I am accustomed to haze here in China. Not just in Pingguo, but the only other places I've really been to; Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing. I thought it was just pollution until I lived in Pingguo, but I can't believe this place is polluted anything like the large cities. So it was a welcome surprise that after I woke up (before everyone else of course) it struck me that outside was particularly clear. It made the whole place feel overwhelmingly different. Despite the time I've spent here over the last eight years I've always been aware that I am abroad but today it just felt normal, like home. I'd never before considered that haziness would be such an important factor on how you feel about a place. It was lovely to clearly see all the details in the mountains, and I spent a few minutes on the balcony just contemplating nothing in particular in the relative quiet of 7am Pingguo.
View of the guang chang from our balcony on a clear day
View west from our balcony on a clear day
I found out that the teacher's house is open seven days a week so I got the kids their breakfast at the normal dou jiang place and took it to Waipo's to eat. A few days ago we had a scare as apparently Waipo had had a stroke again (she had one a couple of months ago). Her right arm and leg lacked feeling and Tan had to go over there to help her out. I don't know how, but apparently Waipo got better quite quickly (I had been fearing the worst after hearing the symptoms). Well today I saw the medicine that had been bought for her. Each dose was kept in a plush wax-like round cover in a little gift box, at a cost of 300 kuai. I guessed this was traditional Chinese medicine and wondered how much the packing cost out of the 300. Anyway, she swears that it did the trick. I claim placebo, probably intensified by the packaging. I'd love to talk to some people here about scientific trials of medicine but I fear it would fall on deaf ears, like politics. It is an interesting point though, because as China becomes more mainstream in the world, it will have to be subjected to greater scrutiny in such markets as medicine, and I for one will be very interested in how it works out. Lin Hong rang me and asked me to take Xixi to her place so I did after she'd eaten, and left Leilei there for a bit. I told Lin Hong that Leilei and Xixi were going to school today with Nong Kaicheng and A Da, so she said she'd pick up Leilei from Waipo's and take them both there later.
Waipo's expensive stroke medicine (if you call 300 kuai expensive)
Back at home I wanted to relax for a bit and sort out our newly-borrowed tv. That nearly happened when I got a call from A Hua, Nong Kaicheng's mama, to say the teacher had rung her to ask where the kids were. Well I told her that Lin Hong had taken them there...at least to the best of my knowledge. So I called Lin Hong to find she'd taken the kids out to play, with no intention of going to school. I nearly argued but it dawned on me that the kids were on holiday too and it may be a little unfair to expect them to go to school every day. However, Lin Hong could at least have told me!
Well I had some time to myself as Tan was safely in Shanghai, helping her ex-boss try to do some business with an Australian company (and finding out their accent is very difficult at the same time). So what better use of my time than to wipe Vista off Awl's broken screen laptop and install a fresh XP? I'd found out that the tv had a detachable back that I hadn't seen before, and behind that was a VGA input along with HD and other stuff. So a nice geeky late morning ensued, during which I went out and bought some jiao zi and had a couple of beers. This meant I was able to sleep from 3-5pm, and though I should have felt refreshed, when I woke up I felt ill. Waipo called me to eat over there and although I didn't feel like it I went anyway as I probably needed the food. I picked at some duck and rice and then made my excuses and left.
I have committed a serious crime here in Pingguo. I have been here nearly ten days and not gone for a head wash. Given that I was feeling off-colour and that the wife was away and the kids were being taken care of, I thought that would be just the ticket so I gave A Wu a tinkle and he said he'd meet me by the old KTV place. The only interruption to this plan was Waipo calling me to ask me to bring some dry clothes for Xixi as she'd managed to wee herself at home, probably by being too excited to go to the loo. Thankfully I was able to get A Wu to take me to Waipo's to leave the clothes, and Xixi wasn't too insistent on coming out with me. So much the better as after we picked up a Sichuan friend from A Hua's shop, we found one of the places we went to last year and I had probably the best head wash I can remember at least in the last three years. Again, a teenage girl with stronger finger muscles than appearances would suggest, washed and wet-massaged my head and neck and face and upper back, before moving on to other places of the upper body. I cannot stress enough how much the difference is in comfort between a warm, wet massage, and a dry one. I don't care if the dry one is more professional and better for the body, the soapy wet one is far far more pleasurable. We'd used the expensive shampoo, apparently but I was more than happy to pay the 100 kuai for the three of us for the hour's experience.
I realised I no longer felt ill, and was happy to go back to A Wu's office for a couple of beers with some blokes. I called Waipo to say I'd go to pick up the kids around 10.30pm and she said "mei wenti" (no problem) so I had no guilt in not doing so. Then she called back a minute later saying the kids would sleep there tonight. Result! At A Wu's office we actually had a glass of his home made wine. This sounds dangerous. Non home made wine is barely palatable at the best of times so I was quite concerned. It wasn't wine in the strict sense of the word though, it was more like wine mixed with vodka and sugar. I guessed it was around 25% alcohol so supped slowly, until everyone decided it would be convenient to move on to beer.
Sichuan friend!
A Wu's office wall adorned with photos from yesteryear
This continued till gone midnight, when A Wu declared himself hungry, so we all went for a bbq at Tian Yang Po's place, which is the favourite of everyone I know around here. It was very nice, and we didn't eat or drink too much, and I went home totally exhausted by 2am and had no problem falling into the arms of Morpheus.
Our favourite bbq place, with Ai Yi and her duck fingers! (Well, tongues)
It's been getting hotter and hotter over the last week. Normally the drive to get some breakfast is the most refreshing part of the day before it gets scorchio, with a welcome breeze in our hair. After dropping off the kids I went to see Waipo at Er Jie's house. She has sorted out a tv for us to borrow for the next few weeks, and although it's only around 20" at least it's a flat screen one. Before taking it home I had to go to the university as I'd promised Awl I'd check out the vacancy they have for an English teacher. It's a rather grand building and worryingly I was running out of battery as I arrived. The security said the place was on holiday but I managed to find a person to speak to. Apparently they want someone long-term so it may not be a goer. Plus they said that the teacher really needs to speak Mandarin too, and be aware the pay would not be as good as, say, Nanning. So it's not looking very likely. But the conversation was for me very notable as it was calm and logical; facts and concerns were layed out and responded to. Risks were somewhat calculated and we came to an amicable conclusion that it would be best for Awl to come to Nanning and work in an English school there for a while, while determining if it was the sort of place he could stay in for some time. Personally, I have no doubt that a single man in control of his faculties would not have any problem whatsoever living here.
Pingguo University in all its splendour
Back from the university I took the telly to Ma Laoban's computer shop to check it out. I want to use Awl's old laptop to be able to watch stuff on on the tv. The screen is very broken so it is a good candidate for removing Vista and replacing with XP in order to speed it up and make better use of its 2GB RAM. We soon found out in Ma Laoban's shop that there was no computer input for the tv, meaning I'd have to find an innovative solution if I wanted to stream stuff from the laptop...
Anyway, while at Ma Laoban's place a couple of people came around and, as is customary at his place, we sat down to drink tea. His place is the perfect alternative pub. Around his tea table we have the ingredients of being male-only and drinking, the only difference being the beverage. I liked Ma Laoban's new tea table and asked how much it was. 6000 kuai apparently. I asked how much for the raw material and he said that was free but it cost 1000 kuai to get some people to take the wood from a river to the local artisan who would carve it. Then, 5000 kuai to carve it according to Ma's requirements (a watery flavour). Well we drank a different brew to the usual Tie Guan ying this time and after a few glasses I could feel myself shaking a little. I don't know what it is but it affects me. At least it meant I would be awake for the afternoon which was just as well as Li Yi, one of the gentlemen drinking tea with us, invited us to go for lunch with him. It was 11am and Tan had just reminded me that she was going to Nanning at midday to fly to Shanghai to do some work for her ex-boss till next Friday.
Me with Ma Laoban and a mate at Ma Laoban's new tea table
This turtle is carved out of Ma Laoban's splendid tea table
So I called Tan to say I was going out for lunch and she said there was a bloke in the flat doing the plastering. Luckily he finished before midday so I popped over to drop off the tv and give her a kiss goodbye before going back to be taken to the Da Xue Cheng place I'd picked up some cement from a few days ago. This was a rather pretty place with a swimming pool and ping pong table. We had a statutory waiting time before the meal, during which I managed to beat the three blokes that I was to be eating with rather convincingly. Then we went for a quick tour and I saw the speciality of this place: "ye ji" (wild chickens). For all these years I had thought that when I ate ye ji someone had gone into the mountains and caught such a fowl with a net or something. I didn't realise that it was simply a breed of chicken - one that was clucking around rather un-wildly here in front of me. With their rather fetching plumage they actually make normal chickens look rather wild.
