Back on our dian dong che

Bloody woke up at 7am after three hours' sleep. I fought against wakefulness and lost, but did manage to watch the last 20 minutes of City v Spurs in a pre-season friendly we won 3-0 so that was quite nice. Knowing I would likely be able to snooze later I did 90 minutes of ping pong at the old people's leisure centre where I was soundly whipped but in an enjoyable way...most of them know me by name now and I barely get a minute off-table so I'm hoping it's good exercise. However it's a bit disheartening to see many rather portly bellies attached to the blokes who are so good and play for hours...I'm hoping it's because they eat too much at night. My Xiao Mi band doesn't understand the difference between table tennis and stepping though so I had a barely justifiable 8000 steps by the time I got home.

I stopped off at Lu Wen's on the way back from ping pong but didn't partake of the beef fen

I sorted breakfast for the lazy kids and then took them to Waipo's. I was determined to sort out our own dian dong che so finally found the place that fixes them and brought the bloke over to see it. He did explain what was wrong and I understood the cause was its lack of use but it wasn't just the batteries that needed changing but the dianping. I still am none the wiser as to what that means, but he said I could pick it up after tea and it would cost about 550 kuai. I like the way they time things by meals here.

I then went back home to wait for a bloke to fix the living room curtains. Gratefully he came by midday, which meant I could get to bed by 12.45 and set my alarm for 4pm. Except I'd forgotten to put my phone on silent and Haiwei called me to say he'd pick me up at 3pm for table tennis. 3pm? He'd said 8pm last night. Oh well ok I responded, just wanting an excuse to sleep - let's speak at 3pm. I did sleep but at 2.37pm the phone rang again and Haiwei was telling me to get ready. I'd blooming told him I was having a siesta but hey...I said I'd be ready by 3pm which was the original agreement, and grabbed another 15 minutes shuteye. As I was getting ready a thunderclap from hades let itself be known in the immediate vicinity and within 30 seconds raindrops the size of peach stones were hurtling down. This meant I had to bring in all the clothes and close all the windows, which led to another call asking where I was. At least I had a genuine excuse for being a few minutes late.

It turned out to be a semi-official competition between Pingguo and Bama, a town a couple of hours drive away. Each team had four players that all played each other in a first-to-three game. I practised in the background with a couple of blokes for an hour or so and then went for a rest behind the main table where they were playing. I spied a cushion on a hard wooden bench and tried lying down on it and resting my head. I did the old counting in German trick and almost immediately I started having weirdish visions and I realised I had not caught up enough on sleep. I never thought I'd actually do any genuine sleeping on a hard bench but I must have as when I got up it was 6.30pm. No-one had batted an eyelid, such is the normalness of doing such spot-sleeping here, but for me it was a first and I almost felt proud.

Flexi-table tennis ball holders for practising top spin

Of course after the competition (which we won) we were to go for a meal with the Bama team, which was fine by me as I was refreshed. And of course it was great and involved beer and cai ma, and the Bama blokes were pretty impressed with my ability. I just hope that one day they'll be impressed by my table tennis. I could have stayed longer but needed to find the kids, which gave me an excuse for a break. Then I realised it was already getting on for 10pm and I'd intended to pick up the dian dong che hours ago. So I walked over from Waip's to find the family who own the shop gorging themselves in watermelon. As soon as they saw me they invited me over to share with them, which I did willingly. The cost was indeed 550 kuai but at least we have the dian dong che back and the kids will fit on more easily now. I noted there were 1200km on the clock, so will see how long the battery lasts.

Well I took the kids back home on our trusty steed but Haiwei had called to say that some of the blokes had moved on to a bar and his son was there and he wanted me to talk English to him, so after making sure the kids were getting ready for bed I went over and spent a couple of hours with them, as Haiwei fell asleep on his chair (as is his wont) and his son told me that that makes him angry. While in the loo, a bloke started talking to me in English and insisted on adding me to his WeChat. I didn't mind but then went to his table to say hi to his friends, who were rather drunk. Another time it may have been fun but I was tired and did my best to just do a couple of ganbeis.

I said I needed to go at 1am, and woke up Haiwei. His son had been taken home by Haiwei's wife, whose name I never remember, so it was up to me to take him back on the dian dong che. Luckily he didn't fall asleep on the back and I got him, then myself home a few minutes later, but still didn't sleep till 2am.