But lunch was before that - Xiao Nong came around soon after midday to take us all somewhere where they had liang fen. I still don't know what exactly this is but it includes tofu and sugar, and there are street sellers who pedal about tricycles with a small loudspeaker blaring "dofu hua, liang fen" and it is a cosy background sound I actually quite miss when I'm not here. On a couple of tables I saw trays with an array of small bowls of various vegetarian goodness, together with mini thin pancakes as for Beijing Roast Duck, and decided I wanted some of that. Leilei too wanted some and for some reason they ordered a portion for each of us. Tan and Xiao Nong had some flat noodles, and Ling Ming had some "normal" noodles. The table was covered with food and even Leilei ate some of Tan's noodles before eating some pancakes with like a single bead of sweetcorn inside.
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| Ling Ming, his fiancée Xiao Nong and Tan tucking in to noodles. The tray in the middle contains various roots/leaves/shoots that you put into a little pancake as Tan is showing. Delicious and light. |
But it was delightful, topped off with the most delicious mango sorbet. It was only pure mango crushed with ice and some sugar added but I ate it so quickly I got a freeze headache in my temple so severe I couldn't talk or open my eyes for a minute. Stupidly, I didn't learn from this lesson and did the same thing five minutes later due to how gorgeous it tasted. I couldn't eat anything after that, although I wasn't stuffed - anything else would have pailed in comparison.
After lunch Tan went to A Xia's shop and Xiao Nong took Leilei and I back home. Leilei played on computer games for half the afternoon as I did some drying of clothes and other chores until 4pm when Ling Ming called us to tell us he'd be there in five minutes to pick us up. That was a bit more considerate than people who call you to say they're waiting downstairs for you "hurry up".
Xiao Nong was driving in her MG 3 - I hadn't even heard of that before. It was white, and inside was adorned with Hello Kitty memorabilia and Xixi was in heaven. Had it been England I'd have been too embarrassed to enter such a vehicle. We went to the same pool a couple of k outside Pingguo as I had last year with Yang Haiwei. It was a lot harder with kids, but at least Chuan Chuan, A Heng and Qiqi were there too. I did manage four lengths without kids so my exercise-infiltrated days has now been extended to four.
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| Hanged Hello Kitties |
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| A trifecta of Hello Kitties |
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| The pool we all went to - the deep end is separated by a metal gate but I didn't get much chance to go there... |
Tea was at Waipo's but I didn't eat that much mainly because I was hoping to get out later in the evening and have some bbq or something. I did ask if it would be possible to borrow a tv as we had done last year. She pointed at one in one of the bedrooms and said that nobody used it and we could take it back with us. I had seen A Heng sleeping in that room yesterday morning and said surely it was in use, but Waipo said it was her bedroom and that she only watched tv in the living room. I could have argued stronger, especially considering the ashtray on the floor by the side of the bed, but thought better of it, and quite fancied setting up the Wii again, so Ling Ming unplugged it and took it back with us. But the kids wanted to come back with me, which was fair enough as they haven't seen me that much recently, so I took them home where we found Tan, who promptly took out Xixi to get her toenails done (Tan's, not Xixi's).
Leilei and I went for a wee ride to Yi Xiao. Until this year I actually thought that this was the name of a street with a couple of toy shops that he loves. Apparently Yi Xiao is the name of a school "Number One Primary School", and it just happens to be the place where there are a few toy shops. But I'd promised to get him a plastic sword to replace one he'd broken earlier in the week. By just pointing at one the owner reduced the price from 5.7 kuai to 4, and then I said he could have another one, an axe, for 3 kuai. On the way back we stopped off in the centre and for the first time since I have been coming here there was no longer the clock saying a quarter to three.
We went inside the new department store and it felt like we had been transported to a different city; downstairs was like a Debenhams with all the perfumes and jewelry and electrical goods. Upstairs was a huge supermarket which gave me hope for fizzy water. I did ask, and despite being told "yes" at first it transpired the answer was "no". I got the kids a couple of cartons of coconut juice anyway before we left. Good old consumerism is officially here to stay. It wasn't just this department store, but the roads are chock a block with expensive foreign imports and iphone 4s are commonplace. There is an embarrassment of riches and it seems that a certain percentage of people just don't know what to do with their money other than flaunt it. I suspect this is common to all countries coming in to new found wealth. Thankfully the price of living in many other ways has not gone up that much, and things like food are still relatively cheap.
Leilei and I were setting up the tv when Tan called to say that Xixi was bored with Tan's nailjob, which was another way of asking if I could pick her up (Xixi, not Tan). I said we'd be 20 minutes or so, which we were but we did sort out the tv and got the Wii working, if not yet playing any games). So after a ride around the town the three of us got back and I finally managed to get them showered and ready for bed by 11pm. Getting them to sleep was another matter as Leilei was reading and Xixi just wanted to have fun. With lights out and finally closed eyes I made my way out of their room only for Leilei to ask where I was going and Xixi to spring up again. Oh well, another 10 mins and they were finally out for the count, and hopefully won't be up too early tomorrow.
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