Early morning jog and early evening grub at Jie Jie's

Although I only got to sleep at 1.30am I inexplicably woke up at 3.30am. Try as I might, even counting in German I couldn't get myself back to sleep. I managed 100 in German and Chinese so descended into French where I reached 269 before accepting defeat. Come 6am I decided to make the most of it and go for a jog. I left my phone and only brought my keys with me as I walked out to the guangchang. Despite the early hour, there were a few people with the same idea, and elders just out for the walk clapping their hands together as a means of helping circulation. I haven't jogged for ages but it wasn't hard to remember what to do. I caught up with several people before I realised I was getting very hot and sweaty and tired. I couldn't slow down and let the people I'd overtaken catch up, so I soldiered on until I could see they had taken a different path, then I calmed it down a bit and finished the lap of the guangchang. During the lap I saw some people with personal radios or mp3 players but the main difference was that no-one was using headphones; they all had mini loudspeakers, so I had a little entertainment myself. I forced myself to do a second lap at a slower pace and although I was drenched by the time I got back had a really good feeling about having made it.

After a shower I got the kids up at 8am as for once they had both stayed at home after the karaoke. I took them for breakfast at the dou jiang place we have frequented for the last couple of years where we shared some egg, jiao zi, bao zi, sweetcorn pancake and they drank a warm glass of dou jiang. Ling Ming came to join us as he was going to work, and then Xiao Nong came to pick him up and I took the kids to school.

Outside the breakfast place the kids noticed this cute kitten, and then the lead it was being kept on wrapped around the tree

I was quite tired but stayed awake till 11.30 at which time I rang A Wu and asked if he fancied an early lunch as I was going to have an enforced siesta soon. He told me to wait outside our building and he'd pick me up to go and have noodles. A couple of minutes later I saw the black saloon as it bibbed and pulled up beside me. I opened the door and put my wet foot inside making a dirty stain before realising that it was not A Wu and in fact not even his car. I was rather embarrassed but the driver said it didn't matter. In the meantime A Wu had pulled up behind and seen the whole thing so we had something to laugh about.

So much for noodles - we went to a nice simple place where I ordered sliced fragrant sausage with greens and a fried egg on rice accompanied by a beer to help with the siesta. Then A Wu didn't order because he'd already eaten. Oh well, it was a great meal and the accompanying soup was nice too. The rice was served in a "mu tong" (wooden bucket) and as A Wu explained this to me I asked him if the "tong" was the same as in "ma tong" (western style toilet) and he said that was a disgusting question to ask when talking about food, but that I was correct! The meal and the beer did the trick as back home I managed a sleep till 5pm, by which time I had four missed calls (I never forget to put my phone on silent). I called Tan back and she asked me to dry the clothes before going to a Jie Jie's house near where Waipo lives.

Expecting to take the dian dong che to Jie Jie's I got downstairs after two calls to hurry up, only to find Tan in A Xia's car waiting to take me - could have made that a bit clearer darling.... At Jie Jie's house the air conditioning wasn't working which was a bit annoying as although the rain of the last couple of days had abated, it was still humid and getting hotter. I was still tired and nearly fell asleep sitting on one of the sofas until Tan told me off and Xixi climbed on me. So I went to take a look at the house. It took up the top two floors of the block of flats and the upstairs was even plusher than downstairs, with yet another living room resplendent with huge flat screen tv. The husband of the manor then came in in his police clothes and I gathered he was Treasurer of the police force here. It took another 20 minutes before food was ready when we all piled into the large kitchen (men at one table, ladies at the other) except for the kids and a couple of girls who stayed in the living room.

Two boxes of red wine imported from South Africa were brought out and at least three bottles cracked open. I took one sniff of A Wu's glass and insisted on drinking beer. However, the husband counter-insisted that I have some home made suan mei jiu (prune alcohol) as well which seemed fair enough. I asked him how strong it was and he said 22 degrees. I still don't know what that means really. I know he thought it meant 22%, as others have called Er Gou Tou 56 degrees when they meant 56%, but the most common beer here is qi du, which means 7 degrees, and that is clearly 3.1%. Do degrees equal percentage after a certain strength? I wasn't going to start that conversation at that time. Actually the suan mei jiu was quite nice but I didn't want to start gan bei'ing with it. Unfortunately, during the course of the meal sufficient quantities of beer, wine, and suan mei were imbibed to the extent that even I felt the effects. I once again used Xixi as an excuse for a bit of a pause, and during that time the husband came out and showed me one of the spare rooms where he kept all his home made alcohol, and there were absolutely loads of different types in varying sizes of demijohns.

The ladies having fun (and beer) at Jie Jie's house 

Gan bei'ing at Jie Jie's house with prune alcohol

I got out a little early with the excuse of taking Xixi to Waipo's, then got home soon after 10pm. As I got into the lift I met one of the neighbours with whom I'd briefly chatted recently and said I'd go for a beer with. He asked me to go with him to sing song so I tipsily said I would a bit later and exchanged phone numbers. Upstairs, three minutes later, I got a phone call asking where I was and I realised I must have agreed to go with him there and then. Not wishing any losing of face I put on some long trousers and a shirt and went downstairs where he was waiting outside a car for me. I got in and the driver introduced himself as A Chang, who was a classmate of Tan's in primary school.

I hoped the karaoke place would be close, as in walking distance from home, but it was the one a bit outside town near a lorry park that I'd been to a few years ago and didn't really like. Worse was that the room was empty, and it was now 10.40pm, and I had hoped to just pop in and show my face for a bit. So two of us sat there for a bit while the other arranged his friends. During that time we had a couple of small beers and I sang a couple of songs in a slightly weird atmosphere. Thankfully, within 15 minutes the room had filled up and I only had to re-sing a couple of songs and do a bit of cai mai. I don't particularly like to see women in a drunken state (at least in public) so when the evening fell into a disco state I told A Chang I'd need to leave after having a little dance with the kids. A Chang said he'd take me and that he had to go too. I hoped the latter was true and that this wasn't just to make me feel better, and I got home not that long after midnight.

Registering ourselves and KTV

Though I was bitterly tired I didn't get a wink of sleep during the night, which is not conducive to a good morning. However, I battled through till nearly 8 o'clock when I remembered I needed to register us with the local police. I drove up to the place by the guangchang to find the policeman I have registered with the last few years just starting to open up. When he finished his cigarette he explained something to me that I didn't quite understand - something about how I needed to get some info from the owner of the house we were staying in. I said Tan was the owner but he mentioned something about my mother- or father-in-law. So I got him to write it down on paper. One thing was for sure - I needed to go elsewhere first to get some paperwork before returning.

As it was nearly time for school I drove to Waipo's to find Xixi and get her ready and Waipo gave us a large bag of baby mangoes to take home. Once home I explained to Tan about the paperwork and she said she wasn't sure but that A Xia would help me out. A Xia then popped around in her new MG car to take Xixi to school with me. On the way back she checked out the paper the policeman had written on but didn't know where she should go, so she called her husband, who also didn't know. Then I called A Wu, who did seem to know but put me through to a girl who could speak English ok for some reason.

We finally made it to the police station by the river and as we arrived A Xia said it would rain. Fair enough, there were pregnant clounds above us and I hoped it would wait for a bit. Inside, I explained what I needed and the policewoman in charge let one of the un-uniformed young ladies help me. It took about half an hour to input my information on the new computerised form, not helped by the fact this was obviously her first time. When she finally printed it out I noticed a couple of mistakes but thought better than to mention it. For some reason Leilei and Xixi's forms were far quicker to do as a lot of information was pre-filled. I'm guessing that the system now is actually linked to the visa-issuing system, hence details like their Chinese names etc were already there. But if that was the case why wasn't my information there?

