Back to work and more Mario Kart

Oh well back to work today. I did wake up 9am but got a little more sleep as Tan took the kids to school. 

A beautiful hairy caterpillar at the kids' school 

Later, when back, Leilei and the kids were playing the Wii while I was working. One of Nong Kaicheng's friends was there too so there were four of them playing Mario Kart. I was quite happy to see them together. 

The boys playing Mario Kart Wii with rare footage of Leilei speaking Mandarin

There was a lot to catch up on after two weeks of holiday but I managed to pop out in the evening (lunchtime in Europe) to buy some stuff I'd been meaning to for a while - a dustbin and a tissue holder for my study and another clothes hanging stick. Rather than go to the supermarket I went to the actual market, which for me was more super. I had a chat with the boss, who remembered me from various years gone by, and everything came to 15 kuai - cheap!

As I didn't feel like going home just yet I popped into another local shop to buy some dried squid, which is a tasty snack without too much carbohydrate late at night. Unfortunately the young lady said they didn't have that, and I should go to the supermarket. I said it would be hard as I had the dian dong che with a four foot stick and a dustbin and a tissue holder, but she said she'd look after everything. Well ok then, so I walked over to the supermarket by the market, which I'd been hoping to avoid, and went and got some dried squid. I happened upon the alcohol section and decided to get a small bottle of "yao jiu" (medicine alcohol) for 4 kuai, as apparently it's good for you. Then, when nearly at the checkout I changed my mind and thought I'd buy it from the shop where the lady was looking after my bike. I went to put it back and found that the space I'd left it was no longer there - someone had evidently watched me take it and filled the shelf appropriately. I wasn't particularly happy about that and thought my choice to replace it was vindicated as I pushed the bottle back into its former place.

Back at the local shop I thanked the lady for looking after my bike and dutifully asked if she had "yao jiu", which she certainly did. She gave me the option of three types, and I asked what the difference was. "They are different brands", she answered, slightly unhelpfully. So I opted for the middle one and was charged 10 kuai for the same size as the 4 kuai one in the supermarket.

I still had a little time before meetings so went to the guangchang to call the bloke I missed seeing a few days ago, the one I used to get breakfast from when we were here for three months in 2008. So I gave him a ring to ask where his shop was but I didn't recognise his voice and feared I'd called the wrong number. I gave my phone to some bloke doing bbq next to me and he chatted to him and said someone would be around in a bit. A couple of minutes later a young bloke in his early 20s came around and seemed to recognise me. I didn't recognise him properly until he spoke and I realised that was who I'd just called. I was a bit confused as he seemed to be expecting me but I was expecting someone else. We walked for a minute or two before coming to a bbq place I hadn't been to before, and I immediately recognised the breakfast bloke who'd scratched my number on a cardboard beer box a few days ago.

I said I could only stay half an hour or so, but that "so" became well over an hour as I ordered some fatty beef and duck tongues and shared a few beers with the bloke and his son and the son's girlfriend, who was cooking the bbq. It was pleasant but I really did have to leave and said I'd be back soon when not working. They wouldn't let me pay for the food, so I took back the fatty beef and gave it to the boys who wolfed it up in no time, including Leilei, who even asked for more. Oh no! It's not just Tan but both our kids are now bbq addicts too!

Mountain banger and more dog

Got up a little late and missed morning sports yet again before A Wu rang me to drink tea at Lao Tu opposite our place then have lunch. Apparently there were going to be some bangers, so I imagined it would be for some celebration somewhere.

I left Xixi with Tan at home, and Leilei was with A Da, and drove the 50 yards to Lao Tu. We spent about five minutes drinking tea before A Wu's driver drove us to A Wu's work. I thought we were going to see some bangers but he didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Then when we arrived at the stone place I found that there were some blokes unwinding some thin red wire, and one blowing a whistle now and again. It transpired that they were getting ready to blow away part of the mountain to provide more stone fodder. Ah, so I wasn't completely wrong about bangers - just the size and reason and...well yes I was very wrong about them.

It took a bit of time to get organised, and A Wu left his camera perched on a chair facing the side of the mountain. He said I could turn the switch to cause the explosion and I was rather excited at that, but suddenly there were a couple of shouts and A Wu started filming then told me to run down the track to the bottom as stones could fly anywhere. We got down to the entrance of the place and crouched behind one of the pickups as other employees crouched behind other vehicles. I had my camera filming too. We waited for a bit, then a bit more, getting more and more excited as to how loud it may be. Eventually after two minutes like this A Wu announced that there was a problem with the wire, so we all went back up.

I was a bit annoyed that I wasn't going to do the explosion, but they'd decided someone needed to be closer to the mountain as the wire must have been broken nearer to where we were. After 20 minutes faffing about they were ready and once again A Wu turned on his camera and we sprinted down to our hiding place. This time it worked. It was not particularly loud, or even that impressive, but it did the job. No stones flew anywhere within 200 yards of us but I suppose it's better to be safe than stoned.

Blasting away part of the mountain, second time lucky

It was now 2pm and I was getting rather hungry. A Wu said we'd go for lunch but at that moment about five blokes turned up. This meant we all had to traipse upstairs to the office to drink tea. One of the blokes was from the police. That meant he was probably a friend of A Wu's so I helped pour out the tea for the next half an hour or so before getting up and going for a walk as I don't understand the local language they were talking in. Maybe A Wu got the hint because a couple of minutes later all the blokes went downstairs and we finally started on our way back to Pingguo.

I got in touch with Leilei, who was with Nong Kaicheng, and we all went to the place that is now known as the "toilet bucket food" place since I apparently named it that last week. As it was well gone 3pm I didn't eat any rice, so as to be hungry enough for later, but I did have everything else. By half three I took Leilei and the boys back home to play on the Wii.

I had received a text from Uncle Yellow a bit earlier in the afternoon, when the explosion was going on, asking me to call him when I'd woken up (it was thoughtful of him to think I was sleeping during the afternoon). I was just calling him when he called me to ask me to come and eat dog again. I explained I needed to sort out the kids, and would come when possible, and would they still be there at 7pm? Yes they would. The boys had to go so I took Leilei to Waipo's, Waipo invited me to eat but I said I'd already been invited out and she didn't seem to mind. I actually got to the cold cave by around 6.30pm but judging by the amount of beer bottles underneath the table I was very late. I asked, and was told that they'd started at 4pm. I don't know whether that meant eating or drinking or both, but it seemed rather early. But it sort of made sense as most people had to work the next day (myself included) so an early start meant an early night.

We had a great time and I ate quite a lot of dog again, though I went easy on the beers as knew I'd be picking up Xixi soon. I made a joke about making love in the local language, which got rather more laughs than it deserved. And to show that he understood what I was talking about Uncle Yellow made a ring with his left hand and then put the index finger of his right hand through it rather vulgarly. Then the bloke to his left made a ring with one of his hands and the first bloke "entered" it with his finger to laughs all round. I told them they were homosexuals, which was neither clever nor funny, but it really brought the house down. I was with good mates as there was no pressure to drink up quickly etc., and I left around 8pm to great smiles, though I could have happily stayed longer.

