Final footy match of the season

At 8am I was awake. At 9am I was still awake. At 10am I was awake but thinking I wouldn't make it for the footy, but Lu Feng had pinged me to say to meet up at 1.30pm for the match due to start at 2.30pm. At 11am finally I connected to the VPN and "watched" a podcast of Sean Carroll talking to David Deutsch about quantum such and such and really didn't understand much but I thought it would make me sleep. It didn't, so eventually at 12.39pm I gave up and poured myself a gin and 0% sugar drink I bought last night. I wasn't really in the mood but I was going to watch a football match and knew it might require some Dutch (rather than Deutsch) courage.

I left at 1.30pm and stopped off to get some jiaozi at my local place. Of course the boss lady was not in any way nonplussed to see me (does that mean she was plussed?), and served me as though I'd been there every day for the last 20 years. But in a way that is what I love about this place. Ok, it's only been about 10 years but I like to feel I'm a bit of a local at this place. And it was a blinding portion as usual - which I shared with Leilei and Nezha by means of a photo.

Then it was off to the stadium to meet Lu Feng (I think he's generally known as Feng ge - big brother Feng - but in my case I should probably call him Feng di). Thanks to Weixin and phones in general we met up and he handed me a loudspeaker and I had to shout out something...well I did my best to copy the others and it was something like "la la la la la la la la Guangxi dui!" Guangxi team! This went on for a few minutes after which he handed me a strip of 6 tablets saying they were medicine for the throat for shouting/cheering so much. This was thinking-in-advance the likes of which I'm not used to here. Also, Feng di gave me a bottle of water and said to put it in my pocket in order to get past security, and it worked.

Having to help with the cheerleading pre-match

It was a decent match, coming back to win with two second half goals, unfortunately at the other end of the stadium from where we were. Other than the "ultras" areas, the stadium was not full to the rafters, unlike in the summer, but it was quite a hot afternoon and not much more to play for other than pride and 4th place. But still, a pretty good achievement after we were pretty close to going down last year. Only two places off promotion to the top tier!

If Scott Joplin only knew his ghost would still live on in Southern China...

Feng di had said something about drinking and eating after the match, but first the team did a tour of the stadium to give respect to the crowd. We appeared to be the last ones and for some reason we all threw down a load of broad-rimmed farming hats as if it was some tradition here. It was also very decent of the home supporters to cheer the opposition and this was reciprocated too.

Around 5pm we moved from our seats around to the north side of the stadium where the No Name bar is situated. I think that one of the "ultras" is named the 无名球迷 (No Name Football Fans) after the bar situated there, and that this time we were actually sitting in the opposite side with a different group of "ultras". So it seems that there is no fierce rivalry between them, or I have completely misunderstood. Tables were being wheeled onto the running track behind the goal and I offered to help but Feng di took me to the stands, where a few fans were gathered around 安永佳 (who is the main star of the team) for a drone-led photoshoot. He is technically from Hong Kong but one of his parents is from New Zealand. It was a short, refreshing, change to be out of the focal point for a while, and I declined Feng di's suggestion to ask him for his autograph as security ushered him away. A while later I told Chuan Chuan I'd been next to 安永佳 and she said she wished she'd asked me for his autograph...ah well maybe next time....

As the food was being prepared I had to play a few rounds of cai ma with some of the locals, which was duly filmed I found out later as multiple people sent me what they'd seen on douyin. There were about 15 round tables in a row, and of course the meal was as good as the company. I didn't know more than one person on my table but half way through the meal I knew them all, plus the two surrounding tables.

Getting ready to eat with a young friend who was asking me all about the UK

This time unfortunately losing a round of cai ma

Another fine meal already

As is becoming more and more normal now, a guitar and speakers were brought out a bit later so we had live music for the latter part of the meal. But I guess by this stage the jetlag was setting in as memories after 10pm are rather hazy.