Bangxu wedding and weird singing night

As I was in the hotel I'd hoped to sleep in to nearly midday but I got a missed call from an unknown number ending 88 at 9.20am. Followed by a Weixin missed call a couple of minutes later from Erjie. Oh blimey, I guessed it was to do with the wedding that Tan had told me about and said I didn't need to go to. So I called her back and she said to hurry home as we were to drive to Bangxu for the wedding meal indeed. I thought about not going, as I had no idea how long it would go on for, and I'd promised to sing at the Zhong Yi place's function today too. But as it was family it was "family first" and I told her I'd be there around 10am.

Erjie was there with a few other Bangxu ladies and it didn't look like they were just about to leave. An hour passed and I realised it was this trick people use to get you somewhere so you can't do anything else. All they were doing was chatting so I told them I'd go to get a pair of shoes cleaned and they couldn't really complain, except to tell me the shop would be closed due to New Year. Well I got out of the house at least and of course the shop was as open as it could be. I popped in to Guanmart too to pick up some bits and pieces plus a 258ml bottle of jing jiu, should I need some Dutch courage later on.

I got back home at 11.45am to see they were only just leaving. I decanted the jing jiu into the remains of some cola in its bottle, and got into the front of the people carrier while Erjie, Jiuma, and the kid and her mother got in the back. At least the driver was pretty safe, but I'd taken a little medicine (not alcohol) before the journey so was reasonably relaxed about it. Until 12.20pm that was. I received a message from the Zhong Yi boss to say to go to the new Li Jia He Xian hotel at 1pm with my guitar. Oh horror, I was still a good half an hour from Bangxu and immediately was wracked with guilt. They'd been talking about this day for a week and I was heading in the wrong direction. I explained I thought it would be an evening affair (the truth), and said I'd let him know as soon as I was leaving Bangxu. Well he sent a location and then later told me I had the 4pm slot. Shit. Still I suppose there was a chance I'd be back by then.

At Bangxu we parked and walked up to a tiny village where we found loads of people cooking and cutting food, putting it in portions. But it looked far from ready. I'd naively thought we were coming for lunch but soon realised it was one of those "tricks" where they get you to be there early again. But anyway, it was quite good fun chatting to some of the kids there, getting them to say "my name is..." and then something I couldn't understand but tried to repeat anyway. I helped put out the tables and then to slightly allay my constant sense of guilt about my other date, had a wee sip for the jing jiu and cola, and it actually wasn't that bad.

Preparing portions for the wedding meal

That's quite a few chickens

Then, strangely, at 3pm we sat down to eat. I had no idea if it was now a late lunch or an early tea but wasn't complaining. The meat was cut into large chunks, as it customary here apparently, and within half an hour we'd finished and Jiuma was bagging up the remains, which accounted for 3/4 of all the food that was there. Erjie announced that we were now to leave but that I could stay to drink and play cai ma with the blokes. But I wasn't even tempted and made sure I got in the car with them. I pinged the Zhong Yi bloke to say I was on my way back, and would it still be ok to turn up late. Yes, it would be fine. I guess they'd rearrange my slot.

Erjie showing the rather large cuts of chicken at the meal

I wish I could fall asleep in a car so easily

In trepidation I managed to finish the cola mixture during the hour journey back. You never know if it will be a private room with 6-7 people or something much, much bigger. Back home I grabbed a shower and a shave, and made it to the hotel for about 6pm. But I'd accidentally forgotten my guitar, and the boss said to go and get it. Blimey, I actually thought they might have one there. He also said to put on a shirt. Hmmm...it looked like it wouldn't be a room of 6-7 people then. So 20 minutes later I was back with my black canvas shoes and black shirt with flamingos on as it's about the only thing with collars I have with me. I may also have chugged a small beer while back home.

Shit, it was worse than I'd imagined. A whole function room filled with well over 100 people, and already I could see Li Kun's guitar mate on the stage with a band. I sat with the Zhong Yi boss and grabbed a bite to eat, and looked around for a drink but I couldn't see anything. Eventually he brought a bottle of red wine to our table, saying there wasn't any beer. I wasn't going to complain, and for once was happy to ganbei it. I got chatting to some people round the table as it seemed there was enough entertainment for the moment and I literally told the boss I'd like to have a couple of drinks to calm my nerves.

So many people...

One woman to my left let it be known that she didn't have a husband (I'd already told her I was married) and asked if I could help her find an English boyfriend from 50-52 years old. Er, this is not the first time I've been asked this. I said I could take a picture of her and if I knew someone could show them. But she said no, she would send me a video of herself instead. This she did, and it was a rather eerie video of her singing some weird song in near black and white. Maybe that was the reason she was single.

Anyway, the band packed up, then there was some sort of weird goings-on on the stage, such as a woman balancing on one leg. Then the penny dropped a bit, and I reckoned I was in some sort of Chinese medicine function or promotion. This went on for a while after which I was a tad tipsy. I noticed some tables had left, so thought I had got away with it but NO! It was now my time and I was led to the stage where I put the capo on the 2nd fret and fret myself as I made sure it was in tune. As the previous band had gone there was no wire for my guitar, so one bloke stood to hold a microphone to my mouth, and another knelt to hold one to the guitar. Well my throat is still bad, and I don't think I gave a good rendition of Sound of Silence at all, but the 100 or so people who were still there clapped along and seemed very happy. I was even asked to do an encore so I did The Boxer as it was the easiest to remember the words to in my state. I remember I was straining a bit so missed out the fifth verse and cut the guitar bit at the end to being pretty minimal but I think I got away with it judging by the clapping.

Afterwards, the boss asked me something about the medicinal treatment I'd had the other day (while I was still on the stage). Err..I don't think it had had any effect but I said I was already feeling better (which was true, only not due to the treatment). This brought out another round of applause and I felt my presence now had been completely justified if only for getting this compliment from this foreigner. I said my xiexies and made my way off the stage after 10 long minutes. It was now 9pm, and I had a few more glasses until the event appeared to finish at 10pm. For some reason I picked up a crate of beers at the local shop at 10.20pm, but I didn't even attempt to open one and was fast asleep not long after that.

Visit to Yanjiang with Yangwen

Up at a reasonable 9.30am or so but didn't feel great so resolved not to do anything silly today. Lunch was boring pao mian but I needed something more than quail eggs. Zhang Yangwen had pinged me to go out to play ping pong at 10am but I still wasn't feeling great, so instead he said to go to play for 10 minutes around 7pm. This was much more doable though I'm not sure how much good 10 minutes would do.

Then Yangwen pinged me again to meet up, so as I had not much better to do I agreed to meet him outside his house by the supermarket. So I agreed to be there at 3pm and when that time rolled around he pinged me to check I was on my way. So much for being fashionably late as when I got there he bibbed me from his new car. Oh, apparently we were going to a place called Yanjiang a few km outside of Pingguo to pick up some vegetables. Ok fair enough. It was a a good 15 minute drive south east and I was surprised I'd never been there before or even heard about it.

