Three and a half hours' sleep should not be enough but I had reckoned on roughly waking up in Chinese time at 4am (11am there) so as to get into the swing of things. Dad got up to see me off and I managed a shower and a cinnamon ring I'd bought from Sainsbury's a few hours previously. Then at the last minute I realised I'd forgotten to pack a few things so stuffed them in my lovely new Samsonite extra-large suitcase that had been delivered from John Lewis to my local offy yesterday afternoon. It was 185 quid but in my experience if you travel fairly frequently it's absolutely necessary to get quality; we've done TK Maxx and other stuff before and nearly always been bitten. If only to avoid the worry of being bitten it's worth it to get something of quality. My old, heavy, hard Samsonite from 2003 has withstood well over 20 long haul flights with only the loss of the faceplate of the address thingy. It's just a case (no pun no pun) of brand being worth it. The extras that came with the case also justified its expense; a thing to hold the elastic straps until you've packed, a spare bag for dirty clothes, a suit bag, a waterproof area for toiletries etc. Seldom have I ever been so excited to open an empty suitcase.
And the wheels were nice too. That with the four-wheeled hand luggage size case meant the train to Charing Cross at 5.05am, and the subsequent tubes to Terminal 4 were reasonable. It did take nearly two hours though, and by the time I was mostly through the long queue for Air France, some woman did call out for Paris passengers, and I was allowed to skip part of the queue in order that I not be delayed. I don't think it was necessary but I gladly accepted and was happy my luggage was bang-on 20kg. Security was a breeze, and I found what I needed in duty free for Lin Hong (some Estee Lauder facial cleaner for 20 quid).
I can't complain about the flight to Paris. I was a bit annoyed at the lack of lounge there though. London and Paris, and not a lounge for me to rest in. So much for Priority Pass. I grabbed a small glass of blanc before the long haul flight to Guangzhou. This flight was ok too. I realised I'd seen the film "I Legend" before but only at the end - I must have been getting tired. Then I think I slept for some time. I hoped I'd slept for five hours as I checked my phone and it said 11pm, which if was Europe time would have been 5am Chinese time, 55 minutes before landing. Then breakfast was served so I felt as refreshed as if I had had five hours' sleep. I wolfed down the omelette and asked for two coffees before I went to look at the sky map, expecting to see us approaching Guangzhou.
Words can't express how angry I was to find we were not much more than half way through the flight, and there were four hours to go out of 11. Grrr. Why did they turn the lights on and serve breakfast the gits? I tried to get some more sleep but the coffee and thought of arriving didn't let me so I did a bit more work for an hour or so. I then started watching a Ricky Gervais film called something like "The Invention of Lying", thinking it would take me until roughly landing time. It was quite enjoyable, but I found "telling the truth" to be different to "not lying", as in sometimes we don't say what we think - and that to me is not a lie. Anyway it got a laugh from me during a tad of turbulence and I was downright annoyed when the flight attendant took my headset away with 16 minutes to go, as I'd timed it to coincide with the landing and now I had to watch outside to make sure the pilot was doing his job.
As is usual he did his job well and we landed safely. At Guangzhou I asked three China Southern employees, including a women whose job was to advise about luggage, as to whether I needed to fetch my luggage. Everyone told me not to - my luggage ticket was checked and it was clear it was to go to Nanning. I was glad of that but still waited ages in the security queue but at least this time had no problems with the two bottles of duty free.
After security there were no signs for which gate so I asked a the driver of a golf cart thing where I should go and he asked me where I was going. I said Nanning and he said he reckoned it would be terminal B. I was about to get on when I realised the only spare seat was the driver's and I had been talking to a passenger. I apologised in an English way and luckily another golf cart turned up immediately. This time I realised it was left-hand drive and asked the driver before he got out. Actually he didn't get out. He just rested his head on the steering wheel and I apologetically tapped him on the shoulder to ask if I was going to the right place. He said everyone needed to go to terminal B so I thanked him (would have been easier with signs). Then I offered to do the driving as he was obviously tired, and that seemed to make him perk up a little, but I don't think he realised I was joking so I told him I wasn't being serious. When we were full up he did seem to drive rather fast but we got there in one piece.
It took a couple of minutes to find the gate, and knew I had a good three hours. I found the lounge too, and after a slightly difficult conversation with the maid, got in. I was so tired but had to do some more work. I made sure I had healthy breakfast of two apples, an egg, and orange juice. I started feeling like I was on a boat and found it hard to balance, but as soon as there was an announcement about the plane that sorted me out as I had a short-term goal. This made me think about the importance of such goals in order to keep you focused. They are actually very necessary. I think of this in project management, and would always aim to set short-term goals for people, rather than the end of the project. At least I would if I was a project manager. I walked for a few minutes towards gate B202 and went past the other lounge that the ladies were probably telling me I'd be better off going to. Actually I was glad I didn't go there as we were there last time and it didn't have cold drinks unless you asked specially for them.
I nearly dozed off during the flight as I was counting to 100 in French after German didn't quite do it, but it started getting a bit turbulent. I'm normally worse, but I've found fatigue is better than alcohol at shrugging it off - I was more annoyed than scared.
