A lazy morning risked turning into a lazy afternoon so I went to the supermarket to top up on washing liquid, yoghurt, hair spray, and beer. I checked the red envelope I was given last night when I paid 200 kuai at the funeral and found it contained 30 kuai. I could have been logical about it and asked why not just pay 170 kuai and not bother with the change but I've been here long enough not to. So I used most of it to come back with four portions of jiaozi, which were eventually polished off by the kids as Tan said she didn't want any due to her mouth (well she did have two wisdom teeth removed). However she managed to share some of Xixi's portion so it can't have been that bad.
At about 3pm Nezha reminded me that I'd said I'd arranged going swimming today. Oh damn I'd totally forgotten about that, and couldn't really get out of it so I said I'd check it out. I called A Wu who told me the name of the place. I thought it was the reservoir but he said it was Luxian Hu and when I looked it up it pretty much was the same reservoir, and only a few minutes away by car. So I said I'd get some more stuff from the supermarket and we could have a bite to eat there as you do. But Tan was saying it was dangerous and we shouldn't swim there. Well I've been there a couple of times before and there are plenty of people swimming with suitable rings and life jackets, even if there is no guard.
So I went out to pick up more beer and various snacks from Guanmart, but not before I saw a lorry trundling past shooting out sprays of water into the air behind it. I've seen these before from a distance and always thought it was some sort of disgusting exhaust, but this year someone had explained that it was just to put more moisture in the atmosphere (apparently not for the trees but it can't harm them). So I followed it for a few seconds and indeed got a bit wet in its wake, and refreshed a little I continued to Guanmart to get the stuff.
Back home we packed towels and a change of underwear and Tan scolded us again saying you weren't allowed to swim there and sent a message from a friend who's said it was dangerous and every year someone drowns there. We said we'd get life jackets but she still kept insisting we mustn't go in the water, and Leilei was getting really embarrassed in front of Nezha. I got a bit annoyed and said I'd been there before with A Wu and the kids, and that if she wouldn't order a didi che we'd just find one ourselves. This would be the only chance this holiday for going for a swim in the lake, so she reluctantly ordered one which turned up not a minute later.
10 minutes later we were there, but there were very few people swimming and nowhere to get a life jacket, so Leilei led us along a path for a couple of hundred metres until we happened upon a second car park with far more cars and people, and yes this was the place we'd been to before. We saw some people getting into a dinghy and I asked a shopkeeper if we could hire one but she answered in the negative. I asked why and she gave some answer I didn't really get, so asked how the other people were getting on the boat. Ah, apparently they'd brought their own one. So unfortunately we couldn't get a boat ride unlike 10 years ago with A Wu, but at least she sold life jackets for 25 kuai each which I thought was pretty cheap considering they could indeed save one. I got one each for the boys and they got changed and ventured down to the side of the lake, but try as he might, Leilei wasn't having any of it as he really unfortunately never mastered the art of swimming despite my best efforts taking them when younger. In fact he could swim a bit but stopped going and just lost confidence. He was really upset about it and I was too - it made me think of that Topsy and Tim book where Tim was too scared to go in the pool.
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| Ready but not really able yet |
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| Not as busy as usual due to the weather apparently |
But it just wasn't going to happen and he angrily snorted "I fucking hate swimming", which really meant "I can't stand the fact that I can't swim" even though he would have floated fine in the warm water. Nezha was pretty confident out in the lake so I had a beer and some cucumber crisps before he came back half an hour later. I sort of wanted to go, and in the end logicked myself into doing it as I knew I wouldn't regret it. Annoyingly my swimming shorts had lost any elasticity they may have had, so once in the water as soon as I started my front crawl they were half way down my bum. Whatever, what would anyone do if they saw? I swam to the middle easily as I wasn't slowed down by a life jacket, then thought sod it I'd go all the way to the other side. There I got chatting to a bloke and some kids for a bit which seemed to entertain them, then made my excuses and headed back, but I met Nezha halfway back and he said he wanted to go to the other side too and could I join him as he couldn't speak Chinese. Fair enough, it was a bit more exercise and it wasn't sunny so there was little chance of sunburn. We went, we didn't talk much, then we turned and headed the 200 metres or so back. I've hardly done any exercise at all in the last six weeks but it felt pretty easy and a couple of people commented on how well I could swim. I was one of the few who was not in a life jacket, or attached to some buoyancy aid of one type or another so I guess looked a bit more professional.
