Unsurprised Luwen and boss meal

Got up at a reasonable 10am considering I was unpacking till nearly 4am last night. After finishing off what was not a great job of packing I went to Luwen’s to surprise them and for lunch. To my chagrin neither his wife nor Luwen were surprised to see me. Happy, yes, but not surprised. And I couldn’t ask them why. I wasn’t due to turn up for another nine months but here I was out of the blue and all they could say was “have you eaten?” Ha, I need to get used to this...they don’t really seem to do surprised here. Still it was a lush meal with only a half portion of fen and extra quail eggs which I love.

Nice lunch

Then I had the slightly mundane tasks of doing some supermarket shopping and going to the Jun Lin Tian Xia service place to pay the service costs for the next year. It was a rather exact 1629.61 yuan and covered four different types of service that I didn’t quite understand, but I called Tan and let her talk to the women as a mistake on my part here could be a bit serious. But it was done and we should have nothing to worry about till next year, except for paying for electricity which is done elsewhere. I also managed to pick up the dian dong che from Jiuma’s but it had hardly any dian so I just about got it back to charge.

I'll have to work out how many km it's done in my absence

Late 2019 view while waiting for lift...will it change much in the next few years?

As it was Tuesday I actually had to be working, so got home and did so. Thankfully Ling Ming’s internet was still working at our house. Back in the summer he had told me that he’d be changing mobile phone provider as his current one was too expensive, and that when he did we’d lose our internet as it was part of the service. Well thankfully he hadn’t. And thankfully Li Kun had put some money in my account so my mobile was also working meaning I should be able to tether if necessary.

And so I worked till it was time to join Haiwei and the bosses for an evening meal at their offices. It was like I’d never left, the only difference being nearly everyone is wearing long sleeves outside even in the day when it’s 20+ degrees. Haiwei was talking about his soon-to-be new line of business, which was industrial water cleansing. He told me that tomorrow we were to go out to see some factories at 8am. I somewhat suspected it wouldn’t happen, and would be a problem for my work, but said ok. I know I went out a bit later but don’t really have a recollection where, but it wasn’t too late as I was in bed soon after midnight.

A good old-fashioned boss meal

Three flights and a taxi to get to Pingguo

I’d been wondering what would happen at Sanya. We were due to fly on from there to Guangzhou, but the flight number was the same. Were we going to sit down on the tarmac for half an hour while a few people got on and a few people got off? I’d had this conversation with Adrian and Andge down the pub just a couple of days ago and they reckoned if you were going to Guangzhou you’d stay on the plane, but if Sanya was your final destination you would get get off - just no-one would get on as it would be a nightmare from a ticketing perspective.

As it was we all had to get off and take our hand luggage with us. Then in a rather unorganised way we were somehow taken through immigration, which made me glad I’d filled in my landing card on the plane, together with Waipo’s address, or should it be Jiuma’s now? That wasn’t too much of a kerfuffle, but then we were obliged to do security again, and they discovered two cans of lemonade I’d appropriated from the lounge in Heathrow. Had I known about a security check (and remembered the drink) I’d have left them in the plane. One for next time…. At least I managed to quaff the last bit of pre-mixed G&L before I got there...the last I had and still two flights to go.

Now we were put in a waiting room, from which we could see the plane from which we deplaned 45 minutes ago. I don’t know what the wait was for but I decided to try to connect to the wifi as my bloody Chinese SIM card, which was working seven weeks ago, no longer was. It was one of those landing pages where you had to put in your phone number to get a text with the code. It was pre-filled with country code 86 for China in very faint numbers. I added my number but it kept saying there was an error but not what the error was. I was frustrated but calmly swapped SIMs, as I’d just done an hour ago in the plane, and tried again with my English one. Ah, this time I found that the faint 86 was actually a drop-down field and you had to specifically choose a country code. The faint 86 was not pre-selected, but just somehow to give an idea - I would have had to actually select 86 from the list to make it valid. What a crap user experience but I doubt it will change any time soon. So at least I managed to ping Li Kun to say where I was.

We eventually got back on the plane and it looked like not a single person had got off at Sanya, so it was purely for immigration - that seems rather a waste of resources as they can do that at Guangzhou...I mean landing and taking off just for this. Quite annoyingly I was due south from Nanning and a flight there would be under an hour from Sanya, but we flew due east to Guangzhou and at least it was fairly turbulence-free. At Guangzhou there was no bloody lounge to sneak a snifter in, but also not much time. I did find a shop that sold beer but I had no bloody cash and my WeChat pay still wasn’t working. In hope I asked the information desk where I could find an ATM and they told me there was one landside. If I’d had a couple of hours till the flight I may well have gone through security again just to get some money and a couple of beers. Another annoyance that won’t happen once crypto becomes the norm. So I took my seat and managed a quick video call to Haiwei and his son before being called to board.

The flight to Nanning was quite calm and totally sober except for single I found in my carry-on at take-off. A Pingguo neighbour had put me in contact with a driver and for the first time in my life when I exited the airport customs there was someone with my name on a piece of card: “彭多明“ I was quite happy to recognise it but he recognised the fact I was the only foreigner first and called over to me. It was 12.30am so not really possible to find a car-pool to Pingguo from the airport so we’d arranged this at 300 kuai - which would have been less than a night’s stay in Nanning plus travel to and from the hotel.

To my sad surprise the driver and I got on a bus. I sincerely hoped it was not a bus to Nanning. Thankfully my fears were quashed when he said he needed to park near to but not at the airport, and the second stop of the bus confirmed that. We got my stuff into the car but there was a bit of a pause as I had picked up a bit of a cold during the three flights and fancied a bit of tonsil paint, as I think they called it in the Wild West, for the journey. It was the usual 90 minutes drive, made slightly easier with the drink and the conversation. I felt I was really back “home” in a weird but welcoming way.