A nice landing was my arrival in Nanning, but after 20 minutes it was clear that that was something my hold luggage hadn't had. Along with two couples I went to the "Baggage Inquiry" place. Much to my chagrin they said I should have taken my suitcase from Guangzhou and checked it in again. Despite my clear protestations that at least three China Southern employees (including that at Heathrow) had told me I was to pick it up at Nanning there was nothing they could do. I was livid, but understood their position. I was achingly tired too, so I let them scan my passport, and entered my name and address and didn't even swear when they told me I (or someone with the receipt) would have to come back to claim the suitcase later.
After calling Tan to let her know I'd arrived, I called A Wu to say hello too. He was in Nanning but busy and asked me to call him later. I also pinged Vincent, the bloke I'd met in Pingguo last month with A Wu, who wanted to meet me again as he'd spent six years in the UK before. Vincent wanted to meet me for a bite to eat, and said he'd come to meet me at the train station where the airport bus would take me to for 20 kuai. I called him a few minutes before I was due to arrive and told him where I was. When I arrived five minutes later I called him again and he said it would take him much longer than the original 15 minutes to get there due to the traffic. Blimey, despite six years of education in the UK he was as aware of the time as a statue. So it ended up me taking a taxi to meet him, losing any chance of my 2.30pm coach, and I thought I should never have bothered pinging him.
I met him at Wu Jiang square and we went straight for a bite to eat. I noticed he only ordered for me and when I asked he said he'd already eaten. We ordered by asking what was the fastest thing to make, and then he added a portion of fruit to that. It was already 2.30 and he said he had a meeting at 3pm so we'd have to leave at 2.50. If he'd just told me that before we could have arranged to make it another day. I wolfed down what I could of the pig liver and greens, and we put the lovely sculptured fruit into a couple of boxes to take away. I got a lift until I spotted a taxi where I got out and said goodbye until next time.
It was another 26 kuai journey back to the train station, where I thought it would be best to get the 4.20 to Pingguo in an hour's time. But the airport rang as I was trying to pay the driver and get my luggage out at the same time, while rushing as we were in a queue. I understood that they had found my suitcase in Guangzhou and it should be in Nanning later today. I was struggling with my hand luggage and the fruit nearly tipped over the duty free so I handed it to the driver as a little present and he was genuinely appreciative of it.
I called A Wu to say I may now stay a bit longer and to see where he was. He was in the direction of the airport so rather than buy a train ticket I took another cab to where he was and called the airport from there to find any further information. Actually I'd just checked the flight times and the earliest possible one would have arrived at 9.30pm, with the latest at around midnight. A Wu didn't want to wait so long and I couldn't do so, so we agreed to go back together in his car. He appears to have his licence back as he drove himself. I complained about his driving on more than one occasion. Many vehicles here stick stubbornly to the overtaking lane on the motorways, and A Wu was no exception except when it came to overtaking. He'd nip into closing gaps between a lorry and approaching car and overtake both, and when I admonished him he said "BMW" as if that made it ok. I said it wasn't the car but the driver and he laughed, but not that much. Despite that I half-dozed a lot of the way - it was better not looking where we were going. We did make it home by 6pm, about the same time as I would have done in the train, but not half as safely.
It was great to see the kids again at Waipo's and Xixi gave me a big hug. Leilei was a bit more absorbed in the iped than I would have liked but we had seen each other many times in my physical absence, in many ways thanks to the aforementioned iped. I took Tan home while the kids went to play badminton with Chuan Chuan, and it was very nice to be back. I could easily have fallen asleep at 8pm but I forced myself to stay up so I wouldn't wake at 3am. One thing that helped was Tan saying that the photos were ready, so I walked down to the place we had them done with, for some reason, three receipts. By golly I hadn't realised the large, framed photo would be quite so...large, it must have been 4' x 3' and not a chance of fitting in any normal suitcase, even my extra-large one that was somewhere between Guangzhou and Nanning. I told the girl it was ok I'd take out the photo and roll it up, and she looked at me like I'd just told her I was going to roll her up and put her in a suitcase. "But it's already been framed...", she protested. Little did she know that I would be able to unframe and do the necessary, but I didn't have time to explain. I also had a rather nice glass-framed book of photos from the shoot, many of which looked really rather ok, and I now have a better appreciation of why women spend so much time putting on their faces. Plus I had a DVD of a number of photos Tan had chosen and probably paid about 10p each for, plus finally two wallet-sized photos they threw in.
For some reason the woman insisted on helping me find a san lun che to take it all back. Even though it would have been a five minute walk. But so it was, and I got back 4 kuai lighter as that seems to be the minimum price now (no wonder people are buying cars).
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| I don't think it is going to fit - and the other suitcase ain't much bigger |
Tan was out but that was expected as I'd said I'd need an early night. It was touching 10pm so I thought I'd get the laptop out and read a bit of news but as I did I slipped into a world where I was about 50' above and could see what looked like a swimming race with my physical tiredness in first place, mental tiredness in second place, plus five other factors of my tiredness. It was rather disconcerting and ironically helping me to sleep, despite wanting to stay up to see who came last.
Shortly after 11pm I was well asleep, until that is someone got back and went to the bathroom. I somehow awoke and somehow knew I was in China and shouted at the person "Who are you?". Of course it was Tan and it was 12.45 and I had no more energy than to fall back to sleep safe in the knowledge that I would not be disturbed again.
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