I wish I could be at six places at once...lovely meal with Haiwei and family though

This is getting silly now. Yet again up at 5am after 4 hours' sleep. But at least this time I knew I was in China as I'm quite used to this room in this house now. I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep for a while but reasoned that a siesta shouldn't be too hard later so at 7am I ventured out for a longish walk to make that possibility even greater.

On the way to the guangchang I heard the sounds of cai ma and indeed saw a table of four or five people playing...no doubt having been there throughout the night. I had no inclination to join them though, even if they'd seen me and called me over. I managed about 7km and picked up some jiaozi on the way back. But this time there was someone new serving. I asked if he was the new boss and he said no but the boss is visiting France till after Chinese New Year. Wow, that seems a long way away for a long time.

So breakfast over and it was barely gone 9am. No-one I knew would be awake, so I paid a visit to the supermarket to pick up some provisions, not that I needed much. By 10am I was really feeling it so went back to bed where it just seemed to laugh at me and any prospect of sleep. At 10.45 I countered by opening a beer. I tried to justify it by thinking what time it was in the UK but 2.45am is hardly sufficient. But I needed the sleep so I did it but I might as well have been drinking coffee for all the effect it had though. Then A Wu called to remind me we were going fishing now. Oh shit I'd completely forgotten about that. So I was honest and said I couldn't do anything without some sleep and randomly said I'd need 50 minutes. More like 3h50. But that gave me more incentive to sleep so I grabbed another beer and put the alarm on for midday.

So much for that. Midday wheeled around and all I had for my efforts at sleeping were two visits to the toilet. But I didn't give up and persevered with another beer. Luckily they were weak of course. But maybe that was the problem, but I didn't have anything else and didn't actually want to be drunk as such. At least A Wu hadn't called back, so this time I laid down and counted methodically in German, one number per breath and although I made it to 100 it look a lot longer than 100 breaths as I'd lose count at 64 and have to keep going back to 60 with some strict rules I made to myself. I found thoughts interspersing with the counting, like preludes to dreams without the satisfaction of dreams themselves. Or maybe foreplay to dreams is better...important but not the real thing. So it was marginally better than no sleep, but frustrating as I'm used to be able to get a decent 2 hours in normally.

I hadn't forgotten Haiwei had invited me to eat with him and his son and sure enough at 4.20pm he sent a ding wei and said we'd start at 6.30pm. I told him I'd get some kip first and he was fine. I'd moved on to Spanish counting by now and was having limited success, stalling in the 60s and 70s but not really getting sleep. Of course he called at 6.03pm to say to come now so I told him I'd get a shower and come over. It took minutes for the hot water to come through and I was really worried about having a cold shower now that it's only 12-13 degrees outside. But finally I found if I turned the know all the way to the left it would just be hot enough, and would hopefully wake me up enough. Before I was dry, Haiwei called again at 6.26, then at 6.40, then at 6.47 when I finally got there as it was further than I thought. But I couldn't get in the xiao qu as it was a sort of gated community. I called to say I was at a main exit, and was able to read all five characters of the shop outside, so they sent someone to collect me.

Except a car came to leave the complex and while the barrier was raised a delivery driver on a bike sneaked through, as did I, narrowly missing its return. It was actually a silly move on my part as I'd said I was outside and now I was in. I found a little garden and called Haiwei but he was upstairs sorting out the food and the girls had gone to collect me. So I walked back to the barrier when Huang Qian called me. I told her I'd seen a little garden and she said to meet there so I walked back and a couple of minutes later I could see a young girl running towards me to give me a big hug. I guess I should have remembered her from the last time but I certainly pretended I did. She was with Huang Qian and Baoli, and challenged me to a race, so I called out 一、二、三 and we ran off. I let her win because she knew the way to the house and I didn't (no, I'd have let her win anyway of course).

Upstairs was a typical family affair with three generations again. Baoli's elder brother and wife were there, and I gathered the young girl I raced with was their daughter and they had a baby son too. Baoli's mum was happy to shake hands with me and laughed with joy when I said some words in Bangxu hua. Of course the meal was lovely despite me flagging. Huang Qian was sat next to me and was doting on the little son of 6 months. If I wasn't married I would have thought they were trying to pair us off. As if to make it worse, Baoli asked to see a pic of my kids and was cooing over them and when Huang Qian saw them she reiterated the fact that she wanted mixed-race kids herself....

The food was top-notch of course, especially the duck (and Baoli's mum was particularly enamoured with my "ngo bit ndei gun!" (the duck is tasty)), and I was quite interested that when I opened the first can of Li Quan 1998 beer Huang Qian was excited to see that we'd "won" something. I didn't quite understand what we'd won (was it a caravan or a boat, a la Bullseye?) but didn't want to stilt the conversation by asking too much. But the next can also had the same writing on the underside of the ring-pull and it made me realise that in the 21+ years I've been coming here nearly all of the beer cans have had these hitherto throwaway ring-pulls until finally there has been a use for them. But the next can, and then the next, and the next all had the same writing underneath. It was like winning the lottery with every ticket until I smelt a rat (it took 4 cans). But regardless, we kept the winning ring-pulls in a plastic cup as apparently we'll get a free can for each one next time we go to buy more beer. It sounds too good to be true so probably is!

Lovely meal with Haiwei, his girlfriend Baoli, and some of her family (and Huang Qian)

Then it was my turn to take a couple of photos with the baby and his big sister. But Huang Lei had pinged me to go for a bite so I told Haiwei I'd better go in a bit as I won't necessarily get much time to see him due to job constraints. So I left around tennish and drove to near the police station I'd need to go to to register in a couple of days. It took a couple of minutes' video call but I finally found the place and met just Huang Lei, A Ning, and Lao li, in various states of inebriation. In fact A Ning was already wasted, but it was fine and I only stayed till 11.30am as they could see I was knackered.

Me with Baoli's brother's youngest

Me with Baoli's brother's oldest

During this time Lu Feng from the Haliao supporters' club had heard I was in town and invited me to drink at the new place over the bridge, and advertising friend Nong had also done the same. I would dearly have loved to do both or either but was so flagging even Huang Lei had noticed and said we'd make a move. This was after Lao Li had taken A Ning back due to his wasted state. I think literally every one of my six best friends here had invited me out tonight...if only I had been more awake....

But A Wu had also pinged me to say he was outside our place so after following Huang Lei back to nearly home I got him to send a ding wei and I made a last effort for a beer. I found where he was thanks to a "hello!" and a "do you remember me?" from a pretty lady cooking some bbq. I would normally remember a pretty lady cooking bbq who speaks English but I guess I was too tired, but used her to help me find where A Wu was. In fact she was useless, saying he was in a housing place opposite the road when in fact he was literally eating next door to her. Still, I thanked her in English and said I'd come back to eat there some time. Then she pointed to a skinny bloke and said he was her boyfriend and I shook his hand as though genuinely congratulating him on having a pretty girlfriend, and then felt there was something wrong about that (the congratulations...not having a lovely girlfriend).

Oh jeez, there were about six of us around the table and I was by far the soberest. A Wu wasn't far behind and after a few ganbeis even he could see my flaggishness. He slightly tried to get me to go with them to sing song (with the "temptation" that there would be "beautiful woman" but I only had sleep on my mind) so I raised my plastic glass for the last time and wished them a good night.

Back home I should have slept as soon as I was horizontal but I put on the last half an hour of the Palace v City match and it was typically not great viewing. We managed to equalise through a lovely move but we are a shadow of the team we were. Congrats Liverpool on a well-deserved title this year. Let's hope to regroup and rekindle that spirit.