Some of the empties by the time I came to eat dog

Uncle Yellow's car (I don't know if he chose the colour)

Well Xixi was out with someone, so I went home for a bit. Then A Da and Leilei came, the former announcing he was staying the night. Fair enough, I got them both showered and into bed by 11pm though I'm sure they went to sleep much later. Tan then came home with Xixi at midnight, meaning Xixi was sleeping in our bed. She actually fell asleep reasonably quickly considering she'd already slept during the day, leaving us a bit of nice time together. As tomorrow I'd be back at work I decided to use the last of my free time watching some Olympic footy on the Internet as I'd happened to leave my UK proxy server on by mistake and the video worked ok.

Mafia meal

Managed to get up lateish again and yet again do no sports. Lunchtime wasn't too far away so got some more jiao zi and bao zi from the local shop before Leilei and his mates came around to play on the Wii again. That was fine and enabled me to geek about a bit as one does, before A Wu called to ask me to play badminton at 4pm after he'd had a kip. That sounded good to me after having missed out this morning. He also said we'd be having a meal with "friends" at 5.30pm.

At 3.45pm A Wu called to tell me to hurry downstairs to meet him and he would take me to badminton. The dian dong che was running low on battery but I wanted to use up more juice so that charging it up would be more effective overnight, so I drove it the one minute to the front of our building to meet A Wu. It was still raining but I'd found a sou'wester under the seat so put that over it while I jumped in to A Wu's car for the 30 second journey to the badminton place.

Pingguo Olympics about to start

After virtually no warmup I played A Wu and this time only lost 21-15. I am hopeful that I will have beaten him and his new-found skills by the time we have to leave. After a little break, not quite so knackered as usual, I played some practice shots with one of the blokes I have been playing with in the morning in the guangchang recently, who happened to be there. After a while, some teenagers who were also there, and cheering me one, asked to play with us. So we ended up playing three games of doubles, swapping partners each time. It was incredibly good fun, and smiles were abundant! I may have only won one of the games but I didn't feel that tired - doubles is four times less tiring than singles for sure. After the matches we swapped QQ numbers and the teenagers promised they'd send some of the many photos they'd taken of this sweaty foreigner....

A convenient place to have a nap while daddy`s working (or playing pool on the pc)

Although it was getting on for 5.30pm A Wu was still playing badminton. I told him I'd go home for a shower so he said ok. That sounded a bit weird for someone who's normally at meals before time. He rang me a bit later to pick me up at nearly 6pm and we proceeded to go to his place where he changed clothes and had a shower himself. During this time I found a young couple wrestling with a couple of beds they had just taken home on a san lun che. I jumped out of the car to help them and they really appreciated me getting their beds into what appeared to be their new home. Even A Wu's driver got out of the car to help them with the second bed. It was just a few minutes of my effort but I had a small warm glow about having unnecessarily done some good.

Tan called to ask where we were and for once I could lay the blame squarely on someone else. We waltzed in at 6.30pm with a huge table resplendent with lovely nosh, and everyone started eating as our bottoms found our seats. I didn't know most of the blokes. But Lu Wen was there, and I apologised for not having gone out with him the other day, due to my run-of-the-mill excuse of diaorrhea. His new wife was also there, six months preggars - that's one way to have more than one child I suppose. Tan (other than the new wife and A Ni, one of only three women there) said that most of the blokes were mafia. I wasn't going to ask them directly but they seemed reasonably friendly and after eating we dissolved into typical gan bei's and cai ma. Feigning drunkenness, I said I'd need to leave and got a lift with a number of the blokes to a new coffee place that had just opened today - apparently that meant the drinks were free.

Another nice meal with friends

A Wu showing off his seatbelt things to stop the warning sounds when not wearing them

For the first time in a couple of years I actually did drink coffee as I was knackered and I didn't want to have more booze. It was quite nice actually, with milk. A few more people came around, then an hour later so did Tan with Xixi and most of the other ladies. Wine was produced, which was decanted into a wide based bottle and then shaken around in a manner that French people would request the death penalty be brought back for. I had a couple but then took Xixi to go home. But we were barely one minute out of the coffee place when A Wu's driver found us and said he'd take us back. Fair enough, but I'd promised to meet Lu Wen by the guangchang to eat some dog before going home.

As it was, with a four year old who is a bit tired at getting on for midnight I did not have to do too many gan bei's, and after a few mouthfuls of dog was able to say our goodbyes and get home for a shower and a sleep, but not before I got my first glimpse of non-football Olympics by watching some of the table tennis. Brazil vs Poland was actually Japan vs China, judging by the names, but how could I possible deride this? If foreigners were to judge English/GB team members by their names and/or colour they could say exactly the same thing. I wonder how multiculturally diverse some countries will become in the future, and what that will mean when countries with similar diversities play each other in sports. What will it mean if Germany beats Poland in table tennis if all players from both countries are ethnically Chinese for example? I'm secretly hoping that Leilei will turn out to be great at table tennis and represent GB in a future Olympics as he'd have a better chance of making the team. But at the same time, if he's good at football he could represent China and have a better chance of making the team there.

Mario Kart Wii and crap KTV

I woke up to a pair of small feet in my face and gathered very quickly they belonged to one of my offspring, thankfully the female one. It was already nearly 8am which meant it was too late for sporty stuff but my tummy wouldn't really have allowed it anyway. I moped about at home for a bit before going to the local jiao zi place to get some lunch and the kids and I ate it at home. A bit later A Da and Nong Kaicheng called to ask if they could pop around and duly did, and the next couple of hours were spent with the boys playing Mario Kart on the Wii.

Breakfast out and dog at the cool cave

A reasonably late 8am saw me up despite earlier possibilities. It's nice that when you are not working, and not changing nappies or doing other kiddie things you can eventually learn to go back to sleep for a bit. Even that extra half an hour can mean so much more quality to your day.

Despite not getting to sleep till 1am Xixi came in to our room at 8.30, followed a minute later by her big brother. Annoyingly, Leilei had come into our room at 4am and 4.30am and both times I'd accompanied him back to their room. And both times I'd tried and failed to sleep on their wooden-ish mattress as the hairs on my body tend to get caught in-between the fittings and trap me a bit like Gulliver. So I got back to my bed at 4.40am and thankfully managed mostly sleep for three more hours. At least I had some dreams. I dreamt that team GB were one goal up, then allowed in three goals, one of which was an overhead kick, before being pulverised by a fourth unstoppable one. I suppose I should put a bet on 4-1 against us tonight.

The dou jiang place we go to most mornings 

For once sitting at table nicely

Kids eating a hearty breakfast of dou jian, jiao zi, bao zi, eggs and man tou 

Breakfast was again at the dou jiang place and because the kids weren't going to school they were happy to go to Waipo's place afterwards. I spent the rest of the morning geeking and then got some lovely jiao zi and bao zi for lunch. Just as I was about to drop off I got a call from Uncle Yellow asking me if I could make it for some dog tonight. I said of course, but I needed some sleep first, so he said he'd call back at 6pm.

At 5.45pm I got up and had a shower. I'd barely finished at 5.53pm when I got a call from Uncle Yellow beckoning me downstairs. As I was stark naked I told him to give me five minutes, during which I shaved and washed my face properly, and put some long trousers and a top on.

