Powercut postponed so ping pong and volleyball again

We found out at the last minute that in fact they had cancelled the electricity cut-off for tomorrow so we didn't go to Nanning in the end.

After working all day (it's lovely that the kids are generally taken out during this time) I needed some physical exercise. As I was alone in the house I drove to the old folks' home for a game of table tennis. I warmed up by playing a lady pushing 60 who was actually worse than me but screamed in amusement every time she lost a point. Then some bloke in his sixties came around and he was a lot better. He used me as practice by trying to return my smashes, and I found it a very good exercise as I really improved my accuracy. This time I played topless and it definitely helped, though maybe because it distracted my opponents.

I thought it must be getting on for 10pm when I fancied a break but it was only 9. And the elders from the volleyball court bade me come over and play with them. So I did, and this time I was much better as I knew the rules. They were in peels of laughter as I started doing smashes. They all thought I was two metres tall. My team won all our four matches and then I was told to go to the men's court. Ah, I'd been playing with mostly octogenarian women for the last half an hour. The men's court had people closer to my age and leaps and bounds better, literally. I didn't play particularly well and we lost 21-17 - probably all down to me. But they welcomed me back the next time I could make it, so I thanked them and gratefully went on my way home for a shower.

Massage prior to powercut

Happy Birthday Mum!
Busy during the day but my back was hurting from my two-and-a-half hours of exercise on Saturday. So around 9.30pm I drove to a massage place Tan had suggested, near to A Hua's beauty salon. I only went to one proper massage last year, with Andge and Ailun, and none the year before that as I preferred the head wash variety. However, this was for medical reasons. It was quite relaxing, and sometimes painful, as I remember from the past. I'm not sure I really believe in this as a cure - especially when they crack your neck. But you do feel good afterwards and at 35 kuai for an hour it's got to be fifteen times cheaper than the UK.

Apparently tomorrow there will be no electricity from 5.30am till 10pm, same for Friday, so we are all going to go to Nanning where we'll stay in Er Jie's house (which has internet). It is her new house in Nanning so I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like. Waipo, Jiuma and a couple of Tan's friends are coming too so it will be a bit busy.

Dog meat and World Cup final

Woke up early afternoon to aching bones after yesterday's exercise. Although it was a Sunday I spent half the day working as I knew I'd use up some time tomorrow sleeping after the World Cup final. Today A Xia's husband invited us to eat dog at the restaurant Lao Pan had invited us to not three days ago. This is a fairly important occasion so at 5.30pm I left the kids at home with Chuan Chuan and took the bike to the place. As soon as I arrived I was told I should have taken the kids...grrr...before I'd been told not to...

There were two tables - one for the kids and ladies and one for the men. And there was plenty of food including four full metal bowls of dog meat. A few blokes arrived and drank some beer, but didn't seem to eat the dog. Then one of them left and a couple more came. But still the dog meat was not touched. After an hour of this I asked Tan if people weren't eating the dog because they were waiting for someone special to come. She just said that some people don't eat meat for "religious" reasons. So then, an hour after standing on ceremony by not eating it, I tucked in and it was very nice. Then more people started on it. We didn't leave till about 8pm, when A Wu and I agreed to go for a head wash. So I followed him home on the electric moped and went in to change my clothes. We then found a very nice place for a decadent hour of head/face wash and massage, with a facemask thrown in too. I couldn't believe it when it came to 30 kuai for the both of us.

We went for a quick bite at the local seafood place afterwards before bidding farewell for the evening. But it was still three hours before the World Cup final. I ended up chatting with And and Awl and Mat on skype for an hour or so which was a good laugh, before calling Lu Hai to meet up at the seafood place again to watch the footy. I correctly predicted 1-0 Spain but didn't think it would take extra time. In fact I really didn't want that as it was 5.30am by the time I left and it took me rather longer than it should have done to get home...

Ping pong and volleyball

No more rain but still humid. Was nice to have a lie-in under the air-conditioning as Jiuma took the kids out for the morning.

