Democracy and 4 evening meals

Although I woke up at 11am I felt shit and had a cold I blame on catching from Xiao Nong. I stayed in bed until she pinged me at 1pm to go for lunch. Fair enough we'd talked about lunch for a few days but either her or I had got up too late. I really wasn't in the mood but forced myself to wash my face and shave, and put on the nicely dry clothes from the drier Tan had only let me know about yesterday. Xiao Nong was waiting for me at her building's gate, but she had forgotten I'd left my dian dong che there last night. So it was slightly fun to have a go at her as normally she has a go at me for forgetting things.

I drove her to the centre of town where we went down to the underground mall and she got won tun and I had jiaozi. For some reason it was just a really nice experience despite me feeling hungover. We then went for a drink of cola and green tea. We were talking about irrational fears; she doesn't like insects and I don't like flying. She's never flown before, and only been as far away as Guangzhou. She didn't even understand "turbulence" in Mandarin and I had to explain it sometimes got bumpy. After that she said she'd never set foot in a plane. I explained that I use logic (and G&T) to get over it, and opened up the Flightradar24 app to show her how many planes were currently flying over China and how none of them would crash. Then she told me that seeing those aeroplane icons gave her trypophobia. What? I had to look it up - an aversion to the sight of irregular patterns. Well I suppose we had just both learnt a new word in our mother tongues.

She then invited me to eat with them again tonight and asked me what I liked to eat. Well, I'm quite partial to the raw fish so she called the people who were at the market to get some. Then we went there ourselves and I had another hit of the sensory overload that is a market here. We met a mate at the market who was buying the food and I made my excuses to leave for a while before tea.

The first time I've seen "democracy" in Pingguo

So I had a little time to go home and take a shit on a proper toilet, and take a shower. I went to Nong's neighbour a bit before 6pm but really wasn't feeling well. They'd bought the raw fish for me so I forced myself to have some of it. And had to force the beer down too. Nong didn't drink for a while but then we started playing mo pai, which I'm getting used to but still don't know how to play properly. I managed till 8pm but A Wu had invited me out so I made my excuses and left.

Typical scene at Pingguo market

A Wu had just come back from Nanning and was with his family having a bite to eat so I joined him for a bit. Yet more food, including oysters, but he took family back then some other bloke came and when A Wu came back I took him to Pingguo International Hotel and we met a couple of other bosses for some boring beer. Then advertising friend Nong pinged me to meet up at the same place as last time so that was a fine excuse to make my excuses and leave. But A Wu reminded me that his Boss Zhou (as opposed to Uncle Yellow's Boss Zhou) had cooked and we were to go there later to eat. Oh.

So it was off to my third eating place of the evening and I spent a pleasant 45 minutes with Nong and muscle boss where I had two cups of you cha and very few strong Li Quan beers. I couldn't really get much more into my stomach though. Nong said if I needed an excuse to remove myself from company I didn't want to be with I didn't have to wait for her to ping me, which is nice to know, if a bit late. We tried to arrange a meet-up before I left and agreed Tuesday would probably be the best day. Whether that happens or not is probably 50/50.

At getting on for midnight I left for Boss Zhou's having remembered to bring the bottle of red wine I'd got from Sainsbury's a month back. Even Xixi recognised him as a decent bloke during the summer when we went for a meal there, so I wanted to give him a small token of appreciation for his company and food. Of course the table was full of drunk men and a couple of women, and of course I had to ganbei with most of them over the course of the next hour or so.

I noticed the beer tops are changing

Cute cats and meals with Xiao Nong and A Qiu

After last night's shenanigans I was up before the afternoon but didn't feel like eating and only managed a yoghurt. Very annoyingly the washing machine then refused to work; it would turn on then turn itself off again a few seconds later. I thought about calling Lin Hong to ask if I could wash my clothes at hers but wanted to check with Tan first if that was culturally acceptable. I recall being given towels as a wedding gift and Tan saying that could never be an acceptable gift in China, so I just thought washing clothes in someone else's house might be similar. But apparently it wasn't so I called her and she said to come round right away no problem. But then Tan called to ask what was wrong with the washing machine. I didn't know, but had intended to sort it out myself, or at least find someone to sort it by myself. Oh no, Tan would call Jiuma, who would find someone to come around. I thought about arguing but really with something as important as a washing machine I guess it's safer to be in someone else's hands. A couple of days ago Tan had also asked me to give Lin Hong's dad a red envelope with 200 kuai as he has dementia. I was about to sort it out but in the same phone call she told me in very definite terms I could not hand such an envelope to Lin Hong...it had to be hand delivered to her father. But Tan didn't know if they lived together or where he was so it could be an issue. 

A cute red-eyed cat I met while on a walk...

...and possibly a relative a few doors down

Then Tan told me I could use the second washing machine. The second washing machine? Why didn't I know about that? And then she said I could dry my clothes in the portable dryer in the back porch. Why didn't I know about that either? With the colder nights clothes are taking much longer to dry and I was starting to plan what I could wear and wash for the last few days. As I was looking for the second washing machine Jiuma called me to tell me if I wanted to use it I'd need to ensure the waste water pipe was plugged in and I'd need to turn on the water. That sounded a bit obvious but she was quite adamant and used the typical "Wo gen ni shuo!" - I am telling you! Then she told me someone would come round to fix the other one, so I needed to stay in. So anyway I plugged in the waste water pipe and turned on the water inlet and plugged in the electricity and said a little prayer. It turned on and started to move, which was a good sign, but when I checked the clothes a few minutes later they were perfectly dry. Oh, the water inlet had been on and I'd turned it off...finally it sprung into wet action.

Portable clothes drier? Why didn't I know about it? It works really well!

A Qiu rang me to remind me I was invited to eat with Tan's ex-colleagues at 6pm, and I pretended I'd remembered. So that was tea sorted. Then Xiao Nong pinged me to eat at her neighbour's at 5pm so I said I might be able to make it for a bit. I saw that the washing was a 64 minute cycle so hopefully the person would come to fix the washing machine before 5pm. But the clothes were just about finished when Jiuma rang to said the person would be around in 5 minutes and I should wait on the balcony for him.

