Unexpected trip to A Wu's wife's hometown Huangtai Tun

At least I got up in the morning and went for a walk as there's not much time left now. I pinged A Wu to see if he wanted to go for a bite to eat but he said he wouldn't be back in Pingguo till the afternoon. Then he sent a message to say he would send someone to pick me up and I would go to his wife's hometown village at 2.30pm to eat. Well I had no plans so why not? He called me before I had time to finish the message to say exactly the same thing so I went home with a vague idea to get some sleep first.

I managed a couple of midday beers but for some reason sleep didn't follow, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and at 2.20pm received an SMS from someone saying he was waiting outside in a red car. Yes, typical, but I'd had my shower so 15 minutes later walked out with a bottle of cola and something and met the bloke, and we drove about 30 minutes south of Pingguo till we reached the hamlet called Huangtai Tun.

It was great to see A Wu's kids and they ran to hug me. I was wearing far too much as it was around 20 degrees so I shed my think coat and hoodie and took the kids for a walk around the place. I love these little hamlets; almost no-one has seen a westerner before so it's a bit like being in Bangxu in 2003 again. I held hands with A Wu's daughter and the daughter of his wife's wife as you do, and we ventured down some thin winding paths to find houses where of course people knew us via other people. It was another of those money-can't-buy moments, despite it being £535 air fare. But the other costs have been time getting used to the lingo that really made this trip possible.

Yi yen, A Wu's wife's sister's daughter, A Wu's daughter

We were called to eat soon after 4pm and I knew by now this was a loose term. People would come and go for the whole evening and I only wondered when I'd get back. But I wasn't concerned. As the beers started flowing and we descended into cai ma I was in my element but slightly worried I wouldn't last that long. Not to worry, I lay on a bench and pretended to sleep for half an hour. Maybe I even did have 40 winks.

Lovely village meal

I got up and more people were there but after a bit I couldn't handle any more fizz so went for a walk around the village. Some bloke told me to follow him to have a game of pool. So I did and had a good laugh not really understanding Chinese rules. Then I decided to see a bit more of the village and it was really worth it. I happened upon various families, all of whom invited me in to eat even though I was full. But at one place a woman was doing bbq and I sat down with who I guess is her husband and a couple of kids and managed to eat a sausage and some squid. The young girl, who I guessed was about 11 said she was 19. I know my Chinese isn't that great but I asked her twice more how old she was and she confirmed 19. Jeez, it's nice to looker younger than you are (I love people guessing I'm in my 30s) but that difference is almost a deformity. She was lovely to talk to though, as was everyone in the village with no exception.

Playing pool in the local shop as you do

I happened upon a woman doing bbq and had some

I realised I was having one of the times of my life after only having been invited a few hours ago. It was a mix of being accepted as a speaker of the language yet being an outsider who joins in. It'd days like this I will cherish. On the way back I got lost and found myself at another house where the lady bade me to come in and took a picture of me. Not two minutes later I received a call from one of A Wu's wife's relatives saying he knew where I was and was coming to pick me up.

So back at the main house we had a few more drinks and cai ma and finally at gone 11pm it was determined that we would go back to Pingguo. A Wu had been drinking but said he'd drive carefully and I suppose he did, stopping only for both of us to have a wee. He dropped me off at the bottom of my road and I'm glad he did as I popped in to the local convenience store to pick up some jing jiu to help with confidence as I'm due to perform in Bangxu tomorrow. Back home I ended up having a chat with the lads and they tried to instil some confidence into me about playing the guitar and singing in front of 2000 people. It didn't really work.