2nd Valentine's day

Today was "Qin Ren Jie", or Valentine's day. This is a lucky day for Chinese women married to English men, as for some reason they get to have two Valentine's days. According to my (married) ex-boss Tom it's actually lucky for the English men as they get to have sex four times a year instead of three (what are the other two??). It would have been a more romantic affair had Tan not had la du and had I not acquired it during the meal we shared in the Mingdien hotel, meaning I spent the latter 20 minutes in the disabled toilet feeling unromantically my most comfortable of the afternoon.

I made up for it after a nice siesta though. I went out on the dian dong che and after a few minutes looking found a place selling fresh roses. 100 kuai for a bunch of eight was a bit steep in my book but as Tan won't read this she won't know I said that. I brought the bunch to her at Waipo's house so at least Waipo and the kids got to see my present too, and Tan appreciated it I could tell, by taking photos of us and uploading them to her QQ space.

Happy Valentine`s day darling

I'd been romantic enough for one day, so at the romantic excuse of needing to shape up my body, I took Leilei and A Da on the dian dong che back home to change into some sporting clothes, and went on to the old people's leisure centre where I caught up on some old friends (literally) and on some table tennis. I still lost poorly but I'm getting better and now get minor rounds of applause when I win a good rally. Leilei wasn't too bothered, so after Yang Haiwei came around to invite me to go and eat some bbq I took him to go and play with Chuan Chuan before getting a shower and meeting up with my mate.

I finally got a photo with Mr Table Tennis but he decided not to smile and had even shaved!

I only stayed till gone midnight, and met up with A Xia for a couple of beers with her husband's friends, but the beer went to my head so I left a little earlier than normal and found Leilei in bed with Tan, relegating me to the kids' room to stay with Xixi - not a bad second choice really.