At least I managed to get up by 1pm and found half a changfen that I heated up in the microwave. For some random reason a friend video-called me at 1.35pm and I answered despite not wearing clothes. I had to be a little careful.
Then Xixi pinged me to say they were coming back today instead of tomorrow as the hotel was full. Jeez if I was taking the kids away for two nights I'd have booked two nights in a hotel and not just one. I mean I don't mind at all seeing them sooner but yeah whatever...it's Guangxi and very little is planned. So they were to take the 4.12pm train back home a bit later.
It was boiling hot of course but I decided to go and see Ma Laoban as the last time I tried his office was closed. This time it wasn't locked but there was no-one working. I tried his office though and he happened to be there in his massage chair as you do, while some woman was sitting at his desk. I really enjoy our conversations as he is one of the few who speaks logically (IMO) and this time we talked business.
Apparently this printing business is not going well, and as we were talking about it some woman in a police-like uniform came into the office to request tax. There was a mild argument and Ma Laoban didn't pay as he said he hadn't been doing any business to pay tax, which as far as I could see was very true.
Then was explaining something about trademarks, and how a couple he registered earlier in the year were not accepted as they were too similar to an existing one, so now he'd registered another. It was for some sort of medicine alcohol but not the type you drink, rather you spray it onto cuts or bruises. Of course I had my doubts but once again thought better of asking about double-blind trials. He also told me that it was a secret recipe, but I'm not sure that's a selling point. At least we agreed that word-of-mouth was one of the better forms of advertising, and he made me listen to a friend of his whose mother had fallen over in the shower but was better a day later after a few sprays of the said medicine.
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| Ma Laoban's medicine will have to be rebranded |
But at least it I learnt a few new words. At least I will have learnt them if I remember them; it's not every day you use "trademark". We chatted until it was tea-time, and apparently it is liu yue zhu liu (early June (lunar calendar) festival) and it is customary to eat with family.
But first I walked to Li Kun's to give him a couple of spray fragrances for his wife. I found he was about to leave his office so managed to give them to him and walked back and saw a women cooking duck and chicken legs so asked for three of each. She asked if I wanted lajiao and I said I'd better not at the kids mightn't want it, so she persisted in giving me three bags, each with some differing lajiao which I'll never remember the names of, plus about a dozen little plastic bags, presumably to use as gloves for eating.
Although Xixi had said she wasn't hungry, she ate two of the chicken legs and Leilei had the third. I managed a single duck leg though Tan didn't eat. Well at least we'd managed a semi-family meal all for 36 kuai plus two duck legs left over for later.
Then at 10pm Zhang Hua asked me to pop over for a couple of drinks so I went there a bit later. Leilei was playing basketball in the courts again which is a good thing. He pays 3 kuai or so to get in and I understand plays with some of the blokes there, so hopefully getting a bit of Chinese practice in. Well he popped over for some bbq before heading home, while I stayed on for a while, ending up going to the second floor to performs some ganbeis with a couple of tables there. At the first table they made me try some greenish baijiu, and it wasn't quite as bad as baijiu normally is. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me go back to beer and I had to do a whole glass in the next 15 minutes or so. The next table didn't force that stuff on me luckily.
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| Leilei, Zhang Hua's ex-colleague, and Zhang Hua enjoying some nice bbq |
Then some bloke who'd pinged me to have a beer as I was on my way to Zhang Hua's pinged me to ask where I was. Ah, I'd told him I'd meet him for a beer a bit later, and it was already quite a bit later. So at 1am I made my excuses and went to meet him at a bbq place nearer our home, but managed to get back by 2am at least.
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| Last stop of the night... |
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