A Wu had called me while I was searching for this place, and I'd said I was going to find Boss Hu to eat, but wasn't sure A Wu was invited. Stupidly, apparently, as they were now xiong di of course A Wu was going there, with A Ni and A Da. It was a pity Tan wasn't there as it was a great meal and I'm sure A Ni would have preferred her company. Thankfully we didn't have to gan bei too many beers after the first few rounds, but I really hoped for a siesta. We were absolutely stuffed and didn't leave till gone 2pm.
Well we thought we had left but as soon as we got half way home Leilei gave the distraught shriek that could only mean he'd left the iped behind. Other than my annoyance at the waste of time I had no problem worrying that it might have been stolen and indeed as soon as we returned he found it and we went back home a bit happier.
I stayed at home with the kids for a bit while I learned that Tan had actually been to A Hua's friend's place to have a number of fillings done. For free, apparently - you couldn't pay me to have that sort of stuff done here.
An idea that had been nagging inside of me for some years now was to find some old photos and compare them with today's versions. It's been nearly 11 years so there was the possibility of it being interesting. But although I had just about every photo I took from 2003/4 there were very few outside where I might actually be able to find again and try to replicate. However, I did find a couple and the kids were excited to set off and find these places to do a 2014 version.
Our first stop was a very important place. It was the house we stayed on our first visit together to Pingguo. Lu Hai and Lao Ma lived there together at the time, before they separated a few years later. But we had our own room and it was there that I proposed to Tan back in November 2003 (not that I will ever tell Leilei that). So it was with some significant sadness that I found the salon was being cleaned out by his parents. Apparently he has moved to Yunnan for the foreseeable future, which was why he wasn't around last night. I gave him a call and got through to him and he confirmed this. I expressed my sorrow and he said he would come back to Pingguo but I didn't know if this meant on holiday or permanently. Although the parents were preparing for new people to come and live, I understood that at least they were only renting the place out, not selling, and it gave me hope that we might be able to visit this place once more - if we wanted to. Isn't it supposed to be romantic to visit the place where you proposed and do something?
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| Lu Hai's place in 2003... |
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| ...and in 2014 with trees and steps added |
We then went to Lao Ma's place (Lu Hai's ex-wife) and found that it was pretty much the only business on that street that had not changed in the last 11 years. The kids and I were looking at our old photos and saw that every other shop within eyeshot had changed. Having said that it's pretty much the same in Blackheath so maybe I'm reading too much into things, and maybe it's a sign of my age that I like things to stay the same.
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| Looking up the street from Lao Ma's salon in 2004... |
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| ...not a single shop remains the same in 2014... |
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| ...except for Lao Ma's salon - here in 2004... |
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| ...although she was closed today |
We then moved on to what I thought was Waipo's place where we stayed in 2009 when Andge came for the first time. It was both happy and sad to see the old place on the corner, and I immediately had memories of the blasted (in both senses) music that emanated from 8am till late at night from the mobile phone shops below. There are a couple of women with a kid living there now and we scared the living daylights out of them as we peered in their open front door before explaining to them how we used to live there and there seemed to be some connection between them and Tan's family but I didn't get it 100%. Anyway they were very friendly and invited us in for some water and a chat, before we made our way to the roof and took a couple of snaps of the ever-changing Pingguo.
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| View from Waipo's old place in 2006... |
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| ...and eight years later there is a lot more in the background and they've covered the static clock |
We finally just went to what to me is the centre of Pingguo, where the bus station used to be, and had trouble locating where a couple of 2005/6 photos were taken but I reckon we managed it. Then Ma Laoban called me to and it was good that he did as I wanted to see him before I left. We first went to the Bai Hua supermarket (and they still don't sell anything fizzy without sugar despite being the fanciest supermarket in Pingguo), where I got the kids drinks of their choices (horrible sweet blackcurrant drinks with bits in).
At Ma Laoban's office we were treated to tea as per usual, but this time to my pleasant surprise the kids joined in too, and quite enjoyed this red version. Then, after having explained a bit more about how to take the cod liver oil and the lecithin, he presented me with a variety of teas as my present. I was sort of expecting it as I wouldn't hear of accepting money for what I gave him, but it was still a really nice gesture, and I so look forward to having a place of my own to have a permanent tea table to enjoy it. Well if I was living in Pingguo I would have such a place.
We left nearly an hour later as I said we needed to go to Waipo's for tea, so a couple of hugs later we were on the dian dong che and after dumping the tea at home we went to Waip's. But strangely, even though this was our last evening, she hadn't prepared any food. Not that that was a problem at all, I had just assumed she'd want a last evening together. So for the last time this year, the kids and I went to our local place for a couple of portions of bao zi. Finally, for the first time this year, and the fourth time in the total time I've known her (at least the last three years), the owner smiled at me, when I told her we'd be leaving tomorrow, and we'd miss her wares. Was she smiling because we were leaving? I do hope not.
