Rain and piano

Although I did rise at 11am, I went back to sleep till half past midday after the kids went out with Tan. I felt not great but better for the sleep. I decided to go to the local jiao zi place to eat as it was pouring outside and had been from before I got up. Often these showers last around 30 minutes and deposit enough water to keep the fruit happy, but this was more of a Pingguo-style drizzle.

Pingguo drizzle

As it has been well over a week since the last time, I had a hankering for getting some piano practice in, so I went down to the place by the river I went to a couple of days ago where they told me they were open every day till 4pm. It was about 2.30pm so I was slightly disappointed to see they were closed, or at least the shutter was 3/4 down. Last year I had looked without much joy for a similar place to what I'd found in 2014, but I went on the lookout again. It took a couple of rides down one of the streets near our local market before I noticed such a piano place, probably because it was on the opposite side of the road from where I remembered it. The usual comments about the rain were made (like how could you come on a dian dong che in this weather?) but I waved them off and asked if I could stay for a while. Of course I could, and I spent a happy 45 minutes or so torturing Scott Joplin's ghost yet again.

But it's funny that although it's not a massively physical exercise, playing the piano, or any instrument I suppose, can really take it out of you. It's a bit physical and quite emotional and the combination actually requires a bit of constitution that I realised in my semi-hungover state I was getting to the end of. So instead of learning any more of Magnetic Rag, I folded the cover down and offered to pay (they would have none of it) and went back home in the still pouring rain.

I picked up the kids when the rain subsided enough to do so and we went to do the important job of getting stickers for the dian dong che. We found a place by a small guangchang and the old woman apologised that they didn't have much in the way of stickers but we found a couple we liked. The problem was they were ancient and once we'd put them on the protective transparent covering hardly came off and it looked a bit messy. Oh well, it's not that bad and at least now we can tell our dian dong che from the plethora of others parked outside the supermarket.

A Hua rang to say Nong Kaicheng wanted to play with Leilei - fine - they came over to the little guangchang I let Leilei go off with them and Xixi and I did a little exercise before grabbing a bite to eat and going to the proper guangchang. She has now had four weeks without her plastercast and can finally go on the jumping castle, but first we went to do some art, as I knew it would be shower time after bouncing. Just as Xixi finished her painting that would be heated and turned into something like rubbery stained glass, Leilei and Nong Kaicheng appeared. Leilei really wanted to go on the bouncy castle too, but Kaicheng didn't. It's really that Kaicheng is now 16 and well on the way to being an adult and Leilei is clearly not there yet. Kaicheng said he'd go and play, and I said we'd call him later, which was really a sign to say we probably wouldn't. It's a pity as 2-3 years ago they were a lot more like peers. Bloody puberty.

Xixi artwork at the guangchang

The kids spent the best part of an hour getting sweaty-soaked jumping about, so after getting them some water I got them out at about 9.30pm. I decided to ring Yang Haiwei to meet for a bit of bbq. He said great, and I said we'd meet in "shi ji" minutes, which is a great way of saying between 11-19 minutes. I assumed he would be some time after that so was surprised to receive a call from him while I was showering the kids. To be fair it had been nearly half an hour since I called, and he'd turned up already. I apologised and said we'd be there in five. It was great to meet up with another old friend, and his wife and younger son were there too. Of course I'd forgotten I needed to pick up Tan's ID card from A Ni's, so took the dian dong che there, and no sooner was I back when the kids wanted their stuff from Waipo's (fair enough - phone and charger). Unfortunately Waipo and anyone else in the house was asleep or didn't hear the doorbell, but getting back I was glad that the kids wouldn't be glued to screens, and they actually got up and played with a couple of other kids in the street.

Who doesn't like bbq duck tongues?