A rather un-wild wild chicken
Well, they certainly taste nice, and in the best tradition no part was wasted (the soup was particularly good). I was somewhat pleasantly surprised that two of the blokes wouldn't touch even a shot glass of 3.1% beer as they were driving. It seems to be extreme here - either you don't touch a drop and drive, or you drive after a bellyfull. Well one of the blokes fancied a couple of beers so who was I to disappoint him? We managed a few rounds of cai ma until it was time to go.
I actually managed a bit of sleep before picking the kids up around 5pm. This time I took them to Waipo's place and left them there to play. I heard later that they went to Lin Hong's place to play and Leilei ended up sleeping there.
Lu Hai called me at 9pm to invite me to have some seafood at the place I frequented last year after work. They have moved a few hundred yards away to a place where they now have a building with air-conditioned rooms. Despite this improvement there is no other place close by outside, which means eating there lacks the atmosphere of yesteryear, with a great many other outside eating places and their accompanying nighttime noises. The boss-cook was delighted to see me and we sat down outside and drank a few beers for old times' sake. Then his wife and daughter came and it we had a laugh like last year until he had to go back to the kitchen and make the bacon so to speak. His wife said to Lu Hai that he couldn't drink any more due to a liver problem, which probably explained why he seemed more sober than was his wont last year, but not why he indulged in a few with us. Still, a few is better than a skinful I suppose.
The cook's wife, him and his daughter - nice friends
I hardly needed to stay more than a minute when I dropped off the kids at school today. Then I got back home and stayed in bed for another hour. Then Tan got a call and went out to meet Chen Mei for lunch and I dossed. I dossed like I hadn't dossed in many years. In fact I'd nearly forgotten how to doss but it came back quickly. I just lay in bed and played a little Angry Birds, or "Fen nu de xiao niao" as it's called here. And it felt good, and not at all guilty. Actually Angry Birds is big business here, not so much the mobile phone game, but all the kids have these little toys, and either a sling to fling the birds, or a little pusher to push them into the pigs (the birds have a ball bearing to roll on). Leilei and his friends enjoy playing this - hopefully not too much at school.
I thought I had a bit of an excuse for dossing as we needed someone to come in and finish off around the door. But when I rang Lin Hong I found out that we needed to leave the cement another day in order for it to dry. Would have been nice to be told...on the other hand I had a great morning in.... For lunch I lazily went out and got some more diao zi and ate them at home with some more watermelon juice.
Stabbed my straw in the right place
I finally managed a bit of a snooze in the afternoon, so in the evening, as the kids were out swimming or something with friends, I got my first opportunity to really play some table tennis with the elders. As soon as I entered at 8pm I was welcomed like an old friend again, with huge genuine smiles! One bloke ran up to me and gave me a hug!
A number of people came up and played me - not for points but for practice - and I knew they were being gentle...but I felt myself getting back into the game and I was definitely better than the 60 year old woman I played (I remember losing to her last year). Try as I might I couldn't get others to take my place, and by 9.30pm I was feeling nauseous. But I didn't want to give up or disappoint, so I played on until Haiwei came down to finish me off. I mustered all my strength to manage a few smashes and realised that I can now smash backhanded. But when it was time up at 10pm I could barely walk back to the bench to pick up my top (it would have been silly to attempt wearing a top in this heat). Haiwei then asked me to come and drink beer but that was the last thing on my mind. I slowly walked the 200 yards back home and got myself showered before Tan said she was going out and I needed to pick up Xixi from A Hua's shop. That I did a bit later after regaining my senses, and I found out that Leilei was spending the night with A Hua's son Nong Kaicheng again. At least with Xixi I had a good excuse not to go and drink beer with Haiwei.
Once Xixi was home and showered and in bed with me next to her, I once again received a phone call from A Da. It was just a two minute chat really about how he was and how school was, but I couldn't help thinking that was something he should be doing with his own dad...
I did the kids in the morning and only had to stay 15 minutes before they let me go but I did promise to come back with a few toys a bit later. On my way to find a toyshop I stopped off at a garagy looking place and asked the boss to remove the annoying umbrella holder from the bike. This he did in a couple of minutes and rather than asking "how much" and being told to forget it I thrust a couple kuai in his hand and said I'd be back in a few weeks to have it put back in. Now I had space not only for a kid to perch in front of me without fear of piercing their belly but I could also have space for my legs. I finally ended up at the toyshop at Yi Xiao and bought four tiny plastic motorbikes (about an inch in length) at the proposturous price of 5 kuai each. True to my word I returned to the teacher's house but there was no-one downstairs. This was a good sign, so I hooked the bag over the door and made my way home. I'm pretty sure the batteries in the bike are the same ones that I bought to replace the originals at around 2008. They are not optimal now and I had to put the bike to charge when I got home as I barely got back from school.
I decided I really needed a siesta today so I called A Wu to see if he wanted to go for a bite to eat for lunch. He said he did so I went to meet him at his office. As I was a bit early I went for a cup of watermelon juice at such a bar by his office. I had a delightful time with the owner's daughter's and son (at least they said they were sisters/brother but you never know). The seven year old sister was looking after her eight month old brother completely with no adult around. And she was doing a good job by all accounts. When my drink was ready there was a little left over and the mum poured it into a plastic cup for the kids. I couldn't believe how sweetly they shared it, together with the baby. I don't think I've ever seen western kids do the same. I then went to a local shop by A Wu's office to have a look around. I noticed something strange about the canned drinks arrangement and wasn't sure whether to ask the shopkeeper about it. In the end curiosity got the better of me and I asked her. The answer is rather obvious actually.
Enjoying a refreshing watermelon juice with the proprietor's kids
(¿uʍop 7) ʞuıɹp ɟo suɐɔ
Yes - they are upside-down in order to keep the upside clean. Well A Wu came around midday and we drove to a nice place I'd not been to before where the two of us had the best part of a goose, plus some rice and greens. I really like goose. It's rather like duck but seems to be a little less fatty. And the greens were something I've not had before in China - they are known as "kong xin cai" - hollow-heart veg, which basically means greens but with a hollow stem, and a particularly nice crunchy texture. We managed to finish the goose and I managed to pay this time - 73 kuai for the both of us including a beer. Not cheap but considering the fare not expensive either.
A couple of days ago Lin Hong, Tan and I had a conversation about our front door. I agreed that we should really have a stronger one than that provided by the housing company. Especially as we won't be here for long periods of time and we may have some valuable stuff here. Well Lin Hong had made the arrangements and the blokes were coming today at 2pm. Moreover, although Lin Hong hadn't said anything other than I need to be in the house, Tan said that I needed to bring cement and stones as they'd need that to fit the new door. Well Tan rang me to tell me this while we were finishing the goose, so A Wu took me to Ling Ming's new house where apparently he had some spare cement and stones. We got a bag of cement from his neighbour's flat that was in the process of being decorated, and then "stole" some stones from the ground outside. I was told we were allowed to take these but when we were filling the bag A Wu told me to hurry up before someone saw us! I was more than happy to pay...I hope he was joking...
We bought the hardcore back to the flat then A Wu took me to pick up the bike and I got back just by 2pm. The blokes came an hour late at 3pm but I sort of expected it, though I could have done with some kip during the wait. The ensuing few hours were typical. There were two blokes; one who was obviously the boss, and another, probably an apprentice who was made to do most of the heavy work. And it was heavy work. After drilling out the parts that fixed the door frame to the wall, they set about drilling out the cement that kept the door frame in. I thought when we talked about buying a new door it meant a new door. Not all the cemented-in frame too....
