I arose too late for breakfast but Tan and I shared the two duck legs from yesterday for lunch. I didn't manage the energy to go to the gym again, but a bit later went for a brain workout at the piano place. As it was so hot I checked first that there was space, then went up and put on the A/C, telling them I'd be back in a couple of minutes.
Then I popped into next-door-but-two to get a refreshing watermelon juice with reduced sugar and it was just what I needed. While there some woman recognised me and started talking to me and I had that awkward feeling again that I'd be expected to remember her. But luckily she brought out some photos on her phone from 2018 of me and the kids holding her younger daughter, who was the person standing next to me now along with her older sister. I had some recollections about the photos at least. Then I mentioned about going for piano practice and she said her house had two pianos and that I could come there and it would be free. She sent me a location which was nearby and I said I may well go over later.
I normally wouldn't, but wanted to see if her piano(s) were an improvement over the normal ones, so at 8.30pm I paid for my session and asked if she was home and indeed she was, so over I popped and after a short video call a door opened and I was let in. Now I was starting to remember...this was the place they used to teach calligraphy, but it didn't look so much like a classroom now. She showed me the pianos but one of them was strangely slotted behind the other and impossible to get to. But I suppose it was technically true that there were two of them.
I sat down and immediately could hear it was a lot more in tune than the one at the music school, if a lot quieter, and no sticking keys either. I played the Mozart piece I'm learning and immediately the phones came out. It was only an audience of the mother and two daughters, so maybe it was the lack of A/C but I started sweating heavily as at times it can be quite a physical as well as mental piece. But I mostly got through it before playing The Easy Winners, which if anything is more physical, and by the end I was drenched.
The mother said the father would be back soon for something to eat so I stayed and worked on the younger daughter's maths homework book. Blimey at 7 years old her reading Chinese ability put mine to shame. I really need to buck up. I had a little go on the piano for Jasmine Flower and had forgotten a lot of it, then it was older sister's time to pluck up some courage and played a couple of pretty nice tunes.
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| Finally a reasonably tuned piano in Pingguo! |
Some blokes had turned up with beers, but I was still going over the younger sister's homework but as I'd had no tea I was really hungry and I knew that something would turn up. So I went to sit with them and have a couple of glasses before a bloke turned up with a lovely beef and greens dish. And then another bloke turned up with a big bowl of soup and deep-fried squid. It's got to the point where my teeth are hurting rather with all the meat but at least the greens and soup were soft enough not to make it worse.
It must have been 10.30pm when Nong pinged to go to the youcha place, so I made my excuses. I was told to come back any evening I wanted to play piano or eat or drink, and I certainly plan to. Nong was sitting with a few friends so it was nice to have a bit of a chat for a while with some new faces for an hour or two. At one stage the boss's wife got up from our table and started playing a guzheng (zither) for a while. No-one seemed to think anything of it but after a while I made sure I clapped after a piece and then the others joined in.
To continue the musical theme, Nong found that Li Kun was drumming to the guitarist next door in Xiao Bai de Tian, so I paid what I planned to be a quick visit to say hello but "planned" was not the correct word. Of course I had to ganbei most of the people there, but was sober enough not to agree to go on stage...but I told Xiao Bai that I hadn't forgotten about her birthday on Friday and that I'd been practising 有没有人告诉你, which is true but I have a long way to go.
It was gone midnight but I missed a call from A Wu to go to Boss Zhou's so I pinged to see if he was there and indeed they still were, so once again tonight I made my excuses and popped over there to the usual raucous roars as I walked in. So a few more ganbeis but I left soon after 1am with A Wu as even he knew he was too drunk to drive his BMW.
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| So easy to get a bit of a rest |
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