At 5pm took Leilei for a meal at the place around the corner that just opened last week and had a nice ribs and rice. Then just after 7pm the kids had gone out and I had some time to myself. So I put on some shorts and took the bike to the old people's leisure centre. Immediately a woman asked me to play ping pong with her. Surprisingly I was much much better than her (although 20 years her junior). Then some old bloke turned up and she gave the table to him and me. And then I found the meaning of pain. Then another even better bloke came along and watched for a while. I found another depth of pain as I practised returning serves and returning a few smashes. After one hour I was sopping wet and felt like vomiting. I walked outside to search for a semblance of a breeze and found a slight one next to one of the volleyball courts. 

My face was as red as a table tennis bat, and I was sweating like the outside of a cold bottle of water. But I held my head up to watch the 60 and 50 year olds playing five-a-side volleyball. I was asked to join in but my legs disagreed so I made my excuses and kept watching. But 10 minutes later I said "ok" and I walked onto the pitch to the delight of the other players. I had no time to take in the rules but I learnt after a while that your team could have up to three hits before hitting over the net and you weren't allowed to hit downwards (a smash) within three feet of the net. Apart from that you circulate every time you win a point. This was incredibly fun! I spent an hour listening to incredulous laughter at my height, my shots and even my misses. Every good shot was cheered and bad shots were not criticised - for all members. Although the other members ranged from 60-80 years of age we all had a great time and I've never seen so many genuinely wide grins on both teams. Our team won three games to one. But most importantly I felt that in not too many years I'd love to feel part of such a community.

Power cut postponed

Apparently now the power cut will be on the 13th, not today. That's handy. There is a new eatery opened up just around the corner from our block so I decided to give it a go at 2pm when peckish and there was nothing to steal from the fridge. Had a very passable goose and rice together with soup, greens and some other vegetable that was 99.9% water but refreshing. Busy all the rest of the day till 11.30pm but managed to get an hour to have a meal out in the evening with Lao Pan and all the ladies.

Finally got five minutes of rain today. Very comfortable to be a few degrees cooler today at the cost of higher humidity.

Tan back and another power cut

Tan came back around lunchtime, which was nice, though she was very sweaty from the 100 yard walk from the san lun che to our front door. I have been told that there will be a power cut tomorrow from morning till 10 in the evening. This will not do. I will have to go to Nanning in that case to be able to work. At least Er Jie has a house there. She said she would give me the key but that someone else would have to pick me up in Nanning, or go with me from Pingguo. Why? If I have the address most taxi drivers will get me there in five minutes, surely?

No let up on the heat. I think that all the air-conditioning units have helped use up the electricity supply here hence the planned cut. We do have a large damn just outside Pingguo that apparently provides a healthy percentage of the electricity needs, but this is one of the hotter summers on record - even Beijing has reports of 40+ degrees so imagine what it's like here.

Wild cat or wildcat

At 5pm Jiuma said she was going to the house to have a look at progress so I said I'd come with her. Xixi had been asleep since 3pm but Leilei had just fallen asleep half an hour ago so was impossible to get up. So I went on the bike with Xixi to check on progress. Most of the walls have had their first coat of white paint now, which makes a significant difference to concrete colour. The main toilet is mostly tiled and the ensuite bathroom is in progress so nice to see. Still no chance of the three weeks work that Tan reckoned, unless they finish in four days' time.

Bathroom coming along nicely

Living room looking better in white

One of the workers doing the ensuite bathroom

A Wu called while I was at the house to invite me to "eat snake". It was a family affair apparently instead of a mafia one. I told him that would be nice, and that I'd need to go home and get a shower and do the same for Leilei, then we'd take the bike over to the snake restaurant. Must have been called five times in the next half an hour asking where I was and telling me to "kuai yi dian!". He hasn't learnt that if you want to invite someone for a meal you don't do so fifteen minutes before it is being served. Embarrassingly I got a little lost on the way there so we turned up fifteen minutes later than I thought. But it was fine and I was treated to a sumptious meal of snake soup with snake balls (not testicles, more like normal meatballs), a plate of snake skin and another of snake meat from the tail end. The snake was good but the highlight for me was the "ye mao", or wild cat. I think they meant "wild cat" as opposed to "wildcat" which sounds like an American Football team. I imagine this was more of a stray. Also the minced "hong mao ji" (red-feathered hen) was really nice.