As the process was taking some time I told A Xia to leave and not wait for me. Although it was the decent thing to do I half wished I hadn't when the heavens well and truly split open and let rip a torrential downpour. I finally had my three sheets of paper and asked if I needed anything else. I was answered in the negative, but when I showed placeholders for photos they said I would need photos. "Oh, but it will be too late!", said one of the girls for some reason, thinking I'd need to do the photos before 12pm. Well, luckily I am fairly well prepared for such eventualities and after hailing a san lun che went home and found three passport photos of us (forgetting that the kids' ones were from quite a long time ago - in fact I think Leilei's photo for his visa was from when he was 4).

I got back to the guangchang police station on the dian dong che as the rain had eased down and I was in a bit of a rush as I had a meeting at midday. I got the paperwork done successfully but not until after most of the printed information was copied out by hand on a second set of paperwork....

I made my meeting in time and had finished by 12.30pm. I was shattered, but needed to eat so called A Wu and asked if he wanted to eat something quickly. He did so we went to the duck and goose place and this time had goose and greens with his driver. By 1.30 I was full and home, and as I'd had a reasonably profitable morning I treated myself to a gin and lemonade before having a well overdue sleep till 6pm.

I only had four missed calls, all from Tan asking me to go to Waipo's for tea. This I did before going out again for another round of pool with A Wu. We played 30 kuai for the winner and this time I stupidly lost 4-1. A Wu said he was embarrassed he still owed me 10 kuai as he didn't have change. He said that the amount wasn't important, but the principle! Nice to know some things are like that. I then got a phone call from Tan stating that Ling Ming had invited the family out to karaoke to introduce us to his fiancee (actually officially his wife as they have already signed the papers). It happened to be the KTV which is part of the establishment with the snooker hall, so we wandered over there. When I rang up to see where they were A Wu walked out and up the stairs to the badminton bidding me to follow him. When I caught up he explained it was bad style to turn up before the people had invited you, and he was ashamed! So he played badminton in his trousers for a few minutes until I got the call that they were there.

Er Jie's powerful ending of a modern Chinese classic

It really was a family affair and when I got there Er Jie was in full swing. She has a powerful voice to say the least but can also control it. I managed to record the ending of one of the songs she sang. Most of the adults took the kids home at 11pm and there was only Ling Ming, his fiancee Xiao Nong, and me left. It was like being an anti-gooseberry as they actually wanted me to stay with them and drink beer and sing some English songs, so I did so as not to be rude, though I really could have done with going home - it's not the same doing karaoke in a mostly empty room.

Leilei sporting a sporty new haircut and Xixi doing her best to look...err? 

Four men don't fit on a bike

We had a slight logistics problem at 9am as I couldn't physically get the three boys on the dian dong che. Then Nong Kaicheng said he needed to go to his mum's for an English lesson anyway, so I took him there and told Leilei and A Da to get a san lun che to school. That worked out pretty well as I needed to go and pick up Xixi and take her from Waipo's house. They are not a quarter as clingy at school as they were last year so I was able to leave them without too much fuss but not before I blew Xixi the biggest red balloon in the class.

I wasn't feeling particularly well and decided to go back to bed, but unfortunately I didn't get to sleep till gone 2pm and then didn't get up till nearly 6pm. That did the trick a bit, and set me up for the evening which was necessary because I ended up working till 2am. It's a small price to pay for the privilege of being able to spend so much time here.

Two cute little goldfish living in water oxygenated by the roots of a plant? 

Meal with teachers

We've only been here two full days but it feels like a week already.

Woke up at 8am and later took Xixi over to Waipo's. Leilei had apparently gone to school with his two mates so I had a fairly relaxing morning, and went out to buy some jiao zi. At 37p that will be one of my cheapest, and probably most common meals this summer at least when I'm working. I conjured up my sleeping powers and managed a brief siesta until A Wu called me to play "snooker" again. I asked if we were going to play badminton too and he said no as we were going for a meal with A Da's headteacher afterwards.

Unfortunately, for some reason I just couldn't aim while playing pool, and A Wu had realised that smacking the balls around wasn't conducive to winning, so was taking tamer and more accurate shots. I only lost 2-1 because of a couple of huge flukes on A Wu's part, or "fate" as he'd probably call it...I can see why this version of the rules is popular here as there is a lot more room for luck.

I had a blue three-fingered glove on my right and a black one on my left. Ronnie O'Sullivan eat your heart out.

We had to leave at 5.15pm as A Wu had invited the teachers and as such you have to ensure you're at the restaurant half an hour before anyone else. As it was this was a good move because they'd forgotten to turn on the air conditioning in our large private room - a cardinal sin here.

By 6.15pm the headteacher, A Da's teacher for next year and a couple of other blokes had arrived, as well as Tan, A Ni, and our kids. There looked to be too many places laid and chairs set up so about five were moved to the side so it wouldn't look too empty. When two more blokes came we were hungry enough to ask the main waitress to serve our soups. This quickly descended into starting on everything else on the electric revolving table, and over the next 20 mins or so a few more blokes came in, including the Nanning blokes.

Eventually, when the initial pangs of hunger were sated, beer and white alcohol were served (you either drink one or t'other - no mixing). Although you might expect teachers in front of their pupils' parents to go easy on the bottle it was quite the opposite. I should have known as I met the headteacher to "drink tea" last year where they were guzzling cold red wine with ice cubes. What followed was a lot of gan bei'ing, as every bloke had to do it with every other bloke, and the only women were Tan, A Ni, and A Da's teacher. Of course with so many blokes, people lose count of who they've gan bei'd with, so you get repeats. I thought better of telling the first bloke who double-gan bei'd me that he'd already done so as I didn't want to induce any losing of face.

Having a meal with A Da's headmaster and various others

Being the foreigner I think I got more of my share of gan beis, so I needed a plan for a pause if only to let the bubbles settle. Not for the first time I used the kids. I mentioned swimming and within a few minutes all three of them decided they wanted to go. That gave me the chance to take them to Waipo's house across the way and I eked out 15 minutes of relaxation.

But I didn't want to be too unsociable so I made my way back to the restaurant and found the blokes in full swing playing cai ma. The bloke on my right had apparently started on the bloke on my left (the headteacher) with four rounds of first-to-four. By the time I got there and worked out what was going on he was three people away from finishing the table. He promptly did this and I found out he'd beaten every single person and only I was left. I was glad I'd had my break as he walloped me 4-0 on the first round. I protested that I wasn't used to playing in Mandarin and he said fine we'll play in Bai Hua (Guangxi Cantonese with a bit of local language mixed in). To the delight of the whole table I won the second round 4-2 and received a round of applause! But miracles were not to happen and I lost the last two heavily. I am still trying to work out just how some people can be so much better, so regularly, than others. I'm quite good as I can be fairly random, but to move up the ranks I'm going to have to quickly identify patterns in others, then perform fake patterns myself to lull my opponent into a false sense of security. All this sounds a lot easier when you're 100% sober.

Eventually, when things showed no signs of letting up, I made my excuses and said I'd have to leave. This was accepted, but not before just about everyone left gan bei'd me again. I'm not sure I'd have drunk more if I'd stayed. But it was nice to get out into fresh air, and I walked home before realising it was only 9.30pm and I'd committed the sin of not going for a headwash within two days of arriving! With the wife and kids taken care of I unguiltily took the dian dong che to the place I've frequented with A Wu many times in the past. They all remembered me there and immediately got a young lady to settle me down. The next 50 minutes would have been total bliss if A Wu hadn't started calling about half way through. I told him to come around and he said he would but he didn't, so I said I'd see him later. I was so comfortable I took the most expensive 35 kuai shampoo (there was 25 and 20 too) and even let the girl crack my neck. I still can't believe that you are supposedly paying for the shampoo and not someone's time. I left relaxed and soberer and made my way home, where I found A Ni and A Wu, the latter a bit the worse for wear.

I'd given A Wu three bottles of duty free earlier in the day and he insisted on giving me 1000 kuai for them. Firstly I insisted they were presents, and then that they were only worth about 300 anyway. He was having none of it and explaining that he would give them to other bosses, who in turn would do business deals with him, and therefore he would make more money. I've never heard him be so explicit about something so obvious.