Sure enough he was there in his tiny yellow car waiting for me. I was very happy that we drove to the cool cave place, and met a few blokes I knew from years before. Indeed there were many plates of dog meat and they were all delicious. I'd eaten dog with most of these blokes before, and we chatted and cai ma'd till about 10pm, during which time various people left and others joined. From time to time someone would get up and fry some greens, or refry some dog or chicken. The beer we drank was Suntory brand from Shanghai. It had more flavour than its 2.7% might suggest, but I'd take Li Quan any day.

Lots of lovely dog meat

So good that even the locals were taking snaps

Anyone for some sliced paw?

Uncle Yellow gave me a lift back and on the way called his wife Xiao Chong to ask if she wanted some noodles. Indeed she did so we stopped by a bbq place to pick some up and when we got back into the car I found myself behind the steering wheel. It was a short drive back and in fact it was a very easy to drive car, though I half expected to put a coin in the dashboard to make it go, it was that small.

Once home, Tan announced she was hungry so I offered to go out and get some bbq - 10 chicken feet, 10 duck tongues and five pig intestines, which is pretty much par for the course. As soon as I arrived at A Yi's place I heard "Xiao Peng!", and saw A Hua calling me over. She was sitting with her husband A Dong and another bloke I didn't know. It looked like they were drinking tea, but I should have known better as they produced a bottle of "medicine alcohol" from under the table. I allowed myself a little sip as I don't find this as foul as the rice alcohol, but they knew me and ordered a couple of beers as I ordered Tan's bbq.

I was stuffed with dog so could hardly share what they were eating, but allowed myself a couple of rounds of cai ma to their delight. Then, A Ni turned up, announcing that A Da and Nong Kaicheng would be back soon from their summer camp in Beijing. Then Lu Wen turned up. I hadn't seen him for a couple of years, but had lived for three months in the same house as him when in A Wu's place in 2006. His girlfriend was pregnant at the time, and today he had brought along his lovely six year old daughter with him - it was the first time I'd seen her other than a photo of a baby. So we caught up on old times a bit and I played with the daughter, before A Da and Nong Kaicheng turned up in good spirits, and Lu Wen and his daughter went home. Finally, nearly an hour after I ordered it, the bbq was ready, but when I went to pay for it A Yi said that "that bloke" (i.e. Lu Wen) had already paid. That was nice of him.

Lu Wen and daughter

Finally got home around midnight and it didn't take much for me to get to sleep while Tan was chomping on her chicken feet.

Fixing locks with magic dust

Although up at 8am I didn't go for badminton, opting to have a more relaxing morning with a Carte Noire decaf and a sticky rice crispy style cake. Tan did the same a little later when she got up. As is becoming perfunctory when the kids sleep at Waipo's, I went to pick them up around 11am only to be told they'd already eaten. Fair enough but I bet they hadn't had breakfast. Anyway we went to my favourite supermarket where I have my nectar card for, and spent some time buying a couple of personalised items for the kids such as straw cups (they don't seem to lose their appeal until you're in your 20s) plus "normal" cups and a bowl each. I didn't mind about getting them this as I secretly hoped it would encourage them to eat what I put in it.

On the way back home we picked up some jiao zi and bao zi and I was moderately successful in getting them to eat these out of their new bowls, especially Leilei as his bowl was the same as mine - a 16cm metal bowl with no picture on, but he ate all his bao zi plus one of my jiao zi. Xixi was harder to get full, despite her Xi Yang Yang bowl (Xi Yang Yang is a popular sheep cartoon character who is omnipresent in one of the many children's tv channels here).

Tan was home, and as I said I needed a sleep she took them out after threatening to leave them with me as I should have taken them to school. I got a good two hours kip till about 5pm when Leilei called me to go to eat at Waipo's. This is becoming a bit of a pattern too, and I don't mind it; eating in a house instead of a restaurant. It's definitely become more like this this year than other recent years. Having said that I do slightly miss the big meals with the revolving tables.

After eating I took the kids out on the dian dong che. I decided to visit the tea place I've known for several years, but last year was never open when I turned up. This time it was open and of course the bloke remembered me. We were immediately ushered to sit down and I drank an absolutely lovely red tea, from 1997 apparently. If they treated their wine like they do their tea they really could be onto something here.

I talked to the owner about work and stuff, and how we didn't meet last year. He said it was because he had been very busy with his rabbit business. I never knew about that, assuming somehow that he made his money by selling tea. Oh no, he has a place a few km outside the town where he rears rabbits for meat and skin. It was nice to finally have an explanation for how some of these tea shops really make their money. The owner also said that today was the first day of the Olympics and that they'd be watching the GBR women's football game against New Zealand later, and that I was welcome to come. The kids weren't so interested in this though, so we left to go for a ride in the market.

As we parked the bike I got an angry call from Tan: "how the f did you close the front door of the house? I've been trying to get in for nearly half an hour". I told her to calm the f down, I closed it as I always did, try ringing Ling Ming in case he accidentally locked it from the inside. Half an hour? I'd have called within one minute if I couldn't get in. I decided to give her a couple of minutes to simmer down, during which time I went to one of the places that fixes locks. Tan had at least reminded me that I needed to get something to ease the entry of the key into the door lock, as it had become rather stiff this year. In England this would have been a can of WD40 but not here. I remembered a couple of years ago I'd had a similar problem with the lock for the dian dong che. A woman from such a lock shop had sprinkled some magic black dust on my key then put it in and it worked like a charm. I was hopeful for the same when I showed the bloke my key. He went to the back of his area and searched for a small box containing tiny plastic pouches like the ones I imagine drug peddlers use. He opened the pouch to inspect the contents and seemed ok with it. From the outside you would not have guessed there was anything inside, but I was excited about it being magic dust and eagerly paid the 1 kuai.

Before going home I had an experience that is becoming more and more common. One of the blokes on a market stall called over to me and asked if I remembered drinking with him. As I've done so with half the male population over 16 it was difficult to be sure so I used my normal "I recognise your face, but can't remember the name". It transpired that we'd had a meal together some years ago, and he offered me some long yen fruit. Well I couldn't turn down one of my favourites - I though we'd have to wait till August for them but he said they'd just come out. It may have been an early crop but they were still delicious and I bought one jin (about a pound) for 12 kuai.

We got home and before entering I tried the bag of magic dust. I dipped the key into it and indeed there was some there. Tentatively I put the key into the lock and it penetrated it like a well lubricated, err, like a straw into a mango sorbet. The lock turned easily and we gained entry. Tan had just finished a shower and was going to go out but not before I made her try again. She did the same as me, turn the lock a couple of times then just was not able to make the last quarter turn. I told her to slightly nudge the door as she turned the key and it opened easily.

Maybe because she was thankful Tan took the kids to Waipo's and I had some time to myself. I was actually more interested than I should have been in the women's football, but not as interested as I became in the thought of another head wash. I rang A Wu, who said he was on his way back from Nanning, and just entering Pingguo, but wanted to go for a haircut first. No problem, just call me when ready. So I tried a little gin with "apple vinegar" which was as bad as it seemed, before going back to sugary lemonade. Note that the apple vinegar was sold as a canned drink, not a cooking supplement, so I had hopes it mightn't be so sweet.

