Despite the late night I was up bang on 6am and knew I wouldn’t be getting any more sleep any time soon, so for the first time in nearly three months I decided to go for a jog. It’s been a grim time with sciatica but the pain has now changed to numbness down part of my left leg. But the jog itself was pretty painful though I did just manage 5km. For some reason I thought one lap of the guangchang was 2.5k but in fact it’s bang on a mile, so as I turned into the last straight and checked the Strava app I was mightily disappointed to see I wasn’t approaching 5k at all...more like 4k...and the extra half lap I did really took it out of me.
View from my jog
5k round the guangchang
But it least it meant I was up in time for a quick drive to Po Xiang village, outside of which we stopped for a noodle breakfast and people were cutting up their own bits of meat and paying for it in a sort of serve-yourself butchery way that this place apparently was. Indeed some paperwork was done in an office that had more people working in it than was really necessary, and I took the opportunity to have a wander in the searing heat, and came across surprised looking old people as this really was out in the sticks.
I had to go the bank and noticed that 3,4,5, and 9 were not so popular!
Girls about to go in a bigger car than before
Back in Pingguo for midday I gave Haiwei a ring and was happy to hear he hadn’t eaten so I invited him, although he was the one to pick me up and decide where to go, which thankfully was a relatively simple place near his office. Oh these sorts of meals are most satisfying...no beer and just a decent conversation with Haiwei and his second son. I learnt that he is no longer on speaking terms with the business partner from last year. Apparently he had invested money with him and something had gone wrong. Last year he seemed so excited about me helping out in his aluminium venture but I sensed he didn’t really want to talk about it. He also had plans to send his first son to university in the UK or Australia but that appears to be off the cards now too. He did let me pay the 89 kuai bill, which I appreciated. He agreed that you don’t always have to go to a posh place to eat, and that was pretty good value for three people.
Only got to sleep at 3pm at home catching up on the news. Still no blinking wifi so I hope I’m not cutting too much into my 4G - I’d love to know how much I have left of the 30GB, and whether it will stop after one month, and whether the kids’ SIM cards that are linked to mine share the data allowance (better not). Then at 6pm went to Li Jia He Xian with the friend from this morning...yes! two meals without alcohol for the first time this year in China!
Later I felt the duty to go to the bike shop that I’d only spent 15 minutes at yesterday to drink tea. I found he also sells some sort of magic medicine but he didn’t call it medicine as he admitted he wasn’t a doctor. But he didn’t stop telling me how amazing this stuff was and insisted it would fix my sciatic issues. He put some on my leg and wrapped it in clingfilm and it started to get very hot. I had to leave it for 15 minutes but when it came off I said it felt the same, but of course he said I needed to have several sessions for it to work…. Oh yes that old one. Basically with issues that can resolve themselves whatever you are taking at the time it gets better is considered to be the cure...it’s probably the only reason some people still believe in homoeopathy, and this is likely no different. I didn’t say that of course, but said I’d be back sometime which might end up being a lie. I’m sure he believes in it himself and I would have liked to know how much one bottle was but that would have shown too much interest.
The bottle I was too scared to ask how much it was in case he thought I was interested
...but I ended up having a wrap of it and it was bloody hot...not that it solved anything other than my inquisitiveness as to how hot it might be
A Wu and Huang both bade me out but first I went to see Li Kun who was on own at his place so we drank hong cha before I left to meet Huang for the first time this year. He was well and we enjoyed a couple of drinks but not too much as I had to fit in A Wu too. He had said to go to the KTV place by his Boss Zhou’s office, but first I checked the office itself. It was a good idea as there were about 25 pissed blokes sitting around a table and my entry was greeted by more cheers than were necessary. I was pretty much forced to gan bei with most of them and had to play some cai ma too for the next half an hour until about half of them broke off to go to KTV. It was actually a little boring with so many pissed blokes so soon after midnight I made excuses and left them to enjoy themselves and A Wu seemed to understand.
I shouldn't complain - last year I barely went to "sing song"
But I wasn’t that tired and had what I thought was the good idea of going for a massage. I didn’t think I’d actually find one but happened upon one with a woman sitting in it at half midnight. She didn’t seem too pissed off that it was late, though the bloke who arrived just after me did when she said she was closing and I was clearly the last client. We talked about families and our kids and where she was from etc., except then she pulled my boxers down more than I thought was decent but I had explained about the sciatica and it was actually very comfortable.