It soon became apparent that we didn't have enough stones or cement by a long shot. We couldn't go back to Ling Ming's place so the main bloke took me in his pick-up to "Da Xue Cheng" (University City) which is a fairly new part of Pingguo where there is a lot of development going on and unsurprisingly, a university. It was ferociously hot and humid, as together we filled two heavy-duty bags with stones and one with cement, and loaded the pick-up. By the time we got back the apprentice was still banging the old door with a hammer. Lin Hong had stayed while I was gone as, with all builders, they need to be watched in order for anything to get done. The job took the best part of three hours and was incredibly noisy. Lin Hong stayed until we got a phone call at about 4.30 saying Xixi had asked to come home from school early. She went to pick Xixi up but I got a call a few minutes later to the effect that Xixi was unwilling to go home with her... So Lin Hong ended up coming back to the house empty handed. We stayed a bit longer until the old door was just about ready to be removed, and Lin Hong said she'd stay while I went to pick up the kids at 5.30.
Our old door after having been smashed out from the wall
So it was another afternoon without a kip but we had a new door. A couple of days after we arrived here I threw out (at Lin Hong's bequest) a load of old cardboard and polystyrene that had accumulated with the purchases of stuff like a washing machine and microwave. I'd left the mess outside our door as Lin Hong said people would come and pick it up. But they hadn't so I said we'd need to call someone to do this. This Lin Hong did and a bloke turned up and spent an hour separating the cardboard from the polystyrene from all the other material, tying them up nicely. Then Lin Hong told him he could buy our old door off us so he called his boss and soon the two or them were up on our floor arguing with Lin Hong and the new door providers about the price and the quality of the door. It was actually good-natured shouting and I couldn't help but join in saying what a bargain it was for 50 kuai. Finally they relented and gave us 50 kuai as they also had all that cardboard and stuff for free. Many things like this are a total opposite from the UK where you'd have to pay someone to come and take stuff away to be dumped. There is far less wastage here from what I can see.
The new door and frame with its hefty locks
Another bloke turned up during the melee, apparently he was to put the cement in the door frame for 40 kuai. Another argument ensued with the door fitters and it ended up with the cement man refusing to do the work for 40 kuai and going home. As we needed the work done, the door fitter apprentice was tasked with the work, and I left him to it while unsuccessfully attempting a slice of shuteye. I may have dropped off but I got a knock on the bedroom door to say the work was done at around 8.30. Even in my drowsy state I could see it wasn't. There were great big gaps and the job wasn't smoothed off at all. While I stood there he filled in most of the gaps by slinging the cement in by hand. I'm no expert but it looked a bit shoddy. Then he said we'd need to get someone else to do the plastering and finishing. I believed this as he didn't have any such materials so I thanked him and bade him good bye.
While attempting to sleep during the cementing, Li Kun rang me to come for a drink at the Lao Shu cafe near our building. I explained that I had to stay in during this work but that I'd ring him when it was finished to see if he was still around. Yang Haiwei also called me to go out and drink beer but I said I had prior arrangements. As the apprentice left around 9pm, and Tan came just after, I grabbed a quick shower and went to meet him. The cafe was a comfortable place with hived-off areas for groups as is normal here. Li Kun's wife was there, together with a couple of friends, who thoughout the evening seemed to churn, moving to other tables while others took their places. But Li Kun, his missus and I were consistent, and we just had a normal pleasant evening talking about normal things as though I hadn't been away for nearly a year. The conversation turned to air turbulence and I shuddered as Li Kun recounted his Hong Kong-Nanning flight some years back where the plane was jostled from side to side as if it was made of paper, and then the oxygen masks came down from the ceiling.
After some nice bits of food to pick on and a coffee, Li Kun ordered some beers and the rest of the evening was spent gan bei'ing shot-size glasses of beer with various friends. Li Kun appreciated the Marlboro Gold fags I bought for him, and shared them out with his mates. I also bought him some Lynx shower gel. For his wife, who smiled dutifully throughout the evening, I bought her a selection pack of fruit teas. We had a laugh till nearly midnight, when Tan called as she was outside and needed me to take Xixi home. I didn't even realise Xixi wasn't in bed on a school day...Leilei had gone to sleep at Nong Kaicheng's house, I knew that much. Luckily, Tan was eating some sweet puddingy stuff right outside the Lao Shu cafe with Xixi and a couple of friends including Chen Mei, who recently moved to Nanning.
I got Xixi showered and into bed with little ado. And then had to have a shower again myself as when Tan got back she said I stank of smoke. It's been many a year since I've gone for a drink as a non-smoker and come back smelling like one. I understand that in China we now have ban on smoking indoors in public areas, similar to most of Europe. However, when I talked about it to my friends they seemed to think it only applies to Beijing and Shanghai.
As I stayed with Xixi while she fell asleep I got a call from A Da, A Wu's son. He didn't seem to have a purpose for calling...I asked how he was, how his day at school was, wished him a good night and said we'd see him tomorrow at school and he said ok and hung up.
Tan took the kids to school this morning as she wanted to meet the teacher, so I let her arrange them and had my first lie-in so far till about 9 o'clock. However I'd been up late so it didn't really count. As usual I went out to get some breakfast and when I came back I noticed three policemen standing on the corner of the road by our building. These were slightly different from most police you see as they had flat white hats. Luckily the entrance to our building was 20 feet from where they were so I didn't encounter them as I guessed they were the "helmet police". I encountered such police last year and I had to stop and buy a helmet before I could go on my way. It's funny that only these police do anything about non-helmet wearing. There are plenty of other police around the place, walking and in cars, who are not the least bothered about what you wear on the road. That's why I call these ones the "helmet police".
When I got back to the house the kids were still there...apparently Nong Kaicheng was going for an English lesson until 10.30 so the kids weren't going in till then either. As Tan stayed out I got my lunch in the form of a small bag of diao zi (something like steamed dumplings) for 3.5 kuai and ate them at home. They were accompanied by a couple of cans of the local brew Li Quan as it is weak and thirst quenching and about the only fizzy beverage that is not full of sugar here. Normally I would have been able to sleep after such a lunch but try as I might I couldn't drop off. At about 3pm I suddenly heard the sound of a drill that felt as though it was six inches away from my head. Any last thoughts I may have had about a snooze were dashed into a thousand pieces.
I really like the way that houses are so personalised here, but there is a severe consequence. It takes several weeks to prepare and personalise a new house after purchasing; it took us six weeks last year, but many people go so far as to knock down walls in order to have a larger room etc. Especially with most families having one child the smallest bedroom is often either turned into a walk-in wardrobe or smashed in to make a larger dining area. All this preparation is called "zhuang xiu" - it literally translates as "decoration" but it is much more than that. And it is very noisy. You can tell there are still many flats in our building to be decorated because the lifts still have wooden covers over the walls and floor in order to protect against the various pieces of building equipment being taken up and down. The drill that I heard reminded me of where we stayed last year in Er Jie's house; from the early morning till gone 6pm, with the exception of lunch, there was a constant cacophany of drilling and hammering which we somehow eventually got used to. I feared the worst, but the drilling only lasted a couple of minutes. Touch wood that's the last we hear, however looking out from our balcony I can see next door has not even started decorating, the same as the one below that. I just hope they wait until September before they do.
Tan rang at 5pm to remind me that we were eating at Da jie's new flat as a sort of house-warming. But she had to come to the flat to change and shower so we were going to be late. Then we had to pick up the kids so we ended up getting there at 6pm. Da Jie's flat is more of a maisonette, or at least two floors at the top of the building. The one problem is that you have to walk up the 6 floors to get there as there's no lift and in this heat it's quite sweat-inducing.
The food was sumptuous and there was lots left over to feed the household for the next day or two. While the kids were playing I received a call from A Hua saying Nong Kaicheng was going swimming and to take the kids. I thought that was a good idea and as the swimming pool was visible from the house we were in I made a quick trip home to pick up the kids' costumes and met them at the pool. I happened to have my swimming shorts on. Not to go swimming, just because they were clean. As it happened this was a good idea as although Nong Kaicheng and A Da were there to help Leilei still lacks confidence in the water (which being outside was a nice temperature). So I was able to give my phone and money to A Ni and strip off and get in the pool to be with Xixi as the shallowest part was just a little deep for her. Leilei, knowing I was around, was ok to spend time with the boys, who were encouraging him to get swimming. I really hope he does this year, as it's looking like Xixi will be soon...