Well we did indeed stop off by the market and Yangwen bought a few bags of qing cai. I could hear the word "Russian" being whispered by some of the store holders so I walked over to them with a smile and indeed they asked if I was Russian. It's one of the most popular guesses for where I'm from. I'd say in order when people guess where I'm from it goes USA, Russia, Germany, UK, China. Yes, some people seem to think I could be Chinese and the other day I was asked if I had a Chinese passport.

Yangwen buying some qing cai as you do

After the market we went for a stroll and Yangwen was explaining how Yanjiang is ancient and used to be a 古镇, or ancient outpost. All the people we passed peered at me unlike most people in Pingguo and I guess it was because I looked different. Indeed, at the river we stopped for a while and some kids came over to look at me. They were oh so sweet and I was happy to talk to them and let them look at my nose and touch my arms due to the colour being different.

We drove back around 5ish and when he dropped me off I decided to pop in to the supermarket to get a sneaky bottle of something. Well they only had pitbull and melon flavour vodka so I opted for the latter. Yangwen had said to meet up later to play some ping pong so I didn't have more than a couple of the yucky melon vodkas. Annoyingly, the dian dong che's lights weren't working, possibly due to the overnight rain. I've already had my helmet nicked so didn't want to give someone the chance of nicking me for being light- and helmet-less, so pinged Yangwen to say I'd be late as I'd be walking over. As it was, the ping pong place was too busy so he met me outside to say we'd go for a walk. That was absolutely fine by me so we did a couple of rounds of the football stadium along with quite a few joggers. Jeez this is something I need to get back to now after the last two weeks.

Not an amazing choice of vodka but better than a few years ago

Back home it was pretty busy and noisy with family, and I wanted to grab a shower but there were too many people. So I decided that for a little over £20 I'd book a hotel round the corner and get a bit of luxury. It was a good idea, not to mention much warmer than the house, and fun. I got a nice shower and a bloody soft bed for the first time in a while, although ended up chatting to Mat till gone 2.30am.

Strange contraption to boost my immune system and late bite with Li Kun

Well last night's quiz meant I didn't get up till 11am to the noise of A Heng's daughter in the living room. She's very cute but I wanted a wee and didn't really want to see the rest of the family so waited till they went out at nearly midday. After a refreshing wee I got back to my room and realised I'd need to eat. To the right of me was a half glass of jing jiu I'd obviously poured last night so at 12.16pm I poured it down my throat as it was medicinal, and then one more to help. That got me the inspiration to go out and get some jiaozi, after which I picked up some washing liquid along with some more jing jiu.

So back home I put on my other half of clothes even though the first half were still not properly dry. I don't care if Jiuma has a go at me - I'll definitely use the drier again if I need to. I waited till the clothes had finished and hoped that the predicted 17-18 degree weather would come tomorrow as I was dangerously out of clothes. At gone 3pm the bloke from the local Chinese medicine shop pinged me to go over and be "done" to fix my immune system. I had no intention of doing so so had a glass of jing jiu and at 5pm fell asleep for 90 minutes or so.

On waking up I felt a little bad, so pinged the bloke that I'd just had a siesta and he said they were still there waiting for me. So I had another "sod it" moment and went over. After a couple of cups of tea he got me to sit in a chair and take off my socks and shoes, then applied some gel to my soles and got me to place my feet on some electric thing. He then put some body warmer thing around my stomach and turned it on. Then he pulled the trigger of some thermometer gun at my ankle and it read 29.9 degrees. Whatever.

Weird contraption that was supposed to boost my immune system

I didn't feel anything in particular, other than a little bored as I saw there would be another 40 minutes of this, and I only had hot water to drink. But after 10 minutes he came back to check my ankle's temperature and it was now 38 degrees. I was supposed to be surprised, as I said I didn't feel any warmer. Then the woman came and spoke to me in Mandarin that would push the limits of most locals (I hope) and I nodded a bit and said that although I didn't feel hot, the insides of my foot were hot, and she said "Yes! You are so intelligent!". No, I'd only guessed what she was on about.

I don't honestly know what this thing was but they can use it on your neck (and no they didn't on mine)

I spent the next half an hour worrying that this would cost me £100 before realising I hadn't eaten since 1.40pm and was absolutely starving. When it finally finished I had a couple more glasses of tea with the boss and asked about paying but the woman said we'd talk about it in a couple of days. This is so typically Chinese, and I really don't mind it. But I also really don't want to come back and do this again. I left with them reminding me to come back tomorrow or the next day, and not to forget I had to play the guitar for them on the 31st. I said I hadn't forgotten.

It was getting on for 11pm so I pinged Li Kun to see if he was about. About he was, and I walked to his studio to find him and his family there. His kids are pretty close to me so I took them out to get some chocolate and toys at a nearby shop. Again, there is an innate trust between them and me, and when I got back I was only admonished for getting his son a toy car as he'd already got a toy vehicle early that day.

We ended up taking his car to Xiao Bai de Tian as we'd done a few times in November last year and ended up getting some very good noodles that the kids wolfed down too. After an hour or so Li Kun's wife drove back with the kids and the owner and another bloke came to our table for a chat. There was only one other table with people, two blokes and a young woman, and they had one of those dispensers of booze you can pour yourself using a tap. Well, I found out it was that vile er gou tou as at about 1am when they decided to leave the woman could barely walk. I hope one of the blokes was sober enough to get her home safely.

Simple but lovely meal at Xiao Bai de Tian with Li Kun and family

Another six beers were brought over to our table, and the other bloke who hitherto had not drunk with us then poured a glass of baijiu. He was also not a local so was relatively easy to understand. He was quite big and didn't seem to notice the cold as he only wore a vest. Maybe the coldest of the weather is over with now. Well we managed till nearly 2am before I said I was kun le so we said we'd finish the last beer before I managed to insist on paying (as it was me who effectively had invited them). 180 kuai for 12 beers and a load of portions of food that fed four adults and two kids is not to be sniffed at. Li Kun ordered a didi che home and wouldn't hear of me walking all of three minutes back! A brief chat with Mat at 2.30am and I was well and truly asleep shortly after 3am.

Walk with Zhang Yangwen and unexpected ye xiao with friend Nong

Really woke up to a nasty cold at 9am but at least managed an hour more of on-and-off dozing till the noises outside meant I couldn't anymore. Fair enough, it's their house more than mine and I've so far not really paid for much. Eventually they left just before midday so I grabbed the 2nd portion of jiaozi I'd bought yesterday and heated them up for lunch plus a yoghurt as I figured I'd need the energy.

