Last night without work

Up at an indecent 10.30 as kids slept at Waipo's. It was my last day before work so I thought I had better make the most of it but somehow I felt rough and just read some news until Tan went out. She said she was going with A Hua as her friend had a birthday so they were going to the aluminium company place. She gave A Ni a call but A Ni didn't answer. According to Tan this was because they had fallen out. But when Tan was in the shower A Ni called back, and I said Tan was in the shower, which was the same reason A Ni hadn't answered a few minutes' before.

I went out to get myself a portion of dumplings before midday and had half of them, preferring the large cup of watermelon juice I'd also bought. So when A Wu called me to eat I thought "why not?" and drove down to the place I'd been to see him with Xixi before, except now I knew where it was. I found that Tan and A Ni were also there. I ventured to ask what happened to going to eat with A Hua but was met with a dismissive "it's not happening" sort of gesture and I knew better than to ask more. The chicken soup did seem to sort me out though, as it had A Wu, who had just got up before the meal.

When I got home I found last night's clothes hanging over a chair by the dining table. They were very wet and I realised I must have walked home in the pouring rain last night. Ho hum. I tried to sleep in the afternoon but to no avail. While trying, the Wenzhou bloke with whom I've eaten a couple of times with Uncle Yellow IM'd me on WeChat to say we were going to eat beef at 5.30pm. As I had nothing else on I acquiesced and soon after 5pm I had a call from Uncle Yellow who was downstairs waiting to pick me up. I insisted on stopping at Waipo's first in order to give 800 kuai to Chuan Chuan, who has been looking after the kids so much and spending money on them. Then I had to once again apologise to Waipo for not staying to eat, then once again on Tan's behalf as she was out with friends too.

There was a new bloke at the private table at the beef place; apparently he had come to Pingguo to "know work". I really wanted to know what that meant, but being English I had already nodded to show I understood what that meant, so spent the rest of the night guessing. I don't think it meant looking for work, but rather checking over how his work was progressing. I'll have to find out.

Well the new bloke opened up after a few beers and I challenged him to cai ma and he won by a whisker. But that opened the floodgates to more challenges. I did make more excuses than were necessary to go to the loo, and come back 10 minutes later after having checked the Test Match and German GP updates. England were trying but not really doing too much, but Lewis Hamilton was doing rather well after starting 20th.

Uncle Yellow in the foreground - I was sitting next to some bloke I beat too much at cai ma

By 8.30pm I used the kids excuse to leave, and very sober too. Uncle Yellow brought me back home. I rang Chuan Chuan and picked up the kids and got them to bed myself. Tan was out so I wasn't even tempted to go out to do bbq - my body probably needed the rest.