Despite not having as early a night as I had hoped, I still woke up around 7am. The "school" wouldn't open until 8.30 and A Da wouldn't be there till 11 as he was going swimming before. It's more of a drop-in school I suppose. So I took advantage of the time and went to get breakfast at the place I went frequently for the last couple of years - a little noodle place by the market run by one of Tan's aunties. I was a bit sad to see that it was now run by someone else and sadder to hear that they didn't have my favourite sheet noodles. Apparently the previous folks had retired and the girl serving me didn't know where they had gone. Still, I got a bag of noodles to take back, and some more stuff from elsewhere including the ever-present dou jiang.
While the kids were eating I had the chance to look at our flat a bit more. The cross stitching of the stalks is very nice. Apparently there are 100 of them in the frame but I've not yet had the time or patience to count them. Xixi's room decorations are also quite cute, though I had to do a double take when I saw the little detail above the light switch in our bedroom - it looked like the little boy on the right was particularly excited to see the girl on the left! Well...I suppose it is the master bedroom...
A cross stitch of 100 herons I think - makes a beautiful touch to the living room
Detail of the cross stitched herons
Xixi's room decoration
Excited to see you...
Two days ago I bumped into an "English teacher" who asked me to go to his middle school just outside our flat to take some pictures with his kids. Yesterday he called me to ask if I could meet him at 10 am today and I said ok. As it was 10.30 I gave him a quick call and said I needed to take my kids to school so should do the photos now. So he said to meet him at the school gate in 10 minutes, which we did. Although instead of coming from within the school he turned up on his motorbike from outside the school, and lead us (on our bikes) to a completely different building 5 minutes away. There I spent a rather hectic time introducing myself to each of the kids in his class and having copious pictures taken. Leilei and Xixi weren't particularly impressed but the whole episode lasted only around 10 minutes with a finale on the pavement outside doing a group photo.
We then took the bike to the teacher's house and I thought I remembered where it was. Even Leilei said he recognised the place as A Da's school when we got there. However there was no-one around so we drove further up the road until we were lost. I called A Ni and she said she'd come to fetch us. Meanwhile we popped into an interesting looking place by the side of the road to shelter a little from the sun. Inside were around 10 kids with soldering irons working on making cheap, non-branded earphones. There were hundreds of the earpiece bits and the accompanying plastic parts, and I realised I was watching child labour. With the heat you could call it a sweatshop but everyone seemed happy there chatting away and possibly grateful for the impromptu interruption judging by their beaming smiles. I noticed that the boss was not exactly urging them on and when I took a closer look at the work I noticed the kids were working at a slow pace, something that encompasses the whole town. On closer inspection when looking at a photo, I noticed that they were undoubtedly making these earphones for airlines. The non-branding was a clue but the obvious giveaway is the double-pointed ends that plug into the armrest. Maybe I should have been a detective...
Where the aeroplane earphones are made
A Ni and A Hua arrived and lead us to the teacher's house, which was indeed exactly the same place we thought. Then they pointed to a button hidden on the side of the door and said we should have pushed the bell... Ah, so obvious... We did so and the teacher's assistant (around 10 years old) came down to see us and let us in. Leilei and Xixi were particularly cautious and reluctant to be left in a new place with around 12 other very excited and noisy kids. The teacher asked me to accompany them for a while but she didn't need to. She pointed to various wall friezes of a Confuscious theme and bade the kids read out some of his pearls of wisdom, which they did - not from heart apparently but from actually reading the Chinese. The kids ranged from 3-9 years old as far as I could make out. On the ground floor were a few, mostly broken, toys that seemed to provide sufficient entertainment. I got Xixi engaged in a bit of jigsaw making but Leilei wasn't interested. Then we went upstairs and I had more joy getting the kids doing some drawing.
I sensed I still couldn't leave the kids there. It's very hard as a parent when the kids are so shy. I don't believe in just accepting they are, so I would have been ok to leave them if they hadn't been so clingy and I couldn't just tear them off like leeches (actually I think you burn leeches so definitely not the way). I had to wait till they were being amused by themselves. Lunchtime came and Leilei managed some rice and fried potato while Xixi did two bowls of "yu mi zhou" (sweetcorn porridge). Then, afterwards, A Da (A Wu's son) put four tables together to create a makeshift table tennis table with a wooden net. After I played for a few minutes Leilei wanted a go so I let him. He's shown interest before at home on a full-size table but this was more his level. For the first time I saw him engrossed in something other than his daddy at the school. I waited for a few minutes then decided I would leave. But I knew Xixi would notice so I took her back with me and told the kids to tell the teacher.
Back home, Xixi had a nap that I tried to emulate but couldn't, despite being more than tired enough to do. So I geeked about checking emails until 3pm when it took longer than it should have done to get her up. We went to pick up Leilei at around 4pm even though he wasn't supposed to finish till 5. He was in good spirits, which justified my decision to sneek out leaving him there. While the kids were playing I went downstairs to the ground floor and sat, and then lay on the hard wooden bench. I was incredibly tired and almost felt myself slipping into sleep despite the slats digging into the back of my head. I kept my eyes closed for over 20 minutes until roused by the sound of "wai guo ren" (foreigner) emanating from the gates of the building. Evidentally a few mums and dads had come to pick up their kids and seen this westerner seemingly asleep instead, as if I'd eaten them all up. I got up from the bench, gave them a smile and hurried upstairs to tell the teacher that some kids needed to go home.
I saw that Leilei was having fun with A Da and didn't want to go back. I was happy enough to leave him till whoever came to pick up A Da brought them both back so I left them and took Xixi back. Within five minutes we encountered Ling Ming and Chuan chuan on another electric bike so we stopped to say hello. Chuan chuan wanted to take Xixi to go wherever they were going and Xixi was happy to go so I let her, thinking I would be able to get some shuteye at our home... As if. Too many phone calls and I couldn't turn off the phone as it may have been to do with the kids.
At 8pm I went to the old people's youth centre or whatever it's called, where they play table tennis and volleyball among other things. As soon as I walked in the door I was greeted like an old friend ("old" in the the sense "good" friend that hasn't been seen for a while I hope) and was invited to play immediately. I said I'd wait a while first but after three minutes someone came into the room and touched the light switch and the room with three table tennis tables was plunged into darkness. Evidentally this wasn't on purpose as further attempts to illuminate the room failed. As if by magic my phone started ringing and it was A Wu inviting me to meet a boss and play ping pong. Fair enough. Two minutes later he was outside the old folk's youth centre and I was in his car on the way to see a rather rich boss who ran a house-building company.
At least that happened eventually. When we got there the place was closed and we had to wait while A Wu rang some people to come around and let us in. Well there was a ping pong table (less awkward than writing "table tennis table") and although the room was rather too small to really play seriously we had a nice knock about with Nong Kaicheng (A Hua's son) who had come along too. Until, that was, A Wu decided to play for points. One strange thing here is that many (not all) people count the points lost rather than the points won. This proves to be quite confusing to me, especially as there is no consistency when saying the score (i.e. the server's score first), so I could not really follow, not that I really cared too much. But I think A Wu did. He won the first game, as I was finding my feet, then after beating Nong Kaicheng (who is about 9 years old) 11-1 I played him again. I was leading 4-0, then won the next three points and he said the score was something like 5-2. Fair enough, but I won the next six points in a row, by which time he wasn't saying the score. I continued and won at least seven of the next 10 points until at one stage he said "one point left", so I lost the point and he was happier than he should have been as he celebrated his "victory". I calculated I won the first-to-eleven game 17-5 and couldn't help laughing at what I guess is a rather pathetic competitiveness that drives one to not even see one's cheating... I guess he knew he was not up to the challenge and didn't want to lose face by losing to an Englishman, even though the audience consisted of a nine year old boy...
While playing, some bosses arrived and we drank some tea over a nice chiselled tea table. Then A Da arrived and I gave him a quick game of ping pong until an old man in his late sixties arrived and took the bat off him. He then proceeded to beat me and smash me around (in a table tennis sense) over the next half an hour giving me great practice and rendering me sopping wet, as even his shirt was. This is not the first time I've been bettered by someone who would have a free buss pass in London, but I'm learning from it and getting better I hope. After this exercise we retired to the tea room and he took off his wet shirt and sat right in front of the air conditioning unit on full blast. I don't think you're supposed to do that. He then, predictably, got out a packet of fags and lit up after offering one to me. I don't think you're supposed to do that either but who am I to talk?