In one of those really annoying moments, the bloke turned up and after stuffing a stone under the washing machine to make it stable turned it on and it bloody worked. He said we'd need to put in a load of clothes to make it work but I only had the clothes I'd just washed and spun dry. So quite annoyingly I had to risk them becoming soaked again just to test the washing machine but of course it worked fine. Bloody bollocks, but at least I had the video to show him why it wasn't working before. I thought it might be because it wasn't stable before but he said that wasn't it. Well what could I do? We waited 20 minutes and had a decent chat during that time but clearly it was working fine so he said he had to charge a 50 kuai calling out fee which was more than fair enough and would have been 10x that in the UK.

Xiao Nong was pinging me to come over before my second meal so I told her I'd leave in a few minutes, so put out what clothes I hadn't just washed for a second time to dry. I ended up getting there at 5.43pm, fashionably late, and had some rather nice huo guo mushrooms and "snail and lamb hoof" dish. Apparently "ti" is the bottom half of the leg rather than "jiao" which is just the foot. I'm glad to be learning this level of detail.

Yang ti at Xiao Nong's neighbour's

At 6.15pm A Qiu rang to see where I was and to let me know how to get to the place we were to eat. So I made my excuses with Xiao Nong and her neighbours and went to buy 4 jin of oranges that aren't called oranges because the skin is a bit green. But in my opinion they are better than oranges as they aren't so sweet. And a few minutes later as I turned into the road a lady shouted at me to follow her. I guess even though she didn't know what I looked like there weren't too many white men turning left into her road. I followed her on her dian dong che for 150 metres as A Qiu had said in her message. I really could have done it on my own...

About to start a meal with A Qiu and other ex-colleagues of Tan

The meal was really good...I like the raw fish you dip in oil and vinegar, and A Qiu, as much as she likes to drink, is genuinely good-natured at heart. Uncle Yellow and Boss Zhou turned up a bit later, clearly the worse for wear, and I managed to drink much more slowly than usual, till 9pm when Xiao Nong and her friends were asking me to come back.

Blimey, it's just like this I guess. I got back to Xiao Nong's neighbour's and we had a couple of drinks before it was decided we would go to sing song. Sod it, I went along with it and did my usual "Pengyou" a couple of times. Then a bit later Xiao Nong said we would go to a disco place. Damn, I really don't like these places...I'm just too old, but for the sake of it I took a san lun che with her to the place I'd been to once in the summer. I bet Leilei and Nezha would have loved it (maybe they went there in the summer) but I don't like the objectification of women, however much they were being paid. I stayed maybe an hour then said I needed to get back, and thankfully someone sorted me out a didi che. So I got back before 3am and had a chat with Mat for a bit before sleep.

Traditional Guangxi kiln meal and then locked out of house

Managed to get up in the morning just. I had just started on the boiled quail eggs at 2.30pm when Xiao Nong pinged me to go to her place. Oh, it transpired we were to go somewhere to eat. As it was getting on for 3pm I should have guessed it wasn't lunch. I'd forgotten her house again so she had to come out to find me, and then her chubby friend also came out and we stood on the roadside before I realised they'd booked a didi che. We spent the next 20 minutes in the car driving outside of town to somewhere I'd never been before. Ah, I suddenly remembered that last night that woman had told me they would take me to a traditional Guangxi meal. I've been told so many times that so-and-so would take me to such-and-such a place, but it rarely materialises due mainly to them being tipsy. So I'd not booked a slot in my schedule at all, and certainly wasn't prepared. Plus my phone was only on 70%.

At one stage I had a mild fear that I was being kidnapped. We were well into the countryside and there was no xinhao (reception), and I'd barely met the two people in the car taking me. But of course all was well as we finally happened upon a tiny hamlet. The women were talking about a meal and said there would only be white alcohol. Part of me was relieved as I would have an excuse for a dry meal, but part of me thought that never have I attended a meal where beer wasn't at least available. But when we met more people from last night they seemed to confirm there was no beer. I put it at 50/50.

A few of us went for a walk in a field to look at dried mud. Apparently some of it was too wet. Too wet for what was beyond me but wouldn't be for a while. It transpired we were going to build a kind of kiln which is specific to Guangxi. We spent the next 20 minutes finding suitable chunks of "tu" that were not too big and not too small, and not too wet. Then a bloke set upon building up a sort of hive using the mud blocks. It took him a good half an hour as occasionally the wall would partially collapse. It was a really rural setting in every way except for some reason for the first 20 minutes there was a drone high above us and I got the feeling we were being filmed.

Looking for mud with the right texture

I helped get some bamboo and around 5.30pm the bloke started the fire at the base of the kiln. I asked what the procedure was, and the kiln builder said we'd feed the fire until the blocks of mud were red hot, then put in the pork and chicken and sweet potatoes. The mud would infuse a certain flavour upon them. At 6pm it was deemed that the mud was ready so a couple of the blokes picked off the top few blocks of red hot mud until there was a hole about 8"in diameter. Then people started trying to drop in the foil-wrapped meat and a few sweet potatoes. They managed to start the wall collapsing but it seemed this was partly the point. Eventually as everything had been put in the red hot mud had totally collapsed and the blokes set upon bashing it down and covering it with more dusty fresh mud in an attempt to stop the smoke (and heat) escaping. We were told it would take 40 minutes to do so, so went back to the farm place as it was getting dark.

The built kiln

Burning the mud

Getting ready to put in the meat and sweet potatoes

This is how they get it ready once hot enough

And finally bashing it all down over the food then sealing with dried mud before leaving for 40 minutes

Going for a walk I met an old woman picking up cornless cobs from the floor and putting them into plastic bags. I guess they are used for pig feed or something. I said hello but she answered in the local dialect. So I told her that it was getting dark and I'd help her fill up. It was a great few minutes but despite me speaking to her in Putonghua she always spoke to me in Tuhua, even when I said I didn't understand. But smiles are global and I received many, as I did from the other old lady who walked past. I would like to have understood an iota of the conversation they had....

Part of my work for the evening

Then one of the ladies (the one who beat me badly at cai ma yesterday) asked me if I was hungry. I thought it would be polite to say "yes" as it would mean I was looking forward to the meal shortly. But then she thrust a piece of honeycomb into my hand and said to eat it and it would stop me being hungry. I didn't really want to stop being hungry and I'm not a great fan of honey but sod it, it's the first time in my life I've had the chance to eat freshly-picked honeycomb. But I had to ask if you just lick the honey or do you also eat the comb. Well apparently you eat it all and I did and it was bloody delicious if rather sweet.

