Got up to say good morning and goodbye to Tan and the kids as they were about to head off to Kunming (actually Dali a bit beyond) and I was about to head back to bed for a bit, before work raised its predictable head again, but as I was about to get on with it Haiwei rang to drink tea. That sounded a nicer prospect even if it would mean having a later night so I went there to talk shop and eventually a bloke went out and came back with four portions of bao zi, nearly as good as the ones from downstairs at our place, and I gobbled my portion as breakfast had made way for sleep earlier.
I then made my genuine excuses and went back to work on through to the evening. At 6pm Haiwei called for me to go out to eat but I had to be good and stuck to my tasks at hand. During my 9-10.15pm meeting he called me three times to ask where I was, even though at the end of the first call I told him I’d call him when finished. Anyway I dutifully did and I found him with his sons at some eatery by the market supermarket. For a change it was not loads of meat, but white carrot in a soup with spicy bean sprouts, a refreshing change. Then came the tofu skin and fried tofu, followed later by a load of oysters done with garlic and a bit of chopped vermicelli spaghetti which were delicious.
Some more people turned up and one had a son of 12 years with whom I managed to make speak a tiny bit of English. Then he built up some confidence and lifted up his glass and said “cheers!” to everyone’s delight. But by close to midnight I could see there was still stuff to do for work so again made my excuses and went back. Ended up working till 3am then chatting to Awl till 4 as there was no-one in the house to disturb, before falling asleep without the air con on for the first time this year.
It was a bit of a late awakening for one and all but I did get the kids out to eat some jiao zi and bao zi at the usual place and they ate pretty well. Afterwards I thought I’d let Leilei have a go on the dian dong che in the car park of the unused hotel we checked out (not of) the other day. He absolutely loved his first experience of driving by himself and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that vehicles would mostly be self-driving by the time he would be legally able to drive, and I’m quite glad I didn’t because I will likely be wrong. But when it happens it will happen quickly and the number of lives saved on the roads will be numerous - it’s an absolute no-brainer that it will happen...a bit like lab-grown meat (or at least not growing animals to kill and eat) but on a shorter timescale.
Leilei driving the dian dong che for the first time...
Work took up most of my time after lunch until the kids went out to the supermarket to get stuff for their upcoming trip to Kunming that I unfortunately will not be able to participate in thanks to the aforementioned work. But at least it will give me more time to focus on it. I nibbled some spicy dou fu for tea on my own.
The view while waiting for the lift...changes each year a bit
Then Yangwen IM’d me to ask if I was able to go for a walk. I’ve been saying no for too long now so I decided I would go get some fresh air. Not that it was very fresh - it was one of the muggiest evenings I’ve known and I was wearing fairly heavy shorts and a cotton shirt unlike literally everyone else out, who was wearing very light sporting clothes (well I wanted somewhere to put phone and keys and money). We walked up a new road north east of the guangchang, wider than the M25, for a whole 2k and met up with some other bloke along the way who accompanied us. He also was from outside Pingguo so the conversation was slightly easier as it was more “normal” Mandarin.
Eventually get out of work at 10.30pm and went for a bite to eat with a neighbour and her “sister”. When I arrived at the Beihai seafood place Boss Huang was rather drunk and greeted me like an old friend (which I suppose I am) and then gabbled for a few minutes while I pretended I understood and afterwards said it was because we were nalouzhan (old mates) and he shook my hand so I felt a bit better.
We left around 1am as the little sister was being called to go home and look after her three month old daughter. As we’d only had three bottles in an hour and a half I was still a little thirsty, so I went for a quick ride and found Zhang Hua outside his little cigarette shop with some mates eating and drinking. Of course I was called over and joined them for a while. One of the blokes hadn’t seen me for years and kept saying that. I wish I remembered him and pretended I did.
After that I stupidly went for a ride to use up the rest of the dian so that I would get more for my buck when I charged it up later. Loads of people were still out, and I arrived at Lao Tong Kao Ji where I had performed the other week, and got called over to some people I apparently knew. I had a couple of beers but had to call it a day at 3.30am. Got back and remembered to charge the bike and went straight to bed.
