I was up reasonably early at 7 but the kids weren't. Luckily I had the wherewithall to check what time breakfast served till and found it was 9.30 so got them up at 9 and 10 minutes later we got downstairs to find almost nothing left. Grrr. I did sort of moan but I managed to salvage three boiled eggs, two fried eggs, three man tou, and a portion of noodles each for the kids so we weren't hungry but I'm not sure how healthy my five yolks were as the kids don't seem to like them.
Back at hotel room kids wanted to watch a film but I said there was no point and as if to confirm that Yang Haiwei called a minute later to say he'll be there immediately to pick us up. Did he not know about checking out? At check-out Leilei forgot his chong dian so we had to go back. Yang Haiwei had to wait a little while and wouldn't let me pay, saying the business would, so I said I'd say we were his clients as a sort of joke but I think he may have took my excuse seriously. It was 600 kuai after all - why not put on expenses?
Back at Haiwei's office there was lots of waiting around, drinking tea, and I really wondered what actual work was being done. To be fair, occasionally someone would walk in and talk to someone with some papers in their hand, but that seemed about it. I had hoped that Haiwei's one hour absence was due to work but found out he'd been cooking lunch, which we partook of before waiting around a little later. I was told we'd pick up some mangoes from a market then leave back for Pingguo at 3pm. This was a change from the original plan as we were expecting to take the train with Haiwei's wife and kids after lunch. But it transpired Haiwei would now be driving back today so we'd all go in the same car again.
Haiwei's car outside his new office in Tian Yang - there are few blue cars in China
Before we left we went to the market in the boiling mid-afternoon sun. The ladies cut out bits of mangoes for us and they were utterly gorgeous. As Haiwei and his wife discussed how many they wanted and at what price I went for a little walk in the sun which made the local stallholders look at me in a queer way as if to say "what's that bloke doing out in the...oh he's one of those...". Haiwei's wife spent about 360 kuai on three quite large boxes of mangoes, and they put something else in the car too.
Kids and Haiwei at the Tian Yang mango market
Eating straight out of the fruit as mother nature intended
Back in the office 3pm came and went as more and more tea was imbibed. Eventually it was time to go at 4.20 but first we drove a few minutes to some factory outside Tian Yang where we stopped for some reason. Someone brought me out some "liang cha" (cold tea) which was actually warm, and I recognised him as the bloke I conversed with yesterday. I wasn't really in the mood for another deep conversation but luckily I didn't have to as it was time to go.
But instead of going to Pingguo we stopped at Tian Dong, the next region down from Tian Yang. Haiwei was on the blower to some woman trying to find a place to eat. Ah, so we were to eat here before heading to Pingguo. But the place was closed, and looked like it wouldn't open till the evening, so we did end up going back to Pingguo where we found a nice place to eat and Xixi found a tiny kitten on the stairs that wasn't scared. There were a couple of other blokes there, one from Tian Yang, and a tacit agreement between Haiwei and me to only have a couple of beers as the other guys weren't partaking. In the meantime Uncle Yellow had called me to go to a bar tonight so I said yes that would be great, and he'd call me at 8.30.
Cute
I got a lift home with the the kids as Tan was going out to eat at A Xia's as she'd not had any tea yet. Haiwei then forced not one but two boxes of mangoes on us. So unnecessary but appreciated. We'll have to give most of them away though. A few minutes later Uncle Yellow called to say he was downstairs so the kids and I went to see him in his nice new white MG (which he was quite proud to tell me was a Chinese brand now). I called Tan to see if I could drop off the kids at A Xia's but she told me she was about to go home as she was full, which isn't normal, so I asked Uncle Yellow to go to A Xia's and pick her up and drop the lot of them off home.
Uncle Yellow and his new white MG
So I had a couple of hours free and we had a relaxing time just talking about stuff with another bloke I'd eaten with back in 2008, and his wife and eight year old son. We were on 2.5%ers but the boss came over and after a couple of gan beis took a selection of three other beers from the same brand and opened them up and we had a bit of a tasting session. I said I preferred the 2.5%er in the hope that that's what we'd continue with, but paid compliments to the 3.6%, 3.7%, and 4.0% too. I got everyone to line up the cans in order of their preference and it seemed we all agreed we weren't massively keen on the black lager - phew - it was the strongest.
