Last haircut with a fighting bird

True to Tan’s word the electricity went mid morning and I was grateful that I wasn’t working. I had showered last night in preparation for such a non-event, but was glad that Tan was going for an early driving lesson and therefore would take the kids to school afterwards. Don’t tell Tan but I actually half slept and half lazed in bed till gone midday. Well, it is a holiday and the kids are being taken care of, and the wife is out, so why not? I even started reading again. The book I’ve had on the go for a few months now (in fact it was one of the three books I bought for last year’s sojourn here) is “The Greatest Show on Earth”, by Richard Dawkins. It’s a lovely explanation of how natural selection works and you’d have to be quite moronic to not see this. On the plane over here Xixi wanted to see some pictures and this was the only book I had. She was absolutely transfixed by the pictures of the various stages of the foetus in the womb, from the fertilised egg to the four, then eight cells, eventually taking some sort of shape. I haven’t said anything other than that is what she and Leilei were once, in mummy’s tummy, but over the last few weeks she has begged me to get out these pictures to show her again and again. She still thinks it’s hysterical that she used to wee and eat through that umbilical cord attached to the placenta. Sometimes teaching your kids things is utterly rewarding!

As I had no need of a siesta I took the opportunity of going to Lu Hai’s for a haircut. Tan had expressed a preference for very short so who was I to argue? It would have been quicker to use a number 1 but Lu Hai always insists on cutting by hand as well as electric razor. By the time he’d finished I hardly had anything left on the back and sides as I hadn’t been keeping an eye on him. Rather, we’d been talking about his bird. I mean a real bird, in a cage. I forget the Chinese name and I certainly don’t know the English name but it is both the most beautiful singer and a great fighter, according to Lu Hai. He recently took it to a competition and it came third out of a hundred birds, and he won a few hundred kuai. Interestingly he had the song of the female version of the bird on his mobile, which he continued to play as we drank tea in his salon. I guess this was some way of getting the male excited, in order to make him sing more, or fight better. And then he proceeded to bring in another cage, this time covered, and said this was his wife. So he had been teasing the male with a female song, then brought in the actual female, but kept them on opposite sides of the room. I’d be livid! Anyway, despite the loud singing it was quite a plain looking brown bird that I ought to find the name of – he reckons good ones go for a few grand in Hong Kong where they bet a lot of money on the fighting.

Afterwards I did something I had been promising myself for weeks, climb up to a new pagoda I hadn’t seen before, situated on a mountain behind that with the statue of Mao Ze Deng. There was no obvious path and I had to negotiate piles of broken glass near an area that was being developed for new housing until I finally found the steps to the pagoda. It was rather tough in the humidity, but I’d brought some water, and the end result was worth it, affording a nice, new view of Pingguo from the East. And I’d burned up a fair few calories to boot.

View from the "other" pagoda - our block is the 2nd main one from left, guang chang in foreground

Tan spent most of the day out, but I was ok with the temperature in the house until I felt peckish at 5ish. I went to pick the kids up and this time took them and A Da to the Ming Dian hotel where the ladies were keeping cool. I munched on some dried beef and a couple of chicken’s feet (or was it chickens’ feet?), which kept the wolf from the door, and afterwards took all the kids to Waipo. I had some time to myself again, and went home.

Taking the kids back from school - room for a couple more!

One respectful thing they do when there is a planned electricity shortage is to enable the electricity (or generator) just for the lifts between 8-9am, 12-2.30pm, and around 6-7pm. This is solely for the workers who are lifting large amounts of cement and stones to the undecorated houses, of which there are still many in our building. I was aware of this and got the lift upstairs before 7pm.

As I was aware of my non-shrinking stomach I used the light of my phone to find the torch I’d recently bought to find my table tennis bat and a couple of bottles of water. Then started walking down the 14 flights of stairs before realising I’d forgotten to take off my flip flops and wear my trainers. I’ve played in flip flops before, and quickly changed to bare foot. Even then I felt I didn’t play to my normal ability. If I had reached the 7th floor I wouldn’t have bothered, but as it was I went back to the house to find some white socks and my trainers I bought here last year. It was much quicker and more comfortable to walk down to the bottom thus attired.

Although I could have walked it in three minutes I took the electric bike so as to use up a bit more battery before I charged it later. At the old folks’ youth centre it didn’t take more than five minutes before I was invited to play. I had a good warm-up session that suddenly turned into a game – first to three – with some old woman. I lost 3-1 but for some reason had to stay on as one of the masters had arrived and I suppose needed to warm up.

This bloke I have watched many times before and never sought to play. He is lean and nimble and holds his bat in a manner that makes you think if he were to hit anything slightly heavier than a ping pong ball it would drop to the ground. Anyway, I was pleased as punch that he deigned to spend any time at all with me. So we started a game. Normally this is my biggest problem as although I can smash a bit, and return smashes, I can’t serve or return serves for toffee. But he had not yet warmed up and I successfully lost the first game 11-7. I could have danced a victory jig not to have lost by more…..

The second game was more down to form…I was 5-1 down in a minute, but not really caring….feasting on my 7 previous points. Now I admit I wasn’t keeping score, but the woman who had just beaten me was – every point – I had just become deaf to her announcements, and was waiting for her to tell me when to swap sides after my defeat. Ok, something went awry. It took longer for me to be beaten than I expected, thanks to my new-found skills of being able to backhand smash and not fearing anyone. But suddenly, after a particularly nice scoop-smash of mine that I don’t mind admitting was very tasty, there were “whoops” abound as I shockingly realised that the reason we were changing ends was that I had won the final point. Yes, he must have been giving me some points….but it was such a great feeling please - let me have it.

I lost the next games 11-0 and 11-4 as if to prove the previous sentence but I think I earned some respect – and maybe the better players (i.e. those out of wheelchairs) will play me more in the future.


This wasn't the bloke I played but he's great to watch; he immediately adopts a defensive style, that more times that not ends up with him winning the point - not on this occasion though as the pillar comes to his opponent's aid

As if to justify my sweat of the previous two hours the electricity was back when I returned home, as I didn’t think I was capable of sweating anymore up 14 flights of stairs.

I hadn’t eaten, and despite my fatigue, took the bike out on its dead battery to meet Tan and her friends and Leilei for a bit of bbq before taking the son back and getting him showered and teethed and bedded. And that was it. One nice, full, fulfilling day.