Door and catching up

Got up at around 10.30 to a missed message from Uncle Yellow and was told to take the kids to A Ni's place opposite for lunch. Except now Lu Wen was working there and instead of a steak place it's now a "normal" place that sells noodles with beef and nothing else. I'm not sure if it's his full time job but he was there with his wife and new daughter (they now have two). The kids weren't massively keen but I got them to eat some of the noodles at least, but the two portions I bought were nowhere near finished even by the time I'd had mine.

We went to Waipo's for a bit and found Chuan Chuan there - we expected her to be in Baise but she'd come down to see the kids. Waipo was looking fairly similar to last year if a bit thinner. It was the usual sit around for a bit with the tv on and chatting and then I remembered the dian dong che and asked if we could use it. Apparently it wasn't charged, and couldn't be charged, and I'd need to get it fixed from somewhere. I was a bit annoyed but fair enough if the batteries are dead. At least I could use Jiuma's little orange one for the time being to get some stuff from the supermarket. However the kids have grown so much it was tricky to fit us all on, so after a little ride together I left them at Waip's and went to cut a couple of new keys as stupidly I'd forgotten to bring my set.

The two keys cost 8 kuai, probably a 20th of what it would have cost in the UK, but then it was done by a bloke on the side of the road who presumably has little in the way of running costs. I got two done as I guessed one probably wouldn't work, and went home to test them. The first was fine so that should have been fine but of course it was right to test the second. Except when I locked the door again (from the outside) it only half locked, and none of the three keys would move at all. Try as I might, using as much force as I dared, nothing would budge. So I went to tell Tan the news at Lao Ma's hair salon where she was getting permed as she generally does the first week back.

Well at least it wasn't obviously my fault, but she called Ling Ming and he also thought the locked had not been fully locked (as if that was a reason for it not being unlockable) and I feared the worst; we'd have to knock down the strong door (which was a replacement from the original in 2010) and reinstall another at great expense. Back at the house I tried to unlock the door again to no avail and called Ling Ming who then called a locksmith and called me back to say they were on their way. Although I was grateful I asked what he meant by "on their way" as I was standing in the hot corridor waiting and could be somewhere more comfortable if it was going to be long. "10-15 minutes", he said, which often means something else, but he gave me the locksmith's number to check. Downstairs, where it was a tad cooler, I called the number and just a couple of minutes later the bloke turned up. Upstairs again he had exactly the same success as me. He had a rather strange accent that I couldn't quite grasp but I understood he was going to get something from his san lun che downstairs. He came back presently with two "C" shaped iron 8mm wide wire/bar things where the "C" was about 18" in diameter. He then proceeded to hammer the viewing hole outlet thing until it became a bit loose, then started unscrewing it until it came out, leaving a hole and inch and a half in diameter in the door. He then fed through one of the "C" bars and I suddenly saw what he was trying to do - literally open the door from the inside. But it didn't work, so he tried the second and lo and behold it worked - just like that within a couple of minutes he showed how totally insecure these doors are.

Showing how ridiculously easy it is to open a front door from the other side

But I was relieved really. He now got to work on the problem and noticed a number of issues - the lock was too "short", there was too much play in the bottom bit that goes in the ground. It sounded expensive and it took him close to an hour to have fixed everything from start to finish including changing some pieces, but in the end it only cost 30 kuai and the barrel wasn't changed so my new keys still worked. An hour previously I was lamenting not only losing our vehicle but also potentially our house but now it was looking much rosier.

Now that I had my own set of keys I went back to Lao Ma's salon and gave her back her own and took Leilei off to the police station to register ourselves for this year. It's never straightforward and this year was no exception. The women remembered me from last year and were in good spirits, but the woman who did us last year wasn't there so they had to call her to come. Lord knows what she was doing but it took her 45 minutes to get there by which time it was dangerously close to tea time at Waipo's. After a great kerfuffle she ended up taking pictures of the various passports and visas and said we could pick them documents up early next week. The main woman said it was a special day today for the police and they were having a big meal and I was invited. I said thanks I might do so with no real intention as Tan was already calling to say they were waiting for us to eat.

After food at Waipo's the kids were taken out and I found myself with some time on my hands. Time that might have been used more appropriately sorting stuff out but I recalled the policewoman's invitation so thought it would be nice to pay them a visit as it was only 7pm. Funnily they were actually expecting me and there was a loud cheer from the (mostly) blokes as I walked in; evidentally they had been on the beer for some time and wanted me to catch up. One of them was pretty clear that I should have 10 (small) glasses before I cai ma. I was more bloated than anything else 20 minutes later after having ganbei'd just about everyone there, and finally turned to cai ma to slow things down.

Uncle Yellow called around 8pm to invite me for a bite at 9ish, which gave me an excuse to leave relatively soon after. But it was pretty good fun with the police, and maybe a good thing in another way to get to know them at this level. Uncle Yellow was in the same place I'd met him with Xixi about this time last year, with a couple of mates I knew, so it was good to catch up again. In typical style the people eating in the room next door also knew me somehow so I was beckoned in as I came back from a loo visit and sat down and given a bowl etc. A couple of ganbeis later Uncle Yellow entered and scolded me for leaving him (in a not totally serious way) so I excused myself and went back to his room to eat some quite lovely grubs. I've no idea what they actually were but I daresay they are high in protein.

Lovely grub

Mates

Eventually we said our goodbyes, but for good measure as it was close and near where I was, I passed by Huang's seafood place where he was very glad to see me. I was sat down with some mates and poured beer but I realised I had nearly used up my allotted wake-time straight away. I managed a little bit of conversation but felt myself dropping off too. I think Huang realised and didn't put up too much of a fight when I told him I'd better go home and come back when the jet lag had gone.