My order of favourites for some reason from right to left
What I wasn't particularly happy about was seeing the kid with a bottle of blue alcopops. Ok it was 4% and he nurtured it the whole two hours or so and didn't even finish it, but it seemed wrong. Then I thought of the French parents who supposedly bring their kids up on watered down red wine and everything seems ok and it results in the kids not interested in drinking when they grow up. Except that it doesn't. I didn't overdo it at all and got a lift to A Xia's 11.30 where I picked up the dian dong che and took it back to chong dian and got an early night at 12.30.
Yet another 4am wake after a relatively early 1am sleep. Nothing for it, by 6.30 I was in the guangchang. Alhough I really wasn't in the mood for another long run I did make a slow start but as I got around to Deng Xiaoping hill I decided I'd go for more of a strength test and run up the steps there. Well my heart was in the right place but I barely made it a third of the way before my strength was sapped away under deluges of sweat and I had to walk the rest. It should be a good personal goal though, to actually jog up the entire west face of the hill one day. At the top I took one of the new walkways down after having done some stretches where I was clearly the least flexible, and least old, of anyone else.
The tiring steps up Deng Xiaoping hill
My co-walker
I plucked up the courage to attempt a quickish walk/jog up to the pagoda on the hill behind Deng Xiaoping but the bloke I'd been following became aware of my presence when some mates of his walking in the opposite direction pointed this out to him. So of course he started talking to me and we ended up walking a circuit of pagoda hill rather than jogging up it. He met a lady he knew and of course there were then photographs to be taken. He said he would do another circuit but I said I'd go to the top. No problem, he'd show me the path. Well actually we walked past two perfectly good looking branches of our circuit that looked like they'd go to the top but my friend said no...they were not good, for a reason I'll have to work out later - "tai di". By the time we got to a path that he deemed suitable we'd pretty much completed a second circuit anyway. I did get to the top in the end, and as I was enjoying the view a man came with a flute and a loudspeaker. He turned on some, I suppose, classic Chinese music, and then accompanied it in a rather pleasant manner. I wasn't sure what to do or say when I passed him on the way down from the top of the pagoda but he didn't give any expression when I caught his eye and I wondered if somehow I'd trespassed on his temporary property and I'd been hexed or something.
I decided I still didn't want to run but, as I'd not done it for a while, went to play ping pong at the old people's leisure centre. This provided over 90 minutes of further sweating but not before I'd gone home to change out of my first stinky top. By the time I got back surprisingly all were awake. The kids had had some crappy sweet stuff that I didn't want, so I cut a luscious dragonfire fruit and had that instead. Still insanely sweet but proably better for you.
Xixi said she could see something on my back and I saw the fruits of yesterday's horrid "massage"
Tan said she was about to go to Waipo's at 10.30, so I said I could take the kids to eat lunch in a bit - we still had to pick up the dian dong che from Ma Laoban's. But as I went to fill a bottle of water I noticed there was none left. So I called the water woman and said this time I wanted two large bottles instead of just replacing the one we have. Unfortunately I didn't realise the word for the large bottle was "tong" and I thought she said "dong", i.e, cold. As the bottle would be situated in the living room it made no sense for it to be cold, but I guessed the woman knew this so I cheated and handed the phone to Tan. That's when I realised my mistake, and really she was confirming the second bottle as it required a 40 kuai deposit. Of course Tan questioned why I wanted a second bottle. Because what happens if we run out of one and it's midnight? It took little over a week to run out of this one and we're not even in the house that much. Then she saw the point.
It was now 11.30 so we all went to Waipo's to find out there was not enough food, so I took yi ma's dian dong che out and the kids decided they wanted to get stuff from the dou jiang place to eat. I didn't really care as long as they ate. As the dou jiang place is mainly a breakfast place they were happy to see us as I guess what the don't sell goes to waste (they close for the day in the afternoon). The total for three of us came to 10 kuai - under 40p each for lunch.
We were due to go to Tian Yang later but I didn't know what time to messaged Yang Haiwei to ask. He called a little later to tell me he'd pick us up at 4pm. Great, the early lunch meant time for a kip while the kids stayed at Waipo's. I probably got to sleep at 1.30 and up again to my alarm at 3.30, then up again to a reset alarm at 3.45. I realised I needed to pack so set about it for the one night stay. Of course with various chargers this is a bit more than a five minute job and at 3.57pm Yang Haiwei called to say he was waiting for us downstairs. I asked him to give us five minutes and 10 more later we all boarded his blue car with the red seats that I remember from years ago.