Got a call from Tan at 10pm saying she'd just arrived at Nanning 90 minutes late so would stay the night there with friends. Then Lu Hai rang up and asked if I wanted to watch the footy with him. I said I wasn't sure I would make it but would call him later. Leilei didn't sleep till gone midnight and as I was still awake I rang up Lu Hai and we arranged to meet at the seafood place outside our house after 2am. There were still quite a few people outside on the streets watching the telly on projected screens or large LCD tvs, and I managed to stay up to see Spain defeat Germany 1-0 exactly as I had predicted, while at the same time enjoying some nice prawns.

House becoming homely

Kids slept in late and so did I for the first time in a long time. Had a lot of work to catch up on but late morning got a call from Tan saying I needed to take the wire I bought a couple of weeks ago for charging the bike to the house. I also had to buy a light, as the workers wanted to lay the tiles to the bathrooms but the ensuite one was too dark and there was no electricity. I wasn't sure how the 15 metre length of wire would help if there is no leccy but couldn't be bothered to ask. I got Xixi on the bike and tried to leave as Leilei was watching something with Chuan Chuan on the computer but he sensed he was missing out and cried when I said there wasn't enough space and he could come next time. We drove to one of the shops I frequent that sells diy stuff and they found me a bright bulb and an adapter so you could plug it in to any mains - 8 kuai for both, then we delivered it to the house where Lin Hong was waiting for us. Finally they have started painting the walls and it is just starting to look a little homely.

Slowly getting there

Hadn't heard from A Wu for a while so it wasn't a surprise when he called at 9pm asking me to go out with him to sing song. I haven't been out for a while so said I wouldn't mind but that I was busy at the moment so I'd get back to him. Then I realised I needed to get some cream for Leilei's mosquito bites. He has a great many and it's horrible to see as a parent. I keep the anti-mosquito thing burning at night and electrify any I find flying around with the cool electric tennis raquet that kills them instantly with a satisfying "bang!". I found a chemist two minutes away and asked for the "Li Yao Gao". They had small pots of the stuff for only 2 kuai so I bought five and adminstered them over Leilei's body.

Actually finished what I was doing by half ten so I took the bike down to the normal KTV place where one of the lovely ladies at the door, adorned in a purple full-length dress with no sleeves, ushered me to one of the big rooms that was filled with about thirty people mostly around my age, with a couple of kids. I was a bit shocked at how drunk they all seemed to be (not the kids). The women (whose husbands were all there) all came up to me with bottles of beer (luckily 330ml) asking me to gan bei with them. I managed three of the small bottles but was full of fizz and couldn't manage any more. One particularly drunk man was trying to get me to dance with the women, so instead I did my party piece of singing "You Are My Rose" and "Friend", then even A Wu looked uncomfortable at the inebriated state of most of these people, especially in front of the kids, so we made a hasty exit and went to sit outside at the seafood place near our house where some friends were, and had a more civilised time until midnight when Waipo rang me up to say Leilei wasn't sleeping. So I said my goodbyes and got home two minutes later to find him sound asleep with Xixi. Although tired, I somehow managed to stay up to watch the Uruguay - Holland semi final. I'd put a quid on 3-3 at 100-1. With just a couple of minutes left Uruguay came back to 3-2 so it was an exciting last part of the game. I predict 2-1 Germany over Spain tomorrow.

Red water

Up at just gone 7am to prepare the kids for school. Neither wanted to go but they love riding the bike so at least it's easy to get them there. At Xixi's classroom the teacher tried to explain to me that I needed to go to the main office because school was breaking up today due to "Hongshui", which means "red water". They weren't supposed to break up till 15th July, and this is annoying as Tan is away till Wednesday evening and I will be quite busy. Up at Leilei's classroom the teacher corroborated Xixi's teacher's red water story, and as if to prove it handed me 40+ kuai in some sort of recompense. The teacher did say that the kids could come back on 19th July for "preparation" classes for the next year, designed mainly to help with working parents I gather.

