The kids opted for the old dian dong che rather than A Wu's Toyota, as it's so much more fun with the wind in your hair. They would be an excellent excuse to get a convertible car in the UK as they go mad enough just having the back windows down. A good excuse but not good enough when our old faithful Peugeot 406 keeps passing MoTs.
Again I had the problem of encouraging them to eat and had to resort to spoon feeding both of them a bit. At least Leilei liked the sliced fragrant sausage but the portion of egg fried rice went mostly to waste. When we were finished we went back to Waipo's and I left them there for a little bit as I had boring electronic paperwork to do.
As well as the paperwork I think I finally sorted out the Wii so we can play games now, not that there has been that much chance to up to now. But I blooming well left it here last year so I will blooming well ensure that it is used.
I forgot that I had slept in so necked a couple of qi du while working, then went to bed before realising the reason I couldn't fall asleep was that I only got up five hours ago. So I went back to the desk and tried to sort out creating a VPN server on my laptop in London as you do.
Leilei called me from Waipo's to say he wanted to come home, which was fair enough. When I got there both had eaten apparently so we grabbed a couple of toys and got on the dian dong che to drive around for a bit. It was gone 8pm and dark now, so we stopped off by the guangchang and I got them some zheng zhu nai cha each (cold milk tea with squidgy sweets inside) and we went for a walk. While kicking a football about in the guangchang I got a call from a Huang Chang. I recognised the surname but not the first name. I recognised his voice but couldn't match it to a face, and I hadn't put a mugshot in my phone so his picture didn't show up (as I have done for others). He asked me to go with him to have a beer and eat something. I said I was with the kids but that didn't put him off and he said he'd come to pick us up. I had a good opportunity to say no as I was tired/needed to sort the kids etc., but I sort of like it when these things happen as there's an air of excitement about not knowing what's around the corner.
I thought it might be difficult, waiting for someone you will probably recognise, but who you don't know is the right person. So we played a guessing game for the next five minutes wondering if this car or that car might be Huang Chang. Inevitably I got a call a couple of minutes later asking where we were. It took some explaining because the guangchang is a huge place and there is no one entrance as such. Eventually we both agreed he must be near the old people's leisure centre and we saw a badly parked car with the engine on. I barked out the numberplate to him on the phone and he said "dui dui dui!", which means "yes" and "correct" at the same time.
Rather than open the back door I thought I'd be a little rude and open the driver's door so I could see who my friend was. If it was rude I could always joke that I thought it was the passenger door (I've used that one before and it works). Ah...it was the boss of the sea food place down the way who we'd seen for all of 15 minutes a couple of days ago but had to leave due to kids. This was apparently his new car. It was a VW something. Needless to say it was a black saloon with blacked out windows so it basically looked the same as 50% of all the cars in Pingguo. But it was comfortable and air conditioned, despite the fact that it seemed to keep jumping out of second gear. I daren't ask if it was brand new as a negative answer may have meant losing face. But he must have liked his car as rather than do a U-turn to head back to his place he did a tour of the guangchang before taking the road that leads to Nanning.
There was a two year old boy sitting in the front passenger seat who was apparently there for the ride, and we were all in the back sans seatbelts. Suddenly we were going about 50mph and I had to ask where we were going. "Nowhere", was the reply. He was sort of right as a couple of minutes later we did another U-turn and drove back into Pingguo and to his seafood place. I think the purpose of that mini trip was to show off his car, but who knows?
We got to his seafood place and he set us out a table saying he'd be back in a bit. During the meanwhile one of his blokes came to take our order. Well, I wasn't really ready to order despite being a bit hungry as Huang Chang wasn't there, so I got a can of lemonade for the kids and a beer for me. With the kids sorted I'd barely had a sip of beer before Xixi decided she wanted the toilet. She's actually good at using the key-shaped holes in the ground, and doesn't get her knickers wet, but she needs me for moral support, and sometimes physical support if her feet start slipping apart. Then it was Leilei's turn but I'm glad to say he doesn't need me any more. Then it was Xixi's turn again as she needed a poo poo for the second time today. This time it was of the less dry variety and it bloody stank but ho hum. This time when we finally got out I saw Boss Yang (one from a few years back), who was at another table. He bade me sit down and I didn't refuse. The kids amused themselves with hide-and-seek to my relief and I had a couple of gan bei's with some blokes I recognised from years gone by. The boss popped his head around again to apologise but he was busy. I couldn't help thinking that he would have been slightly less busy if he hadn't taken us on a pointless car ride outside Pingguo.
Leilei said it was going to rain and within five minutes there was a familiar pitter patter which lasted all of 30 seconds before it became more of a roar accompanied by a fairly strong wind. The deluge that ensued was quite interesting for the kids and me as we saw a delightful lightning performance to the sound of never-ending thunder. It wasn't good for business though as even the covers they'd put out were not sufficient due to the wind. Boss Yang took the kids one by one to his car under and umbrella and gave us a lift back home. We thanked him and said we'd see him again.
Of course I'd left the dian dong che at the bbq place by the guangchang but there was no getting it now. Tan wasn't in so I got the kids showered and toothbrushed and in to bed. Getting them to sleep was another matter and it was midnight by the time they were. Tan came back one-ish from who knows where? I was pretty shattered and fell asleep at 1.40am after having gone back to pick up the dian dong che and then going for a 10 minute ride around town just to wear out the last of the battery before recharging and because the post-rain air was refreshing.
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