Not waiting for A Wu, I left our house at about 9.30pm only to hear beeping as I got out in front of our building. It was him in his car outside the tea and alcohol shop. He was in his car talking on his phone and after a minute I said I was going, so he said he'd follow me to the head wash place.

Needless to say this was an exquisite 50 minutes of sheer delight, but I took some time to talk to my young lady about her career etc. Partly I did this as the lady having her head done next to me kept talking to me about how she wanted to learn English from me (and I didn't have the time or inclination). My masseuse was from Baise, an hour or so up the road, and was 22, which I thought rather old for this sort of job. I asked her how long she'd been doing it for and she said one year. When I asked her how much longer she envisaged doing it for she said she was about to finish. So I asked her what she wanted to do afterwards and she said she'd think about it. I pushed her and she said her dream would be to have her own shop selling drinks. Maybe I missed something but that is not the wildest dream I've heard of. Anyway she did a great job and felt a little sorry that I probably would not have her as a masseuse again.

She did mention that a few months ago she'd done a foreign lady. By "done" I mean the same as me - head wash, wet massage, dry massage etc. I think I've seen this person - I've heard there is an American family here with a son and daughter. In fact I've seen a Western bloke with a young fair haired daughter so I gather it must be them. I'll probably bump into them at some time. Grr...yet again I'm not the only gay in the village.

After our head wash A Wu and I went to the tea place I'd been to before. I thought the game would start at 10pm but I had got my BST mixed up and it wasn't till 11pm local time. A Wu had a couple of cups of tea, as he too knew the owner. Then we went to a coffee house down by the river. It was only A Wu and I, as we were waiting for some mate to come, and it was rather boring to be honest, especially when Tan rang up to say that her and her mates were at the guangchang having bbq and invited me over. I said I'd try to be over there in half an hour or so.

A Wu's mate came but they were talking business so I didn't have too much to say and munched on some beef and fried sweet corn and fruit. Eventually Tan rang again to say they'd finished eating and Ling Hong had invited her to a school reunion at a karaoke place, and could I pick up the kids from Waipo's as she was tired and they weren't sleeping? At least that gave me the opportunity to leave, and when I got home with the kids Tan was surprisingly there too. Or maybe nothing is surprising here; she'd decided it was too late to go to see her ex-classmates so came home.

Despite the long hours awake, the kids didn't get to sleep till about 1am so I had no chance to see GBR women beat NZ 1-0 in the Olympic football, in what should be their easiest game. I have been tempted to fly to Beijing to watch Man City play Arsenal on Friday. It wouldn't be cheap, but what an experience. Maybe if it was a little bit closer....

Two days after we arrived Ling Ming had this running machine delivered - in the 10 days since it's been here it's been used once

Much ping pang and no trip to Tian Ping

Woke up after five hours' sleep, which I didn't mind too much as I now have sporty and siesta-y plans for early awakenings. I dressed in my swimming shorts, an old Man City top, white ankle socks and my Nike Air trainers bought in Cleveland, Ohio for $25, packed my bag with two bottles of water, a towel, a smaller bag containing my table tennis bat, two balls, my keys and some money, and finally Ling Ming's badminton raquet.

I walked to where I've now played badminton twice but to my dismay my friends were not there. I'd also noticed that the old people's leisure centre had no-one playing ping pong. With my big bag it was not practical to run so I sat down for a couple of minutes to contemplate the elders doing tai chi with swords. I went for a walk around the guangchang anyway and by the time I got back I saw a couple of people playing ping pong in the old people's leisure centre so I popped in. I soon found myself playing a woman in her 60s who was actually quite possibly worse than me. We played for about half an hour until Mr Table Tennis walked in and grinned like Mr Mischief. He motioned for the woman to sit down and relax as he started practising with me. That lasted all of 10 rallies until he said "five games". Oh dear not this again. Although he beat me 5-0 I had the moral victory that this time at least he played right-handed in every game, and I once got up to seven points. He made it easier by not spinning his serves when he was leading by five or more points.

Some Tai chi in the guang chang while I was pondering on what to do next

Normally it's winner stays on but here it's more like "foreigner stays on" so another bloke came and I nearly won the first game, losing 11-8. But I lost the next two more convincingly and apparently this time it was only three games. Then, the woman I'd been practising with challenged me and finally I was victorious 2-1 in games. It was a bit unfair as by then I'd got back into the habit of doing backhand smashes that even the locals appreciate.

I made my excuses at 9.15 as needed to take the kids to school, but when I got home I found that Ling Ming had already taken them to Waipo's house. So off I went to find they'd had breakfast, but Er Jie was still there and insisted that they didn't go to school, reasoning that they'd already spent a year in school and should relax. She sort of had a point but I like them learning some of their culture so we made a sort of compromise: they would go back to school when A Da and Nong Kaicheng were back from Beijing in a couple of days.

But the kids didn't want to stay at Waipo's so we went to Ma Laoban's computer shop where I let them play silly flash games for a bit. Ma Laoban's wife came in (she loves Xixi) and invited us to go to Tian Ping (?), in the countryside where her parents live about 10 km outside Pingguo, which apparently takes 10 minutes. My reaction was to not go but thought it might be interesting so asked them when they were going. "Zhun bei zou le", was the reply "we're ready to go". It was not yet 11am and I suspected a little oriental time-mongering going on. I said that would be good but I'd need to get back early as I'd had little sleep and needed a siesta - no problem we'd be back when I wanted. Half and hour later it was 11.20 and nothing had happened. Another 25 minutes and Ma Laoban arrived with a couple of blokes who seemed interested in buying computers. Another 10 minutes later there were a few blokes drinking tea and Leilei said he wanted to go home. I looked for Ma Laoban's wife but she was nowhere to be seen so told Ma Laoban I needed to take the kids home and he apologised for being busy. I said no problem at all and was relieved as I suspected had we waited for them all to go to it would have been another half an hour, not getting back till 5pm and I was already pretty shattered.

So I took the kids back home but before going in we walked to the place that does the lovely jiao zi and bao zi and bought two portions of the former and one of the latter. Surprisingly the kids ate just about everything I gave them - not bad, three of us stuffed for just over a quid. I had also bought a case of beer, something I haven't done for a long time, maybe two years. I only bought them as I wanted to know what the price was, and surprisingly it was the same as the last time I bought some: 33 kuai, or about 38p for a 595ml bottle. It would have been rude not to try one so I did that with our food. I was ready to try a siesta and Tan was ready to go out but she wasn't taking the kids as she had some sort of heat blisters and she wanted to go to the hospital to treat them. This meant I had the kids and although they were due a siesta they were not in the mood. I wouldn't have minded as they have their own rooms and I was just settling down when Tan called to say Ling Ming was coming with a delivery of some sort of low sink for the balcony so it would be more practical to wash the floor. Fair enough I suppose but it could have been better timed.