So I went to the main office and asked about this mysterious red water, expecting them to give me back some of the money I'd paid for Xixi. But they didn't, and I didn't want to make a fuss over a few quid. I still didn't understand the evil red water that was shutting down the school two weeks early.

After the school run I went to check on the house. The tiles have been delivered but more importantly the floor had been concreted and things were just starting to look a bit different as both the bathrooms had doors fitted. Lin Hong first took me to the 9th floor to look at an identical flat. Identical that was until the owners decided to move the door of the middle bedroom a few feet to the right. They had simply concreted up the doorway that was and cut a doorway out further up the wall. When I asked why Lin Hong explained that the door had been opposite the front door and that was not good feng shui. She asked if I wanted to do the same thing and I laughed and said "bu yao!". She saw the funny side too but I presume she took me to this flat to genuinely ask if I wanted the same thing done to ours.

All those pipes now covered by concrete - too late to ask for the ethernet cable...

At home Tan rang during a break in her class. She had been learning how to wash faces, and said that it was really interesting, and said she could give me one. We'll see. I explained about the school closing early and discovered that it was hong with the second, rising, tone - not hong with the third down-and-up tone. This "hongshui" means flood. This goes to show how important it is to get your tones right in Chinese. Ok, I knew that the red water wasn't responsible for closing down the school now but it hasn't rained here for over a week, and today is the hottest day so far at 37 degrees C. Are they expecting torrential downpours tomorrow? I knew it was 37 degrees as Er Jie rang me up at lunchtime to ask me if the school had air conditioning. I said it didn't and she told me I should take the kids home as it would be too hot. I said I wouldn't as they have fans and that none of the other kids would come home. Yes, they'll get a bit sweaty but that's part of life here.

Later Waipo was calling me in the house. Jiuma (Tan's brother's wife who now also seems to be living in the house) was in our new house, and had left the key inside while going out to chat on the phone. As luck would have it the only breeze to brace Pingguo in the last week had turned up on the 14th floor and nudged our front door closed locking her out. So she'd called Waipo and Waipo was now panicking asking if I had the other key. When I finally worked out what she was talking about I said I didn't have the key, but maybe Lin Hong did, or would know its whereabouts. Waipo shouted that Lin Hong was in Bangxu and couldn't get back. I asked whether Lin Hong had the key but again Waipo shouted that she was in Bangxu. I thought I was being misunderstood so I asked in very clear Chinese: "Lin Hong you mei you di er ge yao shi?", but still Waipo said she was in Bangxu as if I was asking where she was.

Then it dawned on me to call Lin Hong myself but both her phones were engaged. As Waipo was getting more animated I said I'd go to the house to see what I could do. On the way Lin Hong returned my missed call but the line was so bad I could hardly hear a word. In case she could hear me I shouted that I was going to the house, and that if she didn't have the second key on her person could she arrange for the person who did have it to bring it there? I met Jiuma at the house a bit later and explained I'd tried to speak to Lin Hong, whom I rang again and when she answered passed the phone to Jiuma. It transpired that the second key was indeed in Pingguo and the worker was coming over to deliver it. So we went up to the 14th floor to wait and lo and behold when we got there the door was open and the workers were there working.... Apparently the bloke with the second key had turned up two minutes after my call to Lin Hong. Jiuma looked slightly sheepish as she picked up her purse with the key in it.