We stopped off at the bank and I got cash for the driver and for the house service until next year. He was grateful and I told him to hurry home to his wife and family, not that they would be up at 2.30am. I dumped off my stuff and walked to the guangchang where I knew there would be something to eat, and indeed there was. It may have been 3am, and there may have been the tiniest chill in the air, enough to consider wearing long sleeves, but there were people, some turning up like me. I treated myself to a dish of lamb and a single bottle of beer. It was a bit sad to be alone this time, but it was good to be home.

Pushing button number 14 and feeling a sense of being home

3am snack...yum

Impromptu trip to Pingguo en route to Bangkok

Well it was rather unexpected but I had to go to Thailand for work from 28-31 Oct and I had hit upon the idea of popping in to Pingguo on the way to “pick up some stuff for the wife”. Actually the quotation marks were not necessary as Tan (before I left) had straightaway asked if I could pick up some stuff if I was going via that way. So it was I found myself at Heathrow on Sunday evening eight days before I was due to meet the new client, and my destination was China, not Thailand. I’d managed to wangle a week in China in order to adjust to the time zone and prepare with a colleague based in Singapore. It made perfect sense really, not to mention the trip in total cost £492 as opposed to a lot more going direct. But it did mean three flights to get to Nanning, and arriving there late. Still, after a bite to eat in the lounge I did manage to sleep a few hours in the first long haul to Sanya.

Back from Hong Kong to UK...just

My own snoring woke me up and Leilei a few times during the night so it was hard to get up at 8am but I managed it and he wasn’t too miffed at getting up when I’d had my shower. It would have been a 12 minute walk to Kowloon station to get the airport express, but the heat would have meant carrying on sweat with us so we took a taxi for a fiver and it was well worth it. We really should have done the same yesterday despite the queues.

I tried to buy two express tickets from the machine but it wanted 210 HKD for two adults. Then I thought I’d better ask someone how old an adult is and that person laughed when I said my son was 14 - oh no of course 11 years old is considered an adult here. I only had 200 HKD so went to the human place prepared to pay by card but the woman told me it was only 150 HKD for two tickets. Sweet. Then just missing the train was no issue as the next one was eight minutes later. Immigration and security were a breeze, but when we got to the lounge we were told it was 32 dollars to get in. I showed my Priority Pass but this was Plaza Plus so apparently a more special lounge. I was tempted until the woman told me it was American dollars, so turned away after she tried to sell me the fact they had premium services. Yeah sure. We headed next door to find there was a queue for the normal Plaza lounge. We assumed it was too busy and they were only letting people in as people left. I considered going to the other lounge by gate 40 but by the time I did I saw that the queue was just for checking people into the lounge. So a couple of minutes later it was our turn and as soon as I’d signed my name we found a table for two by the food counter. I looked around for a while but everywhere else was taken up, almost all by oriental-looking people. I guess this is a demographic of wealth around this area now.

I got myself scrambled eggs and chicken sausages and used a knife and fork for the first time for six weeks, but hadn’t forgotten how to do it. Leilei had nothing but a lemonade as he’d wolfed down almost a whole packet of biscuits we’d bought yesterday. I saw someone getting a beer, and a woman getting a glass of rouge, but it was still not 11am. At 11 I gave in and got a glass of Asahi beer. It was rather refreshing actually as I’m not a morning drinker by any means. Two more later it was time to board and it was done fairly effectively. Naturally we were among the last to get on but there was plenty of space for our bags.

It was a stress-less long-haul back to Europe, and I slept a good half of the journey thanks in part to the beers. We got to Amsterdam with a couple of hours to spare and nothing to do so went to the lounge I’d become ever so familiar with in 2016 while working on a Dutch project. I justified a couple of drinks as I knew that the landing in London City would be at 5 degrees, and therefore harsher than most airports. But it was ok. We got out without too much ado and after getting to Woolwich Arsenal got an Uber back home, and didn’t even get cursed too much.

Do not disturb

Healthy diet at Amsterdam

Coming in to City Airport

Later I found out Hong Kong airport had been closed about an hour after we left due to the protesters. I outwardly expressed relief when I heard this but inside I sort of wouldn’t have minded being kept in for another day or so. Oh well...here’s to next time.

Back in Hong Kong and oldest bottle of gin

Up at 6, then 8.30, then finally some more sleep till 10, when I knew we’d have to sort things out. Apparently we were able to check in at West Kowloon today, including baggage drop, so we ensured we had enough clothes in our hand luggage, had some crappy breakfast, checked out and decided we’d walk to the station. In a way I wish we’d taken a cab as although we missed the rain it was very muggy. But it was more interesting this way, and only took about 10 mins. I had anticipated going through immigration but there was nothing, so we got through security at 12.20 for a 13.49 train which was slightly annoying but hey.

I’d booked first class for some stupid reason, probably thinking it would give us more space for our luggage, but it didn’t, and probably just meant colder A/C. The annoyance started in West Kowloon where I thought we’d be clever and check in our luggage the day before as I’d read you can. It took a bit of asking but we found out this service was actually at Kowloon, not West Kowloon, but you could walk it over walkways in about 10 mins, which is a bit longer with large suitcases, and quite sweaty. And when we finally found the place to check-in we were told that KLM was one of the airlines that didn’t do day-before baggage drop-off. What a bloody pain - I’m sure I’d looked it up but it was probably more like they allow drop off from Kowloon but only same-day. If only I’d double checked. We agreed to get a taxi to the hotel which was only half a mile away but the queues, although not that long, did not have any taxis at the end, so we agreed to walk it. But I had the “good” idea of taking a free hotel shuttle bus to the hotels but although we were told which one to take it ended up taking us further from the hotel than where we already were. Sod it we walked the 15 mins and got there by which time we fancied a relaxing drink, but I had to pick up the laptop I’d left on 22nd July.

We did come across a car that Leilei thought was very cool though...just opposite our hotel...

...and Leilei even deigned to pose in  front of it

Leilei certainly wasn’t interested in coming so I took the tube four stops up to the place and confirmed they had indeed fixed it (a new motherboard at great expense and barely worth it over a new laptop but I do like this one). They only accepted cash so I had to go out to the now raining streets and find a cash machine. Annoyingly a bloke with a gun was standing outside one of them but I realised it was because they were replenishing it, and actually by the time they left I was able to use it after the bloke in front took out 10000 HKD. I needed a bit less but it was still more than Starling bank were allowing me to take out so I needed to send more money to Revolut via online banking so I would have enough. Jeez...crypto can’t become mainstream soon enough.

