Back from Tian Yang with yummy mangoes

I was up reasonably early at 7 but the kids weren't. Luckily I had the wherewithall to check what time breakfast served till and found it was 9.30 so got them up at 9 and 10 minutes later we got downstairs to find almost nothing left. Grrr. I did sort of moan but I managed to salvage three boiled eggs, two fried eggs, three man tou, and a portion of noodles each for the kids so we weren't hungry but I'm not sure how healthy my five yolks were as the kids don't seem to like them.

Back at hotel room kids wanted to watch a film but I said there was no point and as if to confirm that Yang Haiwei called a minute later to say he'll be there immediately to pick us up. Did he not know about checking out? At check-out Leilei forgot his chong dian so we had to go back. Yang Haiwei had to wait a little while and wouldn't let me pay, saying the business would, so I said I'd say we were his clients as a sort of joke but I think he may have took my excuse seriously. It was 600 kuai after all - why not put on expenses?

Back at Haiwei's office there was lots of waiting around, drinking tea, and I really wondered what actual work was being done. To be fair, occasionally someone would walk in and talk to someone with some papers in their hand, but that seemed about it. I had hoped that Haiwei's one hour absence was due to work but found out he'd been cooking lunch, which we partook of before waiting around a little later. I was told we'd pick up some mangoes from a market then leave back for Pingguo at 3pm. This was a change from the original plan as we were expecting to take the train with Haiwei's wife and kids after lunch. But it transpired Haiwei would now be driving back today so we'd all go in the same car again.

Haiwei's car outside his new office in Tian Yang - there are few blue cars in China

Before we left we went to the market in the boiling mid-afternoon sun. The ladies cut out bits of mangoes for us and they were utterly gorgeous. As Haiwei and his wife discussed how many they wanted and at what price I went for a little walk in the sun which made the local stallholders look at me in a queer way as if to say "what's that bloke doing out in the...oh he's one of those...". Haiwei's wife spent about 360 kuai on three quite large boxes of mangoes, and they put something else in the car too.

Kids and Haiwei at the Tian Yang mango market

Eating straight out of the fruit as mother nature intended

Back in the office 3pm came and went as more and more tea was imbibed. Eventually it was time to go at 4.20 but first we drove a few minutes to some factory outside Tian Yang where we stopped for some reason. Someone brought me out some "liang cha" (cold tea) which was actually warm, and I recognised him as the bloke I conversed with yesterday. I wasn't really in the mood for another deep conversation but luckily I didn't have to as it was time to go.

But instead of going to Pingguo we stopped at Tian Dong, the next region down from Tian Yang. Haiwei was on the blower to some woman trying to find a place to eat. Ah, so we were to eat here before heading to Pingguo. But the place was closed, and looked like it wouldn't open till the evening, so we did end up going back to Pingguo where we found a nice place to eat and Xixi found a tiny kitten on the stairs that wasn't scared. There were a couple of other blokes there, one from Tian Yang, and a tacit agreement between Haiwei and me to only have a couple of beers as the other guys weren't partaking. In the meantime Uncle Yellow had called me to go to a bar tonight so I said yes that would be great, and he'd call me at 8.30.

Cute

I got a lift home with the the kids as Tan was going out to eat at A Xia's as she'd not had any tea yet. Haiwei then forced not one but two boxes of mangoes on us. So unnecessary but appreciated. We'll have to give most of them away though. A few minutes later Uncle Yellow called to say he was downstairs so the kids and I went to see him in his nice new white MG (which he was quite proud to tell me was a Chinese brand now). I called Tan to see if I could drop off the kids at A Xia's but she told me she was about to go home as she was full, which isn't normal, so I asked Uncle Yellow to go to A Xia's and pick her up and drop the lot of them off home.

Uncle Yellow and his new white MG

So I had a couple of hours free and we had a relaxing time just talking about stuff with another bloke I'd eaten with back in 2008, and his wife and eight year old son. We were on 2.5%ers but the boss came over and after a couple of gan beis took a selection of three other beers from the same brand and opened them up and we had a bit of a tasting session. I said I preferred the 2.5%er in the hope that that's what we'd continue with, but paid compliments to the 3.6%, 3.7%, and 4.0% too. I got everyone to line up the cans in order of their preference and it seemed we all agreed we weren't massively keen on the black lager - phew - it was the strongest.

My order of favourites for some reason from right to left

What I wasn't particularly happy about was seeing the kid with a bottle of blue alcopops. Ok it was 4% and he nurtured it the whole two hours or so and didn't even finish it, but it seemed wrong. Then I thought of the French parents who supposedly bring their kids up on watered down red wine and everything seems ok and it results in the kids not interested in drinking when they grow up. Except that it doesn't. I didn't overdo it at all and got a lift to A Xia's 11.30 where I picked up the dian dong che and took it back to chong dian and got an early night at 12.30.