Well I didn't make it a hat-trick of breakfasts, but I did ping Li Kun to go for lunch at Liang ge's Dongbei jiaozi place, and said to be there at 12.30pm. At 12.13pm he pinged me to say he'd already arrived. This is not even surprising anymore. I said I'd be 5 minutes and was nearly as good as my word.
It was good to see Liang ge in his own place as opposed to at Li Kun's studio, and we were served salad while the fuwuyuan prepared our jiaozi, of which I could only manage half and had the rest put in a takeaway tub. Of course Liang ge wouldn't let us pay and felt bad not so much because of the money but that we were the only people eating there (at least at first), and 13 kuai is very good for such a big helping plus a salad and a soup (not to mention a load of tea with the owner before eating).
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| Enjoying some tea with Liang ge at his Dongbei jiaozi place before the said jiaozi were ready |
Following up from yesterday's failure to send the signed contracts, Li Kun went with me to the post office again, where it was confirmed they wouldn't get there any time soon, so Li Kun told me to follow him as we drove a fair way away, nearly half way to the aluminium place, where we found another delivery place. After some faff inputting the English address (why a separate field for post code but the rest of the address goes on a single line?), it transpired that even the fast-track, for nearly £50 would still take 10 days. Really not worth it even if I change my ticket till the 20th. Well, the final date should in theory be the 28th February, so hopefully that will be enough time for me to do it all in the UK.
By now it was gone 3pm, and I was concerned that Li Kun should be back at work but he said it was no problem and I didn't ask any further. I do intend to find out exactly what he does for a living though. Back home, Jiuma and Shiyun were there with the former cooking, and she said to eat tea here with them in a bit. In a bit indeed...I don't think it was even 4.30pm when it was ready, but it was nice to have a family meal for a change. It also meant not being able to finish off my second half of the jiaozi so I left them in the fridge for another time.
Later that evening I turned up at Li Kun's studio again where his wife also was. Tonight fish was on the menu but of course it wasn't the only thing to eat. I pinged Nong to come share with us and before long the beer was being poured slightly quicker than it normally is...maybe because it's a Saturday...maybe because we still celebrating New Year. Li Kun helped me order three crates of the stuff from WeiXin on my phone. It didn't work at first and he reckoned I should turn off the VPN to do it, which I didn't want to do as you never know when you'll be able to connect again. But I didn't want to let anyone down, so turned off the VPN. But it still didn't work, so he decided to change Weixin into Chinese which seemed a bit pointless as the app (酒小儿, which Google translates as "Alcoholic" and Baidu translates as "Alcohol children", neither of which I'm convinced about), doesn't even have an English version. And this time it worked, but I find it hard to believe it was due to changing Weixin to English. And as it was my first time using the app it gave me a special discount so it was only 62 kuai for the three crates of 12 beers. You are even given a slider to choose what proportion you want to be cold and which room temperature. Even better, it's guaranteed to arrive within 15 minutes.
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| Eating more than just fish at Li Kun's studio: clockwise from left are Li Kun, his wife, Huang Song, the bloke who prepared the food, and Li Kun's son A Duo |
Within one minute though I had a phone call which I ignored as I didn't know the number. But when they called again Li Kun said to answer as it would be 酒小儿 and indeed it was, confirming how many cold (2/3) and the address. And 10 minutes later the bloke arrived with the three crates, and as is apparently normal here, two packs of playing cards. Imagine such a convenient and cheap service in the UK....
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| The two packs of playing cards that came with the beer...the cheap stuff that money can't buy is in some ways more valuable than the beer you can |
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| A closer look at some of the wares on the menu tonight |
The beer was flowing and somehow we got into a conversation/argument about whether you should ask somebody before you (attempt) to (romantically) kiss them. I can't remember who it was that said you should ask first, but I disagreed and said it should be spontaneous. The lads in the UK had been pinging for a chat but I said I was at Li Kun's and explained the argument. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to film us at Li Kun's discussing this point. Then Nong, as if to make her point, ask Mat (in English) to give her a kiss. I realised up till then that I was thinking from the man's (to woman) perspective. Anyway, it was all good-natured, cross-continental banter-fun, something that doesn't happen all that often.
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