Back home with my new laptop I put it online and let the various apps update themselves - it was a joy to use after having used my old laptop for the last few months. Nothing against the old one but it’s getting slow and the screen goes off half the time when it’s not plugged in. Perhaps more importantly this one is louder so I can watch and listen to videos while brushing my teeth. But Leilei was hungry and so was I after my first 5% beer for a very long time. We found a really local place where a couple of old women who were eating there said the duck was great, so we ordered goose and pak choi with rice, and a bowl of soup for me. Leilei actually ate more than he usually would. I’ve realised since we’ve been in China he seems to have become my height, though I’m sure he was two inches shorter when we arrived in Hong Kong. When I ordered a beer the woman said “liang ge?” thinking Leilei would want one too. Well luckily he didn’t but that’s the second time he’s been offered one by someone thinking he’s of age. I thought the bill was a bit steep at 195 but didn’t argue, I just wanted to have enough to buy breakfast on the way back and get the airport express tickets tomorrow - that should be the last of the expenses.

But as I went for a wander I noticed an ancient half bottle of Gordon’s gin in the window of a “Wine shop”, so old it didn’t have the % alcohol on it, just 90° proof . I entered and asked how much for a half bottle of gin. The woman didn’t answer so I asked in English and she said 170 HKD. I looked surprised as even in 7/11 a half bottle is 80, and pointed to the front window. Ah, she said - 55. Well...I probably still had enough and the prospect of a couple of gin and lemonades with the City match in an hour or so was rather mouth-watering so I picked it up. The two shopkeepers were chatting all this time and I realised it wasn’t Cantonese and clearly not Mandarin, so I asked them and they said it was Nepalese. I quite felt like asking them about stuff but I had things to do like buying some zero sugar, fibreful Sprite for myself and some Pocari Sweat for Leilei, which reminded me of Japan 2003.

Pretty nice meal in HK

Oldest half bottle of gin in Hong Kong

Back in the hotel I managed to get Leilei to do some maths homework while my laptop finished updating, and found a decent stream albeit in Russian for the match. A really good display from City against a decent Brighton side who went for it. Leilei stayed up till 12.30 by which time I started watching the Liverpool match but before they scored the first of their three goals I was asleep after a knackering day.

Train to Guangzhou, meal with ex-colleague

So much for 8.30, but I forced myself at 9.30 and told Leilei to get up too, which he managed to for the first time this holiday. I faffed too much but did managed to take the dian dong che to Waipo’s house. Unfortunately A Heng, whom we’d visited yesterday to drop off the spare house key and had told us he’d be in, did not open the door. I was about to drop off the dian dong che keys at security when I had the better idea of just throwing them up to the first floor balcony. The first set was fine, but the second got stuck and were clearly visible in case anyone wanted to nick them, but that doesn’t seem to happen here.

Leaving the keys rather visible on the balcony

Finally filled up my charging card for the bike...just in time

Last pic of Pingguo while waiting for the lift

Recycling a load of Leilei's clothes...at least putting to good use

I walked back as the rain started pouring but I didn’t care. My spirits were already dampened by the thoughts of us leaving Pingguo. We really should have left before 10:50 for the 11:26 train. Most people get there an hour early, but I thought I wouldn’t waste that time and would order a didi che. I then found out the didi che section of WeChat is all in Chinese and if it wasn’t that important I’d have given it a go. But it was important so once outside I asked a neighbouring shop what to do and they suggested a san lun che. Well one was waiting, which was good, but there was no way it was taking us plus baggage like the one that picked us up five weeks ago. Except the people from the shop kept insisting one would be sufficient. It was one of those times I had to break in and tell them they were wrong and we’d get a second one (which had just turned up), and sod losing face. Leilei’s one decided to take a different route and we shouted at the driver to come our way, so he did until the next corner when he went his own way again. By now it was gone 11am and I was getting concerned as I remembered there is about a 100m walk after the drop-off point. Leilei had arrived a couple of minutes before me and had paid so I did the same and we got wetter walking to pick up the tickets. If we had had ID cards we’d have picked them up in a minute but I had to queue for nearly 10. Luckily security was quick except the woman singled out my hand luggage with a bottle of water in it. I asked her what the problem was and she said I had to drink a mouthful, and then it was ok. It’s only a bloody train...what about if it had been vodka - would I have had to have a swig at 11.15am? Almost immediately we were sent out to board, and the 4h17 min journey was relatively without issue except for the initial scare of not finding enough space to fit the luggage. I so tried to sleep and maybe I reached level one for a brief moment as for ages I couldn’t count to more than 5 in German.

Chasing Leilei on the way to the station

Guangzhou South station was its usual bustly self and I remembered to go to pick up our tickets to Kowloon for tomorrow. I would have done this in Pingguo if I’d allowed more time. This time we found a different place without a queue at all, so tickets in hand I had hoped to walk to the hotel but I had no idea if that was possible, so decided we’d get a taxi. There were a few touts who as soon as I said “seven hundred metres” turned away. Then I heard shouting and two blokes came running out of some entrance and jumped on another bloke and took him to the floor. Straight after that about a dozen blokes started running in another direction looking very angry. All this time I noticed there was a police building with a couple of officers, outside doing nothing. Rather disconcerting.

The sanitary bags are becoming more sanitary

We queued 10 mins or so for a taxi and when we got to the front of the queue and told the driver where we wanted to go he said no we needed to be on the other side and get a taxi there. Literally no-one was on the other side, so it appears everyone else was going further outside Guangzhou. As we went to the other side a bloke got there before us and put his large suitcase in the boot and got in the back. A moment later he got out and took his suitcase out. Didn’t the driver want to go such a short distance? No, apparently where the bloke wanted to go was covered by the queue we’d just been in. So it wasn’t just a foreigner making such a mistake.

