rang me while I was shopping and came to meet me. As I was paying he threw in a couple of towels as you do. As we left I made sure I got myself the equivalent of a Nectar Card so I can build up points and get...err I don't really know but it is one of the small things that makes me feel I live here rather than am just visiting.

A Wu hadn't eaten so after dropping off the shopping I met him outside Er jie's house at one of the many eating places where there was one other mate. He was eating fried noodles, but then came some lamb, then some sweetcorn, then another friend came along. Then A Wu had to go to pick up his son A Da while another couple of people came. Then more dishes and more people including my friend Yang Heiwei the table tennis guru. By 11pm I'd switched tables and was gan bei'ing with another group of friends, such is the way evenings can evolve over here. But I didn't over-indulge, and picked up Leilei from Er jie's house as Xixi had already fallen asleep there. I took him back and got him to sleep, then did the same to Tan and found some sense of normality by falling asleep before 1am.