I'd hoped for a siesta again which somewhat justified drinking the beer I'd poured last night as due to the weather it was still well under room temperature. That led to another but I wasn't really in the mood so just chilled until my mate Yang pinged me to go for a walk later if I wasn't feeling too bad. I was feeling bad, but think it must be worth getting out of the house at such times, so told him I'd pop over to the ping pong place around 6.30pm.

I admit to taking a carry-on of jing jiu for the walk, even though the dian dong che had finished charging (mercifully without the alarm going off this time). I got to the end of the guangchang when I realised I was bloody hungry, so walked to the football stadium where I knew there would be food vendors. Indeed I stopped at a place where the lady was saying something to me. In fact I had been on the phone to Andge for the last 10 minutes but he had to remove some plasterboard in the next 45 minutes before going on a date with Lis so I let him go and asked the lady what the stuff was. Well it was fried chicken and it didn't look the healthiest of options but I was ill so asked to try some. But no, of course she had to re-fry it so she ended up putting in 8 portions. I wasn't really in a position to argue and anyway it was only 10 kuai so I happily paid.

Getting an unhealthy portion of fried chicken while having a healthy conversation with the vendor

Yang pinged me to ask where I was and I told him I was having a bite. I didn't expect it to take 10 minutes to re-fry the chicken and wondered if in fact it was raw but already battered. It didn't really matter. As someone who had had a couple of beers and some jing jiu it really hit the spot and I ate it on the way to the table tennis centre, being careful to put almost all the bones in the copious bins provided. Once at the table tennis place I saw Haiwei practising with his son as they have a competition soon. It wasn't as busy as usual but it wasn't yet 8pm either. I marvelled at the skills of a probably 10 year old boy playing with probably his grandmother who was also pretty nifty. It cemented my opinion that this is in some way the greatest sport on this earth. Open to nearly everyone, and most levels of ability. It's the one sport that connects my life in China to that in the UK. I must remember to get my bat re-skinned this time!

Yang turned up wearing a face mask and a pink woolly hat. I wouldn't have recognised him had he not shouted out "Duoming!". Inside the table tennis place he met someone he knew and said "hao jiu bu jian" (long time no see), and the other bloke simply said it was because Yang hadn't come over for a while. Pretty logical really. Yang and I ended up going for a walk and having a chat like old times. He was saying that when you have a cold you must drink warm water and abstain from alcohol. I agreed with him, while sneakily grabbing a sip of my jing jiu. Then I said that in the west when you have a cold it was ok to mix whisky with lemon and honey and hot water, and then he said that was ok.

We ended up at the guangchang watching some elders perform music and singing and I liked it more than I would normally. Yet another reason I could envisage myself here in latter years. They're not professionals, but love to get together and perform and entertain, for free. I was the only person who clapped the first performance we saw, but for the next two other people joined in with the applause. It's a bit pathetic that had I not had a couple of nips of jing jiu I probably wouldn't have dared clap on my own.

Some of the elders making music in the guangchang

I left Yang on the corner of the guangchang as he needed an early night as would be up at 5.30am to jog and then play ping pong. I walked home to chill but at 10.21pm my friend Nong pinged me to say they were about to start drinking and sent me the location, which was where I'd just said goodbye to Yang an hour ago. I was ill, I needed sleep, so of course I told her I'd be over in a bit.

I've known this Nong for about 18 years now and we're good mates. I walked over and went to the place I'd where I'd eaten with the Shandong bloke a week or so ago but couldn't find the roof garden where Nong was. So it ended up being a phone call and I had to go downstairs again to meet her and take a lift up. She was with a couple of mates in a sort of pod on the roof as you do. Interestingly, the only alcohol was the jing jiu I'd already partaken of earlier and I asked if it was really true that it was medicinal. Yes, it really was! Well, normally I'd ask about clinical trials but I really thought that would be inappropriate. The one thing I didn't do was add Red Bull to the jing jiu though as others were doing. I know that here it's meant to be much stronger than in the west, and only had it once about 8 years ago and that was enough.

Despite my cold it was a lovely meal and muscle boss turned up a bit later with three more bottles of the jing jiu. We laughed about how much we'd forgotten about the music meal the other day, and once again I realised I was just a bloke with mates and didn't feel like a foreigner. It may seem pathetic but it's evenings like this that I feel justify my coming back on my own.

With Xiao Nong and friends in our pod eating and drinking jing jiu - is that a bloody Xmas tree on the left?

At 1am or whenever, we decided to leave, and muscle boss insisted on giving me a lift back in his car. I admit to buying a last bottle of jing jiu as I thought the lads might be up and indeed they were and we dissolved into a silly quiz as Mat's classes had all be cancelled tomorrow and it was the mid-afternoon for Andge and Awl. Somehow I made it till 3am but only had the energy to apologise to say I would crash out and indeed I did 30 seconds later.

Unexpected outside evening meal then inside then empty KTV

Up at a rude 9am to find a missed call from Awl at 8am. So I'd had about seven hours' sleep but it didn't feel like it as I was suffering more from my cold and now had a hangover. Blimey, all these years and I still don't know the word for "hangover". It's almost something to be proud of you don't tend to get them if you stick to beer. Ok for future reference it's 宿醉.

I forced myself to go out and get some jiaozi at midday then picked up some more jing jiu and orange juice from Guanmart. Not that I really wanted orange juice but rather it came with a free fruit holder I think. Or at least something to let the water rinse away from. Back home I very much intended to have some more kip and that was my justification for a couple of swigs of the jing jiu. It got to nearly 5pm and I was about to drop off as I was doing Tan's tax return, when I realised Zheng was playing in the Australian Open final. As we'd watched the semi with Boss Zhou, I decided to ping A Wu to see if he was watching it. I'm not really sure why I asked as I was about to sleep. He said he wasn't, and asked if anyone had invited me to eat and I said no, and that I had a cold. So he chastised me for not wearing enough clothes then told me to go to Boss Zhou's to eat.

Well sod it, there were family in the house including the little 3 year old so it was quite noisy. So I grabbed a shower and a coffee and walked over in an effort to wake up. But no-one was in Boss Zhou's place. I called A Wu and he sent a location which was another 5 minutes walk away. Why he didn't send this in the first place is a question not really worth asking. Well I'd picked up 4 jin of long yan from Thailand so at least I would have a gift, and ended up walking down to the end of a road to find about 5 tables full of people eating, like it was quite a big do.

I was introduced to the boss and handed over the long yan and then settled next to A Wu before devouring some lovely nosh as I hadn't realised how hungry I was. I hardly recognised anyone, but of course it was a very friendly affair. After 15 minutes a car turned up with beer and baijiu, and 15 minutes later again I'd ganbeid most of the men there. A Wu and I then went inside to another table with mostly women and started to play mo pai. I hope one day I'll properly understand the rules but I just accepted their word as to how many glasses we had to drink after most rounds.