Our taxi drive was fine about it being 700 metres away but didn’t know where to go despite me showing the address, but that was addressed by me giving them a call and letting him shout at them. We had a conversation over the next five minutes, four of which were spent at red lights, and I felt sorry for the 12 kuai fair and gave him 20. Only taxi drivers won’t refuse such a tip here.

We checked in to the serviced apartment and I contacted my ex-colleague to arrange to meet up in a bit for dinner to discuss business. I got some refreshments for us from a shop downstairs and this time when I tried to pay with WeChat I had some warning message I didn’t quite understand so I had to pay in cash.

We were pretty close to the train station...should have braved the walk

Leilei doing what all 14 year-olds would do in a hotel

Then I was contacted by a driver to come out. We descended to where we’d been dropped off a bit earlier but no-one was there. It was another game of trying to find someone without knowing what they look like but at least we should be obvious, and after another phone call and walking to another road we got a shout from a bloke wearing a tie and standing next to a nice looking black Nissan Teana. It seemed to be some sort of upmarket taxi service and during the 20 minute ride we had a nice chat about stuff, and as soon as we arrived and got out he drove away without asking for payment or anything.

It was good to catch up with my ex-colleague and his wife and kid, and the meal was very nice but so civilised compared to Pingguo. They even had two sets of chopsticks for each person; a white pair for taking food from the plates on the table, and a black pair for actually eating. I continually messed up and ate from the white and took food with the black, but it wasn’t an issue - even if I’d done it correctly it is very inconvenient.

I took the opportunity to ask why WeChat pay wasn’t working and he said that it had been decided to add more KYC security and you’d have to send a quick video of yourself saying who you are, as happens with banks here to be fair. But still, I had 206 kuai in my account and I effectively couldn’t use them now until Li Kun used my phone to confirm his identity. If this had happened just 24 hours ago it would have been ok. Yet another argument for cryptocurrencies.

Another bloke popped around too and thankfully his English wasn’t too good so I was able to have a last evening speaking some Mandarin, and we concluded with just a little beer and a discussion of a possible project in the near future. We had a similar service back to the hotel and I saw it would have cost 31 kuai, but it would probably be expensed, as the meal was.

Good to catch up with ex-colleague

Tired, I cracked open a beer and the two of us watched one of the Fast and Furious films...it was so crap but in my state I found it very watchable, but still didn’t get to sleep till threeish.

Boss Zhou meal and Li Kun metal ice cubes

Last proper day in Pingguo this summer. I didn’t want to be sad so got Leilei to come out with me to find something to eat. I had hoped to meet up with someone for a meal but I knew inside I needed the time to pack, so we ended up getting a portion of jiao zi, at least he did - there was only one left so I made do with two boiled eggs.

Boss Zhou had pinged people on a WeChat group to pop around for some food and drink after 7pm, so that gave me a deadline to sort out last minute packing stuff. I decided to leave a load more clothes this time as there is a possibility I will be back in a month or two and they’re summer clothes that I’ve had for multiple years in the UK anyway so are due to be replaced.

Of course the girls had forgotten a few things so I packed them in the space I had saved, then picked up Tan’s jacket from A Xia’s that she’d forgotten and picked up some food for the train journey tomorrow to Guangzhou.

As Leilei wasn’t that hungry I didn’t force any food on him but took him to Boss Zhou’s at 7.30. He was busy cooking for guests though so I said I’d take Leilei to eat elsewhere. This didn’t go down well so people eating at another table invited us for a bite and a drink, which we did, though Leilei ate virtually nothing, probably because he’d just had a cup of zhen zhu nai cha. Then he complained of a stomach upset which sounded like an excuse for going home, but I forced him to stay a few more minutes until Boss Zhou produced a number of dishes, mainly of lamb, but he still wouldn’t touch them. So I begrudgingly took him home knowing he’d be starving a little later.

Back at Boss Zhou’s I contacted Uncle Yellow, who said he was busy with his kid which was fine by me, but texted back later saying he would find some time. Then as per usual more people came and the beer flowed. Someone from another table invited me to go over and cai ma, so I couldn’t possibly refuse. But embarrassingly I beat him five times in a row after he insisted that each time the loser should drink a whole glass. Finally after trying hard I managed to lose, which gave me the right to leave the table and get back to mine. But I had to start the process again with Boss Zhou. He told me he’d wiped the floor with me two days ago which may well have been true, but I won the first four much to everyone’s delight, except me a little as I was getting thirsty.

Pretty decent nosh at Boss Zhou's

Then Li Kun called to tell me my ice cubes had arrived. Normally I can spin a conversation to make it mean I understand to some extent but this time I was flummoxed. He mentioned about the other day and I suddenly had a vague recollection of him having a medium dice-sized metal object in his glass of wine, and of course I wanted a set. Well he’d gone and ordered one for me of course. So I said to come over to Boss Zhou’s but he said no because he’d had too much to drink. I’m not sure that was the reason so agreed to go to his and he invited me to bbq. Now this was a bit awkward as there were still people waiting for me, so I got him to agree to compromise by saying I’d take him to bar 3000 degrees but would pop back first for 10 mins to say my goodbyes.

I was worried that there would not be enough dian in the dian dong che so we took it easy, and we made an order of bbq and beer, and I made an apology to the pretty boss for the other day in case I was in any way lewd after the wedding evening with Chen but she suggested I had not made any faux pas and I decided to agree. Then I got back to Boss Zhou’s only to find he was the only one at the table. Had the others thought I wasn’t coming back? Did they care at all? Well at least I could leave, so after a glass and many hugs with Boss Zhou I left him soon after midnight and got back to Li Kun at 3000 degrees for some nice nosh.