Tan to Hangzhou for beauty course

A relatively quiet day, but extremely hot. Tan went to Nanning at 4pm to catch a flight to Hangzhou where she is doing a beauty course on behalf of A Hua who cannot go due to work constraints. I suppose Tan will teach her what she learnt over there. Kids wouldn't sleep during the day so were not best-behaved during the evening. However, Leilei decided he really liked the dumplings that Waipo cooked and he ate two bowlfuls. I had waited till after 7.30pm before trying to feed them as 5pm is too soon after lunch in my opinion. I was quite peckish at night so I went across the road near midnight to get a little bbq. The second I sat down to wait I was called over to sit at a table of four blokes and a woman and gan bei'd and cai ma'd till my duck tongues and pork were ready.

Football betting

I brought a DVD player from the UK as strangely they are cheaper there than here. It was only 16 quid but I've just realised that it only has a scart output and that they don't have scart here. I'll have to see if I can get an adapter so the kids can watch some of their UK stuff, not that they're particularly missing it at the moment.

While Leilei was out with his friends I took Xixi out to see mama at A Hua's beauty shop. I left Xixi there and went to meet Lu Hai, who I hadn't seen since last year. He was one of the first people I met in Pingguo in 2003 and I always make a point of going to his salon for a haircut. I invited him to Number 5 Cafe and he was happy about that as he loves his football as most of the people do here at least for the World Cup. He explained he lost 300 kuai on Holland beating Brazil. This is not the first time I've heard such a story. At least two people (one of whom was a woman if that means anything) had told me they lost a few hundred kuai when Germany beat England. And just about everyone has told me that if that disallowed goal had been allowed England would for sure have gone on to win. I disagree but maybe they are just justifying their bets. I drew a very clear map of where Number 5 Cafe was, relative to the guang chang, but I got a phone call before 10pm saying he was already there and I should hurry up. I arrived a couple of minutes later to find 15 of my friends there but no Lu Hai, so called him and found he was in the wrong place.

I warned everyone that Germany would win as Argentina had no defence, and was proved right by the 4-0 drubbing. How can Messi be so ineffective in such a good team on paper? Then again the same could be said about Rooney (or "Looney" as he is known in Chinese) and Ronaldo and a few other big stars. I should have bet on the game too. Andge sent me an email saying he'd bet 2 quid on Germany to win 5-1 at 150-1....ooh so Klose.

A Wu left at half time to go to KTV, which he bade me go to. I said I wasn't sure but by the end of the game I thought it would be nice to take Lu Hai there as I guess he doesn't get out so much. We stayed under an hour and did exactly the same as we always do in terms of the songs and the beer.

Embarrassing moment and BBQ with the Americans

Although it was tiring getting up so early to do the kids, at least Tan or someone had got them dressed and I just had to bike them to school. Xixi still cries when I leave her and Leilei was a bit tearful today too. At least it's Friday. I had a morning nap this time. Was about to go out for a bite to eat when A Wu called to ask me to eat with what has become the main clique of bosses I know: Boss Yellow and Boss Yang, together with some girl whose name escapes me. I noticed she wasn't really in the conversation much, so as I recognised her as the only girl at the meal last night I asked how her tummy was as she'd been drinking white alcohol then. Very embarrassingly for me she was not the same girl as last night and the blokes laughed at how westerners thought Chinese all looked alike. Bugger. I picked up my nice clean trainers and put them on over a glass of tea with the bosses until they all decided to go for a nap.

Picked up the kids, where I found that Xixi had been good today. I was worried as yesterday the teacher told me she had been hitting other kids.. At 8pm we went down the the "ye shi jie" (night market street) down by the river, which is pretty much filled with barbeque places. Our American friends had invited us to eat, and I suggested "ai yi" (aunty)'s place that Tan and her friends swear by. Although they have spent much longer than me in China and were fans of ducks tongue, they had not tasted the delights of ducks intestine or chicken claws, so I ordered some of that together with the more normal pork. To slightly balance out the meal we had some greens and a bowl of fried sweetcorn too. The kids were a little tired and getting fractious and as Tan has a bad belly at the moment (doesn't only happen to me), she took them home so we could have a proper conversation. By the end of the meal it was time for footy so the three American kids and their mom went back home while the dad went with me to what has become our "local", Number 5 Cafe. All my friends were there (i.e. mostly bosses), and we enjoyed an exciting upset as Holland beat Brazil 2-1. I do hope Robinho returns to City though I doubt he will.