Ling Ming and the sink bloke came and he installed it on our balcony but he couldn't manage to fit the plug unit without it leaking. So after half an hour he had to go back to find some material to fix it. He did this by about 2pm, by which time the kids were not at all interested in sleeping so I threatened them with going with Ling Ming to Waipo's house. In fact this threat was not a threat at all as Ling Ming said he'd take them to Yi Xiao too on his way to work.

Finally, by 2.15pm I had the house to myself and tried to settle down for a sleep, which I finally managed with minor help from Gordon, until 6pm. Only eight missed calls this time, four each from Ma Laoban and Tan. I thought I'd better call Tan first and she unsurprisingly told me that everyone was waiting for me to eat at Waipo's house. So I got on the bike as it was starting to rain and luckily this time by the time I arrived I was still fairly dry as it didn't deluge. I called Ma Laoban as I was approaching Waipo's and he too was inviting me to eat at his place. I explained my predicament and he understood ok.

In fact at Waipo's most people were just watching tv, and continued to do so for a few more minutes before we were called to eat. The food was quite nice and simple and the kids didn't join us. I found out a bit later that this was because Chuan Chuan was taking them out to the new place I'd had pizza at a few days ago. So that left Waipo, Er Jie, Tan and me watching some drama on tv that wasn't as interesting as many things I can imagine so Tan and I went home. The rain was still falling, but not at a level that would soak us on the dian dong che on the way home and we managed the three minute journey without getting too wet, except for my bum as the seat is torn and soaks up water at the back. If only I'd listened to Tan and let her sit at the back like most ladies do when with their man on a bike. The problem is I'm taller than most men and if I sit in front my knees stick out like wings.

As if the morning exercise wasn't enough, a little later I decided to go to the old people's leisure centre once more, as Tan had decided to stay in for the evening. I thought I saw Yang Haiwei's car outside so called him to find he was upstairs. I saw a couple of blokes I hadn't seen since last year and we caught up on old times while the maestros played on. Then it was my turn to play Lao Ma. I actually did ok until it was time to play a game and then lost 3-0 but not before getting a fair few points past him. Then Haiwei announced that we'd go to the government building on the other side of the guangchang to play as there were too many people here. So we drove there under the ever-increasing rain. There were two tables, and one bloke waiting for us, so Haiwei and I practised for a bit before I lost 3-0 in games again. Getting a bit predictable, this, but I'm hoping it's for the better of my game.

While Haiwei was playing the other bloke, another bloke came along to play with me - he was more my level, or worse, but for some reason we didn't actually play for points. Tan had rung before 10pm to ask me to get 10 chicken feet and 10 pig intestines as you do, so by quarter past I made my excuses and walked to the bbq place through the rain-sodden guangchang. I'd never seen it so empty at night. For once I didn't make an effort to talk with others while waiting for the bbq - the normal place hadn't even opened so I was elsewhere, but even there it lacked the usual jovial atmosphere. I added an order of five duck tongues and some Chinese leek for me and 20 minutes later paid my 49 kuai and for once the bloke who brought it over accepted a 1 kuai tip with a smile.

Five minutes later Tan was tucking into her feet and I was chatting to Ma and Cat on Skype, or rather trying to as the connection was dreadful. I feared that it was my connection - worried that work meetings might be affected, but when Cat reconnected via tethering to her phone it worked a charm...time to get a new ISP Ma....

Browsing the web, it looks like we are suffering from the effects of Typhoon Vicente, which caused minor chaos in Hong Kong yesterday and is now on the warpath from Guangdong to Guangxi. However, it has probably calmed down somewhat due to being inland and although the rain is still falling quite heavily the wind has assuaged somewhat.

Ling Ming came in some time after 1am and we shared a single bottle of beer. He explained that he was hoping to get a new car in a couple of weeks for his birthday. He's going to get a Chinese brand, a Chang Cheng M2, which is a sort of mini people carrier (or SUV as the Americanism holds here). It looks ok to me: http://auto.china.com/zh_cn/mill/changcheng/M2/ except he wants the white version. I also found out why I haven't seen Xiao Nong's MG 3 on the road before. It's an Anglo-Sino design/build and was only available in China from 2011, becoming available in the UK some time in 2012 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_3

Knackered by 2am but remembered I hadn't put out the washing to dry, and didn't want it to become stinky for tomorrow, so tiredly did it, taking sure not to drop any clothes through the rails to 13 floors below. I did last week with a pair of Ling Ming's underpants and although it was 3am I still went downstairs to look for them in the rain. Strangely they were nowhere to be seen and I must have looked a wally searching by the light of my mobile at that time. I reckon they must have landed in someone else's balcony - oh well, Ling Ming's loss, someone else's gain. I should have told him though.

Setting up the Wii and huge storm at the seafood place

Indeed despite a couple of toilet breaks I managed to sleep till 9.45am. Too late for jogging or badminton but who cares? The fitness afforded by sleep is sometimes far more important. The kids weren't to go to school today as A Da is still in Beijing with Nong Kaicheng, so I went to pick them up. A Wu called to meet up in the tea place opposite our building so the three of us went for a few minutes, but it's not the most interesting place for kids, so we decided to go for lunch at the wooden bucket place.

The kids opted for the old dian dong che rather than A Wu's Toyota, as it's so much more fun with the wind in your hair. They would be an excellent excuse to get a convertible car in the UK as they go mad enough just having the back windows down. A good excuse but not good enough when our old faithful Peugeot 406 keeps passing MoTs.

Again I had the problem of encouraging them to eat and had to resort to spoon feeding both of them a bit. At least Leilei liked the sliced fragrant sausage but the portion of egg fried rice went mostly to waste. When we were finished we went back to Waipo's and I left them there for a little bit as I had boring electronic paperwork to do.

As well as the paperwork I think I finally sorted out the Wii so we can play games now, not that there has been that much chance to up to now. But I blooming well left it here last year so I will blooming well ensure that it is used.

I forgot that I had slept in so necked a couple of qi du while working, then went to bed before realising the reason I couldn't fall asleep was that I only got up five hours ago. So I went back to the desk and tried to sort out creating a VPN server on my laptop in London as you do.

Leilei called me from Waipo's to say he wanted to come home, which was fair enough. When I got there both had eaten apparently so we grabbed a couple of toys and got on the dian dong che to drive around for a bit. It was gone 8pm and dark now, so we stopped off by the guangchang and I got them some zheng zhu nai cha each (cold milk tea with squidgy sweets inside) and we went for a walk. While kicking a football about in the guangchang I got a call from a Huang Chang. I recognised the surname but not the first name. I recognised his voice but couldn't match it to a face, and I hadn't put a mugshot in my phone so his picture didn't show up (as I have done for others). He asked me to go with him to have a beer and eat something. I said I was with the kids but that didn't put him off and he said he'd come to pick us up. I had a good opportunity to say no as I was tired/needed to sort the kids etc., but I sort of like it when these things happen as there's an air of excitement about not knowing what's around the corner.

I thought it might be difficult, waiting for someone you will probably recognise, but who you don't know is the right person. So we played a guessing game for the next five minutes wondering if this car or that car might be Huang Chang. Inevitably I got a call a couple of minutes later asking where we were. It took some explaining because the guangchang is a huge place and there is no one entrance as such. Eventually we both agreed he must be near the old people's leisure centre and we saw a badly parked car with the engine on. I barked out the numberplate to him on the phone and he said "dui dui dui!", which means "yes" and "correct" at the same time.