Fresh Guangxi honeycomb

Then I saw some of our cohort on top of the building next door, so I had to go and join them. But bloody hell the stairs not only had no bannisters, they also had about a two foot gap between them. I managed a storey then went down before I saw a sprightly 65+ year-old canter up without a care in the world. Well I cared, and kept close to the walls, and got up to see a load of people loading freshly-dried corn into sacks. As you do. I made it up the stairs more because my fear of looking scared to the ladies is slightly worse than my fear of going up the said stairs. So no-one noticed my fear getting upstairs (had I had a drop to drink it might have been easier), and of course I joined in.

Gathering the dried sweetcorn on the roof as you do

It was appreciated and we went down (carefully) to wash our hands, and I told one of the old women it was 6.40pm so time to get the food. This they duly did and found the eight sweet potatoes too, and we were back shortly after 7pm, when the meal started. Well we don't normally start drinking till 15 mins of eating but a couple of them, including Xiao Nong, had. Miraculously a load of beer had turned up and it turned out I was by no means the only beer-drinker.

Raucous and fantastic meal in the countryside

I'm not totally sure I noticed the difference the mud kiln had made but I sent Tan a picture of it and she said it reminded her of childhood fun. The meal turned into a raucous affair of cai ma and drinking. Xiao Nong eventually passed out after a lack of sleep and too much of the white stuff, but woke up after an hour or so to carry on as you do. The only sober bloke at the table was so because he was driving, and duly took some of them back after 11pm. I appeared to be in the second group, and found out we'd be getting a lift back with a beer drinker. Well I guess it was better than nothing. We crammed into the 4x4 and to be fair he did drive safely. I made sure Xiao Nong got back safely and I got home safely somehow after 2am after picking up my dian dong che from her place. 

Except the bloody key wouldn't open the door. It was pretty bad in the summer and wasn't getting any better. And it wouldn't open earlier today before I went out and forgot my tissues and went back to get them. That should have set alarm bells but I was already late so dealt with my tissue fetish and did without. What to do? It was too late to call friends to see if any had a spare room. Well, it probably wasn't, but I would have been too embarrassed to ask. My phone was dangerously low on juice (had I been told we were going to the countryside earlier I'd have taken my charger), so I had to make a decision. There was a hotel a five minute walk away so I thought that would be my most likely course. I tried in vain again to open the door but it stubbornly refused. Then I had the idea of asking security. Well the bloke said he might be able to help, so came over to the block and then realised when I said there was a problem with the key I was referring to the front door, not the building entrance. He said he couldn't help with the door but pointed to a sticker on the wall with a phone number on it and told me to call it. What? Well, it was 2.30am and it was either that or find a hotel.

Luckily, I remembered I'd left my powerbank in the back of the dian dong che so at least I no longer had the worry of a dead phone. So I called the number and I'd clearly woken up the person who answered. I explained my issue then thrust the phone into the hands of the security guy to corroborate what I think I had said. By now I was very sober, and was interested to hear that apparently someone would be here in a few minutes. So I waited in the security place and indeed a bloke turned up on a motorbike. We went to the front door and he confirmed the key didn't work. Then, just like a few years ago at our old place when the lock stopped working, he simply unscrewed the eyepiece (is there a word for that thing?) and stuck a lever-like thing through and opened the door from the inside. Luckily I'd not locked it properly. And that was it. I was in and it was confirmed that the other key inside worked so it was simply my key was screwed. 150 kuai for the call-out and work was absolutely worth it, not least because it was nearly 3am.

It looks like the broken key (on the left) was simply worn out

So grateful, I poured a mother of a gin and lemonade and it ended up being another 4am sleep. But yet another great and unique (for me) and cultural experience. This is what I came here for and I'm certainly getting it....

Lin Hong meal and another late one

I awoke at 2pm and although it would have been easier to slip back to sleep I had no real excuse. I pinged Yang to apologise that I wouldn't make it to Tiandong today, then got up and boiled the quail eggs I bought the other day.

I noticed on Weixin that I'd spent 300 kuai at just gone 3am last night. I was in the bar so reasoned that it must have been to pay for some of the food and drink. Lord knows I've taken advantage of being invited out so much, so it's more than fair enough to make some pay-back.

Well instead of going to see Liangwen at least that meant I could take up Lin Hong on her offer to eat at the place I met her yesterday afternoon. She'd pinged me to say to come at 6pm then pinged me again to say I should come earlier to help out the bloke who was cooking. How I could possibly help out I didn't know but I said I'd get there around 5.30pm and indeed did. Not much was ready and there wasn't much for me to do so I noticed that quite a few people were holding up signs saying "cars let people" - or at least ”车让人“ which is a literal translation but really should mean priority to pedestrians. For some reason five of the people holding up such signs wanted me to take a photo of them. Not a photo of me with them but just me taking a photo. Well I did and they commented on how well I took photos in a way Tan has never done as she thinks I can't do that. I asked a lady with such a sign if it was important to wear a helmet. Indeed it was, and as a girl on a dian dong che went past she said in a very low voice "mei nv chuan toukui". It's not like she could have heard her at all, but I didn't tell her than.

车让人:vehicles let people - a sentiment I most firmly agree with

On a walk around the market there were signs saying it is prohibited to use wildlife as food. Hmm...bit of a grey area surely but I suppose some sort of recognition of a possible cause of a recent pandemic given the specific type of "wildlife" depicted in the warning

It ended up being a lovely meal and only a couple of the blokes were drinking. I managed six cans of Li Quan 2.8% but felt the effects more than I expected. At 9pm I made my excuses and left, and stopped off at the supermarket by the guangchang to pick up a naughty bottle of G and some zero-sugar drinks. Back home, at 10pm I almost literally crashed out, sleeping for an hour in my coat under the bright light of the bedroom.

Great idea to have a sort of bbq to grill stuff round the outside and a huoguo in the middle...the beef was guiltily good

Such a good idea I think we'll have to get one....and nice memories of Pingguo 2023

At 11pm I must have woken as I pinged Xiao Nong to say "good night", even though I'd not seen her today. But straightaway I got a video call saying to come over and have a drink as there were various people there. So I had another "sod it" moment and popped over. And promptly lost badly at cai ma for 30 minutes. One of Xiao Nong's friends said she'd take me to the countryside tomorrow to bake stuff in mud, which is apparently a local custom. So I said thanks and thought it probably wouldn't happen. Shortly after just about everyone left as they had work the next day, so I stayed for a while and eventually got home after 2am. It was good to have a chat with Mat and then eventually Awl and got to sleep not long after 4am.

