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.
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| 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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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