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| Use your imagination for a buoyancy aid |
I noticed that actually there was a sign saying the lake was deep and swimming was not allowed, but in this case there were plenty of families with young kids all in the water. I mean with a buoyancy aid there's not much to worry about right? A father who was there with his kids asked Nezha if they could borrow the life jackets we bought, and I said of course they could. And then later as they were leaving they asked if they could keep them which I thought was a bit cheeky but we wouldn't need them again and I wasn't planning on taking them home.
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| A sign on the right saying swimming is forbidden and a shop in the background selling life jackets and inflatable rings |
After getting changed I walked down to the shaded eating area to find five blokes eating and drinking. Of course they invited me over and I sat with them for a quick chat. I didn't want to drink the baijiu they were drinking so went and fetched four cans of beer and Nezha joined for a few minutes while we cai ma'd. They'd evidently been there most of the afternoon and were fairly well-oiled, so after a few photographs I left them to get on and called Tan to get us a didi che back, and after a couple of phone calls the driver managed to find us. 10.5 kuai for the whole journey was ridiculously cheap!
As we'd only really had a few snacks by the time we got back after 7pm, I was quite ok to receive an IM from A Wu telling me to come to the bosses office to drink beer. I said I'd grab a quick shower and be over soon, and got the usual "kuai yi dian" in response. Leilei decided to go to Li Kun's studio by himself and I had no problem with him being independent, but he'd taken the black dian dong che, leaving only the crappy big red one with knackered batteries. But it was better than walking and soon after 8pm I was there, but it was the house next door for some reason.
A Wu saw me through the half-opened door and pulled me in to great cheers. Apparently it was his boss Li Laoban's birthday, and I was made to sit next to him and before I knew it I was gan bei'ing left, right, and centre. I was even forced by A Wu to do a little speech. I had nothing planned so on the spot said Li Laoban didn't know me but was so welcoming to me that he must be a great boss to all of you (yes apparently he was the other bosses' boss too), and A Wu beamed a great smile to let me know I'd done well.
Li Laoban thrust a tiny glass of baijiu and begrudgingly I gan bei'd it with him as if to acknowledge his superiority over the others, but quickly followed up with a beer to attempt to remove the taste. He also told me to come back tomorrow to continue, but somehow I doubted he'd remember that. I had chicken breast thrust in my bowl and did my best to eat it before more stuff was put there. After half an hour or so I noticed Li Laoban was no longer there, but I'm learning this is pretty normal, he'd probably gone next door for a snooze. Then the fairly pretty lady who walked in the other day walked in again in her white dress looking relatively angelic. She proceeded to smile and sit down and eat a full meal without engaging in conversation. Maybe she was one of their wives? I sort of wanted to find out but I felt a rumbling down below that didn't feel at all good. I might have had the time to go home on the black dian dong che but the red one was far too slow so I realised I'd have to eject on a squatter again. In fact I realised even the black bike wouldn't have got me home in time...I wonder what it was...had I imbibed some water from the lake?
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| A few bosses left at table after Li Laoban when for a snooze |
Advertising friend had texted me to ask what I was doing and I told her I was in a boss meal, and apparently she was too, and that we were to go a bar about an hour later. This worked for me and gave me an excuse to leave half an hour later, and go home to heat up the last leftover jiaozi for Xixi and chill for a bit before the next stint of the evening.
Luckily Leilei was back so I could take the black bike, and met Advertising friend and her mates in the open area of the "Club" I'd been to a couple of weeks earlier with bbq friend. Oh dear, it was Belgian beer, but whatever, I knew I wouldn't be under too much pressure here, and the food was a lot more edible than that at the bosses' place I'd just been to. It ended up being a cool evening and yeah a little cai ma of course. At around half past midnight I used the genuine excuse of getting some bbq sweetcorn for Xixi and Advertising friend sorted it out on Weixin including paying for it (only 10 kuai), and I was glad to see it was on the way back home just next to Huang's seafood place. So I had a happy daughter who devoured all 10 sticks of the stuff, then had a beer or two catching up with Mat and Awl before bed at 3am.
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| Happy sweetcorn lady |
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