At Lu Hai's salon there were a couple of people waiting already and it was going to take a little time. So seafood manager popped out, while I texted Tan to say I wasn't going now, and that we could all go another time. We'd had a bit of a tiff as I hadn't told her I was going and she said she wanted to go, with the kids too. I find that hard to believe as she never wants to go out to the places I go to. Anyway, seafood manager got back and announced that we were going to Tian Dong straight away. "Hang on", I said - you just said it was raining so we couldn't go as the fields would be muddy etc. Ah, but it wasn't raining in Tian Dong, according to his contact there. I was suspicious, and had to call Tan to tell her Tian Dong was on again.
So the two of us drove on the new road to Tian Dong, accompanied by solid rain the whole way. Thankfully he is a careful driver and we got there in one piece, where the rain started to taper off. However, it was still raining enough for my suspicions earlier to be correct, and the numerous umbrellas that you normally see during the day to fend off the sun were there in the same numbers, but this time serving a different purpose. But it was certainly different to Pingguo, 50km away, and I explained that there must be many micro-climates here, to which seafood manager sort of nodded in way to say "I think I know what you mean, but that isn't really Chinese". Xiao qi hou is microclimate - I checked it with Google too - maybe they just don't use such terms here.
Once in the town, which gives the impression of being a bit larger than Pingguo, we found a san lun che and told the woman to lead us to a certain restaurant where we were to have lunch. 5 kuai and 5 minutes later we had driven to a rather plush restaurant in the centre of town. As we turned up, so did a couple of minibuses of well-dressed people, all sporting a red rose and an identification thing hanging around their necks. We joined these people entering the restaurant, up the carpeted stairs and into a large room with many round tables laid out with, among other things, wine glasses with half an inch of red wine in them. I was dressed in shorts and flip flops, and everyone else had long trousers and shoes, except for the women. One of the blokes with a rose and identification was evidentally a friend I had met a couple of years ago when I last came to Tian Dong. That time we went out to the fields and had a long lunch in extreme heat with about 20 others. I was expecting the same and had got the opposite.
Still, I had a short sleeved shirt on, so when sat down I looked reasonably inconspicuous. We were joined by some young people from Nanning and no sooner had we all sat down there was a short speech by a couple of the blokes, accompanied by rounds of applause, and then we had to stand up again to gan bei the red wine. Finally we sat down to eat and I got the chance to ask what sort of gathering this was and for what purpose. It transpired that this weekend was the official mango picking weekend, and thousands descend into Tian Dong, the capital of mango, to buy boxes and boxes of them. This meal was arranged by a consortium of mango field owners/workers as far as I could tell. Throughout the meal the higher-up men moved through all the tables having a drink with all in attendence. They seemed to really appreciate my being there, despite my attire.
As with many meals, the men got drunker and drunker and started downing full glasses of the red wine. I had been told that it was French but no self-respecting French person would have touched the stuff. It was foul, or corked, or fake. Seafood manager didn't touch it as he was driving and I had to force myself to do a few gan bei's. It was the first Chinese meal I've been to with no beer. And equally strange was that over the whole time I only saw one person smoke. When finally meeting one of the main blokes, whose face was already on a par with what was in his glass, he gave a huge smile when I told him my name; his surname was also Peng! We exchanged numbers and he said to be sure to call him when next in Nanning. I intend to do so, thank you Peng Feng big brother!
As we left the building an hour or so later I wondered why the trip was ever off, as rain wouldn't have affected that meal. Then I stopped wondering - it's a waste of time being too logical about things here...save that for work. We spent a bit of time waiting for some people in a hotel, where I noticed a load of cardboard boxes piled up by the security area. I asked seafood manager if they were all full of mangoes and he looked, then said "no". Later, while he was sorting some stuff out with the car I asked the security manager what was in all the boxes behind her. "Mangoes", was the reply. I left it there.
Tan had asked me to get a box of the greenest, hardest, least ripe mangoes possible so she could send them to her ex-boss in Shanghai. This I did, and of course the mango man wouldn't accept any payment. Then mango man's wife got into the blue Chevrolet with their son and said goodbye and drove away. It transpired that the colourfully-liveried Chevy was indeed her car. Seafood manager then got into the driver's seat of mango man's large black Toyota Camry, while I got in the passenger's seat, and mango man, who'd had a few glasses of red wine slumped in the back with some girl who had joined us at the meal. It took us nearly half an hour to drop the girl off at her house as she lived just beyond the mango market, and there was a huge traffic jam to get there as people were just parking on the side of the road and hopping out to buy their boxes. Then, finally we were on the road back to Pingguo, where mango man promptly fell asleep and I wanted to but felt a bit bad leaving seafood manager on his own, so struck up further conversation about the weather till we got back an hour later.
We were back well in time for the meal that Xiao Pan had invited us to at 5pm so I went to pick up the kids from school. As it was fairly cool under the overcast skies I decided to walk what would be a 20 minute trek to pick up the kids from school. Something unthinkable to most natives. I got half way before Tan called to ask where I was as A Xia's husband had gone to pick them up in their new car (another Camry, this time white), as it was still wet. I told her to tell him to wait there so I could get a lift as I wasn't sure where the restaurant was. As soon as I got on a san lun che (I hadn't told Tan I was walking), I got a call from A Wu saying he was picking up the kids and he'd give me a lift.... As I got there I saw no A Wu's car, but A Xia's white Camry pulling away. I shoved my hands out to stop them and they picked me up. So much for waiting, A Wu had already taken the kids and I was in the car with the birthday girl.... We drove to a place I'd been to a couple of times before. There were a few kids and Leilei and Xixi actually ate some mantou and zhou, so I was happy to let them play with the other kids for the rest of the meal. They've become a bit easier to leave with others over the last few days, so I think it was worth the early difficulties in forcing them to do so.
With the kids playing with their friends, A Wu and I set off after the meal to have a head and face wash (with the facemask). It was rather lovely but I didn't really need the face...I'd have rather spent the extra time being massaged, and indeed the facemask doubled the price to 65 kuai each. Still, for an hour I'm not complaining. I nearly fell asleep on the massage couch, indeed I was dropping off but I hadn't put my phone on silent so got calls from Tan. Anyway, I was happy to get an early night after another full day.
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