As soon as the kids were eating I got a call from my new friend from this year, Chen. He said he and his mates were eating at the Beef place with Uncle Yellow. I had to give an uncommitted answer; I thought I had put on the washing but for some reason I had forgotten to push the button after putting all the powder in, so I knew it would be close to an hour before I could even hang out the clothes. But anyway I dumped the kids at Waipo's as I knew Chuan Chuan would want to take them out on their last night before returning home to do a little packing and sink a couple of beers before the washing cycle finished.
A Wu had called to say we were to go to Tian Yang Po's for a bbq this evening and that was a good idea, but I said I really needed to be back for 10pm as I needed to pack. He said rubbish as I had all day tomorrow and he was right but I didn't want to give the true excuse that I wanted to watch the City-Stoke match that started at 10pm. So I said I'd be there at 8.30pm but not stay too late.
Chen called me again and I thought sod it I'd go to the beef place for a bit at least. I told him to wait 10 mins and finished putting out the clothes to dry and somehow managed to remember where the place was. I knew most of the blokes but there were a few new ones and I had to do a number of gan bei's, which I didn't complain about. I even had some of the lovely fried beef, but explained I had to go in a bit to eat and drink and they seemed to understand. For some reason (alcohol) all the blokes, even the new ones, had to give me a hug goodbye as we did our final gan bei's, and I was genuinely quite sad to be leaving this bunch as I'd had a few great and friendly meals with the ones I knew.
I got to Tian Yang Po's at around 8.45, in order to be able to leave early but no-one else was there. And no-one appeared until well after 9pm when Lu Wen came with a posse of what Tan would call mafia. They were already quite well oiled but I still had to gan bei each of them. Eventually others arrived in dribs and drabs and I realised A Wu had invited quite a few people in my name. All the girls came too, and conveniently they had their own table. We ended up having a great time on our last night here, with smashing food and company to boot. I'd kept up with the City game and found we were losing at home 1-0 and it was half time. I made my excuses and said I was tired and needed to pack, so left at 11.15pm, well into the second half as I thought somehow my watching the game might help.
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| Tian Yang Po making the best bbq in Pingguo in 2004... |
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| ...and still going strong 10 years later |
Bloody karma dictated that we would end up losing 1-0 and I wished I'd stayed with my family and friends at Tian Yang Po's bbq. But before I got too consumed with too much regret Tan arrived home and announced that she was drunk. And she actually was semi-staggering so she must have had more than a glass. I got her to sleep without too much trouble except for two visits to the loo, then thought what to do as it was gone half midnight and I was into our last day.
So of course I got on the bike and went to see Huang the Beihai food boss, and he was there and happy to see me as business was starting to tail off for the evening. We sat down for a chat together and I happened to mention a few years ago when I ate raw prawns at his old place with Lu Hai. Of course that was his cue to run off and find a few and bring them back in a bowl of water. But it was great to spend half an hour with Huang; we get along well even if we disagree about the Japanese, and we talk about cars and shit just like mates at in the UK so I thoroughly enjoyed my last minutes of my last evening.
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| Enjoying raw prawns with Huang at close to 1am |
On the way back I miraculously remembered that for the last couple of days I'd been carrying around a number of jumpers and other clothes for winter. In 2008 we'd stayed from early October till the end of December and for some reason I thought we might do the same again, so left all my warm winter clothes at the place we were staying. As it's happened, rather predictably I've not experienced a moment under 30 degrees Celcius since 2008 and my polo-neck green sweater and jacket and jeans have just been washed each year without any purpose. In the absence of any Oxfam in Pingguo, I had kept these clothes in the back of the dian dong che for the last couple of days, looking for an appropriate place to place them. I realised I had no more time for looking, so drove around for a few mins until I spotted a couple of blokes outside a China Mobile shop near Lao Ma's. I didn't have a plan so left my Sainsbury's bag of winter clothes between the two of then and hoped they weren't actually the world's first queuers for the iphone 6.
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| I hope the clothes will be of some use to someone when it gets colder |
When home I used what little energy I had remaining to pack our pictures among my clothes. I would have succumbed to sleep a little earlier but I had anger-energy from an article I had read some time before that had referenced the fact that the Oxford English Dictionary had now allowed one of the meanings of the word "literally" to be used for emphasis while not actually being true. Now I totally accept and like the fact that the English language is constantly evolving, and note it as its main strength, but if one word should be left alone it is "literally". "Literally" is the cornerstone of words, and is not to evolve or be played with. Everything else is relative and malleable. If you can't be able to describe something literally you have no point at which to reflect how non-literal something is, because you don't know how real the "literal" thing is. Maybe I'm being over-sensitive, but it kept me awake and at least I used this time to do some packing.
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