Woke up at 8am and later took Xixi over to Waipo's. Leilei had apparently gone to school with his two mates so I had a fairly relaxing morning, and went out to buy some jiao zi. At 37p that will be one of my cheapest, and probably most common meals this summer at least when I'm working. I conjured up my sleeping powers and managed a brief siesta until A Wu called me to play "snooker" again. I asked if we were going to play badminton too and he said no as we were going for a meal with A Da's headteacher afterwards.
Unfortunately, for some reason I just couldn't aim while playing pool, and A Wu had realised that smacking the balls around wasn't conducive to winning, so was taking tamer and more accurate shots. I only lost 2-1 because of a couple of huge flukes on A Wu's part, or "fate" as he'd probably call it...I can see why this version of the rules is popular here as there is a lot more room for luck.
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| I had a blue three-fing |
We had to leave at 5.15pm as A Wu had invited the teachers and as such you have to ensure you're at the restaurant half an hour before anyone else. As it was this was a good move because they'd forgotten to turn on the air conditioning in our large private room - a cardinal sin here.
By 6.15pm the headteacher, A Da's teacher for next year and a couple of other blokes had arrived, as well as Tan, A Ni, and our kids. There looked to be too many places laid and chairs set up so about five were moved to the side so it wouldn't look too empty. When two more blokes came we were hungry enough to ask the main waitress to serve our soups. This quickly descended into starting on everything else on the electric revolving table, and over the next 20 mins or so a few more blokes came in, including the Nanning blokes.
Eventually, when the initial pangs of hunger were sated, beer and white alcohol were served (you either drink one or t'other - no mixing). Although you might expect teachers in front of their pupils' parents to go easy on the bottle it was quite the opposite. I should have known as I met the headteacher to "drink tea" last year where they were guzzling cold red wine with ice cubes. What followed was a lot of gan bei'ing, as every bloke had to do it with every other bloke, and the only women were Tan, A Ni, and A Da's teacher. Of course with so many blokes, people lose count of who they've gan bei'd with, so you get repeats. I thought better of telling the first bloke who double-gan bei'd me that he'd already done so as I didn't want to induce any losing of face.
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| Having a meal with A Da's headmaster and various others |
Being the foreigner I think I got more of my share of gan beis, so I needed a plan for a pause if only to let the bubbles settle. Not for the first time I used the kids. I mentioned swimming and within a few minutes all three of them decided they wanted to go. That gave me the chance to take them to Waipo's house across the way and I eked out 15 minutes of relaxation.
But I didn't want to be too unsociable so I made my way back to the restaurant and found the blokes in full swing playing cai ma. The bloke on my right had apparently started on the bloke on my left (the headteacher) with four rounds of first-to-four. By the time I got there and worked out what was going on he was three people away from finishing the table. He promptly did this and I found out he'd beaten every single person and only I was left. I was glad I'd had my break as he walloped me 4-0 on the first round. I protested that I wasn't used to playing in Mandarin and he said fine we'll play in Bai Hua (Guangxi Cantonese with a bit of local language mixed in). To the delight of the whole table I won the second round 4-2 and received a round of applause! But miracles were not to happen and I lost the last two heavily. I am still trying to work out just how some people can be so much better, so regularly, than others. I'm quite good as I can be fairly random, but to move up the ranks I'm going to have to quickly identify patterns in others, then perform fake patterns myself to lull my opponent into a false sense of security. All this sounds a lot easier when you're 100% sober.
Eventually, when things showed no signs of letting up, I made my excuses and said I'd have to leave. This was accepted, but not before just about everyone left gan bei'd me again. I'm not sure I'd have drunk more if I'd stayed. But it was nice to get out into fresh air, and I walked home before realising it was only 9.30pm and I'd committed the sin of not going for a headwash within two days of arriving! With the wife and kids taken care of I unguiltily took the dian dong che to the place I've frequented with A Wu many times in the past. They all remembered me there and immediately got a young lady to settle me down. The next 50 minutes would have been total bliss if A Wu hadn't started calling about half way through. I told him to come around and he said he would but he didn't, so I said I'd see him later. I was so comfortable I took the most expensive 35 kuai shampoo (there was 25 and 20 too) and even let the girl crack my neck. I still can't believe that you are supposedly paying for the shampoo and not someone's time. I left relaxed and soberer and made my way home, where I found A Ni and A Wu, the latter a bit the worse for wear.
I'd given A Wu three bottles of duty free earlier in the day and he insisted on giving me 1000 kuai for them. Firstly I insisted they were presents, and then that they were only worth about 300 anyway. He was having none of it and explaining that he would give them to other bosses, who in turn would do business deals with him, and therefore he would make more money. I've never heard him be so explicit about something so obvious.
I made him drink some cold lemonade with ice cubes (using up the only mixer I currently have for the Gordons), and he seemed to enjoy that, before lying down on our sofa. I called A Ni to take him home which she did at midnight finally.
A Da and Nong Kaicheng came over to stay the night for a change, which must be Leilei's first night here since we arrived. They looked cozy together but will probably not want to see the picture of themselves in the future.
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| Three boys sideways in a bed |
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