Early badminton and late table-hopping

Another virtually sleepless night - just patches where dreams would start and get rudely revoked after a minute or so. In truth I probably got over an hour's kip but it didn't feel like it. So at 6.30 I got up and thought at least I could do some badminton. I crept about, trying not to wake Tan, who also had not got to sleep until nearly 3am, and found some clothes except for my shorts. Then I remembered I hadn't dried the clothes last night and I had three pairs in the washing machine. Well as they would be sopping wet with a few minutes anyway I put one pair aside while I hung out the rest of the clothes to dry.

I walked to the same place I played in the guangchang a couple of days ago. There were about six people there, not all the same as last time, but enough to recognise me and invite me to play. As there was already a game on one of the blokes saw two girls playing on an adjoining court and just moved on to play with them without really giving them an option. So I found myself with a rather chubby partner who wasn't very good, but it was a good warm-up exercise. Within 10 minutes a grey-haired, but sprightly old lady pushed out the young lady on the other side of the court and proceeded to play with the bloke against me and chubby. The young lady didn't seem to mind. I wonder if seniority allows for this imposing of oneself like this.

After half an hour we were called over to the other court and I played three games of doubles with much better players, more my age too. We actually won one of the games but I was more glad of the fitness practice I was getting - I didn't feel sick this time.

As I was walking home Tan called to say that the kids were arguing, as if to say "can you take them out as I need more sleep?". I was coming to take them to eat anyway so no problem there. Breakfast was at the dou jiang place again and we had eggs, a sweetcorn pancake, eight jiao zi, four bao zi and two cups of dou jiang, which all came to 10 kuai. We couldn't even finish all of that, and then I took the kids to Waipo's to play, explaining that I really needed to get some shuteye.

Back home Tan was still asleep but awoke nearer lunch time. She'd had a bad neck and Waipo had given her some herbs to...I think steam or something. I heard her pop them in the microwave for a minute or so before putting them in a plastic bag. Then she opened another plastic bag and put it on the pillow before putting the bag with the herbs on top of that and then lying with her neck on that for the next 45 minutes. It did pong a bit and I still couldn't sleep. So about an hour later I popped down to get some jiao zi and bao zi and brought them back up to share with Ling Ming. That, together with a couple of beers did the trick and I finally fell asleep from about 3.30 - 6.30. Even at 6.30 I could hardly get up and snoozed for another hour.

I decided not to eat at Waipo's although she'd rung to invite me around, as I wanted to have an evening out for myself tonight after having had the kids for the last two nights. After geeking about for a bit setting up the Wii with the tv and the Internet and trying, but mainly failing to watch the German grand prix I went to Ma Laoban's to pick up a USB hub and Ethernet cable. It was only a few minutes before closing but I found him and his wife and a couple of mates sitting at the back of the shop drinking tea, so joined them for nearly an hour, while getting decidedly hungry. Although I wanted to go, they all seemed so interested about life in England, and how I met Tan etc., and we were having quite a good laugh. Luckily Tan called to ask me to get her some bbq, so that was a good reason to leave, even though she just meant to bring it home with me later that night.

I drove to the guangchang A Yi bbq place and just as I was about to order I heard Ling Ming and Xiao Nong call me over to have a bite and a beer with them. Whyever not? We sat and ate and chatted for a bit until I noticed Yang Haiwei at another table with a load of mates. I said I'd say a quick hello with them, which was indeed fairly quick, but involved a number of gan beis. Then eventually A Wu came, and then Yang Haiwei's wife came over with their son and eventually I table-hopped to Haiwei's table where I cai ma'd with some of the blokes and beat most of them too).

I didn't forget my errand and ordered Tan's bbq from a different place as A Yi had stopped cooking by now. Back at Ling Ming's table they had already paid for theirs and the five duck tongues, fat-beef and pork strips I'd ordered too. It wasn't even worth protesting. On the way back I suddenly remembered I'd taken the dian dong che there so sheepishly had to walk back to pick it up and take it home.

Back home Tan was already there but the kids were staying at Waipo's. As she ate, I did a bit more setting up of the Wii, though was getting so tired I called it a day and went to bed insistent that I would not wake up within one hour.