Dom, Tan, Leilei, and Xixi in China: Yumi tang and Mole crickets

Oh woe is me it's happening, next Thursday we'll be on the train to Guangzhou. Maybe because it's been the first time in over three years or maybe because the kids are becoming adults, I just want to hang on to this time. I've loved not having to work for a while yet still been super-busy with socialising. But it's going to end soon. I wonder how the boys feel...I guess similar but who knows? Nezha has a six year-old sister he misses and Leilei will have to face the reality of A-level results.

It was another daytime of avoiding going outside, and Tan ordered three chicken burgers to be delivered. She called me to go downstairs to get them from the driver but no-one was there, so she called the driver and he came back to the house to show he'd hung the stuff on our front door. She apologised to the driver and then then had a go at me! Who was the one to say to go *down*stairs to pick it up? Well no-one was up and I was a little peckish so had half a burger and it was pretty much the worst thing I've eaten here this year. I gave the other half to Xixi who was awake but still in bed, and the boys were nowhere to be seen.

Jiuma had popped back for some reason, and had lit some joss sticks and stuck them in the place to remember those in the family that have died. Tan told me that Xixi had already done this and that I had to do it to as was family. I was more than happy to join in with this and actually felt a bit emotional as I lit them and poured some baijiu from a little pot into three little glasses. I didn't want to ask too much about why there were three joss sticks and three glasses but I guess one was for Waipo and one for Tan's dad. It's sad and yet happy to be recognised as one of the family here and not a tourist.

The end of the corridor reserved for respecting those who are no longer with us

I realised I was late with registering Xixi again so went to the police registering place on the other side of town and managed to remember exactly where it was, mainly from remembering the strategy of avoiding red lights and taking pedestrianised areas when I could. Annoyingly the lady said the person who does the deng ji wai guo ren had already finished for the day, but I could leave the passport and my phone number and she could sort it tomorrow. Fair enough I also left my Weixin ID in case that was useful.

By the time I was back it was teatime and Xixi and I went to the yumi tang place for the first time this year. The place was mostly full of delivery drivers, which I suppose says something positive about the the food. But it wasn't the same woman as last time and they'd run out of sweetcorn soup so we settled on rib soup instead. Then for my omelette I couldn't describe what exactly I wanted as last time the woman would pretty much say "the usual?", so I explained about fried eggs with greens and I thought she understood but we ended up with a plate of rice with some fried egg and tomatoes on it. Well it wasn't exactly what I wanted but I wasn't going to complain and this single portion was more than enough for both of us and came to 30 kuai for pretty much a full evening meal for two.

I'd promised Lu zong I'd meet up with him tonight at 9pm. A few minutes before I pinged him to check we were to meet at his shop, and he said he was already there and then to hurry up! But when I got there I found the shop was closed, so pinged him again and he said he was in that private room in the place on Jiang Bin Lu. Ah, I'd used 点 instead of 店 which had completely changed the meaning of the sentence. I'd been hasty while IM'ing and now was experiencing the "less speed" of the proverb. Not that proverbs are to be relied on in any way. Too many cooks spoil the broth but many hands make light work. Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves, but penny wise, pound foolish. In fact for the latter I definitely agree with the second one; focusing on trivial things is quite easy and then you may lose focus on the much more important things.

So, having maybe learnt a small lesson I drove on down to Jiang Bin Lu and found his place without too much bother. I was only the third person to turn up but thankfully over the night more mates turned up, some of whom I recognised from before. I wasn't massively in the mood for such an evening but after a couple of gan beis I started to enjoy it a lot more. The main attraction in terms of food was the plate of gryllotalpidae...yes of course that's the official translation from the Chinese but I later found out they are known as mole crickets, and they burrow in the ground so don't have wings, or least usually not very functional ones. But they are generally considered to be pests so it was a win-win to be eating them and getting some decent protein at the same time.