Playing mo pai and mostly losing

It was like this pretty much all the time...

A little later Boss Zhou himself turned up so more ganbeiing ensued. I was getting really tired by now, but A Wu had said we were going to sing song in a bit. I really wasn't up for this but I know Boss Zhou owns the place so it may seem rude not to go. So some time after 11pm Boss Zhou, A Wu, and I walked over and went to an empty room on the 4th floor, and almost immediately two young ladies joined us. I guessed they were some sort of "ushers" and it felt like more objectification. I pinged Xiao Nong, who just happened to be in the same building and she came up for a couple of glasses. Then I went down with her to her room which only had two other blokes in and nobody was singing. In fact the whole place seemed pretty empty as we walked past other rooms in the corridor. Weird for a Saturday night and it wasn't exactly early.

When I went back upstairs to Boss Zhou's room I expected it to be busier but no-one else had turned up. It was the flattest KTV experience I've ever had. Around 1.30am I must have made my excuses and left, and walked home almost a zombie, and did my usual trick of pouring a beer that would not see my mouth.

Big music meal with Nong and Huang Lei and Li Kun and many other friends

A couple of days ago my friend Nong had invited me to go to a "beat" meal, and even sent me a personalised invitation (well it was digital so not that special), and I knew it would be this evening. So I was pissed off to wake up early feeling pretty shite. I resolved that I would make it though so late morning I walked to the yumi tang place again to have a very early lunch. The walk did me good, though it's still bitterly cold here. I finished my meal with a bit of jing jiu which I've been told multiple times contains medicinal elements. But it also contains alcohol and I knew if I was going to be up for tonight I'd need a hefty siesta.

Personalised invitation to the music meal

So back home I got ready to sleep before realising I'd forgotten to get bin bags. Bin bags. What a trivial thing to have to get but here it's the chance of a conversation and indeed on the second shop I hit I showed the bloke the last bag I had and asked if he had any the same size and of course he danced to the back of the shop to return with exactly what I wanted for 12 kuai. Back home after a tad more jing jiu I did indeed manage to get some kip after confirming with Huang Lei that Xiao Nong had invited me...he kindly said that if I didn't have an invitation that he'd invite me.

The pathetic fun of buying bin bags

Up at a refreshing 5pm I grabbed a shower and at 5.50pm Nong sent me the location and I turned up around 6.15pm to an outside space with about 12 tables full of food and people and of course a stage at the back (or front depending on how you look at it). Oh dear...that stage meant they would want me on it later....

Well it was another cracking meal and I saw Huang Lei and Li Kun turn up. I'm slightly surprised Li Kun hadn't already invited me or at least told me about it. But he wasn't surprised to see me anyway. Looking around I saw faces I knew on nearly every table. I probably knew about 15% of those in attendance and it really made a big difference from those other anonymous meals I've attended. The 1513 beer was poured aplenty as was the bai jiu, and before long I was table-hopping as you do.

I guess because I'm not feeling too well I got a bit light-headed on the 2.5% brew, but when I was asked to get on stage I was sober enough to politely refuse. But then I thought about who pays for these meals. There must have been over 100 people, like a small wedding, and I was there enjoying myself at someone's expense. So after the live music started (another aspect of the entertainment), and after a few more ganbeis I refused to refuse when asked again.

Where we ate and drank and sang

Blimey I've picked up a guitar in front of people I don't know before, but it's always been a limited number of people and generally in a private room. Now I was outside with 100+ onlookers of whom I knew maybe 20. But sod it, I did The Boxer and Sound of Silence from memory, although I think I repeated one of the verses as my phone turned off its screen part way through the first one. I guess no-one noticed anyway. I think that's all I did but I'm not totally sure. I must have been rather tipsy to have got up in front of so many people in the first place but I guess I could see it as practice for the Bangxu "festival" in a couple of weeks.

I didn't spend too much more time socialising after that if my memory serves me correctly, and once home at getting on for 1am did the robotic thing of pouring myself a beer and not touching it.

Unexpected Li Kun lunch before meal at "Chamber of Commerce"

Well finally I got a decent amount of sleep thanks to being ill and not being too silly last night. Around 10am I noticed that Li Kun had "tickled" me last night at 12:45 too. No doubt to go for a drink so I'm glad I'd gone to bed. But I thought I should at least invite him for lunch so pinged him and he had a go at me for going to bed so early last night.... But yes he said he'd finish his shift at 12pm so I said I'd come over then. 

I plugged in the dian dong che shortly after 11am. I'll no longer plug it in overnight as it has a tendency to set the alarm off and wake everyone up. And of course half an hour later it went off but at least I could turn it off from the house to avoid annoying too many people for too long. I grabbed a shower before needing to leave but damn and blast if I couldn't hear it going off again while I had shampoo in my hair. Well it made for a shorter shower than I'd hoped for and I wasn't dry when I ran out to turn it off again only to see that Jiuma was lying on the sofa watching tv. Well...I ran back to the bathroom to grab my clothes and was freezing as got back to my room. I unguiltily put the heater I brought on full blast for a few minutes to minimise my discomfort as quickly robed.

At 11.49 Li Kun said I could come over then. Fair enough I was a bit peckish. So at 12.00 I unplugged the dian dong che and got there 5 minutes later. He beckoned me to sit down. What? Oh, apparently someone was coming to pick us up. Well so much for going for some simple noodles.... I recognised the driver by his face and voice but that was it, and we drove up to the government place to the north of the guangchang where we picked up a couple more people including 唐海洋 whom I met on the trip to Tiandong a couple of months ago and is a colleague/partner of Li Kun.

It transpired that we were going to Pingguo Lu, the first time for me in a few years. We arrived 20 minutes later after picking up someone else and got off at at Sichuan restaurant. When we got to the room there were already about 6 other people, mostly ladies, and I realised this event must have been planned. The meal was great, as was the company, even if I had great difficulty following their local Mandarin dialect. Nothing other than tea was imbibed and I was rather grateful for that as was not planning a siesta.

Lovely impromptu meal

We said thanks to the owner, who'd been living here for 29 years so beats me hands down, then drove back to Li Kun's studio. So much for working this afternoon. We ended up playing a card game that at first I didn't understand at all but then got to really appreciate. There's four of you and you get 13 cards each. Then the person with the 2 of diamonds must lead, and can either put that, or 2 2s or basically any poker hand including that card. The next player must improve on that hand or pass. If you were the last person to go and no-one else can go you start again by putting down whatever you want. The idea is to get rid of all your cards and when someone does the others have to drink one glass for each three cards they have left in their hands. At least that's what I gathered...it's a bit more nuanced than that.