Rather than open the back door I thought I'd be a little rude and open the driver's door so I could see who my friend was. If it was rude I could always joke that I thought it was the passenger door (I've used that one before and it works). Ah...it was the boss of the sea food place down the way who we'd seen for all of 15 minutes a couple of days ago but had to leave due to kids. This was apparently his new car. It was a VW something. Needless to say it was a black saloon with blacked out windows so it basically looked the same as 50% of all the cars in Pingguo. But it was comfortable and air conditioned, despite the fact that it seemed to keep jumping out of second gear. I daren't ask if it was brand new as a negative answer may have meant losing face. But he must have liked his car as rather than do a U-turn to head back to his place he did a tour of the guangchang before taking the road that leads to Nanning.

There was a two year old boy sitting in the front passenger seat who was apparently there for the ride, and we were all in the back sans seatbelts. Suddenly we were going about 50mph and I had to ask where we were going. "Nowhere", was the reply. He was sort of right as a couple of minutes later we did another U-turn and drove back into Pingguo and to his seafood place. I think the purpose of that mini trip was to show off his car, but who knows?

We got to his seafood place and he set us out a table saying he'd be back in a bit. During the meanwhile one of his blokes came to take our order. Well, I wasn't really ready to order despite being a bit hungry as Huang Chang wasn't there, so I got a can of lemonade for the kids and a beer for me. With the kids sorted I'd barely had a sip of beer before Xixi decided she wanted the toilet. She's actually good at using the key-shaped holes in the ground, and doesn't get her knickers wet, but she needs me for moral support, and sometimes physical support if her feet start slipping apart. Then it was Leilei's turn but I'm glad to say he doesn't need me any more. Then it was Xixi's turn again as she needed a poo poo for the second time today. This time it was of the less dry variety and it bloody stank but ho hum. This time when we finally got out I saw Boss Yang (one from a few years back), who was at another table. He bade me sit down and I didn't refuse. The kids amused themselves with hide-and-seek to my relief and I had a couple of gan bei's with some blokes I recognised from years gone by. The boss popped his head around again to apologise but he was busy. I couldn't help thinking that he would have been slightly less busy if he hadn't taken us on a pointless car ride outside Pingguo.

Leilei said it was going to rain and within five minutes there was a familiar pitter patter which lasted all of 30 seconds before it became more of a roar accompanied by a fairly strong wind. The deluge that ensued was quite interesting for the kids and me as we saw a delightful lightning performance to the sound of never-ending thunder. It wasn't good for business though as even the covers they'd put out were not sufficient due to the wind. Boss Yang took the kids one by one to his car under and umbrella and gave us a lift back home. We thanked him and said we'd see him again.

Of course I'd left the dian dong che at the bbq place by the guangchang but there was no getting it now. Tan wasn't in so I got the kids showered and toothbrushed and in to bed. Getting them to sleep was another matter and it was midnight by the time they were. Tan came back one-ish from who knows where? I was pretty shattered and fell asleep at 1.40am after having gone back to pick up the dian dong che and then going for a 10 minute ride around town just to wear out the last of the battery before recharging and because the post-rain air was refreshing.

Early badminton and late table-hopping

Another virtually sleepless night - just patches where dreams would start and get rudely revoked after a minute or so. In truth I probably got over an hour's kip but it didn't feel like it. So at 6.30 I got up and thought at least I could do some badminton. I crept about, trying not to wake Tan, who also had not got to sleep until nearly 3am, and found some clothes except for my shorts. Then I remembered I hadn't dried the clothes last night and I had three pairs in the washing machine. Well as they would be sopping wet with a few minutes anyway I put one pair aside while I hung out the rest of the clothes to dry.

I walked to the same place I played in the guangchang a couple of days ago. There were about six people there, not all the same as last time, but enough to recognise me and invite me to play. As there was already a game on one of the blokes saw two girls playing on an adjoining court and just moved on to play with them without really giving them an option. So I found myself with a rather chubby partner who wasn't very good, but it was a good warm-up exercise. Within 10 minutes a grey-haired, but sprightly old lady pushed out the young lady on the other side of the court and proceeded to play with the bloke against me and chubby. The young lady didn't seem to mind. I wonder if seniority allows for this imposing of oneself like this.

After half an hour we were called over to the other court and I played three games of doubles with much better players, more my age too. We actually won one of the games but I was more glad of the fitness practice I was getting - I didn't feel sick this time.

As I was walking home Tan called to say that the kids were arguing, as if to say "can you take them out as I need more sleep?". I was coming to take them to eat anyway so no problem there. Breakfast was at the dou jiang place again and we had eggs, a sweetcorn pancake, eight jiao zi, four bao zi and two cups of dou jiang, which all came to 10 kuai. We couldn't even finish all of that, and then I took the kids to Waipo's to play, explaining that I really needed to get some shuteye.

Back home Tan was still asleep but awoke nearer lunch time. She'd had a bad neck and Waipo had given her some herbs to...I think steam or something. I heard her pop them in the microwave for a minute or so before putting them in a plastic bag. Then she opened another plastic bag and put it on the pillow before putting the bag with the herbs on top of that and then lying with her neck on that for the next 45 minutes. It did pong a bit and I still couldn't sleep. So about an hour later I popped down to get some jiao zi and bao zi and brought them back up to share with Ling Ming. That, together with a couple of beers did the trick and I finally fell asleep from about 3.30 - 6.30. Even at 6.30 I could hardly get up and snoozed for another hour.

I decided not to eat at Waipo's although she'd rung to invite me around, as I wanted to have an evening out for myself tonight after having had the kids for the last two nights. After geeking about for a bit setting up the Wii with the tv and the Internet and trying, but mainly failing to watch the German grand prix I went to Ma Laoban's to pick up a USB hub and Ethernet cable. It was only a few minutes before closing but I found him and his wife and a couple of mates sitting at the back of the shop drinking tea, so joined them for nearly an hour, while getting decidedly hungry. Although I wanted to go, they all seemed so interested about life in England, and how I met Tan etc., and we were having quite a good laugh. Luckily Tan called to ask me to get her some bbq, so that was a good reason to leave, even though she just meant to bring it home with me later that night.

I drove to the guangchang A Yi bbq place and just as I was about to order I heard Ling Ming and Xiao Nong call me over to have a bite and a beer with them. Whyever not? We sat and ate and chatted for a bit until I noticed Yang Haiwei at another table with a load of mates. I said I'd say a quick hello with them, which was indeed fairly quick, but involved a number of gan beis. Then eventually A Wu came, and then Yang Haiwei's wife came over with their son and eventually I table-hopped to Haiwei's table where I cai ma'd with some of the blokes and beat most of them too).

I didn't forget my errand and ordered Tan's bbq from a different place as A Yi had stopped cooking by now. Back at Ling Ming's table they had already paid for theirs and the five duck tongues, fat-beef and pork strips I'd ordered too. It wasn't even worth protesting. On the way back I suddenly remembered I'd taken the dian dong che there so sheepishly had to walk back to pick it up and take it home.

