Well awak(en?)ing at 5am should have allowed me to get back to sleep pronto but it didn't happen so at 8.30am I made the good decision to go and play ping pong at the old people's leisure centre. But when I got there I found that although there is now another table, there were only two people there playing. But that didn't last long and before three minutes I was being challenged to a game with an elder. I recognised her but I couldn't remember her name, but she remembered me and remembered Tan was from Bangxu so within two minutes everyone else who'd arrived in the room also knew. I did my few words in Bangxu hua to their delight then continued to give a reasonable account of myself at the table. At least until some other bloke turned up. And then more people turned up and I found myself playing doubles and it was fantastical fun. Everyone, including me, was full of smiles as we tried to smash each other to smithereens. Well I know we won the second game at least, but probably lost 10-2 in total but no-one really cared.
I looked at the clock and it was 11.30! I'd been here nearly three hours! I pinged A Wu to say to meet for lunch and he agreed, so I had an excuse to leave. I thought that this place closed at 10am but apparently now it's 12pm. I can't wait to get back. As I've said before I'd love to retire here and be so active as this morning.
I took the dian dong che to A Wu's office and he nonchalantly greeted me by showing his various demijohns of alcohol, the latest of which was black-ant alcohol, and I could see them sinking down then floating back up. I didn't need to ask but he said that this booze was good for keeping your pecker up! As is most booze here apparently...they don't seem to have the concept of brewer's droop!
I left the dian dong che and took his BMW to the usual duck place but there was a long queue so we drove elsewhere to a less queuey place and had a lovely lunch around 12.15 as I'd not bothered getting a shower after ping pong. Afterwards he said we'd go to some boss's place where they'd just killed a cow. I wasn't too up for this but he said we'd first visit a place with a snooker table. This was ok with with me and I said I'd manage for a few minutes.
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| Duck breast noodles with A Wu for lunch |
Well it was a nice modern pool table and I made sure A Wu knew the difference between pool and snooker, and we had a couple of games. I quite like the rules. He potted one of his balls but also the white at the same time, so his potted ball came back out and went on the centre spot. I didn't get two shots but did when he made another foul shot. I ended up winning 2-1 despite the owner turning up and advising me to take shots that I didn't do. I ended up covering the pockets as one does and in the end he had to hand it to me that I knew what I was doing.
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| Using a gimpish glove to play pool and beat A Wu |
I got back to A Wu's office at nearly 2pm and drove home. I was pissed off that I couldn't charge the dian dong che so instead of sleeping I went to the place that replaced my batteries in the summer to find they'd only bloody moved. I asked next door and the two pretty girls confirmed that they'd had to move. I stayed longer than I should have getting an explanation why and although was slightly peeved I gave them a smile which was reciprocated.
So I moved on down a few shops to the place that had fixed the dian dong che a few years ago. The bloke tested my charger and said it was fine, and that I should just choose another place to charge up. Err...ok...I hoped it was that simple, and indeed after a few attempts I finally found one that started charging up. Cool! I poured a celebratory V and zero-sugar lemonade and went straight to bed.
I managed to wake up to the third call from Haiwei, who said to be at his office for 5.30pm in half an hour. I told him in no uncertain terms I required another 40 minutes' sleep then I'd grab a shower and be over about 6pm. As it was, 6pm turned up as I woke up and I pinged him to say I'd be a little later. I got the typical 快点 message but didn't care and grabbed my shower and a wake-up drink, and got on the mostly-charged dian dong che and was there fashionably late before 7pm.
It was a typical boss meal with a token lady who was really pretty but downed a large glass of rouge with one of the bosses and I could see she was a bit the worse for wear. But there wasn't much I could do other than insist on beer rather than wine. I was a bit hungry but there wasn't that much left on the table so I did a few ganbeis to justify myself being there then went to the loo to find the woman there looking a bit sick. I told her to sit down and went to get her a cup of tea as she asked for one. By the time I'd finished my massive wee she was no longer sitting outside but at the tea table with the others ogling her. I guess that is her job to some extent...a semi-geisha to pissed bosses. It feels like objectifying women but I don't have the right to step in and stop it. I feel the best I can do is speak to them like an adult and give them that sort of respect.
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| One of Tan's ex-colleagues/classmates at the boss meal with Haiwei (in the background) |
Nong had pinged me last night at 2.37am to eat with her tonight but I thought nothing of that as she was probably pissed. So when Li Kun asked me to go around I said I would a bit later. But as luck would have it I somehow got in contact with her (i.e. I pinged her) and she apologised that she'd been invited out and had forgotten about my invitation which was exactly what I thought. But after a tad of fuss she said would it be ok to come around to my friend Li Kun? And I said of course no problem.
Well, no problem in theory, but I thought I'd understood I'd pick her up from her house which was really close to Li Kun's, so I got there only to be told she was at the KTV near Boss Zhou's place. So once there I sat down in the waiting area and she came out and said to come into the KTV room. How could I refuse? So I spent about 20 minutes there and then we moved on to another KTV room for more ganbeis before finally leaving after midnight!
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| Moving on to Li Kun's at gone midnight as you do... |
At 12.20 I pinged Li Kun to see if he was still there and indeed he was so we drove on over for a late drink and bite to eat. Nong is pretty social so had no problem joining in with us and that handsome singer-bloke from last time was there too.... So we had another super evening after the false start that was the drunken bosses at Haiwei's office. Afterwards I took Nong to a crappy McDonald's-like place but quite frankly we hadn't had that much to eat and we shared a chicken wrap and some lovely chicken nuggets at 3.30am that you just can't do very easily in the UK (at least not in a small town).
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| Fast food at 3.30am as you do... |
I got home shortly before 4am to see a message from Sisi asking if I was drunk. I replied in the negative (which was positively true) and promptly fell asleep, only to awake at 8am to see a missed call from her at 5.21am! I'm well and truly back in Pingguo and I love it!
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