I Picked up the kids around 10pm and took them home for a shower and bed until Tan came back around 11.30. At midnight, despite my fatigue, I was hungry so ventured out the two minute walk to Tan's aunty's bbq stall by the guang chang. I asked Tan if she wanted anything and she replied in the negative. I ordered five skewers of duck tongues and five of "fei rou" pork with some fat on it. It would take 10 minutes or so so I decided to order a beer and sit down. I never even made it to the table when I heard a shout of "hello!" from a neighbouring one. Four blokes and a girl were sat there and we ended up drinking and eating for well over an hour until Tan called asking me to order some chicken claws to take back. My new-found friends comprised three policemen, an ex-teacher now doing something I don't quite understand (the girl), and an aeronautical engineer. I hope the latter did not have to go to work the next day as my fear of flying would not have been helped at all. Anyway, they were a fun bunch, and took delight in the fact that my wife comes from Bangxu, and that I was able to state that fact in the Bangxu language.
Up at 8.30am. Tan left before 9 to meet up with A Ni and go out to Nanning for the day so I took the kids out to get breakfast and eat at Er Jie's. Then I took them to Lao Ma's hair salon to get Leilei trimmed for this heat. He didn't make such a fuss this year so Xixi and I went out to get a juice drink up the road. The only fruit they appeared to have available was something called "mu xi gua" which I loosely translated as "wood melon". The girl didn't know how to prepare the drinks and had to get someone from next door. He didn't know much better but eventually we ended up with the bitterest fruit drink I've every had here, or maybe that should be most bitter. Needless to say Xixi didn't want it so I managed the two cups myself, reasoning that it must at least be healthy.
While back at Lao Ma's Ling Ming came in. I don't know if he was planning to get a haircut or had seen us there but Leilei was happy to play with his phone, and happy to stay with him while I took Xixi to Jiu ma's place and found La la jie jie, the girl that Xixi played with a lot last year, but this time Xixi was having none of it and refused to even acknowledge her...she can be a stubborn little brute sometimes. So I took her to the the electric hardware shop run by one of Tan's aunties to pay for the fans Tan had bought yesterday. Being on the 14th floor (15th if you are superstitious), we are graced with a slight breeze much of the time which really takes the edge off the heat, and justifies getting fans rather than expensive air conditioning. Of course Xixi got fawned upon when we entered the shop, something that happens very frequently wherever she goes, much to her disdain! Tan's aunt insisted that one of the fans was a gift and I could only get her to accept 500 kuai for the other two. It was getting towards lunchtime so we went to grab some noodles at a small place near our flat. Xixi actually ate some of mine and the kindly woman gave her a little bowl of her own. We only spent 4 kuai and were both satisfied.
We went next door to buy some fruit-laced "nai cha" (milk tea) that the kids love. While we were waiting for it some boy came running in from the noodle place with Xixi's hat and teddy that she had forgotten. We then made it one more door down to another shop where she managed to leave her hat and teddy again... We went back to the house and I got Xixi to have a short sleep that I unfortunately was not able to manage. Unsurprisingly I got a call from A Wu asking for his presents as he was going to meet a boss and wanted to give him a bottle of alcohol. So I grabbed the bag we'd prepared, containing a bottle of Johnny Walker whisky, Bacardi rum, a mix of perfumes, some chocolate, cereal bars and a lynx deodorant and shower gel. I suggested A Wu give the Rum to the boss as the JW was Red Label (the cheapest) and I didn't want him to lose face. This boss was stationed just south of the town and his business was selling houses - a lucrative business to be in based on the continuing number of places being built in and around Pingguo. He had a lovely "cha zi" (chiseled tea table, a bit like mine but much bigger) and we had a few glasses of tie guan yin tea while chatting. It transpired that I had met him last year during the Germany - England game in the World Cup in Number 5 Cafe. He was well pissed-off as he had put money on England to win! Anyway we didn't stay too long and afterwards went to pick up Leilei to go "swimming".
Xixi being unphotogenic with a boss at his tea table
When you haven't got any swimming costume on you it's a bit rich to say "swimming" when what you mean is going to the local lake to meet some friends. Haiwei was there along with about 10 other people and judging by the amount of empty beer cans under the picnic table they had enjoyed an elongated lunch as it was already 3pm. Apparently they were just ready to go for a swim. I thought about warning them of the dangers of swimming straight after eating and drinking but knew the ears my words would have fallen on would decide not to understand anything I say. A Wu said we could buy swimming trunks at the shop in the car park but the thought of looking after the two kids in the water without arm bands was too much.
Leilei and Xixi had seen some boats and told A Wu they wanted to go on them. Good alternative, I thought. So A Wu paid 200 kuai (a deposit, I wrongly thought at the time), and we got into one of the yellow boats with space for two in the front and two behind. Naturally the kids sat with A Wu behind leaving me to drive, which I wasn't complaining about. The boat was powered by a petrol engine and terribly slow, but it didn't stop Leilei from saying we were going to crash when I took my hands off the steering wheel and turned around to talk to him. It took about 20 minutes to get to the other side of the lake, and was very enjoyable and relaxing. I took a few photos and then realised that there were some spots on the water. It had started to rain, and when it rains here it generally pours. Today was no exception and within two minutes there was a storm-whipped deluge hitting us. The boat did have a sort of cover for protection but the rain was coming down in diagonal stair rods and no-one could keep dry. I concentrated all my efforts on keeping my phone away from the moisture as I headed home in what seemed an interminable voyage.
Cap'n Xixi surveying the seas
Leilei enjoying a stint at the wheel
We were all drenched when we finally made shore and grateful that A Wu had a couple of small towels in his car when we got there. My phone had survived, but the kids were sobbing a little in the back due to the loud thunder and being sopping wet. That didn't last long, though I did have to turn off the A/C in A Wu's car for the first time in my life. Back home we all changed clothes and watched as the storm we'd just escaped from came and enveloped our town and gave the local farmers some much needed relief. The kids were fine at home and Leilei used his imagination by making my tea table a lego man base which I thought was quite cool.
Leilei with his lego men on my tea table
In the evening we were invited to go to the same restaurant as the other day, this time with a number of family and friends I hadn't seen for a year. While in the restaurant foyer I bumped into Zhang Hongping, who I knew well from last year and was in another room with his friends tonight. I also saw Da jie and the aunty from the electic shop, who also were dining in a private room with some of their friends. I did manage a few gan beis with the lads but my heart wasn't really in it as I was rather exhausted. Plus Xixi was coughing quite a bit and needed some medicine. So when Tan got back at 7.15 I made my excuses and left for home with Xixi. Not so fast. A Hua said she had some medicine for her so first we had to go to A Hua's ma ma's house to pick that up. My Chinese reading is getting better but I didn't want to risk getting medicine instructions wrong, so I called A Hua to ask how much to put in the little cap. Tan answered and said she was coming home anyway and would do it. Obviously the meal was no fun for her without me. The kids got to bed by 11pm which is early for them here, but necessary as tomorrow they are going to A Da's teacher's house for some summer schooling.
Up at 7am again. It must be the heat although our room is air-conditioned. Maybe it's the excitement of being here and knowing it's not for a long time, so wanting to make the most of it. I bought breakfast at the same place as yesterday but this time took it to Er jie's house to eat with the kids.
I left them playing there with Chuan chuan and went back to our house to do a little more unpacking. In the late morning I rang my friends Li Kun and Uncle Yellow. Li Kun was working so said he'd meet me later in the week. Uncle Yellow was just around the corner from our house with his wife and three month old son, and said he'd come to pick me up as I'd not seen his son before. In the lift a family from a few floors below us got in and a girl said "hello" to me. It transpired she was an English teacher in Nanning, but Pingguo was her hometown. We exchanged some conversation in English but quite frankly it was easier in Chinese. I thought of Awl possibly coming over here to work in Pingguo or Nanning and asked her if she knew any schools. She said she would find out and let me know, so we exchanged phone numbers outside the building. Then I noticed Uncle Yellow was waiting for me on his bike so I gave him a big slap on the back and climbed on behind him, bidding goodbye to the English teacher and her family while they laughed as I shouted to Uncle Yellow to "wai di wai di!" which means "hurry up!" in the local language.
