Last Day of First Half

No table tennis again due to my back. What a pain it really is - I should use it as an excuse to get a massage but I don't think I'll have the time.

At midday I called Ma Laoban as so far I haven't actually seen this good mate. I was at his computer shop but he was at his new office so I walked there and met his wife outside, who showed me in. We exchanged hugs before sitting down to some horribly strong red tea with the bloke who used to run the bed shop next door to Ma Laoban years ago. Ma Laoban's wife produced a bag of the said red tea and I didn't know what to say other than it was rather strong and I didn't want to drink any more. Wrong answer (if it had been an answer to a question) - she had presented it to me as a present and I'd just slammed it, albeit honestly.

Ma Laoban is about to buy a new car. It will arrive in about three weeks so I should see it. It is a Toyota Highlander. I looked at the brochure and couldn't help admiring the three rows of seats and ample head and leg room. For 300000 kuai I can't help thinking he's made a better decision than A Wu's six times more expensive BMW X6. But that's from a purely practical perspective. If I had to buy a car for impressing other people solely it may not be the same case.

Bed boss, me and Ma Laoban posing with the L chin

A bit more natural

We took a couple of photos and then I suggested that we eat together. This was taken as a good idea but I somehow knew that despite it being my idea it would not be my invitation. A few phone calls were made and a few minutes later we were driving to a new restaurant in town. At least new to me as it only opened up last summer apparently. We were shown a place by the window where we could see Pingguo pass by and I immediately felt comfortable by the fact that we would be eating in an open area rather than a private room. I broke open my bowl, spoon, plate and various other accoutrements from their tight clingfilm cover and poured out some sweet tea.

Then Ma Laoban asked about the air conditioning. Apparently it would not be turned on in the common area as there was only us. This did not go down well so within a minute we'd ordered a private room and I was escorted to a more "privileged" place. I knew better than to argue.

Ma Laoban called A Wu and he turned up with A Ni. There were a couple of young girls too who must have been the offspring of one or two of the other blokes who turned up. Tan came but only to drop off Xixi so within 30 minutes of the meal starting there were at least 10 of us and it really felt nice. We had huo guo, but with many spicy side dishes, and I managed a healthy number of beers (as in healthy for the body) in readiness for another siesta in my last afternoon in China for a couple of weeks.

I mentioned my 8am flight to A Wu and he said he'd drive with me there as he had stuff to do in Nanning too. I thought he was joking but he was up for it so I said fair enough and I'd see him at 5am at the bottom of our block.

I managed to go to Waipo's and spend some time with the kids. Xixi had done a plastercast painting of the gangnam style singer which was pretty cool.

Wop wop gangnam style

As I had to pack and do lots of shit I ended up not having a siesta and was knackered by 6pm. But I'd been invited to a reunion meal with A Wu and his ex-colleagues from junior school. I couldn't not go so turned up via a san lun che as A Wu had to get there early. I had not one but two embarrassing experiences by introducing myself to guests I apparently knew from years gone past. So it was a little bit of an unknown reunion for me too. I excused myself by saying I was tired and actually the memories of them were now coming back to me but felt a bit of a liar. The snake was good though.

The snake was good

I did a few gan bei's but kept it reasonable and before 9pm made my genuine excuses that I had to finish packing and get to bed before 10pm. Even A Wu didn't try to stop me, though I had to make another round of gan bei's before the rest would let me leave.

Somehow I sorted out the kids and managed to get to bed around midnight almost shaking with tiredness.