Well I fell asleep to American football by 3am but at 7am I was wide awake yet again. I considered going for a long walk but instead had a single Alprazolam at 8am and slept till 11.30, and then 12.50. I'm sure it's a mixture of the jetlag and the drug rather than the drug itself. But I was refreshed at least, and managed to get out to eat a portion of jiaozi at the usual place. Apparently the owner isn't in France for two months, but rather in her home town till the New Year. I'm absolutely sure they said France the other day but I guess that might have another meaning....
Anyway, A Xia had been in contact with me on Saturday to collect some clothes for Tan "tomorrow" and tomorrow was yesterday so I pinged her to see if today would be convenient. It would indeed and she was on her way to her shop that she no longer works at, but rather lets out. I had already started a dumbbell workout and just remembered I'd need to register myself, so asked if she'd still be there at 4.30. She said she should be but I felt a bit bad so I said I'd be there in under an hour, and finished my workout (it was tough but not as tough as when it's in the high 30s) and grabbed a shower, this time in the main bedroom en suite, and left at 3.30 only to find she'd changed the front of the shop so I didn't know where I was. Luckily I found the ding wei from last year and found I was outside it when she came out with a massive bin bag of clothes and other stuff for Tan. Such is the cost of coming here by myself this time....
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| I am such a wally...I brought a tub of creatine on the left, not knowing there was still a tub (middle) and I also brought a bag of the stuff thinking it was protein powder (which I don't have any of)...more first world problems I guess... |
I had time to drop off the clothes and make it to the police station just after 4pm to get registered by Xiao Mong as usual for the last couple of years. As Li Kun had confirmed Luo Xiaoping's invitation I knew I'd be meeting up with him in over an hour so I thought better than to go for an hour's piano practice and instead went to the supermarket and bought some drink instead. When I got home I found in the freezer a full 500cl bottle of Sprite which wasn't frozen. This could only mean one thing; I'd left half a litre of booze and indeed it smelt like gin. There was only one way to be sure though so I poured some and mixed it with lemonade and indeed it was. Then Awl called and we spent 45 minutes chatting while I should really have been doing some guitar practice as I feared I'd be called up later tonight.
But anyway instead of going to Li Kun's to meet him, he turned up outside Yu Jin Hua Ting and I met him there 30 minutes later than planned. He was in his car with his wife and two younger kids and they didn't seem too excited to see me, rather it was just this normal "uncle" who looks a bit different. We drove to the complex just north of the guangchang and Li Kun showed me that he worked in that big building. We pulled up outside after negotiating with a worker who'd parked her bike there to do some cleaning, and were the first ones to arrive at Luo's place on the 25th floor.
Li Kun brewed some white tea and us three blokes sat down to drink and I did ask why the women couldn't join us but that was met by a wave of the hand. I'm not imposing western standards here and I've been in many places where ladies have not just partaken in tea but led the ceremony. But it seemed this pre-prandial tea session was to be men-only. And it was lovely tea. I have so much tea back home in the UK that has been given as presents but none of this variety. First world problems.
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| Nice night scene from Luo's place |
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| Music teacher, Luo's wife, Luo, Ma, Meng, Li Kun - great ingredients for a great meal |
Music teacher turned up, then A Meng and we were presently called to table for yet another family feast. During the meal Li Kun's kids constantly called for me to play games with them and I spent a good deal of time buying turtles with his son from his daughter, and getting free eggs. And we would feed the eggs to the turtles. Not real turtles or eggs (although the money was real), but it was really fun...at least for the first three or four times...then it became a bit tedious for me but obviously not for them. So I went back to the table only to be pulled back a few minutes later. At least it slowed down my drinking a little.
A Meng's wife joined us and got through a whole bottle (50cl) of 10% something-or-other before moving on to some white alcohol, and us blokes got through more 2.5% beer than would be healthy had it been twice as strong, and a hearty time was had by all! Two or three meals like this (that I've already had) is more than enough to justify the expense of coming here. Li Kun received a message and said that at 10pm we'd go to Xiao Bai de Tian, but no-one moved till we finished the beers that were on the table (in good tradition) until 10.30pm.
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| Walking back with Li Kun's daughter |
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| Mates at Xiao Bai de Tian's |
Thankfully Li Kun's wife drives, and drove us to Xiao Bai de Tian's where the owner (Xiao Bai's husband) was sitting with a couple of blokes in the otherwise empty bar. We said we'd only stay till midnight but a couple more blokes turned up and the boss brought out more beer and food and Li Kun went home to pick up his motorbike. Only at gone 1am did we leave and I got on the back of Li Kun's bike. At least I managed to get to sleep around 2.30am after a chat with Mat and Awl.
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