It took a little over an hour to get to Tian Yang with Haiwei's wife and younger son. It's only 25k from Baise but there was a hold up as a lorry had turned over presumably due to the bit of rain that had fallen. When we arrived we went straight to Haiwei's office to drink tea. There were a couple of blokes there and over the next hour or so I was involved in deep conversations about stuff. It was rather tiring concentrating so much but at least it was tea and not beer. I learnt a view new words too: "wu liu" (logistics), "kai fa" (develop, as in software), "wen hua shui ping" (education level), and "jie du" (detoxify). They may seem a bit random but we were talking about their work, my work, and some cultural stuff where I made sure to state that educational level does not necessary determine your ability to do certain work, and is not a direct corollary of intelligence. The main bloke I was talking to, Li Zhong, seemed to take what I said very seriously and actually said he appreciated hearing my perspective. Then he started talking about traditional Chinese medicine, and how it didn't require skin grafts as with the traditional stuff it would grow back in 14 days (something to do with detoxification of the skin). Immediately my woo radar was tickled but I held myself back and limited my questioning to general open questions like how did it work? etc., instead of how did they test? Of course I didn't get a detailed answer (fair enough, he wasn't a quack) but I wasn't very well going to rip some skin off to test it.
Passing a not-very-nice-looking lorry on its side - the driver was on a stretcher
The the subject turned, as it so often has this year, to Brexit. I have a slight suspicion that this topic is huge in China too not just because it might herald greater trade ties between the two countries, but because it shows what happens when you allow the general population to make a very important decision, which is something that wouldn't happen here. Of course it shouldn't have happened in the UK either I think, but hey. It's pretty likely strengthened the way it is politically here, but I've never got so far in a political conversation to know. But if a certain things happens in the States in November I wonder if some places will start questioning some aspects of the democratic way.
Haiwei's wife (I really should know her name by now) then came to take the kids away from computer screens and away to eat with their son, while I went with some blokes for a manly meal. There's a rather pretty area in Tian Yang where the buildings are all made in the old style with curvy bits at the end of gutters and the like. They are also building new houses in this style, which is rather more attractive than the standard new builds. Our restaurant was in such a building. We went upstairs and one thing that was slightly unusual was that the beer arrived before the food. Immediately Yang Haiwei declared the Li Quan 7du as fake, and ordered the Snowflake brand instead. I of course asked how he knew, and this is where my Chinese suddenly takes a turn for the worse, or, more likely, the explanation is unclear. I asked again but when I got a second woolly response to the tune of lots of Li Quan here is fake, I decided not to labour the point, very unsatisfactorily.
Nice style of buildings in Tian Yang
Obviously fake Li Quan in the foreground
At least the Snowflake beer was 2.5% instead of 3.1%. Yet again I found myself questioning why sometimes a 7 degree beer is 3.1% yet an 8 degree beer is 2.5%. Yet the blokes talk about beers in terms of degrees, not percentage. However, when talking about spirits degrees does equal percentage. Nobody seems to give two hoots about this, yet it's vexed me for 13 years.
Boss Huang and Yang Haiwei engaged in cai ma battle
The meal was of course great, and the Snowflake gradually deepened the hues of the imbibers' faces until the boss stage, where the boss of the restaurant first came and toasted with us. For some reason, when someone important comes to a table to do a couple of gan beis, it's quite normal for him to be given a cellophane-wrapped bowl/plate/glass/tea cup/spoon and have it unwrapped for him (it is nearly always a him), only for it not to be used. A few minutes after the boss had left we repaid the compliment by going to the room where he was eating and gan beiing everyone there. Had it been Kronenburg we'd have been paralytic by now.
I knew the plan was to go and have bbq at some point. In fact the main reason for coming here was to taste the famous bbq that puts Pingguo in the shade apparently. But Haiwei said we were now going to sing song. It was a short drive away and we arrived in a nice looking pedestrian area with what I think are mostly bars on either side for a couple of hundred yards. We stopped at the first one and I saw a couple of blokes, one of whom looked particularly drunk. Then I gradually started to understand what "sing song" meant here. We weren't going to a KTV - rather this was a place where you sang to live music. What a bloody good idea! The blokes were a guitarist and a keyboard player (he who looked drunk), and Haiwei rifled through some pages of songs before choosing one. Both the musicians of course knew the music by heart and started playing, and Haiwei rendered a really good version of this song I didn't know. Somehow being outside and having real (if amplified) music really added to the occasion in way KTV could never do. I realised the keyboard player couldn't have been very drunk as he played some quite complex riffs.