I made him drink some cold lemonade with ice cubes (using up the only mixer I currently have for the Gordons), and he seemed to enjoy that, before lying down on our sofa. I called A Ni to take him home which she did at midnight finally.

A Da and Nong Kaicheng came over to stay the night for a change, which must be Leilei's first night here since we arrived. They looked cozy together but will probably not want to see the picture of themselves in the future.

Three boys sideways in a bed

I stayed up later than I should and found I had an email from work asking me to work tomorrow. Oh well, half expected really.

Badminton, pool, KTV, bbq...

Got up at 8am due to the noise. It's not just the traffic noise that gets through, it's more the beeping and occasional loud speakers playing music from cars advertising things. But you can get used to that - today it was the sound of drilling from not far away. Even though our place was opened two years ago, not all the flats are decorated yet, and here decorating means a lot of infrastructural work like doing the plumbing. I had hoped this wouldn't be the case as this year, unlike last, the lifts have had their protective wooden boards removed from the walls and floor, meaning that it is not expected to be bringing building materials inside. But I've noticed that one of the flats next door has yet to be decorated, as is the same for a few more around us.

Leilei had slept at A Da's place last night, so was not to be seen. Tan pottered about with Xixi and I was able to fall asleep again, despite the noise, till 11am...luxury. Then I took Xixi to Waipo's to have lunch. She would hardly touch her zhou, even though Waipo poured sugar into it, so I took her and Leilei out to a place I know that does a nice sliced sausage with greens and bamboo on rice, and offers free warm tea to customers. Neither of them seemed that interested in eating so I only ordered one portion and bought them a can of sweet tea each. Eventually Leilei had some sausage and rice, and Xixi a bowl of soup. I'm not one for forcing kids to eat - they will eat when they are hungry and I don't want them to associate eating with being told off. I think I'll be fighting a losing battle with that one - if they had their way they'd only eat sweets, but actually that might be ok in a way as we lose our first set of teeth anyway so maybe that's how we evolved.

I needed to register our presence in Pingguo so we picked up our passports and drove to the police station. As we were arriving (and noticed it was closed) Lin Hong rang me to tell me to bring the kids around to her house and play with Tian Tian and Pei Pei "big sisters". I duly did, but Leilei didn't want to play with the girls which is fair enough, so we went home. It didn't take long before A Da called me to ask where Leilei was. I said he was here and that he could come around if he liked. However, I had started to get a feeling in my bottom I'm only too familiar with and left my phone with Leilei and quickly made a move to the toilet. In the few minutes I was there A Da had called again, and Leilei had let him and Nong Kaicheng in. It was good to see the boys playing so nicely, even if it was just silly computer games on the Internet.

A Da, Nong Kaicheng and Leilei being a bit geeky and looking very silly

I conjured up my newly found dozing skills and managed forty winks or so while the lads played in the living room. One of the ways I sometimes manage to let myself fall into the arms of morpheus is to count each exhalation of breath in German. Not that I can speak it but counting is ok. And the fact that it is not a language I speak I suppose makes my brain concentrate on it rather than more exciting things. I find I can rarely get beyond 25 before either I forget where I am or I nod off. My one concern is that I become so familiar with counting in German that it no longer requires brain work. But I am prepared...I will just have to learn to count in another language. Logically that will run out too but if I become insomniacal in the future at least I'll know I can count to 25 in 200 languages.

My office (that bloody balloon has travelled all the way from London)

Tan called me to ask to bring the kids around to eat at A Hua's at 5pm. This I duly did and it was nice to see the house we lived in four years ago when we were here for three months. A Hua and her family are now living here full time and have done it up a bit more and it looks really nice. I said goodbye to the kids and then Tan asked why I was leaving. Apparently A Hua had invited all of us, not just the kids, though Tan hadn't explained that part to me. I said I'd arranged to play badminton (in English, so as not to embarrass A Hua, and also because I remembered it was Saturday). Tan asked me who I was playing with and I nearly said A Wu, but remembered that A Wu had gone to play with A Dong who is A Xia's husband, and I thought that would go down better. When I told her she changed her mind and told me to go and play badminton instead. Cool.

I got to the badminton place by the guangchang and went upstairs. It was like before but now instead of painted lines on the wooden floor they had laid special badminton court-rugs. I played a couple of games with A Wu, who has been practising for the last few years and lost 21-10 and 21-12, and then had to play the maestro A Dong. I was sopping sweating wet and tired due to lack of exercise but forced myself anyway. At 13-0 down I was in danger of being whitewashed but I clawed back to lose 21-3. The only moral victory was getting back to the bench in one piece to finish my water. A Wu wanted to go to play "snooker" but I said I needed a shower first, which he didn't look too happy about. But I took the one minute journey home and grabbed myself one anyway. When I got to the security man at the gate of our block he asked me if I'd been drinking alcohol, and I realised my face must have beed that red after the exercise. When I got out of the shower I had a missed call and a text from A Wu telling me he'd decided to do the same and would pick me up in a bit to go and eat duck.

We drove to another place we frequented last year that specialises in duck and goose, and ordered a half of the former and some greens. Surprisingly this was a simple meal with just us two and no private rooms. That was until we realised we'd never finish the huge portion of duck so we invited the Nanning blokes around. Well they'd actually eaten so we bagged the quarter duck that was left and drove to the snooker hall.

Snooker was actually pool, despite all the pictures of snooker players in the hall. I'd played last year and remembered to bring back the VIP card A Wu had given me then. There are about 20 tables each about 8' long and they are very fast. A Wu wanted to play for money - 20 kuai to the winner, so I said make it 30. Then I thought I'd better check the rules...well actually I ended up picking them up as I went along, which was a bit of an advantage to A Wu. It's similar to British pool except if you foul you have to take one of your balls out of a pocket and put it on the black spot. If there are already balls there you just push them down a bit until your ball goes on the spot (I suspect that is an A Wu rule). Instead of reds and yellows it's 1-7s spots and 9-15s stripes with 8 being the black. There is no 'D' so when the white goes in it has its own spot, and you can only shoot down the table.

I learnt just about all of these rules during one shot; A Wu had fouled but the black had come up the table to just below the white spot. As there was no 'D' I had no choice but to hit the black and foul straight back. But I got my own back; A Wu's only ball was on the black spot (the one he'd just had to replace due to sinking the white) so I left the white just above the black spot. He would have had a relatively easy shot but of course I had fouled, so had to retrieve one of my balls and place it neatly in-between the white and his ball, thus snookering him. I got the last laugh as he fouled his next shot and I ended up winning the game.

He didn't like my thoughtful approach to the game and leaving balls hanging over pockets - his idea was to just whack the easiest ball and if it doesn't go in hopefully it would go in another pocket. However, the same kept happening to the white too, so although he was down to the black he ended up with about five balls on the table by the end of the game. Having said that he fluked the next game before we started the third. I then got a call from Li Kun, whom I'd called earlier in the day to let know I was in town. He had said he'd meet me later but I wasn't expecting to go just then so I said I'd be about 10 minutes. What happened then was the longest bloody pool game in history. I didn't want to keep Li Kun waiting so I tried to see off A Wu quickly, but it was a case of more haste, less speed. So I tried a different approach of trying to lose, but couldn't play as badly as my opponent. I had another call from Li Kun asking where I was but A Wu said not to worry he could wait. Finally I beat him and rang Li Kun to tell him I was on my way. A Wu stayed in the snooker hall so I walked the five minutes to Old Tree cafe where Li Kun was waiting outside.

I hadn't realised he was going to book a whole booth, or that his wife, daughter, brother, sister-in-law and their daughter would be there and I'd held them up from ordering. Actually I should have expected that. Anyway we had some nice nibbles and a few Li Quan qi du beers before I got a phone call from Tian Tian saying Xixi wanted to go home. I told her to bring her to Old Tree and I would look after her. Xixi was a bit cold to Li Kun's two year old, and the other 10 year old girl at first, but eventually started talking to the latter about the menu before announcing she wanted the purple juice drink. I still don't know what it was, but she liked it before putting ice cubes in it and announcing it was too cold. Then, as kids sometimes do with cups with straws, she tilted it as she was drinking and I had a nice big purple cold spillage down my shorts.

