Xixi was also up so the two of us went to register ourselves at the police station. This time they just said to leave our passports as all the details were the same as last year, and they’d call me when it was ready or if there was a problem. We’d been expecting to wait there for up to an hour as per previous years so we took advantage of the time to get provisions from the supermarket before picking up Leilei and going to the underground shopping centre to see if we could find A Xia who moved there three months previously. Boringly we guessed the right entrance (no. 32) and found her shop within a minute, something that could have taken loads more. But A Xia wasn’t there, so as it was getting on for midday we went to the Yumi tang place for lunch, where the woman stopped me in mid-order and finished it for me - she remembered our usual from last year.
As we got back home after sweetcorn soup and fried egg and egg fried rice I received a picture text from Li Kun that appeared to be for some sort of concert for tomorrow...I possibly could have translated it if I’d had a spare hour but that wasn’t happening, so I left it. It was more important to take the kids out to have a drink of watermelon juice and zhen zhu nai cha. And even more important to get a siesta….
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| A Xia's new shop in the underground mall |
I put on Milton Friedman again and dozed from 1.15pm to 3pm. At first I was listening, then two out of every 10 words I wouldn’t hear, this increased gradually until I only recognised a noise in the background. Oh how I wish hypnopaedia worked - I would be on the way to being an economist by now. Whether I knew any more about fractional lending or not, I was certainly refreshed.
Tan told me about a mate who was in debt and shamed by being on a public website. I’d heard about how a number of citizens had been blacklisted, and how they were not allowed to travel by train or plane, and now I knew one. It’s sad in multiple ways. Being in debt itself, but being publicly shamed seems a little old-fashioned though our media does it all the time for different offences. But also from an institutional perspective how did banks make so many “bad” loans? Especially after the 2008 crisis - did they not ensure people had collateral? What will happen if they don’t get the money back? Government bailouts I expect, like in the West, and the banks will get a slight slap on the wrist.
Waterman had invited me out for 9pm. I didn’t really want to eat but met a friend for eight jiaozi for 6 kuai before picking up the bottle of Jim Beam Red Stag I’d bought in duty free for him and waited until he contacted me at 9.02pm to say he was there. I had some memories of being there last year, and certainly remembered the “English” beer with the Union Flag on it that was probably brewed a few miles away. Still, as I’d had a little rest in the afternoon it was more than doable and although I got back around midnight I still didn’t sleep till 3.15.
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| At the bar with Waterman - a "friendly" between Spurs and Man U |
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| Nice bar food |
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