Li Kun reckons it's called suo hu in English but I have my doubts

I played the first few games with 唐海洋 helping me and lost badly. But I was finally getting it and started playing by myself and won! I mentioned that as soon as she stopped helping me was when I won and they all seemed to think that was much funnier than it really was. I still don't really get it as it seems if someone puts down a run on 3.4.5.6.7 you can cover it with a 3&2. I'll definitely investigate the rules more though as it seems like a great mix of poker and shithead.

I'd love to understand how the scores were worked out

A Wu had reminded me to go to meet Boss Zhou at the "Chamber of Commerce", so I thought I'd better get back at 4pm to grab a shower and find some decent clothes...could this be some government thing? Well we met outside my place at getting on for 6pm and he didn't have his car so we walked to Boss Zhou's place by the KTV place as we've been to many a time. We stopped off to get some cherries first, and A Wu explained (for the first time) that Boss Zhou actually owned the KTV place. Ah...guai bu de we often go there!

So it ended up that the "Chamber of Commerce" was simply Boss Zhou's place and as usual there was a table of food waiting for us. Boss Zhou was as usual happy to see me and sat next to me and we spent at least 20 minutes eating before there was even a peep of any beer or wine. But it certainly came. And it was of course very enjoyable as we watched Zheng beat Yastremska in a brilliant match. We were quite transfixed for a lot of it, except for when ganbeiing. After the match came cai ma of course, then we watched the last half an hour of South Korea v Malaysia in the Asian cup and saw a very unlikely 3-3 draw with a late goal from the Malaysians who probably didn't deserve it.

Great food in Boss Zhou's "Chamber of Commerce"

Of course I was flagging so A Wu and I left 11pmish. We walked back but came upon a friend drinking tea in his place and of course stopped there for a few minutes but I insisted on drinking water in case the tea was caffeinated. I'd planned on an early night and got back on foot soon after 11pm and only had a single beer before the earliest night this year.

Back to Yumi tang and another bite with A Wu and friends

Finally a normalish time of getting up around 8am. I tried to sleep in but my cough wouldn't let me so as I was ill I decided to have a "proper" breakfast of pao mian, and wolfed every last bit down. I could hear Jiuma and Tan's brother talking/shouting in the living room so didn't emerge till gone 11am when I'd heard them leave. The place stank of smoke of course, so I decided I'd go for a longish walk after wrapping up appropriately. I'd thought to bring my fingerless gloves, and they really made sense, but I noticed almost no-one else wore gloves of any description. Sure, the bike drivers all had built-in gauntlets but other than that, despite layers upon layers of clothes, no gloves. There must be a reason for it and I'll try to find it out.

I walked all round the shop and it just felt more and more normal. I happened upon our favourite yumi tang place and as it was now getting on for 1pm decided to ask if they had any and indeed they did. So one of those and a portion of fried egg with greens was just perfect at that time. But there was only one other table being used at this time. I guess a combination of the weather and the convenience of deliveries meant few people would need to come in person. Well I had, and the manager recognised me and said "hao jiu bu jian" as it had been getting on for five years.

An old favourite for the kids and me...yumi tang

So after my little adrenalin buzz I popped into the Zhong Xin supermarket for the first time in many a year to pick up some yoghurt and more noodles. One of the assistants pointed at a can of German beer as if to suggest it to me and I told her it was too strong. The she burst into conversation about how "standard" my Mandarin was and I told her I'd been coming for over 20 years so had just picked it up. But it was still another little buzz to have a random conversation like that.

Back home I took some medicine for my cough and a little alcohol medicine for my cold and had a brief chat with Awl till I managed some shut-eye around 5pm for an hour or so. Then A Wu pinged me at 9.30pm to go for a drink with friends. I didn't massively feel like it but managed a beer to get me more in the mood and biked it to the same place as the other day where there were a few blokes drinking 5% German beer. It really tasted too strong but I had to do a few ganbeis and felt the effect, so managed to move on to the local stuff for a while.

Li Mingda turned up a bit later but I didn't recognise him which was embarrassing as A Wu is his dad and we'd met up in the summer. I said it was due to his huge square glasses which was true to some extent. Well he, as well as the others, continued to smoke and drink as if it was going out of fashion. I managed to survive at cai ma but at getting on for midnight was flagging badly, so Li Mingda led me out with his arm over my shoulders like we were old buddies, and I said we'd meet again as I slowly took the dian dong che home.

Li Mingda second from left...I should have recognised him...

I poured a beer almost without thinking about it but had no intention to drink it. I noticed someone trying to call me at 12.45 but just couldn't be bothered to answer and fell asleep as I saw them calling me again.

Cracking meal with Huang Lei's boss and friends

Got up at a decent 12:07pm and went for a well-needed portion of jiaozi again. I should really branch out but it's just the right size and hits the point. Uncle Yellow had pinged me two minutes before I got up to ask if I was free this evening. Indeed I was so he said he'd be in contact later in the afternoon. But as the afternoon wore on I felt worse and worse. I'd had a bit of a cough but now was just feeling in general bad, and I know the booze last night/this morning hadn't helped.

Ah my lovely jiaozi...

So I wasn't tempted to imbibe at all. But Uncle Yellow pinged me a location to go and eat at 6.30pm so I knew that that would mean drinking again. So there was one thing for it...for the third day in a row I managed the dumbbell exercises - this time on the legs and abs and it bloody hurt. I forced myself till the end and didn't feel any better when it was done, other than mentally glad that I'd forced myself. By now it was getting on for 6pm so I grabbed a shower but still didn't really feel like going. Even after forcing a small 3.3% beer down me I thought twice about going, but I didn't know who would be there and didn't want to upset Uncle Yellow so got on the bike and turned up at the shop only 15 minutes late.

Well the location he'd sent me was a shop, and I confirmed with the shop owner. She was very complimentary about my Mandarin and while we were talking a bloke turned up and had heard me mention Uncle Yellow's real name Huang Lei. He said he was also going there, so I'd go with him. It was actually on the other side of the building and we'd need to take a lift up, but once there I realised I hadn't brought anything so went back round to the shop which of course sold fruit and bought a nice box of wrapped oranges for 35 kuai. I went back to the lift but the bloke said he was waiting for another bloke now and just to go up. But of course the lift needed a card, which I explained to him, and he came inside and of course there was a card hanging up above the place to scan it. So much for security.

Up at the 7th floor I was glad to see both women and men milling around. The food hadn't been served so I wasn't late, but was glad I'd made the effort to bring the oranges as most others had too. It transpired it was Huang Lei's (for I should use his proper name) boss's meal, and he'd invited a number of the people who work for him. I'd not met him before and he bade me sit down beside him at the big round table which was to be for the men, while the womenfolk had their oblong table on the other side of the room where there was no smoking.

