Fixing hong chun

Woke up at 7am for the first time in weeks and found the boys chatting in Leilei's room. Evidently they had been up all night (again). I didn't have the energy to argue and anyway what could I do? I was definitely under the weather and coughing so tried to go back to bed listening to conversations about bioelectricity with some bloke called Michael Levin. Wow, it genuinely feels that they are discovering some fascinating information about how we grow. DNA is not everything it seems...ion channels between cells enable them to communicate and somehow grow. Some animals are able to regenerate limbs and other body parts but others are not (apparently humans can regenerate the tips of their fingers up to the age of 11 sometimes). Frogs cannot regenerate limbs "naturally" but they cut off a frog's leg then covered the stub with some solution with potassium ions and other stuff for 24 hours, and months later it actually grew back the leg. It wasn't perfect, but it had the five fingers and reacted to touch. This is potentially massive...imagine if we could translate this to mammals...and the possible implications for cancer too. I'm definitely going to learn more about this space while I have the time.

But after a boiled egg and a yoghurt I eventually managed to doze off to a similar video...justifying paying for three VPN services. But it was a rather late doze from 3.30 for only 90 minutes or so so I made myself a rare caffeinated coffee followed by a couple of colas before realising I should eat and we didn't have plans. Well I was half expecting Liu ge to get in contact but perhaps that would be later for bbq, so I stuck to wedding nuts and sweets in order not to be stuffed for later, then popped to Guanmart to get some yoghurt and other provisions. I noticed the bike had done 59km since its first actual charge, which is pretty positive, and I can pretty much count on a 25km radius now.

At 7.30pm I went to Lao Ma's salon to get a haircut...about the only place that's barely changed since we first came here in 2003 and stayed at her house. She even has the same CRT tv, and only the sign above the shop has changed in 20 years. She allowed me to pay 30 kuai which included a wash as well and I asked her where I could change the red band of my jade pig necklace. This is normally one of the first things I do when I get here but the main jade place in the centre has closed down now and I worried it would break apart. Of course there was a place a few doors up and Lao Ma walked up with me without locking her doors, and we spent 10 minutes and 10 kuai chatting with the shopkeeper who did a good job of replacing what I now know is called "hong chun".

Lao Ma at the jade place fixing my hong chun

By 9.30pm Liu ge still hadn't got in contact, which seemed a bit strange so I sent him a message saying no problem if not convenient but I got no reply. So I was about to go and find something to eat myself when I received an emoji of two beer glasses chinking from that friend from the bbq after the football, which I took as a convenient invitation for a beer, but before I could A Wu called me to go over to the place we were the other night with the drunk bosses. So I responded to the beer request saying maybe a bit later as I thought at least I'd grab a bite to eat with A Wu first, and the boys had already gone to Li Kun's to make music. Li Kun had also pinged me to say the boys could come over and he'd already sent the password to them to get in as he was out for a while.

As I'd had a few bills to pay I was down to 50 kuai so for the third time sent 2000 kuai to Li Kun's Weixin using Wise. It's fairly simple after you've set up a payee for the first time and I trust him implicitly to send it straight to me. Normally I get it within a minute or so but I guess he really was busy as I was at A Wu's when I received it and I wondered if I'd hit some limit or something. It would certainly be more convenient if I could just send it to myself but the receiver needs to be a Chinese citizen for some reason and I'm quite some way from being there.

Boss Huang and others were in good spirits at the meal, which had clearly started hours ago. I'm not sure why they didn't invite me earlier as they cheered as I walked in. And so I caught up somewhat on food and cai ma, and every half an hour or so a new, drunk boss would amble in and continue drinking, then challenge me a cai ma. Li Kun was pinging me to come round to his and I said I'd be a few minutes (it was a good excuse for a pause with the beer), but then one of the women from the farm meal the other day walked in and it would have been rude to leave so soon, so I stayed for another 20 minutes to be polite. Apparently she is the boss of a red wine place, but I don't really place her in the same category as she wasn't obviously drunk and didn't challenge me to cai ma.

At getting on for midnight I answered Li Kun to say I was on my way and yes I'd get some bbq but I had no plans on picking it up on the way as it would have taken 20 minutes or so, so got to his office and asked him to sort it and I'd pay for it. The boys were indeed there with their headphones on but left shortly afterwards saying they weren't hungry, and Leilei asked Li Kun if they could leave their stuff there till the next time. It may seem pretty minor but I see it as a big step Leilei not asking me to ask Li Kun, and going directly to him. I've seen him communicate a few times this year in Mandarin, but normally in response to a question, not actually being the questioner. Progress of a kind.

I was a bit lazy getting another bloke to order the bbq on his phone, but at least was able to pay Li Kun 168 kuai from mine. I don't know what would have turned up had I tried to order by myself. But five of us shared a few beers and the inevitable cai ma, and I hoped in vain for the rain to let up but it was having none of it. At getting on for 2am I was getting on for exhausted so we called it a night, and Li Kun made sure I pinged him when I got home as it's not that easy holding an umbrella on a dian dong che.