Back home Tan was already there but the kids were staying at Waipo's. As she ate, I did a bit more setting up of the Wii, though was getting so tired I called it a day and went to bed insistent that I would not wake up within one hour.

Delicious light lunch and Hello Kitty car

Despite a broken night's sleep, with Leilei coming in to our room half way through, I didn't properly get up until 9.45 although was tempted three hours earlier to do something sporty. That meant I had to plan my day without a siesta for the first time this year. Ling Ming said he was taking the kids swimming in the afternoon and was I coming? Indeed that seemed like a suitable alternative to a sleep, and I haven't been swimming at all this year yet, let alone with the kids.

But lunch was before that - Xiao Nong came around soon after midday to take us all somewhere where they had liang fen. I still don't know what exactly this is but it includes tofu and sugar, and there are street sellers who pedal about tricycles with a small loudspeaker blaring "dofu hua, liang fen" and it is a cosy background sound I actually quite miss when I'm not here. On a couple of tables I saw trays with an array of small bowls of various vegetarian goodness, together with mini thin pancakes as for Beijing Roast Duck, and decided I wanted some of that. Leilei too wanted some and for some reason they ordered a portion for each of us. Tan and Xiao Nong had some flat noodles, and Ling Ming had some "normal" noodles. The table was covered with food and even Leilei ate some of Tan's noodles before eating some pancakes with like a single bead of sweetcorn inside.

Ling Ming, his fiancée Xiao Nong and Tan tucking in to noodles. The tray in the middle contains various roots/leaves/shoots that you put into a little pancake as Tan is showing. Delicious and light. 

But it was delightful, topped off with the most delicious mango sorbet. It was only pure mango crushed with ice and some sugar added but I ate it so quickly I got a freeze headache in my temple so severe I couldn't talk or open my eyes for a minute. Stupidly, I didn't learn from this lesson and did the same thing five minutes later due to how gorgeous it tasted. I couldn't eat anything after that, although I wasn't stuffed - anything else would have pailed in comparison.

After lunch Tan went to A Xia's shop and Xiao Nong took Leilei and I back home. Leilei played on computer games for half the afternoon as I did some drying of clothes and other chores until 4pm when Ling Ming called us to tell us he'd be there in five minutes to pick us up. That was a bit more considerate than people who call you to say they're waiting downstairs for you "hurry up".

Xiao Nong was driving in her MG 3 - I hadn't even heard of that before. It was white, and inside was adorned with Hello Kitty memorabilia and Xixi was in heaven. Had it been England I'd have been too embarrassed to enter such a vehicle. We went to the same pool a couple of k outside Pingguo as I had last year with Yang Haiwei. It was a lot harder with kids, but at least Chuan Chuan, A Heng and Qiqi were there too. I did manage four lengths without kids so my exercise-infiltrated days has now been extended to four.

Hanged Hello Kitties

A trifecta of Hello Kitties

The pool we all went to - the deep end is separated by a metal gate but I didn't get much chance to go there...

Tea was at Waipo's but I didn't eat that much mainly because I was hoping to get out later in the evening and have some bbq or something. I did ask if it would be possible to borrow a tv as we had done last year. She pointed at one in one of the bedrooms and said that nobody used it and we could take it back with us. I had seen A Heng sleeping in that room yesterday morning and said surely it was in use, but Waipo said it was her bedroom and that she only watched tv in the living room. I could have argued stronger, especially considering the ashtray on the floor by the side of the bed, but thought better of it, and quite fancied setting up the Wii again, so Ling Ming unplugged it and took it back with us. But the kids wanted to come back with me, which was fair enough as they haven't seen me that much recently, so I took them home where we found Tan, who promptly took out Xixi to get her toenails done (Tan's, not Xixi's).

Leilei and I went for a wee ride to Yi Xiao. Until this year I actually thought that this was the name of a street with a couple of toy shops that he loves. Apparently Yi Xiao is the name of a school "Number One Primary School", and it just happens to be the place where there are a few toy shops. But I'd promised to get him a plastic sword to replace one he'd broken earlier in the week. By just pointing at one the owner reduced the price from 5.7 kuai to 4, and then I said he could have another one, an axe, for 3 kuai. On the way back we stopped off in the centre and for the first time since I have been coming here there was no longer the clock saying a quarter to three.

We went inside the new department store and it felt like we had been transported to a different city; downstairs was like a Debenhams with all the perfumes and jewelry and electrical goods. Upstairs was a huge supermarket which gave me hope for fizzy water. I did ask, and despite being told "yes" at first it transpired the answer was "no". I got the kids a couple of cartons of coconut juice anyway before we left. Good old consumerism is officially here to stay. It wasn't just this department store, but the roads are chock a block with expensive foreign imports and iphone 4s are commonplace. There is an embarrassment of riches and it seems that a certain percentage of people just don't know what to do with their money other than flaunt it. I suspect this is common to all countries coming in to new found wealth. Thankfully the price of living in many other ways has not gone up that much, and things like food are still relatively cheap.

Leilei and I were setting up the tv when Tan called to say that Xixi was bored with Tan's nailjob, which was another way of asking if I could pick her up (Xixi, not Tan). I said we'd be 20 minutes or so, which we were but we did sort out the tv and got the Wii working, if not yet playing any games). So after a ride around the town the three of us got back and I finally managed to get them showered and ready for bed by 11pm. Getting them to sleep was another matter as Leilei was reading and Xixi just wanted to have fun. With lights out and finally closed eyes I made my way out of their room only for Leilei to ask where I was going and Xixi to spring up again. Oh well, another 10 mins and they were finally out for the count, and hopefully won't be up too early tomorrow.

Badminton x 2 and huge lunch with Ma Laoban

It was a night of in and out of sleep and I decided I'd be better off out of bed by 7am. My headache had subsided a little and I thought I'd at least try to maintain my recent efforts at keeping fit - healthy body, healthy mind kind of thing. So I filled up with water and took my bat and towel to the old people's leisure centre but to my dismay there was no-one there playing table tennis. When I asked one of the people there why not he just said he didn't know. Although it might not seem like a big thing, this admission of not knowing, rather than giving a possible explanation was very refreshing.

So I decided to go for a walk in the guangchang to see what I could see, as I didn't fancy jogging with a bag on me. I came across a group of men chatting, which didn't seem odd in itself, but I also heard a very noticeable chorus of birdsong, which is notable by its absence here. I worked out that they must have taken out their birds for a, um, sing? There were brown cages dotted around the place, some hanging from trees, some placed on the ground, and the birds were communicating with each other. I understand from Lu Hai that these are fighting birds, and if he is anything to go by the owners sometimes expose the males to the females voices to make them aggressive for fighting. I didn't stay long enough to see any such thing, but I'd like to know what bird this is - maybe Andrew can help here.