Bangxu ladies chat and meal at Boss Zhou's and very, very late night

I suppose getting up at 11am after seven hours' sleep isn't too bad. I just had one quandary - do I put the washing on now or later today? It's lovely and warm during the day but we don't get sunlight on the porch where the clothes hang to dry so it takes quite a long time for them to do so. Washing now would mean only washing one pair of trousers though so not very efficient. Sod it, I'd do it later.

Jiuma came at around 11.30am and asked me to take her to the train station. Fair enough, but I hadn't charged up the dian dong che so I'd have to take it easy. She noticed I'd forgotten to put on my helmet and made sure I did before we left. At the station I asked about tickets to Nanning airport as the other day I'd just bought a ticket to Shenzhen rather than take trains. Not that I like flying, but with the new train to the airport it makes it a lot less of a hassle. The lady showed me the trains I needed to take and the tiny cost but said she needed my passport to sell them to me. I said I had all the details plus a scan on my phone but she insisted that she needed to see the physical copy. Now if I were to buy them online they'd only need the passport info, but I thought better about arguing this point.

My friend Yang had pinged me to ask if I was up in order to go for a walk earlier, and I honestly said I'd just got up and was he about? But he was going back to Tiandong and has been inviting me to go for a while, so I said I'd see if I could make it tomorrow.

So it was just gone 1pm and I had a bit of time on my hands. After the ride to the train station I'd put the dian dong che on to charge so decided to go for a walk in the 24 degree sun as I wouldn't be able to in a couple of weeks. I went and had another portion of jiaozi, and afterwards decided on taking a longer route back home past the old market. I was just reaching there when I heard "Peng!", and I noticed Er jie and Lin Hong sitting down outside with two other Bangxu women I'd first met 20 years ago. Well there was nothing for it but to sit down with them and chat. I'd not really spoken much to Er jie in the summer and barely seen Lin Hong for years, so it was actually quite a comfortable session, although session seems a bit excessive a term for a chat.

Bumping into Er jie on the left and Lin Hong on the right and two other Bangxu ladies in the middle

Lin Hong insisted that she get me some red wine from her place and promptly disappeared for 15 minutes, coming back with two bottles of Chilean Merlot. Well at least I'd have something to bring to the meal with Uncle Yellow and Boss Zhou this evening. We chatted for about an hour or so about family and stuff, then Lin Hong said to come back tomorrow evening to the same place to eat something. I explained I was planning to go to Tiandong but checked the train times and the last one back was at 5.40pm so said I should have time.

Er jie left to go to Bangxu, and at getting on for 3pm I too left to go home. As I was walking I had to go past the Zhong yi shop, which I originally thought was a tea shop but in fact is a traditional Chinese medicine place. There were a couple of people there and told me to come in and drink tea. The next 40 minutes or so were quite difficult and a good test of my Mandarin. The woman was explaining how this Chinese therapy worked, and that if you come here for a session you won't have to take medicine. Then there was some more stuff about how they send their wares to over 100 countries around the world, and that each country has its own restrictions about what can be accepted. I wasn't quite sure what she meant as she had just said that they made people avoid medicine, so what was being exported wasn't clear. It would have been a real jar to try to understand each and every word so I made do with just getting the gist of it. There was no way I was going to ask about double-blind experiments etc. But I enjoyed the tea and the satsuma (or mandarin?) they shared with me...not too sweet but very refreshing, and I made my excuses as it was getting on for 3.30pm and I reckoned I'd need to get the washing done if I had any chance for clean and dry trousers for tomorrow.

I really should have done some IT security study, as has been my plan, but at 4pm I allowed myself to have a refreshing beer. Then Uncle Yellow pinged me to say where we'd be eating and to be there by 6pm, so I decided to have a nice walk in the guangchang and and sup up the remaining heat of the day. What a simple pleasure to be had from 20 minutes just walking about. But Uncle Yellow pinged me to ask if I wanted cold beer and I replied in the affirmative, even though at this time of year everyone else seems to be drinking white alcohol.

I grabbed a shower and was only 10 minutes late when I was pinged again to be asked where I was. On the way, at the traffic lights in the centre of town I saw a woman on a dian dong che get stopped by the police, who questioned her about her "hat" - I think they should have said "tou kuai" for helmet but I didn't stop long enough to see if she got a fine. I just noticed that she had a tiny tot sitting in front of her under a bag.

I remembered to bring the Lego London skyline for Uncle Yellow's family, so that was most of the presents gone. I made use of the two bottles of wine Lin Hong had given me as my gift to Boss Zhou, and it was appreciated if not used, as indeed everyone but myself and his younger brother was on the white alcohol. Although not at first of course. We spent a good 20 minutes stuffing ourselves and I particularly liked the pig's blood sausage. I'm pretty sure this is blood pudding in the UK but I've never felt like trying it before. There was also some lovely chicken and they saved the breast for me, and appreciated my attempts at the local lingo again. That alone probably justified the sneaky second beer I had before my shower.

From early on in the meal about five of the blokes (and other than Uncle Yellow's wife Xiao Chong they were all blokes) played mo pai, the card game where you have to choose two pairs that add up to 9 or something like that. I've tried so many times to get to the bottom of this game, and looked online too, but I think I'll just need to sit down with a sober person for 20 minutes to understand it properly. The problem is there is never a sober person playing it. So after a while and a few beers Boss Zhou challenged me to cai ma. Challenge accepted. We played for a few minutes and then I played with Uncle Yellow. Interestingly, he told me he hardly played cai ma any more. Apparently his new role means he can't afford to be seen doing silly stuff. And given that everyone has the means of taking and sharing a film now there are very few places that are safe. I knew exactly how he felt, although in my situation it's more that Tan will see what I'm up to. But given this was Boss Zhou's place we were relatively safe, so it was game on. But we also had some relatively serious conversations about family life, and how us in our middle age had the burden of elders and youngers to deal with. Not that it's a bad burden, but it's a burden nonetheless, but we also were very aware that we would also be a burden to our youngers in the not-too-distant future. Without trying to bring in politics too much I mentioned that it was probably harder for the generation who were only allowed one child, and indeed Uncle Yellow pointed to Boss Zhou on my left explaining that he indeed only had a single daughter (well she is married, so not single in that sense, and due to give birth soon so he'll be the first of my good friends to be a grandfather).