At least she went off to play with the others for a bit while the dads talked and the women smiled. Not that long after though she refused to ask where the toilets were and the consequences were more see-through than purple and less fragrant. That marked the end of the evening, which, being 11.30pm was not such a bad thing. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and walked the two minute walk home for a shower.

As Xixi wasn't too tired I took her to the Ming Dian hotel where A Dong, the bloke who killed me at badminton, was having his birthday party. It was a busy affair with quite a few kids and I didn't really fancy staying. I didn't really fancy going to karaoke either but A Wu had texted me asking me to go as the blokes we met in Nanning were there. So I made my excuses and headed off home where I was picked up by A Wu three minutes later.

We went to the same place we went for Tan's birthday last year (not to be repeated this year I hope). It was incredibly noisy and most of the inhabitants were rather the worse for wear, including one girl who was plastered and could barely sit up. As I was very sober I had to gan bei with everyone with my least favourite beer sold here: 2.5% Pabst Blue Ribbon. And then the old cliché of singing the two songs I know in Chinese, plus Hey Jude (to the accompaniment of the aforementioned girl vomiting on the floor).


I was quite glad to leave but instead of going home we stopped off for some bbq outside the guang chang, which has become our local because the previous favourite, Tian Yang Po no longer works. For some reason I was completely crap at cai ma and had to drink copious amounts of Li Quan until 3am when even I was glad to hear Tan calling me to ask where I was. We all decided to call it a night and the Nanning blokes drove off in their nice new car, as did A Wu in his. I was probably the soberest and insisted on walking the 200 yards back home to find Xixi asleep with Tan in our bed. Apparently Leilei was sleeping at Nong Kaicheng's house so I took his room and went straight to sleep.

Definitely back in Pingguo

Happy Birthday Thomas!

Despite being knackered I couldn't sleep more than 10 mins at a time till around 7am before managing a couple of hours until Tan and the kids got up. I managed to stay in bed while Tan took them to Waipo's for breakfast and dump them off there, leaving me the luxury of a little more sleep till 11am.

I hadn't really trusted that our SIM cards would still be working this year, despite the assurances of the young ladies at China Telecom and A Wu, but I was glad to be proved wrong as it's really useful not to have to tell dozens of people your new number again. Last night I made the wise choice of putting my phone on mute while I slept, but surprisingly I only had one text by the time I got up.

I am very familiar with this view of Pingguo as every time I take the lift downstairs I have 45 seconds to imbibe it. Neither remarkable or serene, I still remark on it and it makes me feel serene

I popped around to see Waipo and the kids when I got up, and she seemed genuinely glad to see me again. Xixi was eating some sweets and I found Leilei with A Da, Nong Kaicheng and Qiqi (Tan's 2nd sister's son) and another friend in one of the bedrooms. Qiqi seemed nearly in tears and wouldn't say a word. I walked out and played with Xixi for a few minutes before I heard the bedroom door slam. Qiqi was standing there in the corridor with a plastic machine gun in his hands looking very angry indeed. He proceeded to smash the gun against the door which made it break into many pieces, then punched and kicked the door before letting out one of the most disturbingly piercing and deafening shrieks I've ever had the misfortune to be in the vicinity of. I tried to get him to calm down by talking to him but he just let out another harpie screech and banged the door again. I didn't know what exactly had happened but he's now 10 years old and as heavy as some people twice his age, and I didn't want Xixi or anyone else being the subject of any violence, even if not intended. I called Tan, who said he'd been great with the kids earlier, and then Waipo went to calm him down and Chuan chuan took Xixi out. I don't think the fact that his mum lives in another town helps things. I'm not even sure where he lives - maybe he's just here for the holiday, but it's either growing pains or a rather extreme tantrum.

By the time I got home A Wu was calling me to go and eat lunch. Breakfast-less, I agreed, and went downstairs where A Wu, his driver and two bosses were already waiting for me in A Wu's black Toyota he bought while we were here last year.

The driver was the same bloke who drove us from the airport yesterday allowing A Wu to have a couple of beers. I don't know his name but I guess having your own driver is a step up the social ranking ladder. I was introduced to Boss Luo and Boss Yang, from a bank in Nanning. I didn't ask as to the nature of their visit but they seemed pleasant enough. Instead of going to get something to eat we went to A Wu's work place a few minutes outside Pingguo. A Wu was explaining to the bosses how it all worked, and of course we all sat down and drank tea there. This time it was "gno mi" cha. I'm not exactly sure what this is but it is brown and slightly sweet, and rather nice. After about 45 minutes we moved on to another work site, which I didn't quite understand, but it meant I was getting hungrier. Finally we got back in the car to go to eat. Or so I hoped. We went back to A Wu's work place and spent another 20 minutes surveying the rocks before finally I got in another car with one of A Wu's colleagues and we all drove to Li Jia He Xian, the restaurant we have most frequently frequented for the last few years.

A Wu's stone producing work is still going strong

Apart from the fish dishes, which I avoid as they tend to give me la du, the food was as good as always. After 15 minutes a couple of beers were cracked open and I had to do a couple of gan beis due to meeting people for the first time. Boss Luo didn't drink. He said it was because last year he drank four bottles of Er Gou Tou (nasty 56% rice alcohol that Venky was sick on). I'm not sure if he's off the sauce for good and didn't enquire either. Other than that only the driver did not imbibe. And then during the meal two more blokes came in thus more gan bei'ing. It was a good-natured meal and Boss Yang was quite red-faced by the time we left. We bade our farewells and I was told to call them when next in Nanning. This happened last year with my name-mate Mr Peng, but I never ended up spending any time there. I'm hoping that this year I'll make amends for that and give him a bell one year later. Like last year, the clothes we'd left here now smelt a little musty and needed to be washed. Also, Tan had asked me to wash the pillows and duvets. It sounded wrong to wash pillows so I presumed she meant pillow cases, which I dutifully did, along with the bedsheets. Later, it transpired she actually did mean to wash the pillows. I tried putting two pillows in the washing machine but they had to be stuffed in and surely wouldn't have washed. So I put in one plus a few clothes and it ended up that neither the pillow nor the clothes were properly clean, and certainly had not dried a bit during the spin cycle. However, at least the pillow no longer smelt. I've noticed that my suit is also a bit stained due to age and I don't reckon there'll be a dry cleaners here. I also don't reckon I'll need to wear a suit but at least I'm prepared just in case.

I managed a couple of hours' siesta on my own back home as Tan was out with friends and the kids were at Waipo's, also with friends. It wasn't easy getting up at 6.30pm but the consequences of sleeping later would have been severe: a missed meal and no sleep for ages. Actually we didn't have a normal evening meal; rather Tan wanted to go for bbq later in the evening when it was dark. So I took the opportunity to go to the supermarket to catch up on provisions - washing powder and fabric conditioner and a few other bits and bobs. I was happy that my membership card for the supermarket still worked, but I still have no idea what swiping it every time I make a purchase means - one day I'll hopefully get a super-discount.

I gave Tan a call while in the supermarket to ask if she wanted anything, but I'd covered her needs with the washing stuff, except she also wanted to get a hoover. WTF? A hoover in a small apartment with wooden floors? Apparently wiping the floor doesn't get rid of the dust. Well that is bollocks and I refuse to get a vacuum cleaner for the few weeks we are here - honestly.... Anyway she said she was with A Ni chatting outside A Xia's shop as per usual and I was to pick up Xixi and take her there. Then A Hua called me and I told her the women were at A Xia's and she should go there as she hasn't yet seen Tan this year.

