Annoyingly I was woken up by a phone call at 8am after no more than 4 hours' sleep. I couldn't get back to sleep so went to the security place to enquire about the water. He said something about it but it wouldn't be back for a bit, even though Tan said last night she'd definitely paid the bill. Oh well, I can't live without a shower so at 9am I booked the Vienna hotel on trip.com and to my gratitude (?) the lady at the desk said they only had a more expensive room but she'd upgrade me at no extra cost. So finally showered and refreshed, very refreshed, I went to pick up some jiaozi and baozi. As I didn't have the dian dong che I walked over to where I used to go in the summer and passed by racist Huang having lunch with his wife and a friend. There was no utterance of surprise whatsoever, though I was beckoned to eat with them. On another day I would have but I just wanted to get a small bite and get some sleep, so I said I'd definitely be back one evening.
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| I came across a cool cat while out getting a bite to eat |
After a nice bite I lay down and tried in vain to sleep again. I very nearly managed it but after making it to 100 in German and Spanish Li Kun called me to come over and pick up the dian dong che. It was getting on for 5pm so I thought I would, then get registered again, but once there he told me it would be too late and to drink tea instead. Which we did for 10 minutes with Luo and some other bloke, until Haiwei rang to invite me to eat at 7.30pm. But Li Kun wanted me to go out with him later for drinks, so I passed the phone to him and they agreed I'd do Haiwei first, but Li Kun told him not to let me drink too much there...as if I would.
But I was uncomfortably tired, so used this as an excuse to go back to the hotel for a final attempt at a siesta, and assisted by half a can of beer I think I managed a few minutes before Haiwei called me again to tell me not to come early (I hadn't even seen his ding wei he'd sent a few minutes earlier). Oh well, at least I'd remembered to pick up a bottle of wine I'd bought in Sainsbury's a couple of days ago. I downed the half can of now room-temperature beer and drove the 5 minutes to the International Hotel where his girlfriend works, except I'd forgotten that her office was on the 3rd floor, not the 2nd so I looked like a bit of a wally walking into the wrong rooms...not that that hasn't happened before.
There were a couple of women there eating sweetcorn as you do, and one of them drank the water from the clear kettle they boiled the sweetcorn in while the rest of us drank red tea. I'd normally avoid this after the afternoon but it was necessary caffeine to perk me up. The four of us sat down to eat and then Haiwei's girlfriend, Baoli joined us. It transpired that the three women had known each other since sixth form, and that one of them was pregnant with her third (although only second pregnancy due to twins the first time around). The other was single, but asked me to find her an English boyfriend as she wanted to have mixed-race kids. Er...yeah I've been asked this before but not quite so brazenly.
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| "Brewing" sweetcorn as you do... |
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| Huang Qian and friend cutting a zongzi with the wrapping. The former wants mixed-race babies and the latter will have her third (not mixed-race) in 5 months. |
It was a good laugh and after the customary eating for 15 minutes Haiwei cracked open the beer but only the two of us drank at first as Baoli was still technically working. To be fair she was on and off the phone for a while and had to pop out. But when she was back she no longer had her name tag on and promptly poured herself a beer. Then the pregnant woman's husband entered but he'd eaten so just had some beer. Then the English boyfriend-seeker decided she'd have some beer too. And then another bloke turned up for beer. So of course we moved on to cai ma, which I'd not played for over 3 months but was able to beat Haiwei quite easily, if not Baoli.
Li Kun called around 9.30pm as expected and then at 10pm asked where I was so I decided to leave and that was accepted as Haiwei knew where I was due to go. And it was some new place by the supermarket by the guangchang, so of course I couldn't find it. I couldn't even find the 4th floor so Li Kun had to come outside to find me and chastise me for not having taken the lift.... Anyway it was a dark place with a stage in the centre that I had no mind to occupy, at least not tonight. At our table was a "lao da", a senior bloke I sat next to and had to gan bei first. They were all drinking Heineken Silver and it was too dark to see what percentage it was but I could make out 9.5du so I guess around 4%.
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| Low-level lighting at the new bar |
Well I managed, and did some table-hopping until gone midnight where I had to admit defeat to fatigue, so got back to the hotel before 1am to thank Li Kun for inviting me out and letting him know I was back safely. I didn't indulge in any more beer after that.
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