Dom, Tan, Leilei, and Xixi in China: Back Pain Back

Woke up at about 5.50am and just had the energy to check the score. 7-0 Germany!! Both Awl and Mat were pinging me on Skype about it but under three hours' sleep had not made me very conversational and after waiting for the final whistle (7-1) went straight back to sleep.

Woke up again at 9ish when I noticed the internet had gone. I'm not sure how I noticed in my sleep. The fuse box is rather dodgy here, and trips so easily that there are toothpicks stuck in forcing the switches not to trip. The problem is that the one which controls the hot water tank and my study where the router is seems to be consistently winning the battle with the toothpick.

I got up ready to pull down the large cross stitch picture that covers the fuse box and immediately nearly fell to the floor with an excruciating back pain. I knew immediately that I'd be confined to the bed for some time and knew equally that to do so without the internet would be even more frustrating. So I made a superhuman effort to get the cross stitch thing off the wall, and not drop it, found the toothpick in question and rammed it in as hard as I could without breaking it. I then hobbled in agony the few feet back to Xixi's room and even lying down didn't stop the pain. I then realised I should have picked up and taken my medicine while I was on two feet. Given that the pain hadn't subsided I rolled over and managed to crawl out of Xixi's bed and into our bedroom and just grabbed all the medicine and a bottle of water and nearly passed out back in Xixi's room (as Tan had been asleep). Oh shit I'd forgotten to get some food to line my stomach. I couldn't walk any more but I realised I had a perfectly fit and awake daughter and called her to get me three breakfast bars which she did dutifully, as she was well aware of my pain.

I scoffed what medicine it was safe to do so and lay until the pain became less sharp. I gathered my thoughts and had to accept that it was probably the table tennis that had pushed me over. Almost exactly like last year where after five days of playing at least two hours a day something suddenly went. Tan said I needed a massage and I was in no mind to disagree but I couldn't at this moment.

Tan requesting approval for her threads before taking the kids out - approval granted

Tan took the kids out and I moved to our room where I discovered I needed to help out with some work stuff, which was good in a way as it took my mind off the pain. Around midday hunger set in to accompany my back pain but at least I could do more about that. I hadn't spoken to A Wu for a while so called him in case he wanted to share a bite to eat. He apparently was just starting a meal but he didn't say that, just told me to go to the nice restaurant Li Jia He Xiang. I guessed he was with someone work-related so had a shave and put on long trousers and socks and shoes.

Of course that caused me to be longer than the five minutes I'd suggested I'd be so I got the inevitable call to "hurry up!". Well I did take a san lun che for a couple of minutes that cost 4 kuai - such a ride would have been 3 kuai last year and 2 a couple of years further back....

A Wu was in a private room with A Ni and three other people from Nanning. I wasn't quite sure what their business was but one was the boss, another his junior, and the last the driver. It transpired that the junior bloke, Vincent, had studied at the University of Kent for six years about a decade ago. He was very keen to use English and I had by far the most fluent English conversation in Pingguo in 11 years save for those with the wife and the occasional foreigner. He'd actually lived in Charlton for a year too, so we were able to talk about a few local things. We exchanged contact details, which means WeChat ID and email these days. I think A Wu was quite glad that we'd been able to have this conversation, and I invited him to speak some of the words he knew in English but he looked rather embarrassed and refused.

Afterwards we went for quick trip to a place selling new apartments. It appears they are interested in investing in Pingguo and A Wu was showing off that the local economy is apparently booming.

Home beckoned, and so did a siesta after a G&T and some medicine, until nearly 6pm when it was time to go to Waipo's. I managed this walk reasonably ok, and after the meal I headed off to get a massage on Tan's advice. It was the same doctor in the same place as I had my severe acupuncture last year and it would be true to say he was not my best friend and my memories are still very fresh and raw.

So I was a bit taken aback when I couldn't find his place as I was sure I knew exactly where it was. I ended up having to call Tan and found out it was 50 yards away, but on the left hand side of where we used to live instead of the right. I'd spent three months living there before and thought I knew the area like the back of my hands and was literally flabbergasted that I'd made such a mistake. It wasn't a big mistake, but I used this experience to try to understand how other people make what I consider to be stupid mistakes. I will try to be more understanding in the future.

I explained to the "doctor" about my pain and why I thought it had happened, and that I'd been advised to get a massage and definitely NOT acupuncture. So I lay down and endured a sometimes painful massage until he started pushing down heavily on my back and caused me to wheeze and cough - then he said I needed to keep my mouth open when he did that...why didn't he tell me before? After the massage, which included some horrible "acupoint" manipulating, he asked if I wanted to do some "ba chung" (cupping). Oh well, in for a penny...it was the plastic ones rather than the glass ones with fire, and it was localised to the painful area and only lasted five minutes, after which time there was a bit more manipulation and I was told that was it. "You're feeling better now?". I said I was. I had just taken some co-codemol before I got there though.

A few doors away I noticed another place with pianos in it and couldn't resist walking in. There were three kids playing about and suddenly went a bit crazy when they saw me. I asked the adults, one of whom at least was a teacher, if I could come back and practice one day. Of course I could. As it was 9pm and they were closing I didn't have a tinkle but it looked a bit better quality place than where I'd been on the second day, plus it was air conditioned.

I wanted to know what the kids were getting up to on their evenings with Chuan Chuan, so called her and went to meet them at the milk tea place they frequent of an evening. They like it there because it has wifi and Leilei can play online games on the iped while the adults drink tea and play cards. I said I'd take them home, on foot rather than lazily taking a san lun che. It might take a bit longer but we get the time to talk about things. Leilei was talking about some place where there were Japanese flags that had been ripped up. I wasn't 100% sure where he was talking about but I said that the countries used to be enemies but that sort of thing is in the past now. But as we got onto our road we walked past a cafe with the flags of the World Cup hung above the pavement and sure enough every Japanese one was ripped. Now I had to explain that some people still hold resentment but that it is a rather babyish thing to do. I think he got it.