Up late, more steak and more ping pong

Woke up about 10am, then mulled about in bed half sleeping till midday when I decided I'd better eat. I hadn't had that much of the litre of water I'd brought to bed - one of the positives of drinking beer that is a lot closer to H2O than what we're used to. I went down to the jiao zi place and the woman greeted me with a smile, stating the obvious "ni huilai le" (you're back). But it's more of a greeting than an act of stating the unnecessary - like "chi fan le mei you?" (have you eaten yet?). She doesn't normally smile though so I took it as a compliment, and chose to eat there rather than take back. I asked for a drink, and the daughter offered soya milk. So I asked specifically if they had water. Of course the answer was in the affirmative, and a minute later I was served a metal bowl of hot transparent liquid with chopped spring onion. Ah yes, I remember the Chinese often consider soup as a drink, and therefore as a replacement for what you might have in a cup. I was fine with it, but would have liked something cold to quaff.

Jiao zi and "water"

Back in the house I actually needed to get down to some work and did so until bang - the internet went down. But this was accompanied by a worrying surge in temperature as I noticed the air con was no longer on. Oh no, the promised electricity cut for two days ago that never materialised had now made an ugly entrance. I guess this is why we never put much food in the fridge.

Well one of the best things about our flat on the 14th (or 13th in UK terms, or 15th in Chinese luck terms) is that it spans the width of the building north to south, so on the stillest, muggiest day, we still muster a nice breeze through the place that has meant we've not needed to buy a big air con machine for the living room. And so I sat in my office to get some work done in just a pair of shorts.

I realised I needed a shower but to my disappointment there was no water at all in the house. I called Ling Ming and he said it was all paid for so must be related to the leccy - apparently they are repairing something so it's not that unusual to turn it off during the day. I hoped 6pm would see it return but nay, and it seemed to getting less breezy so I paused my work and walked down the 13/14/15 flights of stairs to take the dian dong che to go to A Ni's new place for a bite to eat - no sooner had I stepped in when I heard shouts of "the electricity's back!". Good timing.

I'd remembered to take a bottle of Baileys and a quarter bottle of Bombay Sapphire to A Ni and she was so happy to see them (or me) that she gave me a big hug, and looked longingly at the Baileys before putting it on the shelf. Without asking she said I was her guest to eat and poured a beer that I didn't particular hanker after but couldn't refuse. There was an electric cauldron of noodles on the table and she and her mates laughed a bit that the English only had one word for noodles and I sort of countered by saying we also had spaghetti but I didn't really want to start a losing battle. The noodles were fine, but as I finished she brought out a plate of steak and chips that I wasn't expecting, and she sat down next to me with a plate of the same so I ate that as well - it was as well that I'd had a light lunch of jiao zi.

A pretty cool device for calling the waitress, ordering water, or asking for the bill (or cancelling) which is rendered slightly unnecessary by the small size of A Ni's place - and a pretty cool beer in what they call a pineapple glass

A Ni smiling because she's pouring her own glass

Just as we were finishing Lao Zhang from ping pong called me up to go to play table tennis. This was a suitable time and made a perfect excuse to excuse myself. I said I'd be 10 minutes and he said ok he'd come to collect me. At least that's what I'm sure he said but half an hour later he hadn't, so I called him and he asked where I was. I guessed then I'd misunderstood, so he told me to meet him at the old people's leisure centre - ah I thought we were going somewhere else. He was nowhere to be seen there so I called him again and he said he could see me as he was just arriving. Now I was clueless - were we playing here? Was I being picked up? Ok, in these situations you just go with the flow. No, we were playing at the more professional place on the west side of town, and yes he was giving me a lift there on his motorbike.

Strangely, this place, that I'd been to a few times before, was empty except for the Doctor lying on his bench in front of the show court. He shouted my name as soon as he saw me and bade me sign in in the visitors book - he wanted my Chinese and English names, and sex and whether it was morning or evening too. I nearly asked if he wanted my passport number too but held back just in case it would be taken in offence. Zhang and I played "the best of" five games and although I won the first, I thought possibly fairly and squarely, he won the next four to match the last competition I had with him a couple of days ago. Then an oldish woman came - she was introduced as a teacher but I wasn't quite sure of what. She certainly taught me some table tennis and although I was topless I was sweating prolifically which is more than I can say for my play. But when they asked for photos I promptly put my top back on.

From left to right, the teacher, the student, the doctor, and a bloke who was practising nasty spinny serves that I don't fancy playing any time soon

I was home for a shower at 10pm and not too tempted to have a drink after last night so went to bed early but didn't sleep till 2.30am...grrr.

Xixi sent me this horrid pic from here phone - I think she needs to learn more about "beauty cam"