But I was aware Leilei would be hungry now so went up to see him and despite saying he wasn’t he asked for some beef bbq. So I went back down to order and have a couple of drinks with the manager, then back up to Leilei with his bbq at 1am, which he quaffed down, if you can quaff food, then back down for a final half an hour or so. Another goodbye to a good friend with a hug ensued before I forgot I still had to take him home, to his non-tea-drinking place around the corner before I went for a ride to use up the rest of the dian. After taking another friend back home it was gone 3am but I had the wherewithal to go to charge up the bike for a last time. But the bloke I woke up to do it smiled and said it was too late. I was annoyed but didn’t argue, and when I went down to park the bike found that indeed every charging space was taken. I guess he meant I’d arrived too late to find a space rather than too late in terms of time.

I really shouldn’t have had a beer when I got back but I put on a last wash and realised I should wait it out and put the clothes out to dry asap. In fact, I had two as I spoke with Awl for a while until I was just too tired to any more. But I remembered the clothes and made a massive effort to put them out to dry at around 4.30am, knowing I’d have to be up four hours’ later. Twit.

Girls leave and 2019 last supper

Tan and Xixi went back today (Leilei and I are due to go back separately in a couple of days). Predictably Tan had accrued more than she arrived with so she needed to buy a new suitcase to go back. Annoyingly this didn’t fit in A Heng’s car so he had to remove a box from it and I had to look after it until he came back. Annoying as I was planning on being out when he came back. But in the end he got back before I went out, but just as I was hoping for a siesta.

Leilei's hair needs some attention...yuck horrible food for the last time this summer

A Heng's low car, with Luwen's yellow-fronted shop in the background on the right

Well we’d said goodbye to the girls but were due to be back with them in a few days anyway. So, being free, I got Leilei some jiao zi for tea, although I only had eggs yet again. I left Leilei in the guangchang skating alone (even without Xixi) so I was very happy about that. Then it dawned on me I’d need to make tonight my last supper so IM’d all my mates to come to Huang’s Beihai place after 9pm and all replied in the positive. Don’t people have other plans here? Why am I asking that for the umpteenth time here?

Better late than never but now Leilei has his own key that cost about 3 kuai

Well, all except A Wu, who didn’t get back to me but I wasn’t going to lose sleep about him. I got there first of course, and made an order of some seafood stuff as one does. But while I was sitting with racist Huang and opening a first beer a pick-up truck drove past slowly with a tannoy attached to it blaring out something I couldn’t make out. But Huang could and within seconds his workers had brought in all the tables from the pavement outside. Clearly there was some police-like thing saying you couldn’t sell your wares for consumption on the pavement but when I asked Huang he just said “bu li tamen”, meaning take no notice of them. But that’s not what Huang’s servers had just done.  I really wanted to know what had just happened as it wasn’t the police who’d told them, but gave up on the risk of sounding rude, or finding out something that I shouldn’t.

The front of 北海海鲜

Anyway, we seemed to be allowed to put two tables together just outside the opening of Huang’s restaurant, as these weren’t on the pavement. Waterman was the first to turn up at 9.30, then the others turned up in dribs and drabs and it turned into a great night with my friends of from two years to 15, and I didn’t leave till nearly 2am (I did check on Leilei at home). The total bill was 1100 kuai, which considering it was for over four hours and included a lot of beer was ok (the last two years were both 900 though). On the way home I somehow happened upon Boss Zhou's place but didn't stay too long

The initial platters

Luwen, Uncle Yellow, Li Kun

Err...

I heard that the girls had arrived in HK from Nanning ok despite a delay, and were boarding the long flight, so everything was cool and when I got home I allowed myself a wee beer to drink slowly for a change, safe in the knowledge that I’d had another successful last supper and hope for another next time.

Ma Laoban red wine meal and more guitar

We took advantage of the jiao zi woman being back as we’ll not have her tasty pleasures much longer, and then had a bit of a lazy afternoon as sometimes that is what you need. But I’d promised the kids a ride to the shops to get some last-minute tat, before dropping them off at A Hua’s place as Tan was there with her friends to eat. I would love to have stayed in the place we lived in for three months back in 2008 but Ma Laoban had finally got some spare time from his new baby and insisted that we eat together. So I explained to the ladies and they all said that was perfectly fine.

Shopping with the kids..."Your text here"

The ladies about to have a meal at A Hua's place

And when we lived there in 2008...such good memories - note the Wii and balance board below the tv

As I pulled up at Ma Laoban’s Lenovo shop instead of greeting me with a “ni hao” he shouted at me to lock up the dian dong che. Ha! You haven’t seen someone for a year and that is how they greet you…. But I’ve been here long enough not to take any offence...he cared about me and that was his way of showing it. We took his Toyota 4x4 to some new place on the east side of town. He then took a box of “Left Hand” red wine bottles from the boot of his car, together with three other bottles that I couldn’t see the name of.

We went upstairs to a private room (of course) and he ordered what he thought fit to order, and over the next 20 minutes or so some more people turned up, including at least one woman I remembered from the last couple of years. The meal was great and the wine not drunken too quickly unlike previous years, so all in all a really comfortable evening. It took me an hour before I realised Ma Laoban was drinking alcohol-free red wine, which was cool not least because he was driving, but also because he admits to being virtually a non-drinker - though why he is so interested in red wine is still a mystery to me.

"Left Hand" red wine

Lovely Ma Laoban meal with red wine and red non-wine

I got back early enough to take the kids to the guangchang, and afterwards we popped in to advertising friend’s shop to hand back her macintosh and give a little present of some skin cream and facemask, before taking the kids home to shower. Then as I’d promised I met up with waterman for a few bevvies till nearly midnight when I heard from Awl that poor Woody had passed away yesterday. To be fair he’d been looking a little ill before we left. So when I got hope at midnight and saw that Xixi was clearly awake I told her the sad news and she had a cry for 10 minutes, after which we had a chat and I managed to get a laugh out of her.

Then I received a picture message from Li Kun from his tea-house where it appeared people were playing music. The kids were now lights-out, and I was in my last few days in China this summer so thought sod it I’d go, and ended up staying there till 2am singing and playing the guitar as you do.