We didn't spend too long or drink much beer, but at least the kids had a fair amount of bbq, including duck tongues. Haiwei was explaining that he had a new job in Tian Yang, and he generally only came back for the weekend, but happened to be here today as his car was getting fixed. He explained that Pingguo bbq was very good, but Tian Yang had the best bbq in Guangxi. So it was decided that next week we would go to visit him there and spend a night there.

After saying goodbye at gone 11pm, we took the dian dong che for a little more of a ride to use up the electricity as we were going to charge it. We popped down to the Beihai seafood place and saw Boss Huang there again. This time though, he was much soberer and we had a nicer conversation and no gnarled hand shakes. As it was late we only spent 15 minutes, as I'd promised I'd bring the kids. We were home at midnight, and in no need of further showering.

No sleep and A Wu's second son's first birthday

Literally no sleep. Gave up at 5am and got up at 6.30 to go for another jog. At least I had a target - three laps, which I just managed but the last one was hard. I did it in just under half an hour so room for improvement. Of course no-one was up when I got back so I thought I'd take the dian dong che for a little ride. Before 10am it can be quite quiet here, but I happened upon a nice soup place that I'd been to before so decided to stop for a sweetcorn soup and a fried egg. For some reason the fried egg request required a bit of conversation to properly imbue what I wanted but that was ok. I had my light breakfast but not before Englishly apologising for not ordering very much as I wasn't really that hungry.

Hardly a full English

Tan took the kids out and I managed to stay up till A Wu called me soon after midday to eat "steak soup". Ok let's do this. We drove a whole minute away from our place to this place that served soup with some beef in it and it was fine. But I was starting to flake. Problem was we needed to go to the boss's place to drink tea for a bit. Well it was ok, I didn't talk too much under the excuse of being tired and A Wu was actually true to his word that we'd leave at 1.30. So I got to sleep soon after 2pm but for some reason I woke up at 4.30.

Not a massive lunch either

I would have liked at least another hour, but Tan called to say we were going to A Wu's son's birthday dinner at 6pm. Well yesterday A Ni had said it was at 6.30, and at this moment the extra 30 minutes would have meant a lot more rest in terms of percentage at least. So I grabbed a coffee, which is about the only thing I can make for myself in our house, and then grabbed another.

There were more adults and fewer children than I expected for a baby's first birthday, and soon discovered it was more an excuse for a get-together as the beers came out. Every five minutes or so another plate or two of steak was served. It was quite amusing watching the locals go at it with knives and forks, and when I had a go they all looked quite surprised at how able I was to cut chopstickable-sized portions with ease. Then it was my job to do all the cutting as the steaks arrived on their plates, as we weren't going to be having a plate each as per Western style - there was already a lot of local food on the table and no space for them.

Oh why do they still chill red wine?

About as successful as most westerners are at using chopsticks

Lads and beer

As other such evenings have worn on, this one saw the kids leave first, then the ladies, leaving the blokes with their beer. I couldn't very well not join in but I was trying to be good and not over-imbibe. Cai ma was followed by a new drinking game which is actually rather fun and simple. The blokes stand around a table (preferably wooden and varnished) and one has to slide a half glass of beer to the bloke at the other end. If it gets beyond a certain point (I never did ascertain exactly where the point was) the bloke you're facing has to drink the beer. If it doesn't go far enough or goes off the end, then guess who has to drink. Needless to say on my first go and slid the glass straight off the table. It reminded me of that school game where you have three goes to nudge a 50p to leave it hanging over the end of the table then you flick it up and try to catch it.

Really poor shot from me but not as bad as the camerawork

Some time later instead of going home as I had hoped, we went to one of the boss's office where there was more beer, and tea if anyone wanted. I didn't want either, so as an excuse to stop drinking I went downstairs and found a foot massage place. My word, it hurt it was so hot, and I don't have the most insensitive of feet either. But my plan worked - for 40 kuai I had not just a foot but a body massage (which are always better when slightly tipsy), and an hour off the booze. Of course I was made to catch up back in the office and somehow we found ourselves in a KTV place later.

Painful foot massage that was worth it