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.
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| 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 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.
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| 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.
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