Registering ourselves and KTV

Though I was bitterly tired I didn't get a wink of sleep during the night, which is not conducive to a good morning. However, I battled through till nearly 8 o'clock when I remembered I needed to register us with the local police. I drove up to the place by the guangchang to find the policeman I have registered with the last few years just starting to open up. When he finished his cigarette he explained something to me that I didn't quite understand - something about how I needed to get some info from the owner of the house we were staying in. I said Tan was the owner but he mentioned something about my mother- or father-in-law. So I got him to write it down on paper. One thing was for sure - I needed to go elsewhere first to get some paperwork before returning.

As it was nearly time for school I drove to Waipo's to find Xixi and get her ready and Waipo gave us a large bag of baby mangoes to take home. Once home I explained to Tan about the paperwork and she said she wasn't sure but that A Xia would help me out. A Xia then popped around in her new MG car to take Xixi to school with me. On the way back she checked out the paper the policeman had written on but didn't know where she should go, so she called her husband, who also didn't know. Then I called A Wu, who did seem to know but put me through to a girl who could speak English ok for some reason.

We finally made it to the police station by the river and as we arrived A Xia said it would rain. Fair enough, there were pregnant clounds above us and I hoped it would wait for a bit. Inside, I explained what I needed and the policewoman in charge let one of the un-uniformed young ladies help me. It took about half an hour to input my information on the new computerised form, not helped by the fact this was obviously her first time. When she finally printed it out I noticed a couple of mistakes but thought better than to mention it. For some reason Leilei and Xixi's forms were far quicker to do as a lot of information was pre-filled. I'm guessing that the system now is actually linked to the visa-issuing system, hence details like their Chinese names etc were already there. But if that was the case why wasn't my information there?

As the process was taking some time I told A Xia to leave and not wait for me. Although it was the decent thing to do I half wished I hadn't when the heavens well and truly split open and let rip a torrential downpour. I finally had my three sheets of paper and asked if I needed anything else. I was answered in the negative, but when I showed placeholders for photos they said I would need photos. "Oh, but it will be too late!", said one of the girls for some reason, thinking I'd need to do the photos before 12pm. Well, luckily I am fairly well prepared for such eventualities and after hailing a san lun che went home and found three passport photos of us (forgetting that the kids' ones were from quite a long time ago - in fact I think Leilei's photo for his visa was from when he was 4).

I got back to the guangchang police station on the dian dong che as the rain had eased down and I was in a bit of a rush as I had a meeting at midday. I got the paperwork done successfully but not until after most of the printed information was copied out by hand on a second set of paperwork....

I made my meeting in time and had finished by 12.30pm. I was shattered, but needed to eat so called A Wu and asked if he wanted to eat something quickly. He did so we went to the duck and goose place and this time had goose and greens with his driver. By 1.30 I was full and home, and as I'd had a reasonably profitable morning I treated myself to a gin and lemonade before having a well overdue sleep till 6pm.

I only had four missed calls, all from Tan asking me to go to Waipo's for tea. This I did before going out again for another round of pool with A Wu. We played 30 kuai for the winner and this time I stupidly lost 4-1. A Wu said he was embarrassed he still owed me 10 kuai as he didn't have change. He said that the amount wasn't important, but the principle! Nice to know some things are like that. I then got a phone call from Tan stating that Ling Ming had invited the family out to karaoke to introduce us to his fiancee (actually officially his wife as they have already signed the papers). It happened to be the KTV which is part of the establishment with the snooker hall, so we wandered over there. When I rang up to see where they were A Wu walked out and up the stairs to the badminton bidding me to follow him. When I caught up he explained it was bad style to turn up before the people had invited you, and he was ashamed! So he played badminton in his trousers for a few minutes until I got the call that they were there.

Er Jie's powerful ending of a modern Chinese classic

It really was a family affair and when I got there Er Jie was in full swing. She has a powerful voice to say the least but can also control it. I managed to record the ending of one of the songs she sang. Most of the adults took the kids home at 11pm and there was only Ling Ming, his fiancee Xiao Nong, and me left. It was like being an anti-gooseberry as they actually wanted me to stay with them and drink beer and sing some English songs, so I did so as not to be rude, though I really could have done with going home - it's not the same doing karaoke in a mostly empty room.

Leilei sporting a sporty new haircut and Xixi doing her best to look...err?