Passion

I managed to wake up at 3am, a whole 59 minutes after I fell asleep. Well that was ok, I'd just fall asleep again...at least that was the plan but it didn't quite work out and by 5am I'd decided I'd see it out and catch up after lunch. So I went for a jog at 6.30 and managed a slow hour around the guangchang a few times. More and more people are starting to do this and I had the idea of starting a Park Run here. Except by 9am it would be too hot so it would have to be a 7.30am start at the latest. I wonder how many people would really turn up.

Back at home it would be hours before anyone else was up so I didn't bother getting breakfast from the doujiang place, and instead had some of yesterday's unfinished bbq that was in the fridge. Normally this gets thrown away, so I was happy for the chance not to waste it, even if getting through several spicy duck tongues at 8am felt slightly weird. Later the rest of them got up and Tan said she was taking the kids swimming, and this time it actually happened and they were to meet friends and eat there (I've learnt that "swimming" is the optional part, and generally the excuse for a meet-up). So at midday, after my own bite to eat, I allowed myself a little drink to ease to flight into a morpheus grip and didn't arise till the kids got back at 5pm. They were quite sunburnt and I shuddered to think of the trouble I'd have been in had it been me who'd taken them out. Then suddenly it was 5.30pm and I realised I'd dropped off again, so this time I forced myself to grab a coffee to make my awakeness stick.

We had no invitations or plans for tea so we went downstairs to the jiao zi place, but Xixi didn't want any and chose a pancake-wrapped sausage thing with some lettuce instead from next door. It was not the most nutritious of meals but it fed them. The kids got some soft drinks from the other next door but I decided I would have some fruit, and asked the woman what she had. Of course she pointed to the menu and of course I was too proud to say I couldn't understand it, so looked at it in a way that I hoped made me look like I was deciding which of the various options I should choose. I wanted something new for a change, which meant something that I didn't understand (i.e. not watermelon, mango, or, well basically anything with "melon" on the end). So I started mouthing what I could read from 百香果 - bǎi something guǒ...white something fruit...I had a clue...now I realised the second character is one of the characters in Hong Kong (Xiānggǎng) but I couldn't remember which one...but it would be bǎi xiāng guǒ or bǎi gǎng guǒ, white fragrant fruit, or white harbour fruit. I guessed the former but couldn't work out which actual fruit it would be even if I could pronounce it. As I was mouthing it out the woman must have seen the troubles I was going through, or just grown impatient (which is unlikely here) and just shouted out "bǎixiāngguǒ!" and I looked at her without thinking and said yes I'd like one please! I had to watch as she opened the fridge and brought out a couple of brownish small-apple-sized things that she broke apart, revealing yellowy fleshy seeds inside and finally it dawned on me it was passionfruit. It took a few more seconds before it finally clicked that this was a Chinesisation of the English and had little to no bearing on white fragrance. Sometimes you can over-analyse things. It was delicious though.


Tan was off to Tian Dong and not back till tomorrow so I had the kids to myself for the next 24 hours or so, so we went for a drive down to the river just to have a walk. They didn't seem to get that going for a walk can be something in itself...you don't need to buy something or jump on a castle...or maybe that's one of the differences between being a kid and being "grown up". So I tried to explain that just by looking around and seeing and hearing things they don't get in the UK is an experience in itself. Like going to the bridge that has no road on the other side, and hasn't had for years...wondering why it's like that, and what you'd do if you could...I think that got them thinking a little.... And I still wonder why there is no road after the bridge..fat chance I'll get a good answer....

On the bridge with only one road, with Xixi who recently bought a mask in order to look like a "savage"...

I took them to the guangchang later to bounce off the energy of sweet drinks, and afterwards they both decided they'd like to sleep at Waipo's so I got them showered and ready and took them over around 10pm. At least that freed me up to see Yang Haiwei and his family a bit later as they would have been a bit bored with us chatting, and me having to speak English to his elder son. Despite having kept my diary clear for tomorrow (as he'd invited us to visit to his family's home in Po Zao) he declared that we would not now be going as his son was too busy. Just like that. Nothing gets planned more than a few hours ahead here, but it still surprises me. Instead we were to have a family meal at his place as we have done for the last few years.

I had promised to see my mate Hua the other night so around 1am I popped round to his shopped as he'd been messaging me for the last hour and I'd promised to make it over. I told Haiwei and he said he'd come too, which he did. There were about four blokes sitting at a table outside the shop and all greeted me heartily when I turned up on my trusty steed. It was more of the same in terms of gan beis though Haiwei's wife took them home after half an hour and we continued on for a bit longer but I was getting really tired despite my recent siesta so called it a day at 2am.