The music street
Haiwei on left getting ready to sing
Haiwei's wife turned up with the kids, who were looking very happy and apparently had eaten ok, and ordered bbq where we were. Ah so this was singing and bbq together, with the kids too - excellent. And the kids tucked into a lot of the bbq as did I. I don't want to say it was better than Pingguo's but for someone who was still full from the meal I did manage to eat more than was necessary. The blokes were asking me to sing of course. Now if this had been KTV I might have been able to find an English song I knew, but here it wasn't the case, and I hadn't drunk enough to consider singing "Ni shi wo de mei gui hua" even if they knew it.
One of the blokes singing to the accompaniment of keyboard and to some extent a drum
But seeing the guitar had given me a hankering to play it. And after a couple more beers I messaged Andge to ask for an idea for what to sing. He had the great idea of Hey Jude, but I didn't know the chords. His great solution was to send a screenshot of them over WhatsApp (thankfully not yet blocked) but I didn't think I could be looking down at my phone all the time and what would happen when the screen locked? So I decided I'd try The Boxer. When I said I'd sing a song they showed my to the hotseat but hadn't banked on me playing an instrument as well, so they fetched the guitar and set up two microphones for some reason (the guitar was accoustic but plugged into an amp). It was actually quite fun to sing, though inexplicably I forgot the fifth verse and went straight into "In the clearing stands a boxer" after the second "lie la lie" but I don't think anyone noticed. Annoyingly, the most drunk bloke played the drums to the song and was quite out of sync much of the time, but again, no-one really cared; they got me up to sing and apparently really enjoyed it. Haiwei was telling me he known me all these years and never knew I could play the guitar.
Really poor and short recording of me doing The Boxer accompanied by even worse drums
After a few more beers and bbq it was 11pm and I decided it was late enough to take the kids back, so said goodbye to my chums and got a lift to Tian Yang International Hotel, where one of the blokes helped us check-in to our pre-ordered room. Luckily I'd had the forethought to take our passports as these were necessary. We had a nice executive suite and I got the kids showered and into bed not long after midnight and followed soon after.
Finally up at 9am for a change! Even if I wanted to I couldn't go to ping pong as I had the kids asleep in Leilei's room so I had a nice morning in until Ma Laoban called me to ask me for lunch again. Sure, why not? Well there are probably reasons why not but hell, Tan's away. As soon as I put the phone down it started ringing again and it was A Wu reminding me that we were to go out fishing with the bosses from yesterday. Oh shit, I'd forgotten, or never understood that. Well I told him I was taking the kids with Ma Laoban as it had been arranged (honest, if only just), and I think A Wu now understands he can't make my mind up for me so he hung up!
Ma Laoban came to our place to pick us up shortly after midday. We stopped at a new big hotel and we picked up police mate, who was looking decidedly the worse for wear. We then drove a little while outside Pingguo to a reservoir where we saw people swimming. Ma Laoban said we'd go swimming first but it happened to be a joke. Not an obvious one as I've been in similar situations where we really have (and I've not had trunks). There were a few people sitting by a table in the shade, and it became apparent they were from Bangxu and we were to eat with them.
Police mate sat in a deckchair and fell asleep until the food was served, but even then looked like a man more hungover than awake and although he was poured a beer none met his lips. He only managed a mouthful of food before going back to sleep again. I didn't want beer either but when one of the ladies offered to gan bei I realised it would be rude not to. Luckily it was of the 2.5% variety so I wasn't too worried. I managed to get the kids to eat some yumizhou so at least they weren't hungry and I had some of the local duck. The women were rather made up for what was otherwise a very informal outside meal in the humid heat - it was almost Sunday church attire. A few more beers later we went back but police mate was still not in great shape.