Wu ge (Zhang Hongping) turned up after an hour or two, as did a couple of women. This is so normal as to be expected. I had to cai ma with the ladies and did a reasonable job, and Wu ge chain-smoked as is his wont. Strangely (or not), Wu ge wasn't surprised to see me, as though I just turn up from time to time and he just bumped into me. Uncle Yellow had to leave at 9pm to do the kids, but sent a nice voice message from his son thanking me for the Lego present. I'd got through around 10 cans of 2.5% beer and was bloated so around 10pm I made my excuses and promised I'd drive carefully home.

Cai ma at Boss Zhou's place, Wu ge in the middle being poured bai jiu while playing mo pai

Fish skin that you dip in the huo guo for a few seconds then dip in oil. Healthy I imagine but not the nicest texture

It was getting on for 11pm, and I wanted an early night as was planning on getting the 10.40am train to Tiandong, so thought I'd pick up a couple of beers to help me sleep. Well that was the plan. I got to the shop and paid my 30 kuai for six cans, but the people opposite in the tea shop noticed me and told me to come over for a glass. Of course I did, but said I'd better not drink tea as wanted an early night, so of course they ordered a crate of beer and moved on to that. The boss (I think) of this place had pinged me during my evening meal to ask what I was up to. Well in fact I had been here earlier in the day, unexpectedly again, so this was my second visit. But it was rather easier than the afternoon session as I didn't have to learn about Chinese medicine.

Nice late glass of beer with the Zhong yi people in our living area

Finally at getting on for midnight I got home and was about to ping the lads for a chat but wouldn't you know it a friend sent me a picture of a glass of beer and asked me to go over. Well I don't have much time left so I was back on the dian dong che to the bar by the football stadium as I'd done a couple of times over the summer.

What I didn't quite expect was that the beer would still be pouring at 6.30am! I don't think I've been up drinking this late for over 30 years! After dropping off the said friend at 7am I finally got home and realised I would not be taking the train to Tiandong in just over three hours....

Presents for A Wu's family and another bad lift experience

Somehow I was up before 10am. I had to double check, but made it and grabbed a coffee. Apparently I'd got to sleep by 2am last night according to my watch. I thought I'd better check with A Wu if he was about and indeed he was so met him for lunch of duck breast noodles. His kids were there so I went home to pick up their Lego presents plus the London skyline for A Wu and his wife. They seemed to appreciate them, but you never really know. We then spent half an hour outside a bike shop where A Wu nearly got one for his son but it was slightly too big. Steadying him while he tried it out (his son Li Yun, not A Wu) brought me back to such days with my own kids. As all of my best friends here have much younger kids than me (mainly because the one child policy was dropped) it gives me a little bit more time to do those things I miss about being a father of youngsters, despite at the time just being tired all the time. It's the best of both worlds in a way, like walking someone else's dog but not having to look after it the rest of the time.

We're all just big kids really...

Li Yun testing a new bike - I thought it was fine but he ended up getting a slightly smaller model. But those couple of minutes stabilizing him really brought me back to doing it with Leilei and Xixi so many years ago...to a great extent I'm living my youth here...well not my youth but I feel about 12 years younger here... 

I left them saying we'd meet around 3.30pm for badminton. I sneakily took a last bit of gin and went shopping for some more quail eggs before the Las Vegas grand prix. I couldn't find the GP on the tv and streams were crap so I semi-followed it with a couple of beers, thinking as I'd got up relatively early I might get a siesta. But A Wu called at 3.30pm as we'd agreed and I said fair enough I'd go over to his place to play badminton.

It wasn't the easiest thing to do after three beers but at least it was only three, and it wasn't much more than 20 degrees outside. So we played a net-less 20 minutes of badminton followed by another 20 minutes of table tennis where I soundly beat him. Then he said he'd invite me for a meal this evening in a couple of hours. I did mention that I'd been invited out last night but it was already getting on for 5pm and I'd heard nothing about that, so said fair enough I'd grab a shower and come back at 6ish. But first I happened upon a group of kids with a cute kitten and just had to have a go. Then while getting ready to go I got a message from Uncle Yellow to ask if I had time to eat tomorrow evening with Boss Zhou. Well, yes I do thank you very much.

Cute kids and a kitten - couldn't resist chatting for a while

At 6.15pm I got back and had forgotten which was his block. But some of the kids from earlier were still there and we chatted for a bit. Then I walked around hoping to recognise somewhere but in fact I ended up recognising Li Kun and his wife and younger two kids. I guessed they'd been invited too, and indeed they had been and were looking for A Wu's block too. Apparently it was number 8 2A or something. Eventually we found it and got to his house. It was like nothing had really changed from the summer except we were to have huoguo. There were a few other people there and one bloke leapt up to introduce himself in English and I humoured him by trying to continue the conversation but that proved to be a bit tricky.

Li Kun's wife's top says "We should all be feminists" - I didn't bother to translate as I didn't really have an opinion

I was happy to see that the kids had built their Lego presents, and Li Yun (A Wu's son) was busy making the London skyline I'd got for his parents. It took him most of the evening but he was proud of his work as he should be. I'm glad I made the effort to get something a bit different from duty-free booze as presents this time.

Yi an getting through the London skyline...

...and the finished effort

Well the meal was fine of course, and the beer started to flow as did the white alcohol. Annoyingly, one bloke on the white alcohol got a little too drunk and started grabbing my hand and then kissing it. It's difficult to know how to react in such circumstances, so I sort of retracted my arm while smiling at the same time. I guess I had a glimpse as to how it can be as a woman receiving unwanted advances, and understand how much worse it can sometimes be for them.

We left around 11.30pm. Or rather we lift. There were eight of us blokes in the lift and suddenly the alarm went off. Oh bollocks. This happened for Leilei and I before and it wasn't a good experience as we were stuck between two floors. The alarm continued to go off and some phone calls were made but nothing seemed to be happening. I wasn't seriously worried about us falling down the 25 storeys, but then the pissed hand-kissing bloke went a bit mad and started kicking the wall of the lift. Really not cool, and he had to be restrained. For the next 20 minutes I was at least in contact with Mat and Andge back in Europe and they were giving me breathing advice. Finally, one of the blokes decided to use brute force to open the door, and it transpired we hadn't moved an inch and were still outside A Wu's house.

Horrid lift experience (again)

So we went in to get some water as you do. Still no sign of anyone from the lift company. Then we left again, straight back into the lift. I said I'd rather walk down the 25 floors but somehow got talked into getting back in and of course this time it worked fine.

