I was up at 7am but not for long and 4 hours later I was up again waking up to Sean Carroll's Mindscape podcast as you do. Lunch was once again yesterday's bbq and I really intended to go to the gym but instead chilled for a while as it's become really hot again after a week of rain. So at 3pm I caved in and had a refreshing beer, followed by another but they lasted till 4.30pm and I didn't have any more till after tea.
Then for some reason A Heng's daughter, 谭诗韵, (Tán Shīyùn, The Beauty of Poems), who's been here for a few days with Jiuma, decided for the first time she wanted to play with me instead of being scared of me, and then we sat next to each other eating sunflower seeds for a while and chatting. She's been very spoilt but today just seemed good-natured and very cute, and when I asked if she wanted to come with me to buy xiaolongbao and jiaozi she said yes. Tan didn't want her to go as she would wet herself, but she got her shoes on and held my hand so we walked downstairs. The normal place was already closed but we found a place next door that had exactly what we wanted.
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| My travelling companion is three years old, she is the child of my wife's 2nd sister's son |
She didn't wet herself, and when we got back she had half a portion of jiaozi instead of the food Jiuma had got for her. I had a couple of xiaolongbao before Tan asked me to get some more dragon fruit from the supermarket as last time I'd accidentally got the ones with the white flesh inside instead of red. As I got my shoes on Tan Shiyun said she wanted to come to, and after a trip to the toilet she was allowed. Well it took twice as long as usual but it was quite good fun and we got a lot of smiles from older ladies. I checked the dragon fruit were 红心火龙果 and we picked up some sweet iced red tea and a couple more beers and sunflower seeds. By the time we got back all the xiaolongbao and jiaozi were gone and although Tan hadn't asked me to get any for her I'm guessing she finished them off.
Zhang Liangwen had pinged me to go for a walk this morning but I hadn't got up in time, so he'd invited me for this evening instead. I said I'd pop over after the shopping and was a bit longer than expected due to my little companion, but met him at getting on for 7.30pm by his place and we walked north by the guangchang to meet a woman I think I'd met before. We then walked 2.6km north while most of the time they were talking and I was listening. And then we walked back again. So all in all not far off 7km from front door, but on the way back we came across the area with Zhang Hua's new bbq place and I said I'd pop in and see him as it was getting on for 9pm and I was peckish after only two xiaolongbao and one jiaozi for tea.
His wife was cooking and he was sitting by himself at a table smoking. So I gave him a friendly pat on the back and sat down with him. Within a minute his wife served us a nice mix of bbq as if they'd been waiting for me. I noticed that Li Kun had pinged me to go for a drink at his studio but I was now sitting down with Zhang Hua and it would be rude to leave so soon. So I asked Tan if she wanted some bbq at around 10pm but she didn't get back to me till 11.15pm to say she did, so I got 10 beef, 10 pork, and 10 duck stomachs as they didn't have any more sweetcorn left. They tried not to let me pay but I wasn't having any of it, so they said 15 kuai! No! Ok, 30 kuai. No! I'd been there over two hours eating and drinking anyway so I forced 200 kuai on them.
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| Unexpected beers and bbq with Zhang Hua |
To be fair, their portions are a bit smaller than most, which meant they were ready quicker too, so I brought them home at 11.30 and left them while I went to Li Kun's for an hour or so after checking they were still there. Of course they were; him, Ma Yong, another bloke and a woman. I stayed till nearly 1am, then, back home, at 2am had a chat with Mat and Awl as you do.
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| Back to Li Kun's for a nightcap |
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