Last night in Pingguo for the 20th time at least...

It's become a bit of a pattern here that as my last days arrive I seem to get invited out less and less, although this time has been a bit of an exception. But yesterday I resolved to be the inviter, and had checked with racist Huang that he'd be back today and I could invite my mates. So I'd sent them all the invitations, but late morning I received a message from Huang that he wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be opening today. Oh. I wished him a speedy recovery, and went for a drive to decide what to do. This was Pingguo after all, so I would be able to find somewhere else for sure.

At 1.30pm I decided to see if Ma Laoban was in as I haven't seen him this year. He's been busy with family over New Year which is fair enough. As I arrived at his office he was just getting out of his car and recognised me and of course the first thing he said was 吃饭了没有？Well I hadn't, so we immediately went to the fen place next to his office and ordered two portions of flaccid penis. It's really nice but I just couldn't finish mine, but it didn't matter, it was back to his office for tea. I'm so glad I managed to meet up with him this time, and we chatted together with a couple of mates for a good hour before I realised I needed to sort out an alternative venue for tonight.

18 years of friendship

So a hug later, I was driving down the side of the guangchang past Xiao Bai de Tian, and decided to look at the youcha place I've been to a couple of times. Yes, this would do. I came across a table with three women, one of whom knew Tan (at least her husband and younger sister did). We chatted for a while and I had some youcha with them, then they called over the boss to discuss tonight. I explained I'd have 8-10 mates and he said that would be no problem, but they didn't specialise in doing lots of food. I knew that wouldn't be an issue as we could get stuff delivered. So that was tonight sorted. I pinged each of my mates about the change in plan and every one got back to say that would be fine. Except A Wu, who was in Nanning today.

Ladies at the youcha place - the one on the right knows Tan (at least her husband and younger sister do)

Once again, Lin Hong had called me to eat with them at the milk shop. Well this was perfect, as I wasn't sure I could wait till 9pm to eat, so had a very enjoyable meal with mostly the same people, except this time there were a couple of blokes to drink beer with me.

A Zhong was asking how I'd get to Nanning airport tomorrow. This was a fair question. A couple of days ago Li Kun's wife had said there were no coaches and I already knew there were no trains. I'd discussed it with Ma Laoban and he agreed. He said he'd recently got a taxi back home from the airport for 320 kuai, which made sense as I'd paid 300 back in 2019. I didn't really want to do that, and learnt that for 60-80 kuai I should be able to share a didi che to Nanning train station, from where I could get the airport bus for 20 kuai. So I decided I'd do that. But I thought I'd take another check on the Trip app just to see if there were any other train options. Strangely, I found a slow train leaving at 1.22 tomorrow with one standing space only. I booked it straightaway even if the booking fee was more expensive than the ticket itself. There's not much worse than driving into Nanning, not knowing how bad the traffic will be, and I've done it more times than is healthy.

I then double-checked that there were no trains from Nanning to Wuxu. Indeed there weren't, but hang on, it seemed that Wuxu Airport was also an option. Blimey yes there were loads, and I thought that this route didn't exist anymore. I could probably have got this when I arrived had I known the difference between Wuxu and Wuxu Airport. So I booked one of the few remaining seats on the 3.17pm train to the airport which would get there 16 minutes later for a 5.50pm flight. My Pingguo train should arrive after 1h18s at 2.40pm giving me 37 minutes for my connection. Surely enough?

I made my excuses soon after 7pm, explaining I'd invited people for soon after 8pm, and got home to prepare. Prepare what? There was nothing to do. I'd had my shower, so got to the place around 8.10pm knowing that I probably wouldn't see anyone for half an hour.

Indeed, 30 minutes later Huang Lei turned up with his son and A Ning. This was good as I hadn't seen A Ning yet this year yet I guess I've known him for coming up to 15 years now. Gradually more people turned up and by 9pm we had some food on the table, not to mention beers, that they'd only thought to put in the freezer when I asked for cold ones at 8.30pm. Advertising friend Nong turned up and ordered a load of bbq, which really helped. Li Kun, A Hok, and Zhuang Hua also turned up so it was quite a nice gathering. Unfortunately Haiwei, although saying he'd be there at 10pm, couldn't make it due to work.

We ended up staying there till 2am despite me telling people I'd have to leave around midnight as I was leaving tomorrow. I was embarrassed that I wasn't able to pay thanks to Wise not having moved my money to Li Kun's account despite saying it would be done hours ago. It's been a pretty decent service of late but not tonight. Li Kun told me not to worry at all and took the bill...I don't know how much for but for five hours of 8-10 people I guess it won't be cheap.

Last supper in Pingguo, this time at the youcha place

I got hit by a really severe tinge of sadness, realising I really did have to be home soon, and this was my last night in Pingguo for who knows how long? I gave Li Kun a lift home then when back myself my sadness wouldn't allow me to sleep so I did as much packing as I could but I remember it being 3.45am and still just feeling grim.