While leaving supermarket I noticed that they still sell Gordons Gin in a separate section so I got a wee bottle in the hope of finding something to mix it with. Awl had come up with a genius idea a few weeks ago: buy some concentrate tonic water and mix it with fizzy water in Pingguo. So indeed I ordered a couple of bottles of Sodastream concentrated tonic from Argos before I left. It was an almost flawless idea, based on the fact that tonic water does not exist in Guangxi. Unfortunately, the only flaw was that fizzy water also appears not to exist in Pingguo. Try as I might I couldn't find fizzy water for love nor money - I'm going to have to arrange a trip to Nanning to sort that out.

As I was walking back home, past the guangchang, I met Tan and A Ni getting off a san lun che. There was no look of unexpectedness as you might expect from someone you thought was in a completely different place - what about if I had gone to A Xia's shop as arranged? Apparently Xixi had gone out with Lin Hong so I didn't need to take her, and Tan and A Ni were going to go for some bbq in a bit. I asked Tan if my trusty steed, the dian dong che (electric bike) was available and she said it was broken. A Ni overheard me and told me to wait a sec while she made a call. A minute later she told me to go and pick it up from a bloke at A Hua's house. So in two minutes I'd had as many total contradictions - it does feel like I'm back in Pingguo.

I dumped off the shopping at home and walked to A Hua's place. On the way A Wu called and asked me to go and drink tea. As it happened he was just around the corner from A Hua's place, which was convenient. Instead of "some bloke", A Hua herself was waiting by my dian dong che. It was older, dustier, and a bit more dilapidated than before but it was still like seeing an old friend, except she'd put on the pole at the front that you can stick an umbrella into. I also bumped into A Hua's mum and Lao Pan, who seemed happy to see me again. Then I drove all of 20 seconds to meet A Wu. This time he actually was in a tea shop drinking tea. There were a couple of women and a couple of blokes, and A Wu bought me my own tea cup for 30 kuai. This cup will stay in the tea shop and will have my name on it and every time I come in I will use it to drink from. Sort of like having your own tankard at the local pub, except does that actually happen?.

We drank for about half an hour till half nine, by which time it was time to eat, so we drove to the bbq place run by Tan's aunt and found the ladies with the kids and a couple of blokes. Although I stayed for an hour or so I didn't really have that much to eat, and then Xixi was obviously getting very tired so I took her home to shower and sleep at 11pm. With Xixi sleeping in our bed, Tan arrived an hour later laden with bags of clothes A Xia had given for her and the kids. She insisted on giving a fashion show and I had to comment on how everything looked. Instead of just saying "looks lovely, dear" about every item I actually do look and tell her if her arse looks big or the colours don't go together. Although she says to others I don't know anything about fashion she actually nearly always asks me if her clothes are ok before she goes out (something she would vehemently deny if asked!).

Xixi chose the chilli bbq'd duck tongues herself and munched through them! Should I show this pic to her English classmates?

Although pretty tired I stayed up late just so I could have some time to myself and sort out my study with the geeky stuff I'd bought. Unfortunately we don't now have a telly, rather a large computer monitor that is fine because I've set up Awl's old laptop on it but sometimes you just want to watch tv without setting up a laptop first. After my geeky chores I eventually got to bed at 4.15am

Journey back to Pingguo for the umpteenth time

Happy Birthday mum!

Wow, I just got some kip, maybe the better part of five hours. I must say I am impressed by this aeroplane. It is obviously nearly brand new (not that unexpected on a new route as they are trying to impress customers), but the leg room is so much they must have removed a few rows of seats to incorporate it. I actually thought we might be in Economy Premier or something - even the trays in front of us were almost too far away from us to eat comfortably. It was delightful to get some sleep on a 12 hour journey with kids - it really does get easier (though a couple of whiskies may have helped). Recently I have been finding it possible to grab micro sleeps due to multiple forays to Belgium on the first Eurostar out. It means getting up before 6am and driving to Ebbsfleet, but I have recently managed to get a bit of shut-eye on the train - something that I didn't even manage when up at 4.30am to get the train from St Pancras after City won the Premier League...maybe I was more excited then.

The ability to grab a few minutes of impromptu sleep is more important than many people appreciate, but not me as I've been the victim of the inability for almost all my life. It can literally turn a forgettable evening into a great one, and possibly could help ensure a business deal.

We had no worries at arriving 20 minutes late at Guangzhou as we'd have a good three hours to make our connection, which was handy as soon after we arrived we had our first Oriental experience. We were waiting for our luggage as we'd been told in London (as per every year we've been coming) that we'd need to retrieve it and check it in again in Guangzhou. Fair enough, I mean this happens in the USA too (though quite annoying). But this time after a while our luggage had not appeared. In fact there was very little luggage, presumably as many people were en route to New Zealand. Presently, a bloke explained to us that our luggage may have been put on its way to Nanning. Well if so that's very nice but it would have been nice to know as I had four bottles of booze in my hand luggage and we'd still have to do security again. We were told that we could bring our duty free though security (we'd just about managed this last year in Frankfurt) but we'd need our receipts. Typically, although I had mine, Tan had left her perfume receipts in the plane. After more discussion it was apparent that the most convenient course of action would be to check in my hand luggage with the booze and add Tan's perfume. It took the addition of my coat and a jumper in order to cushion the bottles, but I deemed it worthwhile due to the warm airport and we wrapped our presents in the hope of seeing them intact a bit later. I would actually have done this even if the airport was freezing. Tan then made some more expensive perfume purchases she apparently hadn't had time to do in Heathrow.

I had a fairly manic hour when I was stuck in emergency meetings with work on Skype in the airport. It was not great but I got most of my points across. Despite how easy it should be to use Skype these days it's amazing how so many conversations begin with "can you hear me ok?"...just like the early days.

The kids were ok and our flight was only delayed 15 mins and I suppose the turbulence wasn't bad because no-one else on the plane noticed it. We arrived shortly before 11pm and it was genuinely nice to see our family again, together with a couple of blokes who also picked us up last year.

After fussing about in the 38 degree heat for a quarter of an hour we finally got in a couple of cars and drove out of the airport for...about three minutes. Then we stopped. Apparently Tan had asked A Ni to get some bbq so we'd stopped on the side of the road to eat it. Why not? It was rather delicious and A Wu brought out a couple of packs of cans of beer and we all had a minor feast. Although A Wu and I had had a big hug in the airport, the others merely raised hands to each other in a way I am perfectly used to now. We were nearly home.

Pei Pei, Lin Hong, and A Wu bringing out the beers for a roadside bbq

Leilei and Xixi had been a little shy after getting off the plane but within half an hour in A Wu's car they were calling him names like "A Wu Uncle bottom" and "A Wu Uncle no-nose" which amused most of us for the 90 minute journey home. I nearly dropped off a couple of times before finally making it after the car with Tan and the other ladies. By the time we'd got to our house all the suitcases were there but no unpacking done. It was 1.15am but we spent till 2 o'clock chatting before our family/friends left and we started to unpack. It was mostly done by 3.30am but the kids were still awake. Eventually Leilei came into our room at 5am and we had no energy to turf him out.

A Da, Leilei, and Xixi acting like zombies - they would not give me any other pose

Back to China 2012

Despite the fact that I had planned this date three months ago it ended up being one of the most stressful days I have ever known, despite the fact that I refuse to acknowledge the concept of stress. Normally (it never seemed normal until this year), it was just a case of booking flights, recoiling at the cost of them, and then dealing with it. This year we'd bought the flights including the internal flights at great expense, but actually they were slightly cheaper than last year because the cost of the internal flights was a cool grand for us four from Beijing to Nanning. This year we're flying from London to Guangzhou direct (thanks, China Southern) and have already included our flights from Guangzhou to Nanning (to be seen how goes as currently en route to Guangzhou).