Rare meal at home before common meal with bosses

I have found a cool phone browser that works very well on my Nokia E71. I generally use Opera Mini but that no longer works here (you are directed to install a Chinese version). So this year I had found Skyfire to be pretty good, but I started to get a warning that it would stop working on 1st July in this country. So I found Bolt, and so far so good - I can check the news and the footy results away from home.

Had a quick nap after taking the kids in, then after some nice exercise in the air-conditioned bedroom I noticed Tan was listening to her music through the crappy built-in speakers of her netbook. So I thoughtfully went down to Ma Laoban's computer shop to get a pair of speakers. He had just left but his wife was there and helped me choose. It was a toss up between a pair of Lenovo speakers that got their power from USB, and another identical pair but smaller and fatter and 50 kuai cheaper. I couldn't tell the difference in sound (both were good and had a nice bass), but Ma Laoban's wife said the cheaper ones were much better quality...I didn't argue and took them and an underneath fan cooler thing for my old laptop as in this weather they can overheat quickly. The total should have come to 118 + 68 = 186 but she charged me 140. That is what I would have expected in a normal shop but there I would have had to ask for such a discount. I'm glad she didn't just give them to me as has happened in the past.

I rarely feel ripped off here, and people are not out to get you as they would be in touristy areas. Last year I remember I had a bunch of 100 kuai notes falling out of my pocket and some old bloke ran across the street shouting "Boss! Your money is falling out!". Today when I bought a nine-pack of beer for 29 kuai the woman wouldn't accept keeping the 1 kuai change! That's around three quid for ten pints of bottled beer! I then went to have a couple of chang fen (flaccid penis-like noodles) for lunch with a can of Li Quan. The can cost more than the food. My nice new trainers were now nice dirty trainers due to the meal outside of Pingguo on Tuesday so I took them to a local shoe-cleaning shop as you do and paid 5 kuai and was told to pick them up tomorrow.

A beer and flaccid peni for lunch

After the school run we had a rare meal at home with the family. They'd cooked a whole duck especially which was very enjoyable. Then Er Jie took the kids out to the guang chang and I rather predictably got a call from A Wu asking me to "drink tea" with some bosses. This meant going to another private room in a restaurant to eat meat and drink beer. I was full but thought "why not?". This particular restaurant had a lovely area on top of a four storey building where there was a courtyard with a fountain. Note to self: invite friends there before we leave. At the table I sat next to the boss of the restaurant himself, who was rather the worse for wear. Half the bosses were drinking thimblefulls of white alcohol, and the others were on red wine with ice cubes. This time they didn't try to serve me anything but 7 degree (3%) Li Quan, which I appreciated. I was too full to gorge on much more than the lovely Lao Hu Cai (tiger salad - very spicy) and some smoked meat. And I really couldn't drink much beer, so I picked the wrong time to play cai ma with "Big Boss". I lost my first seven hands and felt totally bloated. But as custom has it (unless this was made-up) I had to at least win one hand before I could leave. I showed all fingers and shouted "chut!", he showed two and shouted "clee!". Finally I'd won a hand and they all had a hearty laugh. I made my excuses and left as I had to get the kids to sleep - Tan had gone out with friends.

When they were asleep I helped myself to a Gin and Shui Bi, then took the bike out for a ride in the slightly cooler night air. I fancied a little barbequed ducks tongue so I drove to the place I used to frequent when we lived here two years ago. Ten sticks of tongues (two per stick) and ten of beef cost 40 kuai which I thought was on the pricey side. While they were being cooked two oldish men invited me over to their table were we had an enjoyable few minutes talking about Bangxu. One of the men's wives was from Bangxu too and we found it amusing to have that part of our lives in common. As they were drinking a weaker variant of the white alcohol I had a small sip with them as it would have been rude not to do so. Then I was called over to another table who had overheard our conversation and wanted to drink a glass with me. It would have been rude not too so I gan bei'd with them a couple of times with beer until my bbq arrived and I explained I'd better get back.