Uncle Yellow's son was indeed having his photos taken by a professional. Here it is normal to spend a lot of money on making a professional album of your child when they are around three months old, and here was no exception. Xiao Chong (his wife) and her parents were all there and seemingly very pleased to see me. We stayed for half an hour, during which I also took some pics of the cute baby. I had been wondering how the photographer's camera had made all the lights in the room flash when she took a photo. I guess it was some clever wireless thing triggered by the capture button. But I soon found when I was taking photos of the proceedings that when I took a picture and my camera flashed, it caused the other lights to flash too. During this time I'd managed to ruin many of the professional photographer's pictures by causing flashes at the wrong time. Embarrassing.
I couldn't get a "normal" picture of Uncle Yellow's wife and son as my camera flash kept invoking all the flashes in the photographer's place...
Uncle Yellow said we would drink some beer and called his uncle to come. He arrived later in a tiny yellow car to take us to a new place in Pingguo. I wasn't expecting much but this place was amazing. It was in the opening of a cave; you had to climb up stairs for about 50 feet then you could actually see the cool air emanating from within the cave, like you can sometimes see the air conditioning in an aeroplane. We sat at a round table and in time-honoured tradition over the next few minutes a few other blokes arrived to eat and drink with us. Uncle Yellow ordered some lovely chao fen (fried flat noodles), then as the afternoon grew older we had more dishes and drank some beer. It was basically five blokes having a laugh in a way not much different to how it would be in England. Most of them I'd met in previous years anyway so it was not just a case of having fun with a foreigner. I learnt another new expression: "you mo" (friendly banter), basically meaning you know you are mates when you can take the piss out of each other. Uncle Yellow then called me a "hui dan" (bad egg) as he had seen me exchanging phone numbers with a pretty girl when he picked me up. Ha, it was perfectly innocent with that teacher but I'd have said the same thing to him too. Uncle Yellow appreciated the 5 packs of Marlboro fags I bought for him and gave one pack to each of his friends. I would have brought more but Tan took half the packs I bought as presents for her own friends.
Preparing the table in the mouth of the entrance of the cool cool cave
What makes me know that Uncle Yellow is a genuine friend is that he saw that I was getting very tired at around 2.30pm. He didn't hesitate to tell me so and offered to drive me to our flat as it would be "safer" than me taking a san lun che. "Safer" was probably the wrong word to use. "Much much more dangerous" would have been more appropriate but I was in no mood to argue and they only drive at 15mph here anyway so if the worst happened I would have spilled my drink if we had crashed (not that I was drinking anything).
Having a laugh at the mouth of the cave (hope Tan doesn't watch)
I did appreciate the lift and actually got some sleep when I got home. All the more so because after seven years of coming here I finally learnt my lesson and put my phone on silent. I woke up at 6pm to see eight missed calls and my refreshedness negated any guilt I might have felt, especially as four of them were from Tan. I had agreed yesterday to go out with Yang Heiwei and his wife and other assorted friends to a swimming pool a few kms out of Pingguo. But Tan had other plans now and told me that Lin Hong had invited us for a meal at her new house. Well, sorry but I have been in this situation many times before in Pingguo and the prior invitation gets precedence. You can't call someone an hour before a meal and expect them to drop all other plans.
I was picked up from our house at 6ish by Yang Haiwei and received another call from the trouble and strife. This time I let Yang talk to her to explain we were going swimming and that this was planned yesterday. Before going swimming we stopped off at a newish outdoor restaurant where we walked through a veranda-like passage under hanging vegetables of various interesting shapes. Our purpose was to order the food for an hour's time apparently. The swimming pool was unsurprisingly an outdoor effort. It was a figure of "8" shape with a metal fence separating the two halves into a a kids' and adults' section. The water was a very comfortable temperature but as I was getting in the lifeguard looked doubtful and asked if I could swim. To prove I could I set off and did a length in front crawl as well as I could. Then Haiwei challenged me to a race and I won by half a length, although I trapped my toe in the metal fence at the beginning and think I may have broken it. Finally I've found a sport that I'm probably better than most Chinese at. We got out half an hour later and the lifeguard looked at me and called me a frog...I've never been so insulted in all my time here!
Hanging vegetables of interesting shapes
Stupidly I'd forgotten to bring a change of clothes so I got back in the car in sopping wet shorts, but it didn't seem to matter to anyone. The meal was naturally delicious and the company good. There were many greens that had probably been picked while we were in the pool - you can't get fresher than that. As is the way, the meal went on for some time until I realised I needed to get my hair cut at Lu Hai's and he closes at 10pm. It was getting on for 9.30pm and the meal was winding down anyway so we got in the cars and drove home, where I changed into something dry and took the bike to Lu Hai's. After I paid him the 20 kuai for the cut and wash he gave me a high quality shampoo as a present, but didn't refuse too much when I shoved another 20 or 30 kuai in his hands. I then invited him to go to a bbq place run by one of Tan's aunts by the guang chang...Haiwei and his friends had moved on there to extend their eating and drinking from the swimming pool place. There we did the usual cai ma for a while until I was called to pick up the kids from Er Jie's house. Da Jie (Tan's eldest sister) was there too; she has also recently bought and furnished a house here in Pingguo. I don't think either of the kids had had a siesta but neither looked particularly tired. However, they didn't take too long to get to sleep after their shower. I did go back to the bbq place for a bit but was rather tired too so didn't make it a late one.
Leilei woke me up at 4.30am. I went to his room to get him back to sleep but was accompanied by a cock cockadooledooing and a dog barking its head off in response. Despite the din Leilei got back to sleep but then Xixi was awake. So I swapped to her room and fell back asleep with her, exhausted, till around 7am when she woke up properly. There was no going back to sleep this time so I got her dressed and took her out to get breakfast. We went to the same place we frequented last year as it is still close to our new house. It was as though we had never been away. The same fare at the same prices; we bought three cups of dou jiang (soya milk), some fried long things that are supposed to go with the dou jiang, some fried dumplings and some steamed buns. We took them home and Xixi got through the dou jiang in no time (as it had a pink straw), and managed half a bun.
A very common view - that which you see when waiting for the lift
At 9am the others still had not emerged so I grabbed our passports and Xixi and set off to the police station for our annual process of reporting our whereabouts to the local authority. All aliens have to do this if they are not staying in a hotel. We had to wait for the correct policeman to get to his desk so Xixi and I played hide-and-seek in the station for 20 minutes or so. We duly filled in the forms that do have English as well but it is not well translated so we had to ask for help. This was the same policeman we'd had for the last 2-3 years and he knew us quite well by now, and helped us fill in the form and this year didn't even charge us for photocopying our passports. And I learnt a new word: "fu yin" - photocopy.
Xixi playing hide-and-seek at the police station
The next most important job was to sort ourselves out with SIM cards. I had sent last year's SIM cards back to Lin Hong asking her to keep them charged every few months so we wouldn't need new numbers but as she was in the process of decorating her house she had forgotten. No worries, Xixi and I set out to find a China Telecom shop. But not before we stopped off at my favourite place to pick up fresh watermelon and honeymelon juice. We also popped in to one of my favourite tea places for a couple of cups of tie guan yin cha, my favourite summer tea - naturally slightly sweet and very refreshing as although it was not even 10am it was probably in the high 30s outside. Xixi and I walked for further than I expected before coming to the China Telecom shop by our market. I looked at the list of non-expensive phone numbers (i.e. those not ending in "8") and picked a couple that were nearly identical except that mine ended in the year of my birth and Tan's in the year of her birth - very cute. Within minutes I had a new number and Internet on the phone, and felt a sigh of relief. The next job would be to call all my friends to let them know my 2011 number (and hopefully the one for the future if I can sort that out).
Home again and this time Tan had woken up. I gave her her SIM and within minutes she was engaged in Pingguonese chatting with A Ni. I've heard it so much now I'm understanding more than half. Not that it should be that hard as it's mostly Mandarin but with a very, very strong/wrong accent. Also at home were Lin Hong and her daughter Tian tian, as well as Chuan chuan, Tan's 2nd sister's daughter. Tian tian and Chuan chuan took the kids out, apparently to go swimming, while we were invited to go to lunch with A Wu and A Ni, meaning A Wu, A Ni and three bosses. Because a meal without bosses is like tonic without gin (quite refreshing actually). Then Tan announced that she and A Ni would not go to the meal but go for a massage instead. Fair enough. So I walked the five minutes to Li Jia He Xian (Li's Freshwater Fish), the best restaurant in town, to meet A Wu. Funnily enough I met A Ni at the door of the restaurant, who told me which room to go to. And of course her and Tan joined us for the meal and I knew very well I was back in China! The bosses arrived and were very good-natured. They worked in the bank and I suppose A Wu was doing his usual thing of showing off his English friend. As they were not from Pingguo I told them a bit about the place, and managed a few gan beis with them. Then A Hua arrived and gave me a bunch of keys saying "ni de che!". Yes! She had brought over my trusty electric bike I've been using for the last five years or so.
