Xiao Bai de Tian take 2

Up late at 2pm and cooked an chun dan for lunch. I really didn't have much of an appetite again but Tan had made some chicken salad that I'm normally quite partial so managed a bit of that for tea, but it wasn't really enough. Also, when Leilei got back from Li Kun's with some food for Xixi she didn't want her fried chicken on a stick so I took it as I think I need more non-beer calorie intake.

So a bit later I pinged Li Kun to apologise about coming home early last night, but he just said to continue this evening so I thought fair enough and said I'd see him there in a bit. So at 9.30pm I got there to see only the boss and Xiao Bai threading bbq for later. So we had a nice sober chat for half an hour until Li Kun turned up, followed by Nong, then Ma Yong. Zhang Hongping then called and I told him where I was so he turned up too. At first he didn't come inside so I went out to see what he was doing and he pointed to his cigarette. As if you weren't allowed to smoke here...I brought him in and Ma Yong pointed him to the ashtray clearly on the table. Apparently they knew each other pretty well and I'd already introduced him to Li Kun last year.

I asked Zhang Hongping if he preferred to be called by his name or Wu ge. It transpired it was the latter, as it was a nickname. Of course the word they used for nickname was different (外号) from what I had translated (昵称). But anyway they all had nicknames and I'll be buggered if I can remember them all but Li Kun's is Da Li (Big Li). I have no idea why Zhang Hongping's is Wu ge (five big brother) but I'm happy to call him that if he prefers. I just wonder if I should have one, but that could get quite complicated as I'm called by enough different names already.

Xiao Bai threading fresh bbq

I wanted to order stuff as I had effectively invited people, and I was shown the QR code on the table. With just a little help I was able to order a couple of portions of bbq, some fried chicken, and some yu cao xing, which is some kind of pickled root as far as I can tell. The handsome singer chap also turned up. I pinged Leilei to come and he said he was having a drink by the stadium which is the place he normally hangs out. I'm not sure if he normally hangs out with other people, but he knows the owner of the place he normally goes to. He said his tummy hurt a bit which could have been a bit of an excuse but I said just to turn up for 10 minutes and surprisingly he did, to the delight of the others, as a few photos were taken. I'd already ordered more bbq and fried chicken, plus some peanuts to go with the copious beers so he had a bite to eat and a bit of a chat with them, and managed a small glass of beer, the last half of which he managed to ganbei with us after his allotted 10 minutes were up, though he did explain to them 肚子不舒服.

The boss sang a few songs and then they asked me to but I said I would tomorrow for Xiao Bai's birthday, but the handsome singer could, and I suggested 有没有人告诉你？ So the boss found the background music and the singer found the words online and indeed belted out a better rendition than I could have done. I wouldn't have minded accompanying him on the guitar though as I know that bit. Handsome singer (I must learn his name) then took the guitar and proceeded to sing a couple of more songs, one of his own penning, with Li Kun accompanying on the drums, and I was a little jealous. But it was 1am, which has become the witching hour here so I offered to order more food and beer but was turned down (somehow there was already more beer than I had ordered), and a couple of ganbei's later I was on my way home.

The boss singing and being accompanied by Li Kun

A relatively simple evening tonight with Nong, Da Li, Handsome singer, a girl, Ma Yong, Wu ge

Actually it wasn't that bad of a thing; my tissues had dropped out of my pocket and I'd had a sudden attack of diarrhoea in the bar and I'd calculated I wouldn't be able to get home in time to avoid a disaster. So I'd grabbed a handful of tissues from the bar and managed a squat in the dirty toilet. Not wishing to disturb the kids, who were in the main bedroom now with the western en-suite toilet, I repeated the squat in the main toilet at home, and hoped it wouldn't go on all night.