I got home not a great deal before 2am and slept for one hour before annoyingly waking up at 3.15 for another 45m. What is going on?
Up at a reasonable 8am mainly because it was just so hot and sweaty as it seems when we put on a third air-con the electricity goes. I went for a walk around the guangchang at 8.30 before it became too blistering to do much more. Maybe I’ll try a short jog soon when get up earlier. I should have seen Li Kun yesterday afternoon but forgot his invitation of tea so made amends and went to see him before 10am. At least at this time “drink tea” meant that, and I had a nice 40 mins or so chatting with two colleagues/clients. They were in the business of discussing budget for some facial recognition system. I looked at the papers and realised this was for businesses to keep track of who was coming in and out of their premises, and worked with infrared so it could work when dark. Li Kun reminded me of a music concert he was in tonight and said I should sing a song too. I told him in no uncertain terms there was no way I was doing that. This was not some little pub like last year.
Smackface
Li Kun in his work garb though I don't know what his work really is
Tan rang to say she and the kids were going to Er Jie’s new house in Baise at lunchtime with A Xia and her son Su Liyi. They’d already ordered lunch to be delivered as is the norm now, except we often have to go downstairs to let the delivery people in as the door opener thing on the entryphone doesn’t work and we’ve been meaning to get it fixed for years. They hadn’t ordered for me but it wasn’t necessary as I had leftover dumplings and noodles.
I went to the bank to get out some cash - you can tell which numbers are less popular
Another thing that annoyingly needs to be fixed is the internet. It just stopped this morning, though no-one noticed as they all have 4G SIM cards on their phones...but I don’t on my laptop so tether when necessary.
They finally left at around three, by which time I was bursting for a sleep, and duly did as soon as they were gone. After a refreshing couple of hours or so I was feeling a little peckish but didn’t want a meal as I knew I’d be eating with Li Kun at 9.30pm, so I went to the supermarket and bought two black eggs and some sunflower seeds and a bottle of 0% sugar, added fibre Coke, before Li Kun pinged me at 7 to remind me about the concert. I asked what time he’d be there and he said he already was. I was worried he’d want me there early too so I said I’d come along later.
I was really worried he’d try to make me sing, and this was an outdoor concert at the foot of Horsehead Mountain, a busy area of town. I was so concerned that I appropriated a bit of V into the fibreful Coke just in case the worst came to the worst. And a little into a bottle of fibreful Sprite Zero to take with me. As it was, when I turned up at 8pm on the dot there were not that many people taking up the 50 or so plastic stools. But that became more as the show went on... and was pretty good. Mostly Li Kun’s band, with a variation of guest singers, interspersed with some kids playing guitar and singing. After half an hour I stopped worrying about being called up to play - they were quite organised and had a proper schedule of music. Plus I was hidden away in the dark of the seats and even Li Kun called me during one of his intervals to ask me where I was.
Guitar solo from the concert...so glad I didn't have to go on stage
By the end Haiwei had also called me to go for a drink, but I told him I needed to be with Li Kun first. However, Li Kun said he’d be a good half an hour sorting out the instruments so I ended up paying a quickish visit to see Haiwei at 同老田螺 near our place. As the name suggests, they specialise in snails, which wasn’t ideal for me as by now I was much more than peckish, I was gobblish, but the amount you get out of a snail, and the time it takes, does not make for a very efficient input of energy; it’s basically beer food. It was hot inside despite the fans, so we moved outside, where it was hotter still, but no-one seemed to admit this and I didn’t want to lose anyone’s face by saying so, and to be fair it was less smoky. Cai ma ensued, until I felt I had to go to meet Li Kun. The good thing about Haiwei (well, one of the good things) is that he’ll understand such a motive and won’t try to keep you.
But first I “had” to meet a friend to drink tea close by to where the concert was. There were various soft drink shops around, but we sat with the manager of a bicycle shop nestled in between the other shops, as he poured red tea and chatted with us. It was quite nice but I was aware Li Kun was awaiting my company so after 15 minutes I was made to promise I’d come out with them tomorrow to a neighbouring town while they do some paperwork. Well...why not?
Li Kun and the group were sitting outside the pub I played at last year. It was great to gan bei with them and tell them how good and professional they were, especially the piano player, who didn’t get a big round of applause when he did his solo piece. I managed to stay till midnight, by which time even the effects of the siesta had fallen away, and made my excuses to go home for an “early” night. But for a stupid reason I was up till gone 2am.