Some Bangxu ladies at the meal by the reservoir
Tan was back so I dropped off the kids with her at A Xia's and went to find a massage. Not because I really needed one but because I could and they are nice. Plus I planned on having forty winks as I hadn't planned on having beers. I found a place opposite A Hua's place, where Tan had warned me a few years ago I shouldn't go as there were prostitutes. It looked too unseedy for that, so I thought I'd take a chance. I asked if they did massages and of course they did, so was taken upstairs by a woman in a pink jumpsuit. I was brought into a small room where there was already a bloke lying down on his front with his trousers around his ankles and two sucker pump things on his buttocks. I hadn't bargained for this and was a little nervous, but at least I'd confirmed it wasn't a den of the sort of eniquity that Tan had warned of.
Horrible electric suction pads
But neither was it a massage that I was hankering after. I just wanted something that felt nice - I didn't care about how good it was for you. I idiotically told the woman that my back was in pain, in order to justify the massage in some absurdly English way, as if I couldn't have had one if it wasn't in pain. So she turned on some horrid sucking machine attached to some suckers that she attached to various parts of my back for a minute or so at a time. It hurt, but I'd made a rod for my own back in a semi literal way, and was now paying for it. Not only did it last over an hour, it was 130 kuai too, and I left hearing the woman get me to promise I'd call her before I come next time. I agreed, but it wasn't a total lie as there won't be a next time. Next time I'll be honest and just ask for a massage by someone's hands. 130 kuai for a machine massage indeed. And no chance for any shuteye either.
Blood sucker
Tan called to say her ex-teacher had invited us to eat just outside Pingguo, and that we'd have to get a taxi there, but when I got to A Xia's she said someone would be picking us up. I don't mind this information, but it does make me take every word uttered with a pinch of salt, and it can be rather annoying. Most annoying is when you're told that so-and-so has invited you for a meal tomorrow evening, so when other people call you you say you're not free. Then, as if the most normal thing in the world, you're told you're not going now, or it's the next day, or it's somebody else inviting you. The only thing you can mostly trust is when someone arranges something for the actual day it is, which was the case today.
A bloke arrived around 5.30 to pick us up. Tan had asked me to save one of the duty-free bottles so I'd taken a whisky with me. We drove for 10 minutes and arrived at a rather picturesque setting with a pond, which was also deserted. The kids and I looked around for a bit to see our surroundings, while the driver found a room and turned on the air-con. 10 minutes later the teacher turned up with his wife and kid and apologies for being late. He gratefully received the red bag containing the whisky, but neglected to look inside (I wasn't too annoyed as it was quite cheap standard Famous Grouse or similar). Food and drink were ordered. I was in a funny situation where I didn't particularly want to drink, but teacher clearly did as he opend a bottle of bai jiu. Of course it would have been rude not to join him in at least some beer, and Tan understood this - I did make an effort to show it was 2.5% though. The food was plentiful and excellent, and the teacher good company, despite getting rather drunk after his third glass of 53% booze. He started going on about how his wife was a goddess, and stood by him while he changed his business etc.
Pretty place outside Pingguo where we ate
Tan, teacher, teacher's wife, some woman who drank beer
The kids with teacher's daughter and woman's daughter
Me with teacher and driver
A few photos were taken for good measure, and a woman joined us, and then the boss of the place. These two did share in the beer so at least I had someone else to gan bei with. Li Kun had been pinging me on WeChat to go and drink tea, and I'd kept responding that I'd hopefully have time after the meal. However, it was gone half eight before we finished and too late for tea. Instead, I took the kids to A Ni's for some juice. Lin Hong came to take the kids to the guangchang and A Ni grabbed me to go upstairs where there were at least half a dozen ladies in various states of intoxication. I just wasn't in the mood at all but performed a few gan beis before excusing myself using the kids' shower requirements when they got back as justification. I left to the order of coming back in a few minutes but I didn't want to and Tan certainly didn't want me to either, and got a reasonably earlyish night.
Up at 5am for some annoying reason but at least I'd had nearly four hours' sleep. Ling Ming had given us a couple of tubes to fix the washing machine. I didn't know it was broken but found it was the water escape tube as it was split from old age and weather and did leak a bit on the balcony. Of course the tube was the wrong type, and now that I had the washing machine on its side I knew I'd need to find a new one before we'd have clean clothes again.