Meal at Huang Lei's boss's place

Well I was still feeling shit and could barely stomach any of the food, and wasn't looking forward to the beer. But Huang Lei was there so as one of the only three beer drinkers I did my best and after 10 minutes of eating started ganbeiing as you do. It took about five glasses before I felt confident enough that I would make it through, and it ended up being a really cool evening. Yes it was mostly blokes, but they were all in the right mood and of course all wanted to ganbei with me. Eventually I stood up and ganbeid with the boss's wife, which was taken as a nice gesture as so far it had all been the blokes. Then, predictably, we descended into cai ma and I gave a reasonable account of myself.

There were many red faces from the baijiu drinking blokes, but no-one got shitfaced and I stayed a while even after Huang Lei left with his younger son. Apparently we were to go to some music place on Friday with Xiao Nong. Cool. When I was ready to go at getting on for 11pm Huang Lei's boss personally escorted me down in the lift and gave me a big handshake to thank me for coming. But no...thank you for inviting me! Of course we said we'd meet up again soon but who know when or if that will happen.

Tan's brother and Jiuma were home when I got back but as I wasn't feeling great I went straight to bed for perhaps the first pre-midnight sleep this year.

Meal with Huang and KTV before late night

Well I was awake at a half decent time and decided to do another stint of dumbbell exercises...this time focusing on the arms. A friend pinged me to meet up during this so I thought why not but finished the exercises first.

I'd had a portion of jiaozi after the exercise as really felt I needed to consume more than I have been, but by 6pm I was starving again. At 7pm I went to see racist Huang who was happy to see me and we shared some glasses of tea so I suggested having a bite and he said sure, but at 8pm. I couldn't wait that long so at 7.30pm I told him I'd be back in half an hour and went home to devour the rest of the monkey nuts and three quail eggs.

I got back to Huang's Beihai place and had a really nice meal with him and his family and colleagues. Nice because there was nothing special about it - just a simple huoguo and decent company. I was pretty restrained with three bottles of beer in the 80 minutes I was there, as they drank their baijiu. A friend had pinged me to say their friend had invited me to go to sing song. Well a friend of a friend is a friend I suppose, but I'm not sure how they invited me if they didn't know me. Anyway, at 9pm I was told to go over but in the end I didn't leave till nearly 10pm.

Pleasant huoguo with Huang and workers

Huang and his workers told me not to take the dian dong che to the KTV place as there were police doing breathalysers. I thought this was unlikely but out of respect took their advice and left on foot. As it was there were indeed many police stopping vehicles just outside the KTV place so I was pretty glad as I might have imbibed a little V&C before going to Huang's as well. Not that I would have been stopped in all likelihood due to the colour of my skin.

I turned up at the KTV room to find I was only the 3rd person! So much for being told to hurry up! The birthday boy was very happy I was there though and we shared a few ganbeis for a few minutes until a load of women turned up. Gosh I try not to be too gender-aware but it's so much nicer at a KTV place with mostly women (and one little kid). It was genuinely nice to chat with them and then we started playing cai ma as gradually more people (including blokes) arrived. I didn't get too tipsy though as held my own at cai ma despite playing as a team. Although I had planned on getting back at 10pm (haha) it was 1.30am in the end and was about to have a chat with the lads when I fell fast asleep.

Until 6am that was. For some reason I was wide awake so Awl called me a bit later and I guess because I was in holiday mode I finished the V&C I'd poured earlier and then maybe had another or two before finally getting to sleep properly at 8am.

Exercise at last

So much for going out at 10am as A Wu had mentioned last night, though I wasn't going to plan my day around a drunken suggestion. However, I had no other plans so noticed that the 49ers v Packers game was on so found a decent stream and realised other than ping pong I'd done no exercise for over a week so managed to get my way through a dumbbell session during the second half.

After a shower and some nuts and a yoghurt I walked through the cold drizzle down to A Xia's shop to pick up two pairs of leggings for Tan and drop off a box of Naproxen as is becoming normal for each trip. On the way I picked up some local dried beef as I realised I'd not had a proper meal and should really try to bulk up after doing the weights.

Awl rang WhatsApp just as I got home but although my phone showed the call I guess the actual answering or voice protocol that is used is currently blocked. But my laptop was still connected to the VPN so at least I could answer on that. Annoyingly I found the expensive beef (37 kuai for 102g) was many tiny bits of meat each individually wrapped in truly typical style, and they were slightly too spicy for my liking. But hey, it's protein. Luckily I'd left over some protein powder and creatine from last summer so I had that as well. The chat with Awl descended into a couple of beers for me, so after the call and a couple more I finally managed a siesta around 5.30-7pm.

Strangely I'd not been invited out and it was a weekend. I wasn't complaining though, and at 9.30pm went to pick up my cleaned Converse, and on the way back popped into the local medicine shop where they were drinking tea and beckoned me in when they saw me passing. We were talking about Bangxu as one of the women was from there. She mentioned a festival that was to take place next month. I asked if it was the same one Lin Hong had conscripted me into and indeed it was. Oh dear. Tan had called earlier and said it was a massive event for all of Guangxi, and I would be singing in the equivalent of Trafalgar Square to "thousands". Now Tan is one to exaggerate at times but now I was really nervous. Erjie has been practising dancing for months for this event and I'm going to be on the agenda now too.

Other than that it was a nice chinwag for half an hour or so, and I quite enjoyed the segments of oranges they put in warm water as they don't tend to like consuming cold stuff when the weather is too. I popped opposite to pick up some bin bags and beer and got home where a bit later had a chat and a quiz with the lads and finished off the spicy beef. I'd not had a proper meal all day and got to sleep well after 2.30am.

Xin Pingguo!

Bloody up at 7am and tried in vain to sleep in but my body was not really having it so got out of bed at 10 wishing I'd made the effort to go to ping pong. At least it should have been be easy to get a siesta after three Li Quans after a light lunch of monkey nuts and a couple of quail eggs.

But at 2.30pm A Wu called me. Apparently there was an event on to do with "New Pingguo" at the Ping Lu International Hotel, and did I want to go? I wanted to sleep, but thought that maybe the experience shouldn't be missed although I had no idea what to expect. So I said to give me time to grab a shower...oh and what time did it start? 2.30pm. It had already started.

But I took a shower anyway and a coffee to perk me up, and arranged to meet A Wu 45 minutes later outside our place. We turned up one hour fashionably late to a huge ballroom that could have accommodated a large wedding. In fact it looked just like a large wedding, except there were ladies dancing on the stage in local clothing. Every table (and there were dozens of them) had two bottles of red wine and plates of sunflower seeds and monkey nuts. But looking around I could see that not a single bottle had been opened. Then some blokes came around and put two cans of beer on each table (two cans for 10 people?), but again, not one was opened.

Finding out it's quite a big event...

