Ma Laoban and too much caffeine

Blimey I felt rough when I got up; a combination of a lack of sleep, too much booze, and being ill generally. After lunch I forced a couple of Gs as hair of the dog but it didn't seem to work. But I wanted to see Ma Laoban if possible so drove over to his new office.

He hadn't responded to my message but was there at least and we spent a great two hours chatting as you do. I gave him his present of some old British coins plus Lego for his two sons. I felt a bit weird and asked if the tea we were drinking contained caffeine. Apparently not, so I continued as it was rather lovely. He made me scan the barcode of the tea box with Weixin and it turned up it cost 480 kuai for the box. And of course he took out a couple to give to me.

Ma Laoban at his desk

Later at getting on for 5pm I said I should go, and he did a search and found out that indeed this tea did contain caffeine...I could have told him that! Back home I didn't fancy having a drink so made myself a coffee as I knew I'd only had about four hours' sleep. Then I got chatting to Mat, who was also knackered in la Reunion, and also made himself a coffee so I joined him for a second one. Jeez I wish I hadn't, I started to feel really really rough.

I remembered I'd promised Joe a Pingguo football top so went to find one but they didn't seem to be as ubiquitous as in the summer. A Xia said she didn't know where to get one either. So I ended up at the place we got our ones in the summer and although the owner said she didn't have any she would try to sort something out. Cool, she had my details and later she said she should have one by tomorrow.

At around 10pm I decided to go for a walk as if that would help me get out of my caffeine "low". Any other day I'd have been tempted by the various people at tables drinking, but beer was at the bottom of my list now. I did end up walking past Lu zong's water shop and was invited in by a group of old men...to drink tea...so I ended up spending a good 20 minutes there but had remembered to bring the last box of shortcakes biscuits for Lu zong. I felt shit, but realised this was a step down. Moving from Pingguo to the UK in one step would have been too much.

Tea with some old blokes at Lu zong's water shop

Soon after I got home Li Kun pinged me to go for a drink at Xiao Bai de Tian at 12:10am. I really wasn't in the mood but made an effort and first went to get a new large bottle of water for the house. Again, a trivial thing but rendered important by me, not to mention although I was nearly about to leave I'd still need the stuff. 

Well I met Li Kun and it was kind of fun, despite one bloke being too drunk. We cai ma'd for a while then I went for a walk but found myself with the owners of the place and had a glass of weak and sweet white alcohol plus a glass of tea. I went back to where the blokes were but by 2am the beer was tasting rank so I just said I'd be on my way, and that was ok.

Back home I realised I needed to book a hotel in Shenzhen. I'm not really sure getting a flight was the best thing to do. There are ferries from near the airport but not at the correct time, so I'm hoping doing Shekou is the right thing to do. At least I've now booked a hotel there. Due to the caffeine I was still up at gone 4am yet again...