The queue in Heathrow looked bad when I got there at 7.40pm, nearly three hours in advance. Tan and the kids had taken the taxi and unfortunately been delayed nearly an hour so we only got into the queue at nearly half eight for our half ten flight. It took well over an hour, during which I should have been working as we had had a very bad day at work with a needy client. I had been lumbered with a 96 page document full of comments that I was told I needed to sort out. Well I did the best I could, assuming I'd be able to work for a couple of hours in the airport. As it transpired I didn't have the time for a bite to eat, let alone work. All in all a very regrettable situation.

Well, that was out of my hands. The kids were ok, and understandably excitable. Xixi had slept in the taxi, but not Leilei. They dealt with the long queue better than us adults and finally we made our way through security and even managed to get some duty free before boarding.

So far the flight has been ok. I must have missed the life-jacket warnings as I was checking something on my phone as we took off. The first time I have been so un-nerved for such an event (and the first time I have missed the warnings to turn electronic devices off unless China Southern have become the first airline to realise that such things do not warrant a danger). So far we are four hours into the flight and the wife and kids are asleep but I just can't do so (it is about 3am UK time). Please let me get some kip!!

Leilei and Xixi looking less than impressed at the legroom on the nice flight to Guangzhou

A380 for the main flight back...and a grateful pickup from LHR

After under four hours' sleep we got up at around 6am and brought our stuff to the reception. I paid the bill (not realising that the tonic was not included in the 26 kuai for my gins of the previous night and being slightly miffed at that). But not that miffed as after I paid up the bloke at the reception he gave me a big western style hug as though we were old friends, before the taxi turned up. Not only was it on time, and a friend of the hotel, it was only 300 kuai all in, which made it 100 kuai cheaper than the one that was arranged for us from the airport four days ago.

We were well in time for the flight, and spent a bit of time getting duty free before we needed to board. As I took a photo of Leilei in front of the plane I learnt that it was an Airbus 380, in other words the new, biggest passenger plane in the world as I understand it. Not that it made any obvious difference to me as we boarded as per a normal plane. We'd managed the middle four seats and thankfully the flight to Germany was fairly smooth and I did manage a little sleep. Using the kids I managed to bypass queues in Frankfurt or wherever we were and the kids slept on the flight to London as I wish I could have.

A handsome lad in front of our A380 to take us to Europe

Good old Awl had driven to Heathrow and met us there to drive us back, during which the kids slept all the time. I dreaded the night that was to come but in fact they did go to bed reasonably ok, allowing Awl and I to have a late nightcap. I hate getting back so much, but it is made easier by the prospect of seeing family and friends. One thing I have promised myself to not do though is moan about the temperature. I hate it when other people do that so must not do so myself. So what? You lived in a warmer country, it's not like you don't know what it's like in the UK. It's cold and wet - deal with it.

Once again we've had a lovely time in our home in China. It is good to be back in the UK again. Both are good, but I feel a bit out of it here now. Here's hoping that in ten months we'll get the chance to go back again. Gan bei!

Ah, so it wasn't G&T yesterday...anyway last night in Beijing and nice meal

Today was slightly more relaxed than Beijing has been so far. Slightly. Actually, that reminds me of part of "The Greatest Show on Earth", or maybe it was "The God Delusion". Well, it was one of Dawkins's recent works where he digresses when he mentions "Beijing", and asks why we don't call it "Peking" as other countries do. It's quite an interesting point. We don't call Paris "Paree", or Rome, "Roma". But it doesn't actually matter that much so Beijing it is.

Not sure if that was Xixi's writing but I love this way of practising just using water - safe!

After an enjoyable morning in the courtyard of the hotel after breakfast bought locally the previous night we went out to see Cao Lei again. This time we went to a beautiful park just north of the Forbidden City, affording great views of it. I really should remember this park's name. It was a hot day and we enjoyed some long walks to various pagodi before taking a nice boat ride to more serene places.

Tan can still get her arms around me but I need to remove some excess I put on in Pingguo

In front of the Forbidden City

They got a bit spoilt with a fan-cap for Xixi and a blue machine gun for Leilei...

We got back to our place in the late afternoon but I had arranged to meet the sister of an ex-colleague of mine from university ten years back, as I'd met them in London a few months back and said if I was ever in Beijing I'd call her and I was true to my word. Then we experienced a particularly frustrating part of Chinese life in big cities as I understand it. It was 6pm, and therefore all the cabbies were changing shifts, i.e. they were all going home and not taking new fares. I just can't believe that this would happen now. 6pm has to be the time when cabs are most in demand so surely those savvy drivers would ensure they were working at this time, no? It took more than fifteen minutes but I eventually flagged one down and had to wrestle away others to get my family into it. But we did it and got to a rather posh area of Beijing, on the waterfront, at not long before 7pm.

We met up with my ex-colleague's sister after Xixi had unintentionally given me a bloody nose by headbutting me while trying to kiss me. The poor girl was distraught when she saw she'd drawn blood and it was all I could do to tell her it was ok. Well, the meal was delicious, despite more than a dozen toilet breaks for the kids. It wasn't too pricy at around 300+ kuai so I didn't feel too bad about not paying for it. Afterwards at around 9.30pm getting a cab was nearly as bad as earlier, but miraculously two turned up at once and we nigh on jumped into them with barely a second to say our thank yous and goodbyes.

We had done most of the packing this morning for tomorrow's journey, so had a relatively relaxed last couple of hours. I'd promised the kids some little presents so we stopped in a small knick-knack shop on our hotel's road and I got them some cheap crap that they liked. I also got a rather cool mini plunger - about 1.5" in length, which was designed to stick on the back of your smartphone to lean it up as you watched videos on it. Ingenious!

Sometimes it's just great with your kids

When the kids were finally asleep I took the laptop to the bar again for a G&T again and to print out the boarding passes, and to book a cab for tomorrow. I made a realisation that I really ought to have done this last night. The "0 Calorie" tonic water I'd chosen last night was not in fact tonic water but soda water. I still don't really know what that is but it's not much different from fizzy water. No wonder my G&T tasted so shit, as it was in fact G&SW, which doesn't even sound nice. So I sank two real G&Ts (fully calorific) for the first time in two months and properly enjoyed them this time. I even helped out some French tourists in French, as for some reason the Lufthansa website didn't seem to want to work with our Chinese connection. I ended up using logmein to connect to my UK laptop and downloaded the boarding passes from there and then emailing them to myself so I could get them in China and print them out. And people call that geeky...say that the next time you miss your plane in the Far East, suckers.

I did stay up rather late as I hoped that that would enable me to sleep on the next day's flight.

Great Wall (again for me with City top on)

Despite the smaller beds it was undeniable that this place was much nicer than the Forest Land Hotel. However, I did have to help out with the local Internet. The only wifi reception I could get was from the reception (no pun intended) even though there was an access point in the courtyard so I asked the receptionist if I could have a look at their setup. I noticed that their access point was unplugged in the central area. So I plugged it in and set it up in the comms room. To put it in a nutshell I solved their Internet issues in a few minutes and although they were grateful it wasn't half as much as I was. It enabled me to do a bit of geeking while the family slept and I finally got to sleep at oneish after a couple of beers.

We met Cao Lei again this morning. We were to go to the Great Wall, and she was to drive us. I had been there back in 2003 and it had changed. Not the wall itself, not even the shops selling touristy shite. But something less Chinese was there. Around 40% of people there were not Chinese and again it felt so different from 2003 with Venky. Plus this time we had blooming kids to deal with, neither of whom really wanted to go to the top (same as the ladies). So after ten minutes' climbing we went back down and had a meal of dumplings in a reasonably priced restaurant at the bottom. I've had difficulties paying Cao Lei for all she's done for us but finally managed to put a few hundred kuai in her hand today. On the way back I slightly geeked with my phone and played some Chinese songs over the FM radio much to the ladies' delight!

At the base of one of the entrances of the wall

About as far up as we got on the Great Wall

Leilei at the Great Wall

Xixi at the Great Wall

Leilei didn't really want to join in the cannon sitting

I wish the shirt was the only thing older in March 2003...

