Water scrolls as presents

We're leaving on Saturday so I needed to do some stuff. As I was coming back from taking the kids to school I remembered the local shop I like that sells sporting goods, toys and knick-knacks. I was particularly keen on getting some interesting scrolls that were designed to allow you to practise writing your characters. I had been surprised to see the shop owner writing with black ink on such a scroll with apparent disregard for where spillages might occur. Until, that was, I realised he was dipping his brush in water and it was the scroll itself that was displaying the characters in black. Not rocket science, but a great design anyway; the characters would fade away after a minute or two as the water dried up. I thought it would be an interesting and rather unique present to bring back (quite rare to find such a thing here) so I ended up buying ten of them at 15 kuai each. Until the shop owner bargained me down to 12 kuai a piece. Only in Pingguo have I ever encountered anti-bartering. Well, maybe it wasn't as I also bought ten calligraphy brushes at 4 to 6 kuai a piece.

Though I felt I should be in a rush to do things during my last 48 hours I didn't rush. I rather boringly chilled out and just lived. I picked up the kids at the usual time but it had changed - there were only a handful of kids there as most were now back in normal school. In fact I'd been told not to take them tomorrow as they'd be practically the only kids there. So I brought some cash and paid the teacher the princely sum of 1250 kuai or thereabouts for all the time Leilei and Xixi had been there. About 120 quid for the best part of two months - bargain!

I did make the effort to go to Ma Laoban's computer shop for a last time to say goodbye for another year. I was glad I did as I met a couple of other mates there, one of whom, Li Yi, brought me a thoughtful present of home made moon cakes. Unfortunately, moon cakes are rather heavy, so not good for travelling with - but they do make great presents for other Chinese.

Later on I went to the bbq by the guang chang to meet up with Yang Haiwei and his wife and friends. But it wasn't as fun as normal. He was rather the worse for wear again, and there was just this overhanging awareness that we were leaving soon. I bade my goodbyes around midnight, hoping earnestly that I would see them within ten or so months.