The meal was excellent as usual, and I learnt why there were no fried bee cocoons (as there weren't last year); the season for them is September/October, which makes sense as we used to eat them all the time before Leilei started school and we could fly at that time. The last three times we've had to come in the summer and missed that particular delicacy. The girls left, this time to really go for a massage, and I made my excuses as I was knackered after a busy morning on three hours' sleep, a full meal and a few light beers. So I said my goodbyes to my new boss friends and got on the dian dong che (electric bike) only to find that it had been mutilated to the extent of having a pole inserted in the base near the front, coming up to waist height. I knew straightaway that this was for inserting one of those huge umbrellas to protect you from the sun. Very much a ladies thing and I'm glad A Hua hadn't left the umbrella in or I might stand out. So I rode back to the house in my long trousers and fairish hair, taller than anyone in town, glad I wasn't standing out at all.
Sleep was easy to come by and as only three people had my number, and I was undisturbed from 3-6pm until Tan called to say we were eating at Er jie's (her 2nd sister's) house. I said I'd be 20 minutes but was nearer an hour as I hadn't put the hot water on and had to negotiate a cold shower but still no shave since London. Er jie's house is where we lived for the two months last year so I know it well. However, only Wai po and Tan were there. The kids had just gone out swimming as the pool only opened at 6pm (goodness knows where they were before). I had a few mouthfuls of ribs before making my excuses once again and leaving. I needed to go to the supermarket to pick up a couple of things for the house. Actually all I bought were three glasses, some bog roll and some shampoo, but I also happened to notice that they still have Gordon's Gin and Smirnoff Vodka on the shelves (in case Awl comes over later). A Wu rang me while I was shopping and came to meet me. As I was paying he threw in a couple of towels as you do. As we left I made sure I got myself the equivalent of a Nectar Card so I can build up points and get...err I don't really know but it is one of the small things that makes me feel I live here rather than am just visiting.
A Wu hadn't eaten so after dropping off the shopping I met him outside Er jie's house at one of the many eating places where there was one other mate. He was eating fried noodles, but then came some lamb, then some sweetcorn, then another friend came along. Then A Wu had to go to pick up his son A Da while another couple of people came. Then more dishes and more people including my friend Yang Heiwei the table tennis guru. By 11pm I'd switched tables and was gan bei'ing with another group of friends, such is the way evenings can evolve over here. But I didn't over-indulge, and picked up Leilei from Er jie's house as Xixi had already fallen asleep there. I took him back and got him to sleep, then did the same to Tan and found some sense of normality by falling asleep before 1am.
So much for preparation. The last hour before Awl came round to drive us to Heathrow was a frantic time of changing bags as one's zip had gone missing. Also the spare router I was bringing had lost its adapter so we had to stop at ma's on the way to pick up a spare one she had. But it wasn't really that bad - my main regret was not finding the dozen or so energy saving lightbulbs I'd bought to take with us at 10p each (with the screw fitting instead of bayonet).
Despite a slowish drive we arrived at Heathrow in good time for a swift couple of Guinnesses after we checked in. The plane journey was via Munich and the bad news we heard was that there were thunderstorms so we had the prospect of missing our plane and the dreaded turbulence. The former didn't happen as there was a knock-on effect and most flights were delayed by half an hour or so. But the turbulence did and I still haven't learnt to deal with it properly. Thankfully I wasn't sitting next to Steve so I survived the flight without most of a double vodka and orange poured over me. And the kids were ok too, which is a bonus. Munich provided a fright as we had to go through security again but this time we had four bottles of booze plus numerous perfumes as presents. I was greatly relieved that they let us put them through the machine, but afterwards one lady security guard asked me about the perfumes. I said where we'd got them but she said unlike the alcohol they weren't in a sealed bag so they couldn't be taken. I looked aghast (though probably not as aghast as I would have, had it been the other bottles) and said we had no idea and the shop should have sealed the bags for us. Bless her German cotton socks that she relented and let us through, saving us about 100 quid.
The flight from Munich was very turbulent. We had four seats together in the middle of the plane and I was on the outside with the two kids in the middle. My left hand was grasping the bottom of the seat except when I was drying the sweat off. I turned to my right to check if Leilei was ok and he looked right at me with a beaming smile. I would never lie to my kids but the smile I gave back was as genuine as the "Addiddds" tee-shirts you often see worn on the streets of Pingguo. I looked around and saw people (mostly Chinese) reading papers, sleeping, chatting - no-one noticing the rollercoaster I was experiencing. I asked myself how many planes crash per day, or week, and the answer was probably around 0.01. I know flying is safer than driving - I'd probably just prefer it if I could drive. We even managed to get a little sleep, as the kids were content to watch some kiddy films during the flight in-between going to the loo.
Although we were nearly an hour late arriving in Beijing we had two and a half hours to make our connection. Passport control was made a lot quicker by a kindly policeman on a Segway who motioned for me to follow him. Previously I would have been concerned but I'm used to this country now and I knew he was there to help - he brought us to a diplomat's queue where we were processed in moments. The next job was to arrange all the duty-free in our luggage, which we managed with a little fuss. The internal flight allows 20kg per person but Lufthansa allowed 30kg. This meant we really only had around 17kg each before duty-free. Well we managed to be just about within our limit despite our hand luggage being well over the 5kg. So far so good. We got another diplomat service for the security for the internal flight and had an hour on our hands during which the kids played with the moving walkways and Tan tried in vain to get a few minutes' kip. As soon as it was time to board Xixi announced she wanted to do a poo poo (for the third or fourth time this journey). I duly took her and we got on the plane with plenty of time to spare. After the doors had been closed for for 20 minutes or so people were getting irritable. Then the dreaded announcement came that there was a lot of traffic at the airport and we were waiting for our slot. The pilot updated us a couple of times over the next hour with no new information. He had a European accent and I guessed he was Portuguese as this China Eastern flight was using an Air Macao plane. The stewardesses insisted in repeating every announcement in English even though I was probably the only person who could speak it. Everyone was ignoring the keep phones turned off warning and blatantly calling friends in Nanning to update them of the increasing lateness. Finally, three hours later we were allowed to make a move. After an age of taxiing I noticed we were just two planes back in the queue for taking off. Hooray! Then, as we got onto the runway we just seemed to dawdle and in fact we just taxied the length of the runway before turning off and a few minutes later ending up in a queue for another runway. When we finally got some info from the pilot it transpired that due to stormy weather and winds we had been advised to change runways. I quickly turned on my phone and texted A Wu we were soon to leave - I had been about the only one whose phone had been off during the taxiing.
It didn't make it easier that the air hostesses kept telling us to buckle up as we were approaching "strong" and "very strong" turbulence. I'm sure they wouldn't say that on a European flight. Well the plane wobbled its way through the skies on its southern journey, barely lending us five minutes at a time of smooth flight during which we were quickly served beverages. No beer or wine to calm my nerves so I logicked my way through things by imagining how many other planes were going through such weather and surviving. Actually it was not as bad as the Munich-Beijing flight but I don't like being told I am to experience "very strong turbulence" at any time. No-one else on the plane batted an eyelid though of course.
At last at 9.45pm the plane touched down and every mobile phone was switched on instantly while still on the runway. No-one was being told off - probably because everyone knows they don't interfere with the planes at all. Otherwise you wouldn't be allowed to take them on in the first place. By 10pm Leilei and I were waiting for the luggage and the girls were with A Wu, A Ni, Lin Hong, A Zheng and a few Nanning friends who had come to greet us. All the luggage was intact, so after luggage inspection (they actually check your luggage receipts with the bag - a really good, if slightly time-consuming, idea) I gave a big hug to my didi (little brother) A Wu, plus a smaller hug to A Ni and Lin Hong as they are ladies and it's not really in their culture to hug blokes that aren't their husbands.