Name that tune, name that bird

After walking past an old man singing from a sheet into a microphone attached to a loudspeaker sat on his bicycle for a reason I have yet to fathom, I happened upon a group of people my age or a little older playing badminton. I heard "lao wei lai le" (a foreigner is coming) so I waved and said "hello" to them as I came to watch. It transpired that a couple of them could speak some English, including one who said he was an English teacher, and within a minute I was being asked to join in. I was more than happy to and my level was not far off theirs. My partner and I lost the first game 21-19 to two ladies, but were asked to stay on for another game. This time we beat two other ladies 21-19 as I was more warmed up. By now it was 8.30am and I knew I needed to take the kids to school. I explained this to the group and they told me to come back as they meet every morning at 7am. I intend to do so.

After a shower I got to Waipo's soon after 9am but the kids were still asleep; Leilei with Er Jie and Xixi on the floor with Chuan Chuan. It took a while to get them washed clothed and breakfasted but we got to school around 10am so it wasn't too bad. Back home I pottered about a bit until nearly midday. I was going to pop around to get some jiao zi for lunch and eat at home but I thought better of that idea and gave a couple of friends a ring. Uncle Yellow didn't answer and Zhang Hongping's phone was off, but Ma Laoban was around. He was just about to go and eat at home so I asked him if he wanted to eat with me. He was all for it so I drove down to his computer shop and a few minutes later I was in his car with his wife. I was going to suggest the soup place I like but I didn't know the name of the road, so Ma Laoban suggested a new place that he hadn't been to yet.

This place is near A Xia's shop, and in the baking sun we parked in the shadiest part of the car park, that barely covered the headlights. The restaurant was rather tastefully decorated and specialised in pizza, which wasn't something I was particularly aching for. However, we ordered a 12" cheese pizza and some ham and fruit salad that wasn't my idea. What I hadn't really realised was that we'd also ordered a steak and a portion of noodles too. The noodles were for Ma Laoban's wife, and she got three small bowls and shared it into three portions, then Ma Laoban chopped up his steak into chopstickable portions and we all shared that too. Then the "salad" arrived, which was a huge mound of reformulated diced ham, banana and some other stuff I couldn't recognise. It had an interesting taste and was actually quite nice, if filling. By now I was quite full, but a portion of six mini sausages wrapped in bacon arrived. I guessed we must have not ordered the pizza so bravely ate my two pigs in a blanket and had a sup of my beer.

Then, after a bit of shouting at the waitress, a 12" pizza appeared on our table, complete with three clear gloves like the ones you get at petrol stations for diesel. To be fair it looked ok, although they hadn't cut it properly. I forced myself to eat a slice, which had loads of cheese on it, using one hand in a glove and the other with chopsticks. Unfortunately the glove did not keep out the heat and I kept dropping it into my small bowl, thus disfiguring the shape of the pizza. Although the air-con was working fine I started to sweat now, but there was still three quarters of a pizza to go. We did laugh about how we were stuffed, but then Ma Laoban proceeded to pick up two slices together with his chopsticks and fold them over before putting in my bowl. Of course all the cheese in-between just fell out and went straight into the bottom of the bowl, and I had the choice of eating bread or cheese. I nibbled away at both but had no chance of getting through it. Ma Laoban served himself a slice in order to help me, but his wife wouldn't touch any more. Well we used the time to chat a lot as there was nothing else I could do, until eventually we decided to call it a lunch hour and bagged the last two slices of pizza and mostly uneaten "salad" and go back to his shop. They wouldn't let me pay (and it wasn't cheap - something like 250 kuai) even though I insisted that it was me who invited them....

I refused the invitation to drink tea at his shop, so we just chatted for the next half an hour before I let out a yawn I could hardly stifle, and made my excuses and way home where I had a small digestif before getting some kip. It was not a good sleep though as I kept waking up with heartburn. I don't think I'll be trying any more pizza this year in China.

I had 14 missed calls by the time I got up at 5.45pm. Six were from Yang Haiwei but his phone was busy so I next called A Wu who'd only tried four times. He was with Buss Hu at Hu's company and asked me to come down. I said I would as I'd called Boss Hu yesterday to see how he was. So I drove the seven minutes in the dian dong che, only slowed down by a couple of calls to "hurry up", and met up for a few more cuppas. A Wu had arranged to go to play badminton so I was prepared with my swimming shorts and a change of top. Boss Hu invited us and A Wu's family to eat with his family at a time of our choosing within the next couple of days, which was nice. But we had to leave to go to the leisure centre, so back on the dian dong che and up to the non air-conditioned courts. I kept score while A Wu played, and lost, to some other bloke I didn't know. Then I played the bloke and lost much worse. Then a short, rotund bloke appeared, who seemed to know A Wu and the other bloke, and I was asked to warm up with him. I like playing warm up because there are no scores and you're just hitting it nicely. But that lasted all of three minutes before he told me to "kai shi" (start). I was sopping wet from the previous game and warm up but started anyway. The only good thing about losing 21-6 is that it's not as long as losing 21-(6-x). But going against my better judgement I did play a second game and I did lose 21-8.

Even my portly opponent (who was as sprightly as a spring hare), did not request me to play again. I felt too tired and achy to sit down so slowly paced the circumference of the part of the hall that was not being used for the next few minutes while sipping through my bottle of water. My only break from this routing was to go and get a second bottle and sip through that too. After about ten slow laps I'd regained some consciousness but was glad to see that the others were getting ready to go. As if to seal this I went over to the counter and paid for the water and the court time. 20 kuai for an hour is very decent even for China, despite the lack of air-con. Looking on the positive side, the extra sweat produced was probably a good thing for tummies.

We were to go straightaway to eat duck, so I took the dian dong che while A Wu sorted himself out. A Ni was there with a friend, and I managed a few mouthfuls of duck breast and some lovely greens before A Wu turned up. I was in dire need of a shower so didn't wait for everyone to finish. They didn't seem to mind me leaving the table early.

Once showered for the second badminton reason of the day I went to Waipo's house to see the kids. I decided to take Leilei out by myself as Xixi was being taken out later. We went to a tea house opposite our place for a bit, and A Wu turned up too. As it was a tad boring we drove the 100 yards to the guangchang to go for a walk. I was charged 1 kuai for the privilege of parking the bike and nearly turned away to park on the other side of the road for free before deciding that would look a bit cheap.

Last year I don't think I ever visited the guangchang in the evening once, but it hasn't changed that much except to become even more popular with the locals for dancing, exercising etc. I got Leilei a helicopter type thing that you fling in the air and has a blue and red light on it that you can see as it hovers down. It cost 3 kuai, which I'm sure is three times more than two years ago.

We weren't that interested in the guangchang so I said we'd go down to the seafood place that I went to a lot over the last couple of years. The boss was there, happy as ever to see me and immediately grabbed a couple of stools for us and sat us down with some friends. A large bottle of lemonade was brought for Leilei and of course beer for the men. I had a quick gan bei with each of the five blokes, and a bite to eat, but as I was with Leilei, and he wasn't particularly interested, we only stayed 10 minutes before I promised to come back soon (hopefully they didn't think later that evening).

I took Leilei home and we got washed and ready for bed. It was nice to see him choose to do some reading himself (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) while I caught up on the news and the cricket. He fell asleep at 11 and I think I did so myself for a few minutes as I hit dreamland before realising I had stuff to do at 11.15.

Tan came home after having had a meal with all her friends in the Ming Dian hotel, and although I should have been more tired we didn't sleep till 3am in the end.