On the way back home we picked up some jiao zi and bao zi and I was moderately successful in getting them to eat these out of their new bowls, especially Leilei as his bowl was the same as mine - a 16cm metal bowl with no picture on, but he ate all his bao zi plus one of my jiao zi. Xixi was harder to get full, despite her Xi Yang Yang bowl (Xi Yang Yang is a popular sheep cartoon character who is omnipresent in one of the many children's tv channels here).
Tan was home, and as I said I needed a sleep she took them out after threatening to leave them with me as I should have taken them to school. I got a good two hours kip till about 5pm when Leilei called me to go to eat at Waipo's. This is becoming a bit of a pattern too, and I don't mind it; eating in a house instead of a restaurant. It's definitely become more like this this year than other recent years. Having said that I do slightly miss the big meals with the revolving tables.
After eating I took the kids out on the dian dong che. I decided to visit the tea place I've known for several years, but last year was never open when I turned up. This time it was open and of course the bloke remembered me. We were immediately ushered to sit down and I drank an absolutely lovely red tea, from 1997 apparently. If they treated their wine like they do their tea they really could be onto something here.
I talked to the owner about work and stuff, and how we didn't meet last year. He said it was because he had been very busy with his rabbit business. I never knew about that, assuming somehow that he made his money by selling tea. Oh no, he has a place a few km outside the town where he rears rabbits for meat and skin. It was nice to finally have an explanation for how some of these tea shops really make their money. The owner also said that today was the first day of the Olympics and that they'd be watching the GBR women's football game against New Zealand later, and that I was welcome to come. The kids weren't so interested in this though, so we left to go for a ride in the market.
As we parked the bike I got an angry call from Tan: "how the f did you close the front door of the house? I've been trying to get in for nearly half an hour". I told her to calm the f down, I closed it as I always did, try ringing Ling Ming in case he accidentally locked it from the inside. Half an hour? I'd have called within one minute if I couldn't get in. I decided to give her a couple of minutes to simmer down, during which time I went to one of the places that fixes locks. Tan had at least reminded me that I needed to get something to ease the entry of the key into the door lock, as it had become rather stiff this year. In England this would have been a can of WD40 but not here. I remembered a couple of years ago I'd had a similar problem with the lock for the dian dong che. A woman from such a lock shop had sprinkled some magic black dust on my key then put it in and it worked like a charm. I was hopeful for the same when I showed the bloke my key. He went to the back of his area and searched for a small box containing tiny plastic pouches like the ones I imagine drug peddlers use. He opened the pouch to inspect the contents and seemed ok with it. From the outside you would not have guessed there was anything inside, but I was excited about it being magic dust and eagerly paid the 1 kuai.
Before going home I had an experience that is becoming more and more common. One of the blokes on a market stall called over to me and asked if I remembered drinking with him. As I've done so with half the male population over 16 it was difficult to be sure so I used my normal "I recognise your face, but can't remember the name". It transpired that we'd had a meal together some years ago, and he offered me some long yen fruit. Well I couldn't turn down one of my favourites - I though we'd have to wait till August for them but he said they'd just come out. It may have been an early crop but they were still delicious and I bought one jin (about a pound) for 12 kuai.
We got home and before entering I tried the bag of magic dust. I dipped the key into it and indeed there was some there. Tentatively I put the key into the lock and it penetrated it like a well lubricated, err, like a straw into a mango sorbet. The lock turned easily and we gained entry. Tan had just finished a shower and was going to go out but not before I made her try again. She did the same as me, turn the lock a couple of times then just was not able to make the last quarter turn. I told her to slightly nudge the door as she turned the key and it opened easily.
Maybe because she was thankful Tan took the kids to Waipo's and I had some time to myself. I was actually more interested than I should have been in the women's football, but not as interested as I became in the thought of another head wash. I rang A Wu, who said he was on his way back from Nanning, and just entering Pingguo, but wanted to go for a haircut first. No problem, just call me when ready. So I tried a little gin with "apple vinegar" which was as bad as it seemed, before going back to sugary lemonade. Note that the apple vinegar was sold as a canned drink, not a cooking supplement, so I had hopes it mightn't be so sweet.
Not waiting for A Wu, I left our house at about 9.30pm only to hear beeping as I got out in front of our building. It was him in his car outside the tea and alcohol shop. He was in his car talking on his phone and after a minute I said I was going, so he said he'd follow me to the head wash place.
Needless to say this was an exquisite 50 minutes of sheer delight, but I took some time to talk to my young lady about her career etc. Partly I did this as the lady having her head done next to me kept talking to me about how she wanted to learn English from me (and I didn't have the time or inclination). My masseuse was from Baise, an hour or so up the road, and was 22, which I thought rather old for this sort of job. I asked her how long she'd been doing it for and she said one year. When I asked her how much longer she envisaged doing it for she said she was about to finish. So I asked her what she wanted to do afterwards and she said she'd think about it. I pushed her and she said her dream would be to have her own shop selling drinks. Maybe I missed something but that is not the wildest dream I've heard of. Anyway she did a great job and felt a little sorry that I probably would not have her as a masseuse again.
She did mention that a few months ago she'd done a foreign lady. By "done" I mean the same as me - head wash, wet massage, dry massage etc. I think I've seen this person - I've heard there is an American family here with a son and daughter. In fact I've seen a Western bloke with a young fair haired daughter so I gather it must be them. I'll probably bump into them at some time. Grr...yet again I'm not the only gay in the village.
After our head wash A Wu and I went to the tea place I'd been to before. I thought the game would start at 10pm but I had got my BST mixed up and it wasn't till 11pm local time. A Wu had a couple of cups of tea, as he too knew the owner. Then we went to a coffee house down by the river. It was only A Wu and I, as we were waiting for some mate to come, and it was rather boring to be honest, especially when Tan rang up to say that her and her mates were at the guangchang having bbq and invited me over. I said I'd try to be over there in half an hour or so.
A Wu's mate came but they were talking business so I didn't have too much to say and munched on some beef and fried sweet corn and fruit. Eventually Tan rang again to say they'd finished eating and Ling Hong had invited her to a school reunion at a karaoke place, and could I pick up the kids from Waipo's as she was tired and they weren't sleeping? At least that gave me the opportunity to leave, and when I got home with the kids Tan was surprisingly there too. Or maybe nothing is surprising here; she'd decided it was too late to go to see her ex-classmates so came home.
Despite the long hours awake, the kids didn't get to sleep till about 1am so I had no chance to see GBR women beat NZ 1-0 in the Olympic football, in what should be their easiest game. I have been tempted to fly to Beijing to watch Man City play Arsenal on Friday. It wouldn't be cheap, but what an experience. Maybe if it was a little bit closer....
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| Two days after we arrived Ling Ming had this running machine delivered - in the 10 days since it's been here it's been used once |
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