Yesterday I mentioned to Haiwei that Leilei and I were going to the football match v Chongqing this evening, and he said he was also going, and we were to meet up straight afterwards at Bar 3000 Du, as both his sons would be there and he wanted them to speak with me in English again. I knew this wouldn't go down too well with Feng ge, who had sorted my tickets and would want me to go for drinks with him afterwards.
Not that long after a lunch of jiaozi, Feng ge pinged me to say to be at the stadium by 5pm in order to sing with the Chongqing supporters. From experience, we normally only get 30-40 away supporters, so I was a bit surprised. But I've now been put into a Weixin group with nearly 300 people and I could see they were talking about being there early. I had a couple of pick-you-up at getting on for 4pm then Feng ge pinged me to let me know he was already at the stadium and to "hurry up!". Yeah, I've heard this before...so I left on the dian dong che at 5pm and some Wuming supporters members called me over before I could even get to the bar. I said I was looking for Feng ge and immediately he appeared and we went to the bar...not to drink, or to eat noodles as he had said, but to pick up one of the many loudspeakers charging on the desk.
Next we heard the drums start up and some chanting, and we started to march and chant from the north of the stadium to the south. There we met the Chongqing supporters, and there were about 1000 of them in great voice, even better than ours. We spent the next 25 minutes exchanging chants and rounds of applause in a sort of face-off, with a few totally unnecessary riot police in-between us.
Next we continued walking around the stadium, me posing for photos as Leilei was to come up later. At one stage Feng ge came over to me with a tiny glass of baijiu, and for once I was almost happy to have a wee nip. But then some woman pulled out a bottle of the stuff, and started pouring into tiny plastic glasses on a table. I should have predicted this, but then I was told we would caima of course. This was probably the largest audience I've had for caima and at least managed to win one round before losing and being replaced in a winner-stays-on format. Then a woman who had been videoing the proceedings came up to me and asked if I was Bangxu guye, and I replied in the positive, then she asked me to give a shout-out to the team so I shouted ”广西平果哈嘹加油！“ as you do. She asked me what impression I had of Pingguo, and I was so glad I understood “有什么印象” as last time here I wouldn't have understood that question. So it seemed she was a bit of a reporter and I guess some videos of me will be up for Tan to see and tut to soon.
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| Meeting the Chongqing fans |
We waited for the team bus and cheered the players getting off, before finally completing the loop of the outside of the stadium and getting back to Wuming bar for those noodles. Feng ge gave me our tickets and said to come back after the match as Li Kun and his band would be on stage. I said I had to go elsewhere but that I should make it a bit later, which he seemed to accept. So off again, I met up with Leilei and we went in to watch the match. Blimey it was very full-on again in the Wuming stand behind the goal, and the Chongming supporters didn't let up either. By halftime there was a wafting stench of BO, and I was already looking forward to the end. Really annoyingly Chongqing equalised in the 95th minute, but 1-1 was a fair result and they were in 2nd place anyway.
Leilei didn't want to go to Bar 3000 du so we drove home and I changed into my last year's Pingguo Haliao top before getting there at 10pm and spending a reasonably fun two hours chatting a bit of English to the sons. At midnight I pinged Feng ge to say I'd come over if that was ok and of course it was. I arrived 5 minutes later to a much more raucous Wuming bar than I had left earlier this evening. Li Kun told me he was drunk. Feng ge told me he was drunk. I was sat down with other people and I wished I was hungry enough to avail myself of the fried crickets. The the good-looking pop star lookalike sat down with me at the table and chinged my glass, for the first time with a glass of alcohol. Then a few minutes later he was back on stage singing.
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| With Haiwei at Bar 3000 Du |
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| Cracking grub at Wuming a bit later... |
I think I was invited to go up on stage too but I was too modest, even after a few beers. This was more of a professional set too. So I watch a bit of Switzerland demolish Italy and chatted to more and more people, and I recall some caima for good measure.
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