With little ado we stuffed the two large saloons with our suitcases and made haste to Pingguo. Tan had said one of them would be an Audi Q7 but judging by a quick Internet search neither was. However they were both very nice new luxury saloons, a style that has become more and more prevalent over the last 6-7 years. And to think before 2003 there were no cars in China...it makes the mind boggle.
A Wu was his usual self and we had a laugh on the journey back with A Ni, Leilei and Xixi (who wouldn't travel with Tan in the other car because she is a daddy's girl). I did insist that the kids put their seatbelts on at least for the motorway, as A Wu drove at up to 160kph until we passed the site of a very recent accident involving a number of lorries, one of which had its cabin completely buckled in and I tried to avert the kids' eyes lest they see the remains of a driver who probably just had the last and shortest sleep in his life. It puts my dislike (as opposed to fear) of flying in proportion; it certainly IS far more dangerous on the roads, except for when I'm driving.
A Ni and the kids while they were starting to get less shy
Due to our greater speed we arrived at our block of flats well in advance of the other cars. It really did feel like coming home. This place really is a second home and there was no excitement in the way you have about coming to a new area - it was replaced by anticipation of living in your own place for the first time. I'd even had the foresight to remember to bring our front door key I took back last year. Without great aplomb I attempted to put the key in the lock but it wouldn't budge. No matter what I tried it wouldn't open the door so we were stuck until the slowcoaches arrived at midnight. When they met us up at the 14th floor Lin Hong announced that she had changed the locks while we were away. Grrr.
Anyway the house was better than when we had left it. Ling Ming (Tan's eldest sister's son) had been living there while decorating his own house until early July, and had kitted it out with some nice cross-stitching pictures on the walls and some quite effective wall-decals of leaves and birds which I do rather like even though it sounds kitsch. We also now have a washing machine, an extractor fan, a combi-microwave and some kitchen utensils. I also found a couple of things I left last year that I'd forgotten about, namely a bottle of red wine and a tub of Marmite. If only we'd brought a bread-maker...
Our living room with a nice "room tattoo"
So much for the house. Within 15 minutes I'd showered and left Tan to bed the kids while I went out to get some BBQ. We went to our favourite place "Tian Yang Po" and I had 8 pig eyeballs plus an array of other delights though somehow missed out on duck tongues. Beer was poured but I didn't indulge too much as I needed to sleep and bring back some food for Tan. I brought her 10 skewers of duck intestines and 5 duck tongues plus a bit of pig ligament which she promptly attacked when I got back at 2.30am. We stayed up till 3.30am putting clothes away and spent our first night ever together in our new abode.
Well it had to happen - our last day. I was gutted, but didn't have time to be as I still had things to do. I went to the local tea shop and bought a beautiful tea tray thing with a moulded cow on top. It sort of made sense as Tan is a cow. The woman who told me it was 260 kuai wasn't there today, but the boss was, who told me he hadn't slept that night for a reason I didn't understand. And the tea tray I wanted was apparently 350 kuai. Well I didn't want to argue so I bought it along with a couple of other bits and pieces. In its cardboard box it wouldn't fit in my canvas bag so we had to remove it to get it inside. I should really have re-adjusted my hard suitcase to fit the tray inside but I didn't have much time and still had to go to the supermarket for some last-minute purchases.
At my last trip to my supermarket (mine because I have a "VIP" card that I have been using to collect - points? - who knows? - I bought a few packs of sunflower seeds and dried jackfruit to take back. I knew we had enough space as I'd popped into Ma Laoban's computer shop and although he wasn't there at the time his wife was, and lent us their scales so I could measure our luggage. We had a couple of spare kg hence I bought bits and pieces including a chamois cloth from the supermarket. Unnecessary but why not?
Tan had gone out during the morning as unfortunately someone from her home village, Bangxu, had been hit by a vehicle, and she was 6 months pregnant. Luckily, it wasn't too bad, but a bit scary nonetheless. Our flight was at 3pm, so we had arranged to leave at 11am. Before that though I went for a last visit to my juice bar where I had a large watermelon juice for just 3 kuai. I told the woman that most other places in Pingguo sold an inferior product for 4 or 5 kuai but she didn't seem to register that I was trying to tell her to up her prices. I told her she should charge more but didn't labour the point. I also gave her and her daughter a little present of some French biscuits and a box of tea bags similar to what I gave to the tea boss yesterday. She seemed really appreciative of that, but perhaps not as much as I have been over the last month or so of her wares.
Well, I got a call from Tan as I was saying my goodbyes to the juice bar woman and her daughter, so I bid a final farewell, and drove home for the last time, where I met some friends waiting to take us to Nanning. A Zheng had a decent sized van that held 8 people plus lots of luggage, and A Wu also brought his aging Zefiro. It was yet another quick goodbye, something very, very un-Western. There are no long goodbyes here, but I did hug the ladies, including Waipo and Erjie. They didn't recoil as they may have done a few years ago, but they didn't seem as sad as I felt. It is a really different thing saying goodbye here.
I went in the van with A Zheng and Lin Hong, while the kids went with A Wu. We got to Nanning airport around 12.30pm and checked in our luggage (with a "Fragile" sticker on the bag with my tea tray). I suggested we all go for a final meal outside the airport as inside was expensive and not really authentic. Tan disagreed but the others didn't, and as we had a couple of hours we got in the vehicles to drive 5 mins to a place I think we went to a couple of years ago. There were a couple of police vehicles there, and we saw them finishing their meal. We ordered some chicken, fish and tofu. I realised this was my last proper Chinese meal for a long time, so went out to watch them cook it. There were chickens all around the place, and I imagined they'd just grabbed one around the neck with their hands to make our soup. So nice and fresh. I really enjoyed the meal and had my last Li Quan beer for some time too. I was very glad we made the decision to have this meal outside the airport.
And then we'd finished and it was time to go back to the airport. This scenario we'd been through many times before but it doesn't get easier for me. As we went through security we waved our friends and family a last goodbye. I don't think Xixi really understood what she was leaving. Well, it was a standard flight to Shenzhen, and for the first time this year we did not have to stay a night before the flight back to London. While we were waiting for the shuttle bus to the ferry terminal to take us to Hong Kong airport, Tan noticed that there was a bunch of triads around us, who were apparently waiting for someone to turn up at the airport and beat him up. She gathered this from their phone calls apparently. If they were triads they were pretty obvious as they all wore black and looked quite mean. I was quite looking forward to what might happen, but Tan wasn't, and to her relief our bus turned up and we took our last little trip in real China this year.
It is quite convenient taking the boat from Shenzhen to HK airport. You can whip through customs in two minutes flat, and when you get to the airport there's no more customs stuff except for picking up your luggage and checking it in with the airline. Which we did when we arrived there at 7.30pm. Then we had nearly four hours to wait till our plane. We had an unsatisfactory "Japanese" meal at the airport for 25 quid and realised with a bump we were no longer in China. When we finally got on the plane it was the one coming from Sydney to London so mostly filled with fat, pasty ex-pats, the likes of whom I hadn't seen for so long it made me feel quite uncomfortable. I can't complain about the kids. They slept for a decent amount of time. But despite my tiredness I only managed a couple of hours before the end of the flight. We arrived ahead of schedule, to the chagrin of those who live close to the runway, at 5am. But our Chinese friend was waiting for us with his car when we got out. And that was it. A wonderful wonderful two months back at home in Pingguo had most definitely come to an end, and I was due to work in three hours. No regrets though, no regrets whatsoever. Wo ai Pingguo!
Our last full day in Pingguo was rather anticlimatic. That's not a bad thing in a way; it means we won't be here after tomorrow but we'll be back some time later and things will follow on as they always have. It was just a normal day - Xixi going out with Waipo and Jiuma, and Leilei seeing his friends and going to buy some toys. I spent no more than 20 minutes putting some stuff in suitcases but there wasn't much to pack. It was more a case of deciding what to leave here. In the end I left at least half of the clothes I brought here. Together with clothes I have left over the last few years I probably have as big a wardrobe here as I do in England. It just means the photos will often look the same - I'm sure I have shirts here I wore five years ago here.
I did make a point of going to the tea boss with whom I spent some time yesterday, and gave him a pack of French biscuits and a pack of lemon and ginger tea bags. I was glad to see that he opened both and his friends enjoyed both.
