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.
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| Playing mo pai and mostly losing |
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.
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