So home was well gone midnight but I got pinged by a friend at 1.30am as I was chatting with Awl and Mat, so despite the fact I'd taken a melatonin and Phenergan I was out once again, this time to a place just next to the police place where I'd registered myself a couple of weeks ago. So yet more beer and a bit of cai ma but this time a loss meant a glass of beer. I managed to leave around 3am but some blokes in an eatery saw me and called me over. I think one of them knew me or Tan or something and I was somewhat forced to do a few more ganbeis until I said I really had to go. Finally back at 4am.

Another late one...

Musical meal with Li Kun's friends by the river

Well I managed to be up at 10am but didn't see any message from Li Kun about pig skin, and was not about to call him to remind him. So I slept in till well gone midday, when he pinged me to send me a video of the frying of some pig skin and asked me if I was up. I answered in the affirmative and he said he'd arrange someone to pick me up. I said I'd take the dian dong che so he said to come to the office where someone would lead me. That someone was the bloke who's often in the office drinking something or other and I really should know his name. But he turned up with a load of beer on his dian dong che and I followed him for the next 15 minutes or so.

Unexpectedly beautiful setting for a late afternoon meal and sing song

Wow, I didn't really expect such a place. It was nice to see wives and kids, which meant it wouldn't be too much of a drinking session. But there were guitars and a loud speaker, which meant I would be obliged to perform and therefore would probably imbibe. But of course food came first and we had some lovely nosh including the meat that had been cooked earlier in the day. Shortly later the first beers flowed and then the music started. There's not much that 2.5% beer can do for Dutch courage but sod it I think I can do without it now. I downloaded the lyrics to Mrs Robinson then checked with the guys back home and Mat said to do Mrs Robinson so that was it. Li Kun tried to join me on the drums but had some difficulty picking up the beat for some reason. So the other music bloke came to him and seemed to help him out. Of course The Boxer and Sound of Silence followed a bit later, so I'd done my bit and earned my beer.

Another set

Haiwei had invited me to go to his place for 5.30pm and it was getting on for that time so I said I'd better go but of course I had to be fashionably late, so around 5.30pm I took A Mong, the actual singer and guitarist, back to Pingguo. I had forgotten how long it took and dropped him off at the guangchang at nearly 6pm. But I needed a shave so went home to do that so didn't get to Haiwei's until nearly 7pm. I don't really remember what we did there other than eat some beef. Oh yes, some woman was there but not drinking as she was on medicine, and she said she'd invite us for a meal tomorrow but drunk or sober I've heard this so many times and I reckon there's a 33% chance of it happening.

Musical meal for Boss Li

Up middayish so not too bad considering last night's frivolities. Quail eggs were once again for lunch, and the afternoon became evening as Li Kun pinged me to go to his office for 6pm so we could go for the meal with Feng di. Once there I was given a huge drum to take on my dian dong che which meant I could barely steer. More importantly, it meant there would likely be music again at the meal...which would probably mean a guitar would be thrust in my arms again. I really wish I could sing well, like be able to properly exhale, not just keep in tune. I wonder if that sort of thing is still learnable at my age. I'm rather self-conscious about it but would enjoy it much more knowing it sounded ok.

I managed to keep up with Li Kun's dian dong che with his wife and daughter just about and a few minutes later we ended up at the original Li Jia He Xian for the first time in about five years. Wow, I thought it had moved to north of the city but no it is still here too. We entered a massive room with a round table that must have been able to seat at least 25 people and I knew I potentially had a rather large audience. Each seat had its own huoguo and there was loads of raw meat to choose from. We were relatively early to arrive but others soon did and before long there was a great atmosphere. Apparently it was Boss Li's meal as he'd just opened a new business. I took quite a lot of pride in being the first person to walk up to him and ganbei him and wish him luck in his business. To be honest I also was aware that music may start soon so I'd want some Dutch courage, not for the first time this year.

Yet another amazing meal

And yes, a bit later a guitar duly arrived and some bloke started singing. And yes, after that it was my turn and I did a few Simon and Garfunkel numbers as per usual. But it seemed that wasn't enough. Some teacher bloke started playing Hotel California and wanted me to sing it! Bloody hell it's much too high for me...but sod it I did it anyway with thanks to lyrics I found on the phone. Then I had to do a rendition of Hey Jude. Then a bloke started singing a lovely song I sort of learnt about 12 years ago (You mei you ren ceng gaosu ni wo hen ai ni?), and I even volunteered to join in with him, until finally we broke into my favourite Pengyou. Gosh, what a fun night! This sort of stuff never happens in a public place in the UK.

Li Kun said that tomorrow we'd go out to prepare pig skin. I don't know if this was meant literally or not but he said it would be at 10am which sounded rather early, given how the evening was going. I guess it's some sort of cultural thing so I should probably go.

Ended up getting home after midnight and had a brief chat with the lads. Tan had advised me to get a flight from Nanning to Shenzhen rather than a train, as the train would mean spending over an hour on the tube. I don't really agree with this but at 1.30am I was a little tiddly and bought the £47 flight ticket anyway. The train would probably have been more convenient and a little cheaper but whatever...

Passionfruit alcohol

I realised I was running out of money. Tan had sent me 500 kuai when I arrived in Hong Kong to add to the 400 or so I still had from the summer. So I've not really spent much at all, though others have on my behalf. So I sent Li Kun £227 and asked him to send me 1500 kuai of the 2000 he received thanks to Wise (and yes I had to "explain" that the money was effectively remittance for "family"). It only took a matter of a few minutes before I received the 1500 from him, then another message saying what about the other 500. I told him it was the least I could do to let him have that but a couple of minutes later he sent me that 500 too. Well, I didn't accept it, and within 24 hours it will be back in his wallet.

In the afternoon a friend pinged me to invite them and two friends to eat beef at the place around the corner. Oh well why not? They would bring some passionfruit alcohol as is quite normal here...there doesn't seem to be the concept of corkage luckily. So for 188 kuai you get a meal that is pretty much enough for four people. Having said that, it was mostly nei zang (innards) and despite me starting to identify with being culturally a bit Chinese I'm still not a massive fan of intestines. Liver, fine, lungs, why not? But there's something about the taste and texture of intestines that doesn't go down too well with me unless it's bbq and from a duck. So we ordered an extra dish of "normal" beef too. The passionfruit alcohol was stronger than I really expected, and after two hours the two litres were pretty much gone.

