Well at least I'd had 6 hours of sleep in a row...the most since I'd got here, but I hoped I'd add to that tally a bit later. But after being sick last night I didn't fancy tempting fate by having an afternoon drink. And I knew I'd told Lin Hong I'd go to see her dance at 2pm today. So I picked up some jiaozi and two sausages for lunch as yet again I'd foregone breakfast, and was glad for some proper food for a change.
Oh, it would have been so easy to sleep for an hour or two but Lin Hong reminded me that we were to go to Li Jia He Xian, but at least it was 2.30pm instead of 2pm so I put my head down and nearly got a rest till 2.20. I got to the place on time but there were almost no cars parked outside. Inside, the woman at the reception said it was probably the other Li Jia He Xian, which I'd eaten at many time before, if not in the last few years, so went to set off there. I left to hear them saying "his Chinese is so good!" so even if the rest of the day turned out shit I'd have that to appreciate! Then, as I was getting on the bike, I heard her come outside and shout 先生！ we think you should go to the Pinglu hotel. This actually made sense as there they have a huge hall for such events. I thanked her and her colleague and made my way there.
Indeed this was the right place, the hall upstairs was nearly full, but I didn't want to enter on my own. That wasn't a problem though as I met two aunties I'd known from 21 years ago coming up the stairs. Then of course Lin Hong pinged me to say she was arriving. Yes, she'd sent me the wrong details and indeed she'd gone to the same place as me and was only just coming to the Pinglu hotel. Ha! Well that's just the way it is sometimes. So I met up with Lin Hong, who was dressed up to dance, but said it would be better if I sat with the other aunties as she was performing. So we walked in and we were found a few seats with other people they knew.
What turned out was quite weird. There was lots of cheering, and I joined in. People were walking to the stage and making speeches and I wasn't quite following, but kept up with the clapping anyway. Then it was the turn of some bloke in a white suit and trousers, and he was extolling the virtues of something called Angel Competition Chain. Jeez, the more I saw, the more I realised it was some sort of crypto venture/scam. They were comparing to the cost to ETH, and the TPS (transactions per second) to BSC, plus the cost of gas fees. Almost literally all the audience were oldish Guangxi folk who, without being patronising, don't know the first thing about the technicalities of cryptocurrencies. And after every few sentences, the people working for the place, wearing similar smart clothes, would whoop and clap, encouraging the locals to do the same.
 |
| Dodgy crypto spiel |
I immediately turned off. I tried to search up ACC and found nothing in English, and very little in Chinese. Lin Hong had warned me to to invest in anything and I had absolutely no intention, and was just sad for the locals who might be intending to. It had the feeling of a Ponzi scheme even though I'd never experienced one. In the end the bloody pitch lasted 3 hours and I spent the whole time just trying to learn new words, and never clapped again after the first few minutes. Really sad, and 3 hours I'll not get back.
Finally, at 5.30pm Lin Hong's dance troupe managed a 3 minute number and that was it. She asked me to eat with them in a few minutes and indeed a few minutes later she came back to take me from the main hall to an adjoining one with fewer people where we actually had a decent meal. I was sitting with her husband but all the others were Bangxu dancers and only spoke in the local language with each other. It was fine of course, but I felt a bit out of sorts as the only conversation I could have was the type I started, and quite frankly they were laughing and joking so much between themselves I didn't want to intervene.
Presently, a bloke from another table came to me to suggest a drink, but they only had baijiu. But I remembered I still had four cans of beer in the dian dong che from two nights ago when I lost at caima. So I suggested getting them and he didn't disagree. When I got back he showed a video from 2018 of me caimaiing with him. I wish I could say I remembered that, but I sort of pretended I did as I usually do, and we ended up having a couple of ganbeis until I moved to his table with more blokes.
Lin Hong and her table went to leave and she of course told me not to drink too much, and I promised I wouldn't. I was pretty much good to my word, but one of the other blokes, who looked like an aging rocker with long hair and a cool jacket, decided he'd prefer beer too. So that meant the 4 cans didn't last long but my mate bought another 6 of them and kept shaking my hands saying we were "good friends" due to that meeting 6 years ago. Well we had quite a few hands of caima but luckily that part of the hotel was closing down for the night so we left at 9pm and I made sure to tell the bloke that I'd got home safely.
All in all it was a relatively shitty pm up to now due to the 3 hours of crypto-bollocks. But I got in contact with Li Kun to ask if he could help with Xixi's order of some clothes from Taobao. I'm sure I could have done it but it was all in Chinese and one error could have led to an unhappy daughter. He said he was busy but to meet at Xiao Bai de Tian's shortly, so I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
At getting on for 11pm I went to to Xiao Bai de Tian, after picking up more water for the house. Which meant picking up some beer too as I was out, not that I'd need any before going out. So I left to meet him soon after 11pm. Damn, I've started to have a bit of a cough...this is so normal here and generally happens after two weeks...can't think what could really have caused it. Anyway, although the place was absolutely full on a Monday night I had an excuse not to get on the stage. It was nice that Nong popped in for a quick drink as she'd been drinking next door.
I did remember to ask Li Kun to help me order Xixi's clothes; a hoody, two tee-shirts, and a pair of trousers for 400 kuai in total. I just hope they arrive in time. I would have done it myself but feared making silly mistakes and getting the wrong size etc..
Presently, I had to swap seats with Li Kun and caima with the young ladies at the next table, and they pretty much wiped the floor with me. For some reason, this time my caima foo has not been so good...I'm sure it's to do with not having "gum" available any more. But I was coughing more and more, and eventually excused myself at getting on for 1am, but not before I was able to pay 150 kuai for beers...bloody nothing in the scheme of things and I'm sure they made me a discount. That would have been two pints in my local in London.
Back home I pinged Li Kun to say I was home ok as is my wont now. But I was now properly coughing and couldn't even lay down so maybe dropped off for a bit at 3am.
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