Back to ping pong and meal with Haiwei

Somehow I was up bang on 7am as if jetlag never existed. I could easily have gone back to sleep but did my trick of logicking myself into shorts and a light tee-shirt and grabbing a couple of bottles of water and my trusty table tennis bat. After a couple of mouthfuls of yesterday evening's doggy bag made my way to the old people's leisure centre for the first time in getting on for four years.

The tables had changed, as had the floor, and I recognised no-one from before. And maybe for the first time I wasn't the youngest person there. But within 30 seconds of walking into the room I was invited to play. It's one of my greatest pleasures here, at least in the morning time. The bloke I was playing decided we would play a game and for once I didn't have to ask as I knew it would be five games. I was happy with losing the first 11-8 and ecstatic to win the second 12-10! I lost the next three of course but I will still chalk it up as another moral victory. I then did the rounds with a woman of my age and another bloke before someone I recognised walked in and gave me a shout of recognition before shaking my hand and getting on the table with me. He proceeded to put me in my place until even he could see that I was waning and he told the woman to replace me. That was what I needed as it was now 10am and I could go home and get the boys some breakfast.

They hadn't rustled but I knocked to ask them for their passports as I'd need to register us with the police for our stay. But not before going to the dou jiang place we've been to for years to get them some bao zi as the jiaozi were already sold out.

Sadly my dian dong che is broken, and according to jiuma it will be 1000 kuai to repair so not worth it for 7 weeks. I told her I agreed but inside I wasn't sure. It's a major form of freedom here. But she said we could use another one that she'd bring round but she'd already told Leilei about that and he was excited about using it with Nezha. So maybe in the end I'll pay for it to be fixed and then the family-in-law will be able to use it in the future.

So I took her red dian dong che out in the rain to find the police place. This has been a bit of a wild goose chase in the past as it's been in at least three different locations. But I found the place we'd been to for the last two times and of course it was boarded up. I asked the bloke in the neighbouring water place (that was blasting music out as they do) and he said they'd moved down the road and I got him to write the name on my phone so I'd be able to find it later as apparently they were on holiday today and tomorrow as it is dragon boat holiday at the moment.

I did drive down to try to find the new place so I'd know where to go Monday and came across a police-looking place with people wearing police-like uniforms in it. I asked if they were the police and they said no it was 200 metres further down the road. 200 metres further down the road I saw nothing police-like so it's going to be a question of getting Uncle Yellow to help again I guess.

While on the dian dong che I decided to get some jiaozi from our old place near our old house. But I happened upon the water place next door first and found Waterman sitting there. He jumped to his feet and we had a hug. He immediately took a video of me and sent it on Weixin then we shook hands again and drank tea for a few minutes while he invited me to a new place in Jiang Bing Lu when I had time. He understood when I said I needed to get some food and got three portions for 18 kuai - more than the last time but understandable and still delicious. Annoyingly Weixin pay didn't work, or rather it did but said I needed to await an SMS to confirm but it never came. And a couple of doors down I picked up a six pack of Li Quan and a couple of zero-sugar lemonades as I planned to have another siesta.

The lads still hadn't stirred when I brought the jiao zi so now they had both breakfast and lunch on the table. I managed a portion of jiaozi but despite the early start only managed to drop off after 3pm to a Lex Fridman podcast thanks to Pure VPN being the only reliable one so far. A Wu called to wake me up an hour later and I didn't really know what he wanted but I told him we'd been invited to Yang Haiwei's tonight. Then I got three more calls that I thought were from A Wu so I ignored them in an attempt to get more shuteye until I realised at 5.40 that it was Haiwei calling me. So much for being ready at 6pm, he was already on his way to pick us up and wanted to know where we were.

I'd already showered after ping pong so picked up one of the remaining duty free bottles and 5 minutes later we were in his car driving to his friend's place. He spent the next 40 minutes or so cooking and the boys were asking how long to wait. But this is China and you don't ask such questions. At least there were snacks to keep the wolves from the door.

Well we started with lamb soup with lots of meat in it but it was strange that there was only us three plus Haiwei and the woman of the house. Leilei spotted what he thought was a tiny maggot and said it put him off his soup, and that put Nezha off eating the rest of his. I looked at the so-called "maggot" and could barely work out anything other than an excuse. Obviously I couldn't explain a maggot for fear of offending the cook so I just explained the boys didn't really like soup and could they have a bowl of rice instead? Of course they could and they did actually finish it before asking if they could go for a walk.

Spot the maggot

Nice meal at Haiwei's

That was the last I saw of them as the woman's husband walked in with two crates of beer in addition to the cans we'd already started on. Haiwei's younger son came out of his shell a little and spoke a very little English so I'd done my job. We went on till well after 11pm when Haiwei could see I was flagging and drove me home as you do, and I was asleep by midnight.

Music at Li Kun's and evening meal with Uncle Yellow et al

Up and down from 4.30am till getting on for 9am when it was just "up". The lads were up soon after and it seems they had had a better sleep than me but I wasn't complaining. They grabbed the showers they didn't have last night and I was pinged by Li Kun who said he was at the dentist's but would be at his place at 1pm to give us our holy SIM cards. It's always a huge deal to have a working SIM with data but especially this year as the lads will want to go out together without me and without wishing to virtually chaperone them I will need to be in contact. After all 18 years is not the most mature time of your life (I speak from experience).