...than the wearer in 2011

Cao Lei had to go to pick up her kids in the afternoon so dropped us of on the north side of the Forbidden City at around 4pm. Unfortunately we found out that the north end was just the exit as we had planned on visiting this beautiful place that I'd been to eight years ago. Instead we got onto a crowded bus and went to Tiananmen Square and spent the rest of the daylight hours wearing out the kids before getting the tube back to our road. We had a relatively simple meal on the way back and this restaurant only had one other table of foreigners.

Xixi looking quite the traveller at Tiananmen

Totem polling by Tiananmen

Although tired I fancied a walk as the kids were falling asleep in the hotel and did so at around 8pm. I noticed that there was a table outside the hotel and some people doing some bbq. After a relatively boring twenty minutes' walk I came back and by now there seemed to be a bit of a party outside the hotel. The receptionist was there and bade me sit down and have a beer and a bbq'd prawn. How could I refuse? The majority of people were foreign guests at the hotel and the staff were very keen to communicate in English with them, hence I was pleased when they conversed with me in Mandarin.

The cook was already particularly drunk and kept telling me to call him the next day and he'd make me a special meal. But the main conversation of the evening was with a fifty-something German with his Chinese girlfriend not too much his junior. I dare say he'd had a few beers already but was in stitches when I talked to his girlfriend in Mandarin - almost in disbelief. Strange, as he was talking to me in English, which I presume is foreign to him....

It was nice to have a chat over a couple of beers, but as the "party" petered out and because the family were asleep I fancied a bit of a geek so got my laptop and for the first time went to the bar. Aahh, it was actually nice to be in a smoky bar even not smoking. They had gin, and even cans of tonic. I hadn't had tonic water for two months so was quite excited at the prospect. It was "Watsons" brand, but I didn't care. And then I noticed a "0 Calorie" version so I opted for that. Gosh, it was really poor tonic - no flavour but still it made a change from the sweet Pingguo shui bi lemonade. Well, I had a second one just to make sure, before bed soon after midnight.

Multicultural Beijing

We woke up with the knowledge that we would certainly be changing hotels within a couple of hours. What transpired was sort of typically Chinese. We checked out as Tan had found a place nearby that was cleaner, if a little "cosier" and more expensive. Not as much as I had originally planned on paying though. We'd got all our suitcases outside in the warm morning and paid for our solitary evening in the Forest Land Hotel. Then awaited two taxis to arrive to take us to our new place. They did arrive within half an hour but then refused to take us to our new hotel because...oh well I tried to get the answer but it was something to do with it being a special day and they couldn't drive there. Poppycock, it was just that it was the wrong way down a one-way street and they could have easily gone the long way round. As it was I did not understand this so we had to pay each driver the minimum 11 kuai or whatever.

After a long time on the phone a couple of blokes from the new place came to help us. It transpired that the new hotel was but a couple of hundred yards away so we set in that direction through the hu taos, passing blokes drinking beer in the late morning and many others eating, until we arrived at the Beijing Xiao Zhan Hotel/Hostel and it was immediately more welcoming than yesterday's attempt. The reception was clean, as was our room - if somewhat smaller than last night. But I could cope with a couple of one-and-a-half beds as I'd be with Xixi and Tan with Leilei. There was also a lovely courtyard that most of the rooms opened out to.

Once we'd paid our deposit and dumped our stuff Tan got in contact with her friend Cao Lei, who was a good friend for a few years while she and her family lived in the UK, until moving back to China a few years ago for better work prospects. Cao Lei and her husband and two daughters (born in the UK) came around later in the morning to pick us up and take us for lunch. As this was Beijing they left their car parked by the hotel and we got a couple of taxis to take us. We went to a charming place, and because it was around 1pm by now it was not too busy. We had some of the local specialities and a couple of glasses of beer, and it was nice for the ladies to chat in the same room rather than by QQ 5000 miles apart. Cao Lei's husband also mainly spoke to me in Chinese, which I took as a compliment.

Cao Lei's daughters are obviously a lot older than I remember them, but they were great company for Leilei and Xixi, and even me. After lunch we went to visit some ancient places that I now find interesting. I was struck by how many foreigners there were. Not just whiteys but people in Muslim garb and some Blacks too. I felt like I had just arrived from a foreign country and in some respects I had. Beijing has obviously become very multicultural in the eight and a half years since I was here last.

Meeting up with Cao Lei and family in Beijing

Tan and I at a Confucius place in Beijing

Tan and I in front of a lovers' tree apparently

All in all the day was enjoyable as we caught up with old friends and saw some lovely sights. But at the end I couldn't help really missing Pingguo. Here was if anything closer to London than to back home. I was tired, but forced myself to go for a little walk along the hu tao but still couldn't really feel as if I was here.

Last day in Pingguo 2011 and another temporary blackout

Normally this day is a panic-stricken few hours of getting our stuff sorted and leaving an almighty mess before getting a lift to Nanning airport. This year was a bit of an exception. The kids had slept at Waipo's place so Tan and I were able to get up a little later than normal, justified by the fact that we'd been up late last night after the karaoke packing bags. But it makes it so much nicer when you know that if you're leaving stuff behind it's in your own house rather than a relative's. I left a few more clothes and some toiletries that would have taken up some weight and will be of more value waiting for the next time we come. The same went for some of the kids' toys and even Tan's stuff. I did take a picture of some of my toiletries though, so I know what not to bring next time. Unfortunately, when it comes to clothes I've left the same ones there for a few years now and although they only get worn for a few weeks a year my photographs would lead people to believe I haven't refreshed my wardrobe much since coming to Pingguo.

A reminder of my toiletries

I actually had to pop into the local supermarket and took a pic of the booze section in case Awl or another friend might be interested

Well something typical had to happen on our last day, and it duly did. Although we have now been moved to "City Electricity" as opposed to "Country Electricity", the effect of a tropical storm this morning had some unwelcome effects on our plans. My first task was to take back the flat screen telly to Waipo's house, where we borrowed it from seven weeks ago. This would have been easy had it not been pissing down by the time I got onto the electric bike. I decided to wrap the tv in a couple of supermarket bags and it seemed to managed the journey to Waipo's even though I got soaked to the bone in lovely warm rain. I didn't stay long enough to actually test the tv, but this was my last time with Waipo so I gave her a genuinely loving hug. Although she is mostly skin and bones, she is now a bit used to this Westernism; she actually put her arms out to hug me before I did so to her. That is actually quite a profound change. I do think she likes me now.

So much for the tv. I had to drop some stuff off at A Hua's then get back via the market. But as soon as I arrived at the market the heavens truly opened and it was all I could do to find refuge by one of the market sellers and manage to keep a tiny amount of dryness on my tee-shirt. I knew it wasn't even midday, and we didn't have to leave till 3pm, so I just sat there chatting with the market seller, and realised that this was another of the things I love about being here. I was no longer just a white bloke, we were just talking about the seasonal variations of fruit, and how it affected business etc. It took nearly half an hour for the rain to die down but when it did I drove to A Hua's again since the rain had aborted my previous attempt. There I left my trusty electric steed, and said my goodbyes to A Hua and a couple of other lovely ladies.

Stuck in the rain but happy to be in the market place!

For the last time in 2011 I took a san lun che to get back home. I knew that we'd pretty much packed up all we needed.
I pressed the button on the lift to get me up to our 14th floor (13th in English) and promptly found out that the recent storm had screwed the electricity. Bugger. There was nothing for it; in the 30+ degree heat I walked up to our place and grabbed the heaviest bag (as Tan was taking a shower). It might have taken half an hour but I got the bugger down after losing two pints of sweat. By this time Lin Hong and her husband had arrived to help us. I explained about the lack of electricity so her husband A Zheng walked up with me to get the rest. Somehow, while I was upstairs the electricity came back on. That should have been great news except for the fact that I had started taking the second heaviest bag downstairs. I finally noticed that the electricity was back when I was on the eigtht floor, and gladly took the lift for the remainder of the trip...but I could have been told earlier I'm sure...

