After picking up Xixi I went to A Da's Waipo's house as Leilei had gone there with A Da apparently. I really like A Ni's parents - they may have a shrine to previous leaders downstairs in their garage but they are as loving grandparents as you will meet. Always a smile, and even bigger when Leilei comes around. He's accepted as a normal friend of A Da's and treated as such. When I came to check they were ok I fortunately had the opportunity to see A Ni's younger sister's one-year-old baby, who by all accounts is rather beautiful. I left their house a few minutes later regretting the fact that I had not spent a bit more time there like a few years ago when we went there for more than a few family-laden meals of 15-plus people. I get the impression that that is very important for them.
I went to the place where they changed the batteries for our dian dong che a few weeks back. They had said to come back one day before 6pm for a bite to eat and a glass of beer but today it seemed they were different people. I didn’t want to force myself so I went for a ride with Xixi instead. As happens, Waipo rang to ask where the kids were, so I took Xixi back to her then met up with A Wu at his office. He asked me in to have a couple of beers but I didn’t really fancy it so I had one anyway while he drank one and finished his work.
As the dian dong che didn’t have much dian, A Wu took me to some place where A Ni was having her face done. It ponged a bit inside, so we didn’t stay too long, but it transpired that I was to take his (now her) car, while he took his new one to a meeting.
So suddenly I was on my own in Pingguo in a blacked-out black saloon (sedan sounds better) coasting the streets by myself. I felt like a boss. I put the window down and put my left hand out (as it is an automatic). Then realised what a plonker I looked like so raised the window again. Despite being boss-like in my long black car, I didn’t really know what to do so I rang Tan to find she was having some bbq with Huang Chen. So I rolled up unexpected and parked the car next to them. If I had had shades I’d have been wearing them just to take them off as I got out of the car. As it was I just had to disembark coolly. Which was cool until I got to their table and realised I’d left the headlights on. It doesn’t look so cool going back and turning them off.
Anyway I had a bit of bbq with the girls. A Wu had said he would call me within 20 minutes but I didn’t expect that. But I did get a call from Uncle Yellow, my friend of five years. So I agreed to meet him, and did so outside Pingguo Middle School. I drove in the general direction of A Wu’s office and predictably got a call from him as we arrived – he was driving and going in the opposite direction. There was a bit of confusion but it ended up that I followed him as he was going to “drink tea” with A Da’s teacher.
So I’d taken Uncle Yellow on a bit of a wild goose chase, but I insisted that he come with me to drink tea as my guest. And it proved to be a very nice encounter. There was indeed a big tea table, around which were seated eight or so people, including three women - wives, judging by the ages. But I like it when women are around, it feels like it won’t just fall into a boozing session. How wrong was I? Yes, it was tea for the first 20 minutes. Then beer was ordered. Then A Wu got a few bottles of red wine delivered from the same place he previously got them from. I happily insisted that I wouldn’t touch the wine. A move justified by the fact that the ladies and gentlemen that did imbibe, also added ice cubes and slices of lemon, as though it were a cheap Spanish drink! “As though it were” or “as though it was”? Tan was asking me a similar question earlier today. Being a grammar nazi (lower case on purpose), as Lisa will tell me, this is a concerning point. I love our English language and I appreciate that it is an evolving beast, with generations far shorter than our human ones, thanks mainly to the Internet. But can you start a sentence with “But”? Yes, that’s become ok now. But can you say “as though it was”? That I just don’t know. I feel we’ve written and spoken it enough for it to be ok but it just leaves a slightly sour taste on my tongue. I think I should learn enough and become a Chinese grammar nazi – that would learn me.
Well A Da’s new teacher became rather drunk, as did a most of the nice people around the table. He went from saying he didn’t know how to cai ma, to challenging me at every opportunity, and almost liking losing. I can’t really see how this is advertising oneself as a teacher but bugger it I had a good time and everyone was very friendly and also took in Uncle Yellow as a good friend too which was very important to me. The ladies completed the unholy trinity by drinking cold red wine with ice cubes and slices of lemon and finally gan bei’ing their glasses with me. Sacre bleu!
Uncle Yellow left at 11pm and half an hour later I was flagging too, but A Wu said we needed to finish the alcohol before we left. I disagreed so did something I don’t normally do and stood up with my glass and proposed a toast as it was time to go. Thankfully, everyone seemed very happy to agree, and we all left within a minute. As we’d taken two cars I needed to drive back to a Wu’s office, which I wasn’t too thrilled with but the slowness of it made it a lot safer.
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