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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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