On the way back home I passed by the bar that Zhang Hongping often drinks at but noticed he wasn’t there for a change. But the owner was and recognised me and hailed me to come. Oh dear, what could I do? We spent the next 45 minutes or so chatting and drinking until some new guests arrived at 3am, and I used this as an excuse to 1) have a drink with them and 2) to leave. Sleep came easily.

Family meal, Zhang hua, late bite

I hadn’t seen Zhang Hua much this year, so pinged him to see if he’d eaten, but as soon as I had Leilei called me to say I’d been invited to eat with family friends. This was pretty much the first time this year with the usual gang of Tan’s friends’ families; A Xia, Xi Li, A Pang and the like, with a couple of husbands and many kids. I said I wasn’t drinking but there was a woman there who was new to me who said she fancied a beer. So it was out of politeness that I said I’d join her as drinking by oneself in such a meal would not look good, so we ordered a very reasonable four bottles of 1998 Li Quan between us.

Then Zhang Hua got in contact to tell me to go to his mate’s new restaurant that I went to a couple of weeks ago. The kids decided to come as they’d had enough at the family meal, but weren’t too interested at this new place, and after a bit of watching football on the tv I took them home. Back at Zhang Hua’s it was pretty civilised until we were invited to move to a private room where there were many empty beer bottles on the floor, and four blokes and a token woman at the table. I had to make my excuses before midnight as I was simply too bloated, but advertising friend had left a couple of messages to go and eat and I thought “what the hell?” so drove over to south of the town. I had a bit of a headache already and I pulled up outside a pulsating disco place and my heart sank. I felt I physically couldn’t enter but then I heard her voice from a place a few doors away. Phew, a normal eating place

A group of us played mo pai, which I’m still not 100% on the rules, but it’s a much slower drinking game than cai ma, and we ate mini red lobsters that took ages to get the meat out of, but were worth it. Finally, I said I needed to leave at 2am, and they all agreed it was time, and one of them footed the bill of 1054 kuai. I didn’t even bother to try to pay any.

On the way back it started to piss down so I borrowed advertising friend’s dian dong che raincoat before I got completely soaked, and for once didn’t get waylaid on the way home, probably as with this weather there was no-one to waylay me.

Fat masseuse and too much going out

Well it was a bit of a wedding hangover, and breakfast was leftovers of the kids’ delivered noodles. At least it wasn’t DFC. I went to have tea at the same place as yesterday until it was time for the kids’ tea. At one stage a man came in for a massage, but a minute later left saying something I didn’t quite catch. Apparently he took one look at the masseuse and decided she was too fat. I could understand if it was that type of massage place but this was above board. Well...maybe he had a point but it was pretty incredulous to my British ears that he would have acted on it….

Actually I was "forced" to have some berry alcohol too, and tried not to focus on the lighter in the background

I can even use WeChat pay in the supermarket, though this time they scan me instead of the other way round

I picked up the kids to go the the guangchang as there is not that much time left, but bumped into Tan on the corner and she took them for the first time. I got home well in time for the Bournemouth game, and found a reasonable stream. But I didn’t have a stream of beer to popped down to the nearest shop to pick up a six pack of 1998 Li Quan. The shopkeeper’s husband was sitting having a meal with a mate and made me sit down with him but I kept it to one bottle, and told them I’d be back in 45 minutes.

The blooming stream broke for most of the second half but it looked like we deserved the 3-1 win but we also should have had a VAR penalty - how can something that purports to be so fair be so wrong? It was the clearest penalty you’ll ever see.

After the match I totally forgot to go to the shopkeeper downstairs for a drink as Li Kun had pinged me to have a glass of rouge so I popped over to him for a while where there was much merriment and I spent more time than I ought to have. I should have gone straight home afterwards but I’d noticed Boss Zhou saying he was eating earlier in a group chat so at 1amish I popped my head around just to see if anyone was there. “Go upstairs” I was told and I was immediately thrust into a room with him and three mates and was suddenly gan bei’ing and cai ma’ing again. But I was relatively good and kept it to just an hour.

Li Kun's daughters were still up post-midnight with the screens

With some random people I apparently know upstairs in Boss Zhou's place

The problem was I’d passed Zhang Hongping on the way to Boss Zhou’s and now he was pinging me for a glass. I wouldn’t be able to go back without going past him so accepted and spent the next 45 mins or so catching up with him. Catching up on what I’m not sure as I saw him just the other day but he seemed in good spirits anyway. The last two hours would simply not have happened if the beer here was more than 2.8%.

A very unexpected wedding reception

Finally the jiaozi woman was back and I was so happy to see her. My first portion in about three weeks! Apparently she had been at her lao jia for this time...she could have least have told me before leaving.

The friend of waterman that I’d met while Tan was bbq’ing with friends the other day had told me we would meet up this weekend but not when. Rather than fart around waiting for him I texted Chen to say I should be able to meet him at 6pm after all and he replied that he would contact me later..

As I was “free” for the afternoon I popped out to have tea with a couple of friends of Boss Zhou, one of whom works in a massage parlour. I was tempted to ask for one but I think they wanted my company.

I got back at 5.30 and thought I’d enjoy a cold one and remembered that now I was officially back on holiday - technically no more work till we get back. But as soon as I opened it I got a message from Chen saying he was on his way to 3000 degree bar and would be there in 15 mins. So I had to rather rush my beer and 13 mins later I received a message to say he’d arrived, and while I was in the lift another to ask why I was taking so long. Ah this is the Pingguo I know and love!

Before I got to the bar I heard a shout of “Peng!” from across the road and saw him in a san lun che. Ok, so we weren’t going to 3000 degrees - that was just a landmark he knew I knew. It transpired we were going to the new hotel that was being built last year just north east of the guangchang. I asked why he wasn’t driving and he said “drinking alcohol” but I didn’t pursue whether this was because he had already drunk or was planning to, or both.

Meeting Chen in the san lun che outside our place

The hotel was quite the pomp it had been billed to be, and we said hello to a couple of people while entering. A pretty maid led us into the lift to go up a single floor and when we got out I noticed to my left a line of wedding people all dressed up. Chen went to the first in the line and shook his hand, so I did the same, wondering when we were to go for our meal. But Chen just moved down the line and eventually handed two red envelopes in, and showed me that one had 彭多明 written on it. Oh no! We were only going to a wedding reception and I was wearing my Chinese football top and shorts! Advertising Japanese Suntory beer to boot!

