Leaving Pingguo 2012

It was as inevitable as the 8th of February. Or the 10th of December. It was as an insignificant date as could be imagined unless this date was to be your departure from Pingguo.

But this time I wasn’t really sad. Here is no longer just a holiday. It is now just a home from home. When I get back it will seem like a recurring dream with substance. It won’t happen to be a long term reality in the short-term future. That American family had a good go but decided their kids needed a more international education, and I agree with them on that, even if I probably wouldn’t agree with them on most other things.

Because we have come back so regularly it has become easier to say goodbye. But I don’t know if I’ll be afforded the flexibility I’ve had for the last few years. If not I will have to consider where the future lies. It’s not really fair to force Tan to be in the UK; we moved there because I had a job there, but it’s her family’s loss, and her mum’s sadness at missing out on Leilei and Xixi’s growing up. If she lived in a big city it would be easier but as it is we couldn’t live in Pingguo at the moment. But if I were in a position to get a decent job in a bigger city maybe she would want to live with us....

For our last day in Pingguo we had lunch at Waipo's at 11am as it was still gui jie. Lunch was nice, if rather early and subdued; the kids wouldn't eat much, but I couldn't blame them so early. Then I drove around as I had a couple of last minute tasks to do. I succeeded in buying some ping pong balls, though that shouldn't be hard in China. However, I failed in finding a shop to emboss my Chinese name on some of my footy tops due to most places being closed. I really wish I’d sorted that out earlier on as it would be a pretty unique thing to have.

Then I got the annual call from Tan to say that everything was wrong. In this case it was simply the fact that I’d moved around some of what she had packed in order to get the tea table in but it might as well have been me losing her toiletries for all the fuss. Well I stood my ground and explained why things were moved - it’s not as though we’re going to worry about them once they’re checked in.

After sadly soaking in my last rays of Pingguo sunshine I parked the bike and went back to our flat. I had promised to sort out our neighbour with wireless Internet but there wasn’t much time and I had to tell her I’d try to do it via the phone from the UK. Something that is a bit unlikely. Then that was it and we brought the suitcases down the lift (which thankfully was working this year).

Last family pic of 2012: Leilei, Tan, Xixi, Xiao Nong, Ling Ming, Chuan Chuan, Waipo, Jiuma

Packing the kids away...(no we didn't really)

The drive to Nanning was just like every other for the last nine years, past signs of “Don’t drive tired” and the dulcet tones of the ridges of the road on the tyres that make a tune I will always associate with this either happy or sad journey.

Not quite as many people this year to see us off

Driver and A Wu wanted to come back and say a last goodbye...

Mama and Leilei in the VIP lounge of Nanning airport

The airport goodbyes were the same as those from years gone by, but afterwards for the first time we got to go the VIP lounge thanks to A Wu’s special bank card. It made a nice difference, even though there was no beer, the best bit being that a nice lady came to escort us through a non-queue at security when our plane was ready to board. Thankfully (to whom?) there was not too much turbulation on the flight, and the only annoyance was the half an hour wait, and numerous phone calls to sort out the minibus to the fairly expensive (60 quid) hotel I’d booked in Guangzhou.

Tired and hungry, when we finally got to the China Southern hotel we didn’t need it to take 20 minutes for them to finally find our online booking, but the room was ok and had we had more time I’d have liked to take advantage of the gym/table tennis. But we needed to eat so went for a meal in the hotel restaurant. It was a bit later than most Chinese eat, so wasn’t very full. The kids were a bit annoyingly awake and loud so while we were waiting for the food I invented the “Quiet Game”. It simply consists of a referee and two players. You hold both hands down and when the player on your right makes a noise you raise your right hand in proportion to the volume and length of the noise, with the same for the left. When one of the players causes your hand to full stretch they lose. It worked ok for the first two games (one all) but by the third they realised that it was actually more fun to make noises and see my hand go up and then lose. Well if nothing else it got five minutes of relative quiet out of them.

Playing the "quiet" game in our last night in China this year (Xixi was the "Quiet Master" for this round and I won)

The food was actually good, and I had a nice Qing Dao beer or two with it. Tan went to wash the kids in the room so I went for a quick wander and picked up another couple of cans then came back and sorted out the taxi for the journey back from Heathrow. At about 12.30am I finally managed some sleep till 2am but that was it. Tan also couldn’t sleep so by 6am we were a pair of unhappy monsters, just waiting to have a go at the slightest thing.