They took themselves out to get breakfast and had 16 jiao zi between them. I had nothing as is my wont. Then we left soon after midday to attempt to withdraw some money from the bank and get some provisions from the supermarket. The deluge that had defined the morning had stopped but we foolishly went out without umbrellas and of course after 5 minutes it started again. We avoided most of the moisture by walking under the overhangs of the shops until we came upon the Agricultural Bank of China. Bugger - my card was not accepted in the first or second booth. We are down to 300 kuai after I found another 100 kuai in my wallet so I must sort this out soon.

I chose "English" but the error message most certainly wasn't 

We continued down to where I thought Li Kun's place was, helped by a map he sent and my memory. We were hungry so stopped into an eatery but the boys were not impressed by what appeared to be the fare or my lack of translation skills when it comes to food. So we stepped out and went to the supermarket Leilei and I had been to a few times before that sells a decent range of sugar-free drinks. Nezha wanted some dry beef but we couldn't find any so he accepted spicy wet octopus. I got two boiled eggs and Leilei some crisps as he wasn't hungry after the eight baozi late morning. I asked the ladies at the till if there was wifi and of course there was so I connected and we ate our wares as I confirmed we were pretty close to Li Kun's place.

Uncle Yellow had also contacted me to invite us to Jiang Bing Lu to eat with Boss Zhou and A Ning - friends for many years now. After last night with Li Kun I was a lot happier that the boys would come along and not be bored (at least for a while). The last time we were here it was like taking blood from a stone to get Leilei and Xixi to go out for a meal with my friends. I just hope they don't get too much of a taste for the beer.

We found Li Kun pretty easily and the next couple of hours were a wonderful mix of tea and music. It sounds a bit Leonard Cohenesque but both the lads got into playing instruments with Li Kun and myself and I saw a side of my son I'd never really seen before. Being painfully shy for most of his life he engaged with Li Kun in Chinese and music (two important languages) and Nezha was doing so too at least in music. We ended up sharing each other's music and doing some live jamming and Nezha was really enjoying it. We'd found a medium that surpassed spoken language to some extent or rather augmented it. A bit like maths in a way...totally international. We left only to get some rest at our place as we knew we'd be going at at 6pm to see Uncle Yellow.

I managed a snooze from 3-5pm despite the Vanilla full-sugar Coke I bought thinking it was both sugar and caffeine free, while the boys went out to see the town again. Yes, Pingguo is officially a city now...for the last 3 years or so but it will always be a town in my heart. 

Soon after 6pm we left for Jiang Bing Lu by the river. It would be about a 20-odd minute walk if we couldn't find another means. But on a corner I saw three or four white cars about the size of a Ford Focus - too small to be boss cars but too similar to be a coincidence. So I asked the driver of one of them if it was a taxi, but he didn't seem to understand, so I thought I was mistaken (租车 isn't it?). But then I double-checked using the international term "taxi" and he nodded and even said "yes" in English. So we jumped in and I said Jiang Bing Lu but he seemed unsure...normally such taxis are hailed by the Didi Che app in WeiXin but I didn't think it would work for me as I need to set it to my new number. But I showed him on the map on his phone and we were there four minutes later. I was getting my money out when he asked if I couldn't pay by WeiXin. I thought I'd try it anyway and he said 6 kuai, and to scan a certain QR code. As if by magic it actually worked as I still had some money in my account.

Uncle Yellow, his family, Boss Zhou, A Ning, and a couple of other people were there at a table not in a private area, and for the next three hours or so what followed was a typically lovely meal. Nezha was asked what he'd like to eat and he answered "chicken" when I translated the next thing we knew that a fresh one was being tracked down. Nezha wanted to see it being slaughtered but we were told it was not possible. I doubt that but they probably preferred our company at the meal. And indeed 45 minutes later the dish was served. But the boys, as has been their wont so far at every meal (both of them) wanted to go for a walk for a while and I explained it was Nezha's first time in Pingguo and he wanted to see the place so it was ok. Also, unlike last night they were on Coke and water instead of beer, which I was relieved to see (worried that they'll get a taste for it).

I pinged A Wu during the meal as I thought I ought to let him know I was there rather than him find out by seeing me cai ma on Douyin. Of course he was about and told me to come to the KTV place after I'd eaten. Uncle Yellow was fine with this so we dropped the boys off and I walked the rest of the way to the KTV place. At the counter I showed the address that A Wu had sent, thinking it would be one of the posh rooms but actually it was another Boss Zhou's place behind the KTV building that I'd been to copious times before. A Wu was in fine fettle and grabbed me and picked me up with his bearhug. There were over a dozen drunk men and a couple of sober women around the table and I had to ganbei with most of them, multiple times over the hour or so that I spent there. I was flagging and said I had to go at about 11.30 so A Wu came with me. For once we didn't drive or take a taxi, but walked the 10 minutes to Jiuma's place where I wasn't even tempted with a nightcap.