The room was massive, but so far only 70% full, and we found a table with a couple of blokes Chen knew. Some people had started eating but we waited until our table was full, then the beers were cracked open. Over the next couple of hours more beers were cracked open than you could shake a stick at. Even in China I’ve never seen people drink so much so quickly...it was carnage. I did my best to keep at a regular pace but people were coming to me and doing three gan beis at a time. Then the actual newlyweds and their entourage reached our table and we had to drink more. To be fair, Chen and the groom and a couple of mates chugged a whole can while I sipped my little glass - I was just too bloated by then, and made my excuses to go to the toilet more times than I really needed. At least the beer was the very same Japanese beer my Man City-blue top was advertising, so I made a joke that that was my job here, and it got more laughs than it warranted.

I was not expecting this

and the food was amazing...

Wedding madness

Eventually, after visiting other tables and playing cai ma with people I apparently knew, we left the place as one of the last people. But that meant we just moved on to a KTV place where I had to sing No Matter What in a huge room, but by then I’d stopped caring. A bit later we left the room but went straight next door to what to me was a carbon copy of where we’d just been. No more singing for me but more gan bei’s but thankfully only for half an hour or so before we left. I could happily have gone to sleep but for some reason we ended up at bar 3000 degrees for bbq. I seem to remember more cai ma and drinking with the boss, who smokes more than she should. Back before 4am I found myself mechanically reaching for a beer from the fridge. But as I sat down I experienced a touch of sobriety that told me opening that beer would not be a good idea. And I thankfully left it and quickly prepared the sofabed and within a minute I was asleep.

Sweaty basketball and finally finished work for the trip

Not up too late considering, but by the time I’d taking in the washing, hung the next lot out to dry, and put the third lot in to wash, then grabbed a shower, it was gone lunchtime and the kids had already had their dumplings delivered. Plus two drinks delivered by a second deliveroo person who arrived at exactly the same time. How inefficient.

I'm so embarrassed - for the last week I've been using this as fabric conditioner - I was absolutely convinced that's what it was...but Tan corrected me that it was "clearly" washing liquid...oh well...at least our clothes have been clean

All I had was an egg again, propped up with three packs of those almost weightless salty biscuits. Haiwai rang to tell me to come over and eat at his at 6pm, and I mentioned he had told me I was supposed to be going to his son’s school this afternoon (which I’d forgotten about until he rang). But he said “bu yong le” and that was that. At least I could focus on work a bit more, which I did until hunger really set in at 4pm. I thought I could hold out but it wasn’t going away so I opened another can of that expensive meat our ex-neighbour gave us the other day and guiltily had half of it.

Tan texted in Chinese to take the kids to A Xia’s where they would be waiting to take the kids at 5.30. At that time when I got them ready they decided for some reason they would rather go with me to Haiwei’s house so I called Tan and got the angry response that they had been waiting for the kids. Not much you can do.

We arrived pretty early at 6.08pm, and for the first time Haiwei hadn’t called me to ask where I was, and indeed was still cooking. I’d had the shits all afternoon and wasn’t feeling great, so took the opportunity of having a near-nap on his comfortable sofa counting in German up to 60 but not getting much further until accidentally switching to Mandarin. It was almost a dreamlike state and did refresh me a little.

The meal was typically excellent and Leilei ate up everything, unlike Xixi who has the smallest stomach in Pingguo. And instead of drinking more than a couple of cans afterwards we took our kids to Haiwei’s son’s school to play basketball, which Leilei was keen to do. It was dark and very sweaty - I didn’t particularly want to play but the lads wanted a father and son vs father and son so of course I joined in. Leilei is better than me but the two of them combined were a bit too much for us but who was counting? Xixi was a little bored so I suggested we play free throws, which she could join in with and was a little less energetic. We could have stayed longer but I really had to go back and finish work for the week.

Chen then invited me to go and eat at 6pm tomorrow, but I couldn’t confirm as I knew I’d be meeting waterman soon and he may invite me for the same time. No problem...he just said to confirm tomorrow afternoon.

After work I decided to go and see racist Huang but he was pretty pissed and boring, so much so that I didn’t feel bad relieving myself of his company pretty swiftly to sidle over to Boss Zhou’s place. He wasn’t there, but there were others who bade me over for half an hour or so for a couple of drinks. Then Zhang Hongping called me to say he’s seen me at Boss Zhou’s just now and he was just 50 yards away so I went there for the next 90 minutes until I could barely stay awake at 3am.

Brown boiled egg at Boss Zhou's

I managed to avoid the DFC order by forcing myself to take the kids out to the yumi tang place. We don’t even have to give our order now. Work and weather dictated spending the afternoon at home until I took the kids to A Hua’s place for tea where she was with Tan nattering, then got back to my own tea of a single egg. It rained on the way back and was a welcome coolness on the dian dong che, which I was to experience again soon after as the kids called me to pick them up again.

They took themselves to the guangchang for skating and I picked them up at 9.30 to go home and left them there as I’d been asked to go to Boss Zhou’s for an evening meal, and there was no way they’d want to accompany me there. I was the only one with him for a while and we shared a beer. But after a couple of messages to a WeChat group I’d recently been added to more people started arriving in dribs and drabs as photos of the food being served were shared. I made a joke that I had brought a brown boiled egg and for some reason one woman didn’t get the joke and when she arrived promptly ate it. The last person arrived after 1am, but we were relatively sensible with the Snowflake beer and finished by 2.30am, although for some reason didn’t sleep till well gone 4am.

