Taking turns to sit at front

The kids had slept with Jiuma again last night, and as Tan had taken the bike to her driving lesson again I walked to Er Jie's house to pick them up. As it was already gone 10am Tan had finished her lesson and was there too, so I was able to take them to school on the bike. We had the daily squabble as to who is to go on the front. They seem to have selective memories as to whose turn it is as it's always both of their turns. So I decided it was Leilei, but Xixi could hold the security card and give it to the lady by the gate. Parenting requires great diplomatic skills with two of them. Heaven knows how you manage with three or more.

I prefer to have Xixi in the front between my legs where I can see her (and over her). Leilei is a tad tall now, but worse than that on a couple of occasions Xixi has been tired on the back and I've felt her hands lose their tightness around my waist as if she's dropping off. Literally.

Having skipped breakfast I bought a couple of portions of jiao zi from the local place at midday. I need to vary my lunchtime diet a bit when I'm not eating out. As I was sitting in the bog I received a call from Huang Chang, the cook/boss from the seafood place. He had simply called to apologise for the behaviour of some of the blokes last night. I told him there was no problem at all and I understand if people get a little excited sometimes, especially if it is there first time chatting with a foreigner. But it was very thoughtful of him to call me anyway.

Then it was work work work till teatime when we were invited to eat near Er Jie’s house just a couple of minutes away. The ladies and kids were there, plus A Wu and we had a pleasant meal of fish soup, something like chicken, and spicy noodles washed down with water rather than beer for a refreshing change. I got the kids to eat up and took them to Jiuma around the corner before more work work work until Waipo called me to ask me to take Leilei and A Da to A Da’s Waipo’s house as Leilei was going to stay there. I was ok with that so biked round and picked them up, leaving Xixi happy to stay there. We nearly got to A Da’s Waipo’s house near the school when Tan called to ask where we were and to tell me that there was no-one in his Waipo’s house (which I doubted). So we turned around and headed to the zhou-selling place near our house, where we found Tan, A Ni and A Xia at a table inside with a particularly drunk man smoking a fag in a cigarette holder.

It transpired that this bloke was Tan’s teacher in her middle school, though he didn’t look much older than mid-forties. He slurred some praises about how good a student Tan was and I smiled in agreement but really had to leave as I had a meeting in five minutes. Even had I not had a meeting I would have invented one as it was uncomfortable being with this bloke spewing smoke everywhere with kids around. As I left I saw him drop his cigarette holder on the table probably spilling ash into the zhou. I IM’d Tan to come home soon as I didn’t want her in this bloke’s company, and she actually came home with Leilei not so long after.

Finally finished work at gone midnight, but I didn’t even feel like going for a bbq late snack tonight. Like head washes and massages, such luxuries should not become so common-place that they become…common.