Then some pretty lady got up on stage and I realised my Mandarin was pretty poor as I couldn't catch most of what she said, but she was joined by the bloke I should know the name of as he's often at Li Kun's, and seems to do the the MC work for the big events here. I understood that the event was sponsored by several local companies, and there were short video clips of many of them saying nice things about Pingguo. Then came a sort of competition. You had to scan a QR code on the big screen but try as we might we couldn't. I didn't really care to go up to the stage to scan the code as I wouldn't have known what to do with it, but it seemed you could win money if you did. Then a similar thing happened where after you scan the code you needed to shake your phone and the top few people after a minute would also win a prize. It was quite amusing to see people of all ages shaking their arms up and down in this manner.

Shaking phones in hope of winning a prize

Then came the draw. It seemed each company had prizes for 1 to 10 people, and each had to be drawn out of a box. This was fine for a while, and we clapped the winners, but after half an hour got slightly tedious. Still no-one had opened any of the booze. Then the draw stopped and I saw Li Kun. He got up on stage with some drummers and performed a nice piece with his flute for a few minutes, then when finished it was back to the draw again. It was drawn out as every winner had to come on stage. I realised that there was an agenda and it looked like the last item would be at 5.30pm, but when I checked with A Wu I saw we were running an hour late. Blimey I was getting really hungry and could do with a beer but it wasn't even 5pm.

Li Kun on flute with a band of mainly drummers

Finally I noticed the blokes on one table opening a couple of beers, but I thought better of doing the same on our table because I didn't want the people to think the English were too keen. Presently some huoguo saucepans were brought to the tables along with proper food to eat. It still took 20 minutes before we started though as no-one seemed to want to be the first person to do so. But at 5.30pm we tucked in and as usual spent 10 minutes eating before the first beer was opened. And indeed it was like an avalanche after that. The woman to my left broke the ice by commenting that I used my left hand for chopsticks and I apologised in rather too much of a British way for getting in her way and explained that I was trying to learn to use my right hand but it was too slow and the food was too good.

Finally the food and drink started

Then the table hopping started, and I was glad it was only 2.5% beer. Yes I could have chosen red wine or baijiu but I'm glad I didn't. A Wu seemed to know people on most tables so of course I had to ganbei with them. By now we were in fully Guangxi swing and barely noticed that the draw was still going on in the background. But then some older women came on stage in very traditional Guangxi style dress, and I said we'd better sit and watch and listen to them. It was a nice 5 minute set and we applauded dutifully. But then they descended from the stage and stood around one of the tables in the front and started singing another song for a couple of minutes, after which all at the table had to ganbei. They then moved to another table, then another and I knew before long they'd be at ours. So more ganbeis were had until they indeed did turn up at our table and I didn't feel as embarrassed as I might have done.

Traditional Guangxi women singers going round the tables

Then one of the blokes wanted to cai ma with me, which led to a sort of chain reaction of other people wanting to do the same. I was ok with it but made many an excuse to go to the loo to have a short break. Finally at around 10pm I left with A Wu to go and find his wife and kids in the zhong xin supermarket. But it was bloody freezing even though I had three layers on, so we walked to my place where I picked up my thick coat. A Wu had ordered a didi che but somehow screwed up so shouted at a san lun che, which took us to the centre where we found the kids and let them play on the crappy grabbing machines until they turned off the electricity at 10.30pm.

I put my coat around A Wu's daughter and her cousin till their mums came with their own coats

After a bit of a faff getting the ladies and kids a taxi to get them back, A Wu once again had an issue getting a didi che so once again we got a san lun che. So much for them not existing anymore. We went to the usual KTV near Boss Zhou's and I really couldn't be bothered as indeed there were 20 pissed blokes and one woman. But I had to play the game, and someone put on Pengyou and a microphone was thrust into my hands. Well, the MC was there, and he's at least a semi-professional singer, and he seemed to really like my rendition!

But I was flagging and couldn't really be bothered with all the ganbeiing, but I managed a bowl of noodles then I think A Wu was also slightly bored with the company so we left, but to go to another place. For the third time in a row we took a san lun che to a place north of the guangchang I'd been to in November last year. It was just a small office with about four blokes and more food and beer. It was more than I could stand but I stood on ceremony and held out for getting on for an hour, when we both finally left, this time for once in a didi che. I'd made it till 1.30am and was fast asleep very soon after 2am.

Another very social day

Finally I got a half decent sleep and woke up at 11.20, which actually was only about 6 hours sleep but beats yesterday. I had messages to meet people I'd met in the last couple of days and thought I'd just ignore them. But I had a change of heart when I thought that it might mean something to them to have me around. So I pinged the bloke from last week after he sent me a weizhi and told him I'd be around soon. Well "soon" meant I'd have a couple of beers as it was gone lunchtime and somehow this justified it.

I was too scared to charge up the dian dong che last night as the last time I did it the alarm must have gone off again as someone had removed the charger. This is so embarrassing. So I put it on to charge about 1pm and walked the 15 minutes to this bloke's shop. I'd forgotten who he was but remembered the name, and he was sitting in a shop that sold front doors and the modern locks that have face/finger recognition. Of course he was drinking tea with a couple of other blokes and we broke into conversations on various topics which I coped with with various levels of success. I'm aware you have to go with the flow and not try to catch every single word. But sometimes I find there is no flow to go with, so I am starting to create my own flow in these cases, based on what I've understood so far. It sometimes works quite successfully but on some rare occasions I get odd looks as I've completely changed the topic.

Tea and nuts with a mate from last night and two other blokes

I'd actually consider one if we didn't already have a porch

After and hour or so I told them quite honestly someone else had requested my company, and indeed I had a missed call from him, so I said I'd be there shortly. It was another 20 minutes, going back the way I came to the guangchang and passed Chairman Mao hill. Like most of my walks here it was quite an overload of the sense. But this time noticeably less so. I guess the more time I stay here the less it will feel foreign. In a way that would not be a good thing as I like the buzz. But the diminution of the buzziness would be a fair price to pay to be here for a much longer time.

I thought it was one of the three blokes I'd met last summer after a swim and indeed after a video call one of them came down in slippers. He seemed really happy that I'd made the effort to go and see him and we first went to the local shop to get some fags and beer. Well, it was 3pm now so why not?

We went up to the 28th and top floor where his two mates were already drinking. Well one was drinking beer and the other orange juice as he had to work later. The beer drinker burst into applause and laughter. So we had a few drinks and I lost badly at cai ma until nearly an hour later when I got a message from the woman who was drinking red wine with Haiwei and the bosses the other day. She asked me to come to her shop to drink tea. As it wasn't a bloke asking me I reckoned it really did mean tea, so I had an excuse to move on after losing to much cai ma. Of course I couldn't leave immediately so took about 20 minutes before it finally seemed acceptable. I told them I'd have more time over the next few weeks which is probably true.

