Jackfruit and pork scratching

I got up at 10ish and Tan asked if I was coming to the gym. I seriously thought about it and wouldn't have regretted it but this time I listened to my body, who said he needed more sleep. Which I did until 1.30pm, and managed a coffee and small zongzi for lunch. It was as well that I had a small meal as Li Kun pinged to ask what I was doing and to come over to eat jackfruit and drink tea. At least with him I can be pretty confident he means what he says.

As the dian dong che was charging I left on foot and met Leilei coming back from Li Kun's where he'd been working on his music again, picking up from last year. Li Kun's place was its usual lively self and his colleague Haiyang was there in particularly high spirits; she doesn't seem to know there is a volume level below 11 when she talks. I thought I'd had jackfruit before but didn't recognise it. It was particularly sweet and lovely so I could only manage two of them but also had some great pork scratching - one piece of which was more than you'd get in a whole pack in a British pub. Nong had pinged me to eat with her and her friend from last night but then pinged me to say she was eating with someone else. I wasn't sure if this meant I was still to come or not but Li Kun said it definitely wasn't the case, so I'm obviously still learning some of the culture here.

Proper pork crackling and jackfruit. Both great but maybe not ideal together

Earlier, Zhang Yangwen, my retired friend from outside Pingguo had pinged me to go for a walk in the evening as he is wont to do when he is in Pingguo. I hadn't confirmed as I wasn't sure if I was going to eat with Nong, but as Li Kun had just explained to me that I wasn't, at least I could confirm I'd meet up with him after a bite to eat at home. Of course I got to the tennis courts a bit late, by which time he was back at 老年活动中心 so we met there, walked to his house to drop off some rice as you do, before we walked one lap of the guangchang together and said goodnight.

It wasn't yet 9pm, so instead of going home I went to racist Huang's to find him and a couple of mates playing mopai with white alcohol. Well they were playing with cards but the losers drank white alcohol. I was shouted over to join them in drink at least and was told to get my own bottle of beer from the fridge. I got a rather large Li Quan 1998 and had a nice first proper gan bei with him this visit. For some reason they didn't want me to join them playing cards, rather just drink with whoever lost each round, which sort of meant I was the de facto loser every time. As I got my second bottle of 1998 they moved on to beer too, but picked up some smaller bottles also labelled 1998. I had a look and they were 2.8% as expected, but then they pointed to mine and it was 3.6%. I'd always assumed 1998 was a single version of Li Quan, and not that there were sub-versions of it. I'll be careful to check in the future as my sub-version was literally 35% stronger, and that could make a big difference during a long evening.

Huang and mates in full swing

But halfway through my second bottle I got a message from Xixi saying she couldn't open the front door of the house. Heaven knows I had that problem last time I was here but at least now it was 10pm rather than 2.30am. On my way back I passed a couple of blokes drinking who called me over as apparently I knew them. I explained I would stop for a quick ganbei after helping my daughter enter the house, but just as I was approaching it I got a message to say she was in. She didn't realise you had to push instead of pull...after all this time?? At least it's not only adults that make such mistakes...except she is one now.

So a couple of minutes later I was sitting down with the the two blokes and eating some of their bbq fish as you do. The problem was I was still there an hour later and had forgotten to go back to racist Huang. Somehow I don't think that will have been a problem though...he was half-cut the time I left and could have been quite annoying had I gone back later.

Bbq fish and greens and the second port of call of the evening

Back home I hoped I'd get an earlyish night, but no...sleep didn't rear its head so I took advantage by watching Croatia v Italy till gone 5am to see the Italians break Croatian hearts with a well-taken 98th minute goal, and feeling peckish I heated up some of the leftover bbq from yesterday and feasted on duck tongues as you do.