Nei zang in the middle with "normal" beef to follow up on right

Then Feng di pinged me to go to a meal tomorrow evening...wow - more than 12 hours' notice! Ok well that looks to be Friday night sorted then. Then somehow I got in contact with Haiwei and found myself back at his place a bit later to help finish some food. I ended up taking his friend Xiao Nong back home. Ended up being a cracking evening and somehow didn't get home till 4am.

Ping pang and ChatGPT

Lunch of jiaozi then trip to Guanmart to pick up some more an chun dan. 4.30 for a large bag was great. Then picked up my trainers from the cleaning place and handed in my black canvas shoes I left in the summer after they got filthy when we went "fishing" on the penultimate day of the summer. 20 kuai for effectively two pairs of new shoes seems pretty good value, even if it does take three days.

An chun dan is becoming part of my staple diet

I had a relatively rare free night in that no-one had invited me out, so planned to go to ping pong after I'd boiled the quail eggs and made six of them my tea. Except then Haiwei pinged me to go for a drink and bite to eat at his place but then said sorry but his boss had called him to work. Well lucky I had a plan B.

I got to the ping pang place and it was already busy. Doctor Ma saw me and grabbed me for a photo-shoot before spending the next hour making me practise my backhand. Blimey there is something about his bat that saps all the energy out of the ball and it just fell from my bat into the net nearly every time for the first few minutes. He kept telling me to lift my bat and eventually I managed to get a few rallies going. It felt completely unintuitive. Although it's been quite cold since Monday I did break into a sweat, and apologised at 9pm as I said I needed to go and see someone. Of course I was told to come back when I could.

Li Kun had asked me how to get access to ChatGPT 4.0. I told him it was $20 USD a month but you could get limited access for free via a browser plug-in, and I could come over to help him install it. So he said to come round at 9pm. I mentioned it would be more like 9.30pm so after a shower he sent a weizhi where to meet him. Strangely, it was just a shop and one of his mates was waiting outside and called to me as I arrived. Then there was another mate and we all got into the red car that had taken us to Tiandong last night and drove to a small bbq place right next to our house (having left the dian dong che at the shop). Yes this was typical Pingguo style - not knowing where you're going or who you're going with....

We sat at an outside table that already had the famous baked fish waiting for us. Presently, Li Kun turned up as did 12 cans of beer plus another box of 12 Li Quan should we need it. But it ended up being a relatively sober night (12 cans between four blokes), and we only added a portion of dofu balls to the fish. For once I was home soon after midnight, albeit without the dian dong che.

Unexpected Tiandong meal

Well, by 5.45pm I wasn't going to invite myself to Nong's husband's birthday meal, and I know from experience that such invitations made while drunk often don't materialise. So when Li Kun pinged me at that time to see if I wanted to go to eat snails in Tiandong I said I probably would, and he said to be outside his office at 6.40pm, and that we'd be back by 9pm. Hmm...it takes more than 30 minutes to get to Tiandong and I don't think a meal there will take under an hour. Whatever, I was in no rush to get back but just wondered in case that other invitation for tonight ever turned up.

I had nearly an hour to prepare and indeed I got there bang on 6.40pm. I thought I knew his office but it was closed so I called him and indeed he hadn't turned up yet. Two ladies sitting by a tiny fire cooking small sweet potatoes bade me sit down with them, as though standing up was a sin in the cold. It was an easier conversation than most with local people I didn't know. Another woman came to sit and I enjoyed the 10 minutes till Li Kun turned up in a red car I knew wasn't his.

There was another car with us and apparently seven of us were to drive up in the two cars. In the back of ours was a talkative woman who was Li Kun's colleague, and took fun in describing her name (唐海洋) and I realised I need to massively improve my writing and reading. One of the important milestones is to understand the radicals, as generally characters are made up of one or more of these. In this way when they describe a character using radicals from left to right you have a decent chance of being able to write it even if you don't know the meaning.

It shouldn't be so fun to see someone get out of the car to pay at toll...Lord knows I've done it enough in France with a RHD car

Li Kun said the car was electric and his friend's. But as we arrived at the place to pay for using the road he said he couldn't put down the window for some reason. I asked if it was locked and he sort of said yes but something to do with his friend. He used one of my favourite words "gan ga" - awkward, as he opened the driver's door and got out to receive a plastic ticket that we'd need to give back in Tiandong. And it turned out to be an hour's drive there so we only got there at 8pm...even later by the time we'd found the restaurant. So the only chance we'd have of getting home by 9pm was if we left immediately. But I'd predicted this and would never have planned being back in Pingguo before 10pm.

When we had nearly arrived at Tiandong Li Kun got out of the car again in order to pay. This time I decided I really needed to know what was going on. In fact it wasn't what I thought originally that the windows were locked and Li Kun didn't know how to open them. In fact I had to learn some new words as the owner of the car had recently added tinted windows and this was why we couldn't drop them down as they needed a few days to sort themselves out. It was a tiny victory but I was very glad to have sorted out this mystery.

There were a couple of blokes waiting for us in the outside eating area. I was worried about being cold as I'd had to wash my only jacket earlier in the day and would have washed my only hoodie as it had got slightly muddy from last night but it was the last thick thing I had to wear (together with a thin fleece and two tee-shirts). I was only nippy for a few minutes though as as soon as two tables were put together for the eight or so of us, we were indeed served snails and sausages. And the food just kept coming and coming. I'd had but a yoghurt all day so was more than ready for this and wolfed down the snails as much as you can wolf using a toothpick to gently prise out the flesh then pull off the crappy bit at the back you can't eat. The little spicy beef pieces were easier though, and then I had a bowl of fat noodles that really warmed me up.

What a lovely meal...it seems fine that a couple of blokes were watching their phones all the time..

Beer was served a few minutes later, and tea for the two drivers. Li Kun had a bad throat so wouldn't have drunk anyway. After a couple of ganbeis and introductions I suggested cai ma, but it turned out no-one knew how to play. At least they said they didn't. Teacher Li to my left then started, but I beat him pretty well. Then I played one of the women at 5, 15, 20, which is similar to cai ma except the only numbers you need to guess are 0, 5, 15, 20, which makes it a bit of a halfway house between cai ma and scissors, paper, stone. Then the louder woman who'd driven up with us said although she couldn't play cai ma, Li Kun could play for her and she'd drink. And I went on to beat him eight goes in a row before finally losing three in a row and saying "at last!". It was more fun that it sounds. I noted that it was Guangxi culture to be quite loud, as 海洋 shouted "he!!!" when I beat another woman.