Finally the dreaded hour of departure arrived, and Lin Hong and her husband took us to Waipo's house where the kids were ready to go. I don't want to dwell on the journey but it was as it has been since 2003, with the "Don't drive tired" road signs on the way to the airport. And the airport was the same, with our best friends staying until we got past the security point. Really sad, as they are not just friends but actual relatives.

The flight to Beijing was on time and thankfully not too turbulent. I'd already ordered a taxi (at 40 quid I thought it was extortionate but a sign of the times), and we got to our shitty Beijing hotel (Forest Land hotel) around midnight. Unfortunately it was quite a dirty place, but after a long day we just slept (I would have preferred the advertised wifi). Not a great welcome to the capital city.

Last, lovely, family meal

I think this is just about the first weekday that the kids haven't gone to school. But of course they had other places to go to. So I was allowed some time to mull. I have been reading some rather worrying articles about world population recently, and how although it is possible to manage to feed everyone (through non-organic farming means), it isn't going to be tenable going forward. At least that's my understanding. It's one of the reasons I don't generally buy organic food, as it seems to be encouraging a market that, if it was the only way of producing food, would only be able to feed about half of the world's current population. If that is anything near the truth then I am justified in my avoidance of organic. Having said that, it may be that most of what I eat here is organic. If so that's great as it feeds the local population and we don't ship it half way across the world. Plus, here we have a policy that limits population.

What a sore point. Almost as a reaction I was against this. But being aware of, and living in two very different cultures, I have to at least analyse things I would otherwise dismiss out of hand. The one child policy is rather severe, but was probably born (no pun) out of a perceived necessity. I am now of the opinion that regulating population is a necessity. It is a hard thing to say, but now that we are aware of the impacts of what we do we have a responsibility to not totally screw things up for our future generations. If people really agree (as it seems they do) that fossil fuel pollution and other such man-made planet-endangering things are bad then it makes sense to not have as many people who are doing this to the planet. Although I recognise this as being a completely different reason from the Chinese policy, I have been thinking about what might be the best way. I don't want to have a blanket "one-child-unless-you-live-in-the-countryside-and-your-first-child-is-a-girl-or-disfigured" approach, but I'm thinking something more like "two-children-unless-both-are-the-same-sex-in-which-case-you-can-have-more-until-you-have-both-genders". I love having two kids and I know so very very well I'm lucky to have one of each. Just about every Chinese parent I know has said such nice things about us having had a boy and a girl, with no remorse about only having had one kid. I feel almost embarrassed. But I think my horrible algorithmic way of population control would be a good thing. I just can't stand the way that certain cultures (more like religions) emphasise the importance of breeding just so they can have more than the others.

For the evening meal we kept it a family affair. Waipo and Jiuma, having spent so much time with the kids outside of school (and allowing Tan and I to have our own lives with our own friends, and our own marital time together) were to make a rare venture out, along with Lin Hong and her daughter Tian Tian. A Heng and Ling Ming also came and us blokes shared a couple of beers and some nice food, and we had a genuinely nice family meal. Our last such for a long time.

Last family meal
Rather than be sad for the rest of the waking day, A Hua invited us to karaoke for a final time. Though it was a mainly girls' night out there were a couple of blokes so I managed a few last ganbei's of the year. But knowing that you're leaving the next day somewhat sobers you up and I got Tan home around 1amish. "Home" - I don't take that for granted here as it is more our own place than our abode in London.

KTV on last night in Pingguo 2011

Water scrolls as presents

We're leaving on Saturday so I needed to do some stuff. As I was coming back from taking the kids to school I remembered the local shop I like that sells sporting goods, toys and knick-knacks. I was particularly keen on getting some interesting scrolls that were designed to allow you to practise writing your characters. I had been surprised to see the shop owner writing with black ink on such a scroll with apparent disregard for where spillages might occur. Until, that was, I realised he was dipping his brush in water and it was the scroll itself that was displaying the characters in black. Not rocket science, but a great design anyway; the characters would fade away after a minute or two as the water dried up. I thought it would be an interesting and rather unique present to bring back (quite rare to find such a thing here) so I ended up buying ten of them at 15 kuai each. Until the shop owner bargained me down to 12 kuai a piece. Only in Pingguo have I ever encountered anti-bartering. Well, maybe it wasn't as I also bought ten calligraphy brushes at 4 to 6 kuai a piece.

Though I felt I should be in a rush to do things during my last 48 hours I didn't rush. I rather boringly chilled out and just lived. I picked up the kids at the usual time but it had changed - there were only a handful of kids there as most were now back in normal school. In fact I'd been told not to take them tomorrow as they'd be practically the only kids there. So I brought some cash and paid the teacher the princely sum of 1250 kuai or thereabouts for all the time Leilei and Xixi had been there. About 120 quid for the best part of two months - bargain!

I did make the effort to go to Ma Laoban's computer shop for a last time to say goodbye for another year. I was glad I did as I met a couple of other mates there, one of whom, Li Yi, brought me a thoughtful present of home made moon cakes. Unfortunately, moon cakes are rather heavy, so not good for travelling with - but they do make great presents for other Chinese.

Later on I went to the bbq by the guang chang to meet up with Yang Haiwei and his wife and friends. But it wasn't as fun as normal. He was rather the worse for wear again, and there was just this overhanging awareness that we were leaving soon. I bade my goodbyes around midnight, hoping earnestly that I would see them within ten or so months.

Last supper at the cool cave

The end is nigh. My other life has but a few days before it is extinguished for at least another year. I am gutted. But I'm blooming well going to invite my mates out for an evening with the lads. In true Pingguo style I waited until midday before ringing up A Wu, Uncle Yellow, Li Kun, Zhang Hongping and some others and inviting them to an evening out. I had decided on the Cool Cave - the place that Uncle Yellow had taken me to seven weeks ago. Interestingly, everyone I called answered and said they'd be there. Being Chinese, I knew I had to get there before the 6.30pm time I'd set. Luckily, I'd managed a quick siesta and picked up the kids from school and dumped them off so I was in good time. I had to stop off at the bank to get some cash out - something I've done for years without major problems. But today the bank ATM only seemed to want to give me 800 kuai. I tried to withdraw more and it decided to churn and churn before spitting out a message in Chinese to the effect that it was screwed. Luckily it gave me back my card. But I was concerned as I needed to pay for tonight, not to mention paying Lin Hong back for house stuff...

Waiting to eat at the Cool Cave

I didn't have time to worry though as as soon as (three "as"'s in four words - result) I got to the eating place by the cave I saw there was already A Wu and Boss Hu (Hu'me I hadn't actually invited), plus A Dong and a couple of others. Apparently I was late. Anyway, we walked up to the cave entrance. A Wu couldn't stop himself complaining about the place - how smelly it was, how dirty it was etc, but I knew he was just playing a game. In the ensuing quarter of an hour all the rest of my invitees arrived in good spirits and we sat down to be served with beers and promises that the food was on its way.

Enjoying the wait with a manly beer

And wasn't it worth the wait? We had a couple of platters of fried tiny prawns that you eat with the shells on, as many as you can get on a pair of chopsticks. That was followed by some sublime meaty thing that was gone within seconds. I ordered more of the same and everything was gulped down, as was the beer and the 10-12 of us had a better time than I could have hoped for. It was a truly blokeish evening. When the cook's wife came up with some friends to eat at the tables beside us we went over to pay our regards and raise a couple of glasses to them. Definitely one of my favourite Pingguo evenings!

One of my favourite evenings - good memories

I went to pay at around 9.30 and it was only 300 kuai. I had been expecting, but not hoping for, double that. I'd even borrowed 400 kuai from A Wu just in case. I decided to give an extra couple of hundred kuai to the chef as others would be staying after I left and I wanted to cover their beers.

At 10 o'clock ish we left and I had a call from Tan. She was eating zhou at the usual place near our house and I came to say hello but I was feeling the effects from the night so I took the kids home and bathed them and got them to bed before doing much the same to myself.