The three blokes I met after swimming last summer

Nice view of the guangchang from the 28th floor

It was only a 10 minute walk to the alcohol shop and somehow I managed to find the back of it rather than the front, but a woman confirmed it was the right place and I think I somewhat surprised the two managers when I entered from the inside. Now I'm sort of starting to understand what they do here. The sell expensive booze but with a personal service, e.g. drinking tea with customers in the shop, and as I saw the other day - drinking the said alcohol with customers at their place. So it's a little more than simply being a token pretty face. The other woman there asked permission to take photos with me and I'm now used to saying ok but only to share in friend groups.

Presently a large bloke turned up and presented some tea, as if it was some sort of present. One of the ladies started to open it and perform the ceremony that is tea drinking, but she was having a little trouble so the bloke took over in the main seat. I could tell right away from his voice he was no local and indeed he was from Shandong. Over the next two hours or so we just chatted as you do and various people left and turned up as you do. I think the woman who invited me is called Juan, and she had to leave once or twice to deliver some alcohol. I should know the Shandong bloke's name but instead I learnt that he was the "general agent of North Korean coins in the southwestern region" (yeah I had to use an online translation to confirm that). He then sent me 20+ photos of North Korean notes and what looked like commemorative coins. I asked genuinely if there was really a market for these but it turns out there is. He even suggested I could sell some in Europe. I guess I'll do a little research but I'm rather doubtful.

At getting on for 7pm he declared that we were going to eat. Well that was nice of him. I was pretty tired after those afternoon beers, although the tea was definitely caffeinated. But I was also mentally tired after talking with him for so long. Normally I'd find someone like him relatively easy to understand, but the topics of conversation were pretty complex at times and I didn't want to puncture it by the constant looking up of new terms I wouldn't like remember. It transpired he didn't live in Pingguo but was staying a few days in the International Hotel by the guangchang, while his wife and kids lived near Baise. So I got in his BMW and we parked in the hotel carpark, where he presented me with a box of Cheng Jing tea before we walked to the eating places up by the Guangbai Jia supermarket. We chose the one that was the most full and he ordered a huge huoguo as Juan turned up a few minutes later.

But no beer. Oh no, he had bought an expensive bottle of 53% baijiu and by golly I was going to join in. He even said that himself. I told him I could normally manage one thimbleful but he poured me a mini jug of the vile stuff and made me fill my tiny glass after a horrible first ganbei. I thought the 2nd one may be easier but it was much worse and I had my head in my hands for a while until Juan gave me a glass of tea to ease my suffering. Well I was certainly suffering for my meal, which was pretty good except for all the intestines. Finally, by the 4th or 5th glass it stopped burning so hard, but Juan had a phone call and had to leave us to deliver more alcohol, leaving a full glass. So it was agreed I'd finish her glass and he'd finish her jug. Fair enough. I couldn't eat any more but he casually managed to down the rest of the huoguo as we both agreed it was best not to waste anything.

Another big meal

We parted some time after 10pm and I got home actually feeling very sober. Nong had contacted me in a cryptic way which meant I wasn't sure if she wanted to go for a bite or not. But then A Wu pinged me to go for bbq outside our place, which was a much clearer means of saying what to do. So I popped out to see him and his family and a couple of other couples with their kids. One of the ladies was an English teacher but was too embarrassed to use it with me. I contacted Nong again and this time picked her up from near Li Kun's place and we got back to play mo pai and cai ma as you do. I'd bumped into Boss Zhou but totally forgot to go back to him. Then A Wu was on the phone to his Boss Zhou telling us to come over and eat with them. But Nong didn't feel it was appropriate so I ended up taking her to the fast food place we went to the other day and sharing some crap, but to be fair she ordered stuff to takeaway for her niece who was staying over.

Bbq with A Wu and friends/family...being only the penultimate meal of the night

I got back and realised it was 2.30am already. Shit, I'd missed both Boss Zhou's, and A Wu didn't respond to my message so was probably asleep already. So that was the end of the night and for once I was in bed by 3am.

Duck feet by the river then meal with Lu zong's Nanning friends before nearly finishing at Li Kun's

Blimey I got up after three hours' sleep at 7.30am and couldn't get back, so at 9am I went to the old people's leisure centre and spent 90 minutes there sweating out what I'd put in last night. Once again there were shrieks and howls and it was jolly good fun! I've already played ping pong more times in the five days I've been here than the whole seven weeks of the summer.

Back home I grabbed a shower and was suddenly hit by a sort of melancholy. Not that there was anything to be sad about but the last five days have been so full-on and fun and friendly that suddenly to realise I was home alone just felt relatively negative. But luckily I saw that Lu zong had left a message to go to eat tonight at his place in Jiang Bing Lu with a friend who was coming "down" from Nanning. I rather thought he'd be coming "up" from Nanning as it's south of here but thought better than to question this.

With my spirits lifted a little I went for a walk to get some provisions from Guanmart and feeling peckish I then went to the jiaozi place. The area was heaving with teenage kids with suitcases and as I first stopped at Lu zong's water shop I found out the local secondary school was going on holiday for the New Year. So anyway I stayed for a friendly few cups of tea before getting my jiaozi at midday then walking back to where a siesta surely had to be waiting for me.

But it took bloody ages and then a friend pinged me at 3pm to go to drink with some other friends. I really didn't want to be pissed before going to Lu zong's later so explained I needed to sleep, and finally managed 30 minutes before being pinged again and I left at 4.30pm to go to some grassy place by the river on the east side of town. They had cooked some duck feet and snails and made a warming drink out of bai jiu and ginger and sugar. It wasn't totally horrible so I managed to join in for a couple of hours. Rain came and went but it was thankfully warm.

Duck feet and ginger alcohol by the river as you do

At 6.30pm they knew I had to leave so I didn't meet with too much pressure to stay. I got to Lu zong's place by the river by 7pm to meet his Nanning friends. It was another fine evening despite my lack of sleep. There was a lot more new vocab for me as there were many people I didn't really know, which made it all the more tiring. I finally exchanged WeiXin details with a couple of people and headed home at getting on for 11pm.

Meal at Lu zong's place again

Except Li Kun had pinged me to say they were starting to eat at his place so I went there first. He let me pay for the beers and ordered them on my phone; three boxes for 114 kuai wasn't bad, and they were delivered minutes later. I stayed for no longer than an hour as was really flagging now, and was in bed soon after midnight.

Continuing at Li Kun's...

...at least he let me pay for the beer (114 kuai for all that)

For whatever reason I woke up after just over an hour at 1.40am and almost predictably Sisi called me shortly after. Well, sod it, I went over to have a couple of drinks and predictably again she got quite drunk so I had to take her home at nearly 5am. Maybe I should be more sensible. Maybe she should.