We didn't leave the place till well gone 9.30pm, and as it was so late Li Kun drove slower, yet still always on the left hand side of the two-lane motorway. I told him this was only to be used for overtaking in the UK but he explained there were lorries on the slow lane and it would be inconvenient to keep moving over. Yes, but on the other hand there were much faster cars than us who had to move over to undertake, one of which nearly went into the back of a lorry we were overtaking at the time. Oh well, be predictable I suppose.

So we got back at getting on for 11pm and there was a bloke at Li Kun's table with an open can of beer, which is quite unusual as I've not seen people drinking beer alone before. What was more unusual was that the label on the beer can was upside-down, at least one of the labels was. We checked other cans and indeed they were all like that. I wondered if it was so they could stack them upside-down like I've seen before with soft drinks, but the others didn't think so and to be fair I don't think I've ever seen beer cans stacked even the right way up in a shop.

Some other bloke came and three of us had a couple of beers while Li Kun had pu er tea. One bloke was talking about some bloke who looked like a Hong Kong superstar singer, and showed me videos of them both. In fact he was a local lad, and apparently would be popping in. And a few minutes later he did indeed, in a bright white shirt and blazer. Ah yes, we'd met him earlier in the summer when going for snail noodles after a night out at 3am. He did indeed look very strikingly handsome, but was a very pleasant fellow (although I didn't deign to take a photo for fear of looking like a fan). He only drank warm water, and was doing those exercises actors do such as blowing raspberries as at 1.15am he was due to go out again to do another performance.

"Upside down beer?"

Li Kun said he would get 10000 kuai for 20 minutes' work, which I found slightly hard to believe. But his driver appeared and they left around 1.30am. I said he'd better make the most of it as he won't be that young for long, and that was agreed. We finished a last beer and I got home for what hoped would be a relatively early night but ended up chatting to Andge, Awl, and Mat and doing a quiz for old times' sake.

Haiwei's friend Xiao Nong's birthday meal

Whiled away at home till 5.45pm when Haiwei called me to pick him up to go to his friend Xiao Nong's birthday meal. Blimey it was really pissing it down again and I was once again delayed while putting on the coverall. The traffic was like nothing I'd seen before in Pingguo, and Haiwei was commenting on how convenient it was to have a dian dong che to swerve through it all.

Nong's place was a rather small and dingy, next to the hospital I hoped I wouldn't need to visit again. But of course the hospitality was second to none and we had a great meal accompanied by a fair amount of cai ma. I decided to bring the two packs of Matchmakers plus a box of shortbread as a sort of present as it's generally considered polite to bring something when you turn up for a meal, and it looks like they were appreciated. Xiao Nong said that it was her husband's birthday tomorrow so she would invite me back then. But beer had been drunk and I knew not to trust too much in such invitations. Before midnight I took Haiwei back home before getting back to our place where I had a brief chat with Awl.

Yet another great meal

But somehow I got back in contact with Xiao Nong and she convinced me to go back to drink a little more. The bloke who had delivered the beer earlier was still there plus another bloke. A "little" more haha...I didn't get back till 4am! But it was an incredibly fun night saying good night at 3am.

Difficult English homework and more guitar

Happy Birthday Xixi! Oh my my beautiful baby daughter is now an adult and I'm not there for it...but we did talk about it and are in touch regularly.

I've been lucky with the weather here and indeed it's been highs of low 30s. But tomorrow it's due to be a high of 15° and a low of 11°. In anticipation of this, half the people are already in long sleeves and/or coats. Even in the mid-afternoon. Even I'm not that sensitive. But in my anticipation I put on my clothes to wash in the early afternoon in order to do what drying I could before the cold set in.

Haiwei called me at 3pm to see where I was and I was honest and said I was putting out the clothes to dry, and I'd come over in 5 minutes. That turned into 15 as I hadn't noticed it was now pissing down so I had to sort out the coverall for the bike while not getting soaked myself, so I ended up arriving at 3.30pm after another call to see where I was.

True to my word I spoke with his son for a while before looking at his English homework. Crikey, it looked pretty complex for a 13 year-old. One particular question asked to find the odd one out in terms of the sound of the final "s" in the following words: A. books, B. keys, C. oranges, D. pens. The son had left this one blank. I first thought it was pens, as the "s" sounded more like a "z", but then they all sounded zeddy except maybe for books. So I sent the pic to Mat and he reckoned it was oranges it it was more of a "z" sound and I was confused, as he saw a case for books too (a book case if you will). So if a professional English English teacher is not sure, how is a 13 year-old Chinese student expected to do? I hope I do find out the answer.

Question 17 was particularly hard

Anyway, bar the homework (he was doing complex maths too), we talked till the food was served shortly after 5pm. For once it was all lovely; cha shao and pork ribs, with cabbage and other greens, and lots of it. Sweet in more ways than one. After the statutory 10 minutes or so some cold beers were opened. The owner of the house then arrived to join us, followed soon after by another bloke and the woman who was there last week who was good at cai ma. Every hour or so the food was reheated on the hob as the beer continued to pour and the mas continued to be cai'd, until gone 10pm, when I explained I needed to be somewhere else. Indeed it was true as advertising friend Nong had invited me to eat and play guitar at some other place.

The pork was wonderful and went down quickly

More cai ma silliness at the meal

I had no inclination to eat or play guitar, but it was a reasonable excuse to not get any more bloated where I was, and got to the place at 10.30pm. It was a busy private room with about 20 people who all cheered as I entered as they'd been drinking for as long as me probably. I managed a few ganbeis while listening to the semi-professionals playing and singing, until I had a guitar thrust into my arms. Well...I was reluctant but I'd searched the words to a couple of S&G songs lest I forgot them, and did a rendition of Mrs Robinson, before a few more ganbeis and then the guitar came my way again and I finished off with The Boxer and Sound of Silence. Well maybe it's Sounds but I prefer the singular.

I made my excuses around midnight as I wanted to watch the Chelsea City game, and this time I managed to connect to the VPN no problem and got a cracking stream for a cracking game. Of course I'd have preferred Palmer to miss the last-minute penalty to draw 4-4 but for the neutral and the title race I suppose it was a great result.