Dom, Tan, Leilei, and Xixi in China: Lin Hong sorting out "my" flat and another bloke meal

I slept at my place and awoke to the sound of an incoming Weixin call from Lin Hong that I didn't answer. Then she sent a PDF of the concert to take place on the 12th February that I was supposed to be involved in yet again. But I got back to her to say my flight was due on the morning of the 12th so I wouldn't be able to make it. So she changed the subject and asked if I was at home. Hmm...she meant her home of course, not mine, so I sort of lied and said I wasn't currently there, and that I was getting something to eat, and that I'd be there in a bit. She said she was going to change the key. What? Or was it that she had the key and was going to change something? No online translation service made much sense of 我有锁匙我去换了 so I figured I'd better get there to see what she was doing.

By now it was getting on for 11.30am so the roads were packed with people travelling to lunch, and I noticed a missed call from Lin Hong, so I called her back to see what was going on and apparently she was waiting for me so I told her I'd be 3 minutes and indeed was, and indeed she was waiting for me outside the flat. So much for having a key. I appeared to be the only one with one and let her in. It ended up being the curtains that she wanted to change; apparently the existing ones were too light and let in the light. I immediately felt bad as I hadn't yet spent a night here. She got to work putting on the new hooks and within 15 minutes had changed the curtains and indeed they were far darker and I resolved to spend at least a few nghts there. She had also bought a red New Year thing to stick on the front door but there was no tape to stick it up so I said I'd sort it soon.

Lin Hong fixing darker curtains

The living room is not exactly pristine

Then she heard me cough and said I must have a cold. That's the way it is here. One cough and they're all telling you how you shouldn't be outside etc. when in fact this annoying cough has been dragging on and off since December when I caught it here. But of course it meant the duvet wasn't thick enough and I couldn't argue, so I ended up following her to her house to pick up another one. We ended up spending 10 minutes trying to put the blanket in the cover and fold it up but eventually sorted it out. Then she got most of a crate of water bottles and we went downstairs where finally she let me go back alone. So back "home" I added the second duvet and now had pretty much all I needed were I to be living here. I'd brought over the stuff I'd need for washing so that was about it; there was hot water, electricity, but somehow it really didn't feel like "home", even when I'd picked up some red Sellotape to stick up the New Year thing on the front door.

Lunch ended up being jiaozi, which is my favourite default, before going to the gym for another personal session. I don't really like my personal trainer; he smells a bit of smoke. But at least I'm not alone in the gym.

Later on at 6.30pm A Wu pinged me to "eat pig" as one does. I told him I'd grab a shower and he said to "hurry up" so nothing has changed in 21 years. Oh blimey, I met him and we got a didi che to the same place we'd gone to last year...almost all blokes and too much alcohol. I wasn't massively in the mood but at least I'd been to the gym. Of course they'd been drinking for an hour or two before I got there so I was forced to ganbei multiple times.

Well I had to table-hop multiple times and play caima with many people but I mostly managed it before coming back to the original table I'd started at. At least there was woman there, so I thought it would be safe, but she appeared to have drunk more than the blokes. But at least her husband was there and she proved it by giving him a kiss on the lips, something that is so rare here. Then she caima'd with me and lost quite a bit and I worried she might be too drunk (a rarity on 2.5% beer but you never know). Then she went round to the other side of the table and announced she was three months pregnant, showing her rather rotund tummy as if proof. Then she came back and sat next to me and lit a cigarette. Jeez I really don't know if "pregnant" just meant "fat", and I really hope it does, or did in this context.

Is she really preggars? I hope not

Eventually enough of us decided it was time to go back, and a didi che was ordered, and we ended up going to the "Chamber of Commerce", which basically means "blokes' drinking place" but I couldn't stand the bloat for that long so around midnight decided to walk it back "home" to Waipo's instead of Lin Hong's. But I wasn't sleepy so went for a bit of a walk and ended up getting called to a table to drink with some folk(s) for half an hour or so. Blimey it was really fun, much more so than the sausagefest earlier. I ended up sleeping at my house rather than Lin Hong's place but didn't feel too guilty.