At home Tan was there with A Xia and A Ni, plus Er Jie and her kids Chuan Chuan and Qiqi. Am I supposed to put a gap between the syllables in pin yin Chinese or not? And do I capitalise both words if they form a name? I've not been at all consistent.

The television was not working and some bored faces were watching the blank screen with it turned on in case it should come back any time now. My bbq was demolished by all in the room so Chuan Chuan and I went out to get some more, plus a portion of snails. This errand took half an hour and by the time we got back at half midnight there were some hungry bellies that once again demolished the food.

Had a skype chat with Awl at gone 1am but I was flaking and nearly dropping off. Apparently he won't come this year as it's too pricey including the fact he doesn't get paid leave. Big pity as he would have had a great time...there's always next year....

Flat progress

Back in December last year Waipo's younger brother died. He had been ill for a long time and it wasn't particularly unexpected, but we didn't tell her anyway as being stuck in the UK may not have been the best place to mourn. Waipo was talking about it the other day and how no-one had told her in the UK, and I didn't know if she was in some way scolding me or just mentioning it. But her main point was that one evening Xixi was throwing a massive tantrum which is not like her. Waipo did something really weird; she lit a piece of paper and let it burn on the floor in the hallway, then picked up the smoking black remains and tried to smear it on Xixi's forehead or neck. It looked a bit voodooish and didn't do the trick and she was only consoled when I held her in my arms (Xixi, not Waipo). Anyway, Waipo told me that that was the day her younger brother had died, and that Xixi's behaviour was an indication of that....

Anyway after leaving Xixi crying in school again I later went to meet Tan and the girls for lunch at the Ming Dian Coffee Language Hotel restaurant. The weather has become properly hot now, though not as humid as when the clouds were ever-looming. Now the streets are emptier during the middle of the day, except for a tall foreigner who insists on going out on his electric bike. I really like the meals they served in the Ming Dian last year and the year before in what looked like a bento box. I asked Tan if they still did these boxes and she said "yes". Then the waitress came and Tan found that they don't do the boxes anymore. What is wrong with "I don't know"?

I asked Tan if Lin Hong had the house keys as I wanted to keep an eye on progress but she said today she was busy at work and didn't have any time. So after lunch I rang Lin Hong anyway and she said she was on her way there: "zhun bei dao le" (just about to arrive). Ten minutes later she did come and explained that she had just picked up the keys to her house today as we had ten days ago, and she also wanted to check our house. So much for busy at work.

Well there certainly were changes. Unbeknown to me there were now railings all the way to the ceiling on all the balconies. This gives the place a bit of a prison feel to it but it is done purely for safety as there will be kids around. More predictably there were lots of pipes around the place. The floor was littered with water and electric pipes stemming from the mains and going to all the rooms. There was already some electricity built in but I guess we were expanding it. All this will be covered in concrete soon so I managed to get some grainy snaps on my phone camera first.

This is a pile of stones to be used for making concrete for the house, and was donated to us by A Wu. Thank you A Wu

The full-length bars we now have on all the balconies

Some of the pipes that will soon be covered by the floor. Green for water, white for electricity

Back home I had a little nap and when I woke up to get ready to pick up the kids I found that some bastards had hemmed in my little bike between theirs. If I had knocked one of theirs over there would have been an expensive domino effect so I had to be careful and only set off two alarms while slowly getting it out.

Tight squeeze

As there was no space to park in the appropriate zone when we got back I just left the bike near the door, out of the way of anyone else. Later when I popped out I found I had a sticker on it saying something I didn't understand, but along the lines of "Don't park here!". As yet I don't know if there is a fine. I decided to go to the old people's place to play table tennis as I hadn't done so in a while. Boss Yang was there along with some mates, one of whom was probably the best player in Pingguo. I sat mesmerised by the quality of play and was sadly aware how far I was behind. It didn't stop them wanting to play against me though and to my credit I did score a couple of points on returned smashes that got rounds of applause.