My brown boiled egg

Boss Zhou's cat keeping a watchful eye over me

Evening entertainment with Bank President

I forced myself to a reasonably early start to work as judging by the last few days oftentimes (gosh, that is an Americanism) people call me a couple of hours before to go out even though I’ve told them I’m working. Indeed, in the late morning Li Kun asked me to go out at 8pm with a “bank president”. The kids’ lunch was another crappy delivered DFC but I had three 1000 year old eggs instead. I also managed to get Leilei to do some maths hw and Xixi to do some violin practice for the second day in a row so at least I’m hoping they’re keeping on track. I’ve realised why I’m not totally disparaged by the term “oftentimes”. It’s because it encourages the silent “t” in the word. I’m well aware that there are two ways of pronouncing “often” and many people interchange between the two (though if there is a rule for this I’ve not found it yet). Even Christopher Hitchens, in his audiobook “God is not Great”, used both pronunciations. My interpretation of this is that the silent “t” is the educated way to pronounce it (not that that makes it right), and that the pronounced “t” version arose from less-educated people thinking that those silent-”t”ers were wrong. But I also notice it’s more prevalent in British people than Americans, not that that makes it right. The bottom line is that when people use “often” in a sentence I am more likely to pay attention to their pronunciation of it than the rest of the sentence...more fool me. But nobody pronounces “soften” with a sounded “t” do they?

At 9pm I caved in and IM’d “hi” to Li Kun, who got back to me saying he was about to go out. So I needn’t have worried about 8pm. I went to the new music bar he’d invited me to around 9.30ish leaving the kids at home. Typically I was the first of his guests to turn up, so we sat at a big reserved table eating sunflower seeds until even Li Kun couldn’t wait and we cracked open a couple of beers. Slowly but surely people turned up, including the bank president at 10.30.

I had to bite my tongue not to talk about Bitcoin and how it could replace banking as we know it. Actually his English was fairly good and he surely wanted to practise it, so who was I to language-bully him? I managed what I was internally showing off to myself as my first English conversation in weeks, when Xixi rang to remind me I was clearly speaking English every single day, and that she was hungry although Tan was home. So I temporarily excused myself in order to get three sausages for her and returned back 20 minutes later.

It was only 20 minutes but in that time the blokes at the table appeared to have become a lot more drunk than when I left...maybe it had just kicked in. Bank president was explaining that he had attended a wedding between one of his relatives and a western man. Within seconds the conversation turned to penis sizes and I engaged in the conversation as little as I was politely able to. The upshot of it was, according to bank president, that although Chinese penises were smaller, they were hard. I thought it best to raise my glass to him and gan bei at that point, and we all roared with laughter (well them more than me).

Mr Bank President near right, token female middle left

Then he showed me his alarm on his phone that was set to 5.45am, and said no matter what time he went to bed he’d always be up at this time in order to be in the bank. I admired his resolve, and understood when a few beers later he went on his way. Advertising friend IM’d me at 11.30 to go for a drink but I couldn’t really leave LI Kun. Obviously inviting bank president was a really big deal for him and he was so happy I had been there to talk to him. He was now saying “thank you, thank you” in English to me and I realised he was really drunk. But so did Guitar Teacher, so managed to take him home without too much fuss...I’m not sure how he paid the bill or who took care of it.

It was 1am so I pinged Advertising friend just in case and of course within seconds I was sent a wei zhi pinpointing the location of where they were. There were also six pissed blokes there, each of whom I should probably know, but it didn’t really matter as we had a great time chatting and a bit more gan bei’ing till hum o’clock.

Finally get to invite some mates out and pay

I woke up at 9.30am but decided against it and dosed till 11ish till guilt got me up to work till lunchtime which admittedly wasn’t long after. I had lunch at Luwen’s and couldn’t finish but I was starving at 6.30 so walked to the supermarket to get some eggs and found a new shortcut back. I hadn’t walked for ages and it was good to stretch my legs, so in a way finding a shortcut was the opposite of what I should have done but it’s good to explore.

Finding a shortcut behind Jun Lin Tian Xia

Tonight Tan took the kids to the guangchang to skate and I decided I’d stop work at 10.30, then contacted Boss Zhou at 9.30 to ask if he’d be about and indeed he would so I’d finally arranged my turn to invite people out. And it was great that quite a few mates came out. I’m starting to remember their names now, like A Guang, the portly man with glasses and a great sense of humour, who eventually fell asleep in his chair. Even Uncle Yellow I know is called Huang Lei came despite baby duties for a two month old. We stayed out till 2ish and I guess because I’d arranged it I was allowed to pay - result.

A Guang had had a busy day...

Late night with advertising friend

Twas a day of work till teatime when I took the kids to the new jiao zi place I’d discovered with Xixi yesterday and we ate in despite the lack of AC, before dumping them off at the guangchang as I really don’t need to be there any more and could be more fruitful at home. Then at 9.30 I took the sweaty things to Tian Yang Po’s where Tan was eating bbq with her school friends from 40 years ago, but they didn’t want to stay. Tan said she’d bring back food for the kids in a bit. At 11pm advertising friend IM’d me to go for a drink but I said maybe in an hour as I needed to sort the kids. Tan was still not back and not answering her phone and the kids were starving so I went there by myself. They were deep in chat when I came to tell them I needed to feed the kids, and I was told there was no pork or beef as the pork had gone up in price thanks to the African swine flu - but what about the beef? So I asked Tian Yang Po and she said she had beef so I ordered 10 for the kids (which could have been done an hour ago) plus sausages which if they weren’t pork certainly looked like it.

Our new jiao zi place

At least it gave me the chance to talk to some of her friends and have a couple of beers.
Then a bloke walked past me and told me he knew me from years ago, and I had another one of those moments where I lied blatantly and said yes I recalled the face but not the name. Anyway he was a mate of the waterman and showed me a pic of him, and of us cai ma’ing a few years back. I told him I couldn’t go for a beer during the week, then straight away broke that rule as we sat down for two bottles until the bbq was ready, by which time he’d arranged for us to meet up this weekend.

Tan was back by midnight and advertising friend said they were going to another place to drink, which conveniently was close to us. We had great fun in this place on the corner opposite Waipo’s. There was some weird drunk girl in a red dress who joined us from another table when her friends had left her who was harmless if loud. Back at nearly 4am!