Why must I wake up so early?

Ok this is getting a bit ridiculous. I couldn't get back to sleep after waking up at 4.30am. I considered counting in German but that can be a bit strong and I wanted to be up in time for table tennis at 8am so I tried counting in Chinese but it didn't quite work. So I succumbed to the usual coffee and rice crispy cake and did a little work as dawn's grey-orange fingers lifted the night sky.

Table tennis was another good workout with a lot of smashing, including backhanded which does impress them (though not as much as the pen-hold backhand smash impresses me). After my shower, at around 11.30 I decided to go to Haiwei's office to see if he wanted to have an early lunch. When I walked into his office I found him feet up on the desk reclined in his luxury chair watching pop videos on the Internet and found myself wondering what he really did for a living. When he heard my voice he jumped to his feet and ushered me into another office where Boss Huang and a new boss came to drink tea with me. This went on till well gone 12 and I felt a bit embarrassed to say I wanted to hurry up and eat as I needed a sleep. Then he started calling some friends and then we went to another office to drink yet more tea and wait for them. Then four of us got in the car to drive to a new place we hadn't been to before. And I thought we would just walk to the nearby place as we used to do most of the previous years.

Some of the elders practising doubles

But it was good food and again we were in a private room. A lady I remembered from a couple of years ago joined us and we had a few beers too. Haiwei explained that he was cooking dog that night and invited me to come over to share it. How could I refuse? I didn't get back till getting on for 3pm and I was shattered so turned off the sound on my phone but put the alarm to 5pm as that's when Haiwei said he'd ring. And two hours later bang on cue he did. I was so grateful when he said there was some sort of change of plan and we'd eat at his and he'd call me at 6. Straight back to sleep for 60 minutes luxury before being called to come over to his place.

A quick shower and I walked to the vicinity of his office. From his instructions I knew there was a one in a thousand chance of me actually finding his house without 3rd party help, and this came in the shape of some bloke waving at me from the corner of the road opposite the Pingguo International Hotel after some 5 minutes waiting in the stuffy sun-baked early evening. Haiwei has bought a new house that is massive and covers two floors and is 248 metres squared. But it is in the process of being decorated so I had to walk up the six flights of stairs to his existing house. Once there thought it was extremely pleasant to sit down in the company of his family including two sons and eat not just dog but roast goose and lots of lovely greens too.

Haiwei's eldest son of 12, from another marriage, is learning English, and Haiwei was keen that I help him. So for an hour or so I received questions from him that he was reading from his phone. I made sure I asked him questions as well and for a Pingguonese he actually did pretty well. I think Haiwei was quite chuffed and I felt glad that in some way I had paid back for some of Haiwei's hospitality recently.

Haiwei was talking about his new house and I took the opportunity to ask if there were any other foreigners around in Pingguo. Everyone answered "yes" and I sort of wish I hadn't asked. I've had a recurring nightmare for the last few years, well more of an eveningfilly really, where I'm in Pingguo but there are mostly white people there and even the Chinese all speak English - a bit like a Costa del Sol street full of bars with people sitting outside with beers enjoying the sun. As I haven't seen any Westerners since being here I was hoping I was the only gay in the village again but I daresay those days have gone.

The beer was flowing very freely among the blokes left at the table and when Tan rang at 10pm I sort of used it as excuse to leave, so gave then a last gan bei and went on my way. I called Chuan Chuan as I hadn't seen the kids for a while and she said they were all on our road drinking whatever it is kids drink in the evening. I met up with them and was going to take them home when Tan turned up as A Xia had been driving past at that point and noticed us. For once, even seeing us, Leilei wanted to stay at Waipo's with Qiqi gege (Tan's second sister's son) and only Xixi wanted to come home with us. Fair enough, we took her home and showered off the sweat from the evening and she went peacefully to bed, as I nearly did while lying with her. It didn't take long before I was well and truly knocked out though.