Well it was nice to have a wife back who had got some sleep, so I didn't mind starting work closer to midday as it was still 5am UK time. I'd taken the kids to school after getting their breakfast - Xixi is fond of a couple of boiled eggs although I have to eat the yolks. Leilei is a bit harder but will eat some sweet pancake and as it's breakfast I don't mind too much.
But in the heat of the day I realised I'd need to get something other than the 30 kuai fan I'd bought last year for my study. So I went to Tan's "big sister's" shop and bought what's called a "kong tiao shan", i.e. an "air conditioner fan" which is really a fan with a bucket underneath where you put water, which is drawn up into some material behind the fan so that tiny droplets of water are blown out thus being more effective than a normal fan. Well I was just about to buy the cheapest one when "jie jie" (big sister) told me I should put ice cubes in the water bucket to make it colder. That stood to reason but when I saw a slightly more expensive one I noticed it had two large freezer packs that came with it. I mean those sort of things you put in cool bags to keep the drinks and sandwiches cool for a picnic. So after they'd found the box for the cheap one I sheepishly asked if I could have the one with the freezer things. I didn't mention that I also preferred the colour as it was sort of like the Man City kit. No problem and it only took another 5 mins to find the box for the display model as they didn't have any new ones in stock. Whether it was for that, or that I was "related" they knocked the price down from 630 kuai to 500. I thought 50 quid was a bit steep for a fancy fan but was in no mood to argue as I didn't want to shell out over 100 quid on air-con that would have killed the electricity bill.
It took a bit of time to work out how to use the fan as there are a few settings. But I'm a bit disappointed that it wasn't as cool as I'd imagined. Still, it's better than the old one, just slightly noisier, which means I sometimes have to turn it off during conference calls (and close the window - making it rather stuffy).
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