Sweat, School, and Shanghai

I woke up, drenched with sweat, in Xixi's bed. I noticed the air conditioning was off, and yesterday had apparently been the hottest day of the year with temperatures at 40 plus. I went to the loo and when I came back I realised there was cool air coming from Leilei's room, and the light was on. I peered inside and found my laptop on the bed, plus my phones. I realised I must have gone to sleep there, woken up and gone to the loo before going back to sleep in Xixi's room out of habit. I felt stupid and relieved at the same time, and fell back to sleep in a cooler room.

I wasn't feeling great when I awoke again, and as I lifted my phone to see the time I just managed to read 10.20 when it started ringing and I noticed Mr Lu's name. I just put it face down, which I think hung it up. Before waiting to hear it ring again I managed to put it on silent mode and went back to sleep.

My guilt didn't let me sleep much beyond 11am, and I guiltily checked my phone to see seven missed calls from Mr Lu. I rang back to find it was busy, no doubt number eight. I tried again and he answered. He didn't seem let down in any way that I'd not answered for the last hour and told me to come around straight away as the children were all waiting for me. I felt bad so I said I'd be there in five minutes. I got up and put on some shorts and a top, only for Tan to announce that Lin Hong had sorted out a car to take me to Nanning "shortly". Jeez, literally no-one plans stuff here. I said I was going to see some kids in a school and showed the letter he had written. Tan told me the school was opposite "Zui ai", the place we'd had the photos taken yesterday.

I was literally sweating bullets, such was the humid heat outside, and partly the beer from last night. I got to the school and didn't see Mr Lu, who said he'd be waiting for me. So I called him and he said he was at the school just opposite our place. Ok, lucky I had the dian dong che, a minute later and I was there to see his excited face, as he called "Mr Peng!" across the busy road so all would know me. I said I only had a few minutes, so he got on his little moped and sure enough it wouldn't start. I was about to offer to take him when it sparked into life and I followed him to his small school around a couple of corners.

It was 11.45 and there were about 20 kids in the class from about 6-13 years old, and they burst into applause when I arrived. Gosh, how could I have considered not turning up? Sorry Mr Lu for even considering not coming, sorry. I introduced myself and asked and answered questions in the heat, hoping I didn't smell too much, not that the smiles betrayed any such thing. I think Mr Lu was very happy, and took plenty of photos. Then, as I held up my phone to do the same, just before I got the chance to take it Lin Hong called me, preventing me actually taking it (something that never used to happen before cameras had phones). She said the car would arrive in half an hour. Fine, it would give me an excuse to get back and have a shower. Ah, but I should have packed last night instead of bbq'ing.

I would have got a better pic had Lin Hong not called during my first attempt - lovely kids though, so glad I made the effort

It happened to be the time the kids were going home for lunch, so after a few more photoshoots, and having a slice of watermelon forced upon me I drove to Waipo's house to pick up the kids first, then home for a shower. Lin Hong rang again to say the car would be there at 1pm, so I had half an hour's grace.

It was a bloody rush packing my stuff after the school run though. I hope I haven't forgotten too much. The car that picked me up only had to wait an extra 10 minutes as I got my stuff downstairs and said farewell to the wife and kids. It was almost a Chinese goodbye, without too much emotion, partly because we were in China, and partly because it was so bloody hot we had to get out of being outside. Of course I wasn't the only reason the car was going to Nanning. There was another bloke already inside, and we stopped off to pick up a letter that I can only presume would be quicker to deliver via car than the postal service.

Bye bye babies

Thankfully, unlike And and Awl's trips to the airport last year, we didn't go via Nanning centre and I actually got there four hours before my 6.20pm flight. Normally that is no problem due to lounge access, but this time the electricity went off in the whole terminal every few minutes or so during the course of an hour. It's strange how quickly the lack of air conditioning wreaks havoc, compounded by the darkness and lack of internet connection. I could almost argue that this was not a first world problem, but it sort of wasn't. I did, however, manage a couple of self brought Gs with the freebie Sprite from the fridge, which was the only place that retained its temperature during the blackouts.

Luckily the flight to Shanghai was relatively free from turbulence, as was probably helped by a couple of Qing daos en route. While waiting for my luggage in the presence of a few foreigners I felt the need to show off my Chinese and rang A Wu to have a chat and a laugh. As soon as I got off the phone some shortish western bloke came up to me and asked me in an Italian accent if I knew a hotel to stay at. He said he'd heard me speaking Chinese so asked if I could help him. Ok fair enough, I called the hotel that I'd booked a couple of days ago only to find that it would be 650 kuai, but they were honest enough to say it would be less than half that if I booked online.

So I told Stefano and he couldn't sort out the 650 kuai so I told him I'd try to do it online, but first I wanted to find the shuttle stop. As luck would have it (and it hasn't before), the bus was waiting to go so I got on and told Stefano to too. During the 10 minute journey, try as I might, my Nokia N8 just wasn't up to the job of modern mobile web sites, so I told him I'd check in first and then try to get him in. It was a bit of a gamble but after checking in and paying 200 deposit, I did manage to book his room via my laptop and wifi five minutes later, and indeed it was 350 kuai cheaper than had it not been done online.

He was grateful but I was tired and didn't fancy going for a beer with him. I mean, what sort of person flies to Shanghai with the intention of staying the night and not does book a room in advance? To make it worse, I found he had been teaching film studies in Nanning for six years yet barely spoke a word of Mandarin. Needless to say I was less than impressed.

In my room I did something I rarely do - drink a bit of whisky. I just happened to have some and I fancied a night cap. But for some reason I got a taste for it, mixed with a little water. I stupidly stayed up chatting to Awl on Skype till something like 4am, needing to get the 8.30am shuttle a bit later. I even remember going for a walk to find a shop just be able to speak Chinese for the last time for a bit, and coming back with a bottle of beer I didn't want, and dried squid I didn't need. I'm never doing whisky again.