This was a mini mission that the kids and I looked forward to. First stop was to the place run by one of Tan's "aunties". I didn't expect to get the replacement part there but because I had the old one with me and a photo of the appliance, they were able to supply my with a phone number of a place that should be able to sort me out. The next hour was spent finding the place they had alluded to. I didn't call it as I knew none of the street names. The only clue I had was that it was "beyond the traffic lights" and a finger to point me to which traffic lights. It ended up being a bit like a treasure hunt, except instead of pieces of paper with further clues we'd stop at some shop and ask how close we were to this road. It took about five stops but we finally made it to the Haier shop and the lady popped upstairs and came down a minute later with a replacement tube for 15 kuai. Mission accomplished. Well I still had to install it. Back home it was actually quite straightforward and now we have a non-leaking washing machine and the kids had some fun.
Then, as if on cue, Ma Laoban rang to tell us to come to eat. I dumped the kids at Waipo's as I knew they'd be bored and Waipo really appreciates them being around even if it isn't 100% mutual. I arrived at Ma Laoban's Lenovo computer shop and there was a police mate there too who would join us. We took Ma Laoban's Landcruiser with curtained rear side windows and went to a place just a couple of blocks away from where we ate last year. It seemed to take rather a while sitting down at the ground floor with the pretty waitress ordering food for the private room that would be on the second floor, but in this instance it didn't really matter. It seemed every third item we ordered she came back apologetically to say they were out of it. But they had my favourite brown translucent boiled eggs (liang dan pi dan) so that was ok.
Ma Laoban's wife, me, police mate, and Ma Laoban at the meal
But my choice of beer wasn't ok. It wasn't that they didn't have Li Quan, rather that police mate was insistent on me drinking their strong bai jiu (white alcohol, but really it's transparent and it's from rice and it's horrible). He was utterly insistent on this, so much so that the only compromise I could make was to drink the brown "medicine alcohol" instead, and he ordered two small 100ml bottles. The food was good but I didn't like the drink, so had smaller sips than police mate. But he noticed this and told me to drink bigger sips as it wouldn't taste so strong. What utter tosh. After another bottle police mate had turned a shade of aubergine but was still insistent that we enjoy the drink. By this stage I didn't care quite so much and we managed a third bottle. Finally he ordered two more but I had to protest and he accepted and pushed the bottles away a few inches. Then a minute later his conscience got the better of him or something and he opened them both before I could counter him. He was instantly a classic drunk and staggered down the stairs a bit later and into the car where he held his head in his hands. I felt quite ok on the other hand and noticed that there were a couple of photos of people eating on the wall, and one of them looked like Jeremy Corbyn worryingly looking at some pig trotters. I ended up getting home at 3.30 and slept solidly till 6.30.
Had Jeremy Corbyn been here before, and what was he looking at?
A Wu I think it was woke me up to tell me to hurry up, we were going to see some friends at the karaoke place near where we lived for three months in 2008. Well the kids were out so I thought "why not?" and grabbed a shower and went to the KTV - probably slightly over the limit still. But when I got to the dest at the KTV and asked for A Wu, they told me he was in a different building, and took me out through the rear exit, across the road to a place where a load of blokes were eating on the ground floor. My entry was met with some drunken cheers and I was immediatley placed into gan bei mode for the next five minutes. There wasn't an amazing amount of food left but it didn't matter - the atmosphere was good and I did remember some of the blokes at least. I remembered I'd bought two packs of 200 fags at duty free for 90 quid and thought this might be an appropriate time to give them out, so excused myself saying I'd be back in 10 minutes.
Boss Zhou standing
I went back via the rear entrance of the KTV and then through the front door but was immediately accosted by a quite pretty woman who spoke to me in English "Hi! Where are you from?" Politely I told her, and she said I was very handsome, which was rather unnecessary, and proceeded to introduce herself to me, then, as a second thought, said "this is my husband", pointing to the bloke on her right. The husband looked at her with a long face and said "if you say so dear". I nearly felt awkward, but any such feeling was quickly quashed when police mate made an appearance. I recognised him from this afternoon and realised he'd probably somehow not slept off the afternoon booze, as he looked quite the worse for wear. Then Ma Laoban's wife turned up too and I realised they were wearing the same tops. Ah, it was some reunion, which was why police mate was in town.
Typically I took an instant liking to their tops, and I was asked if I wanted one. Why of course I did, and within 30 seconds I was given one. Remembering my mission to get fags, I excused myself for a second time in as many minutes and said I'd be back very soon, slinging the top on my shoulder.
Jeez while I was riding back there was a nasty whiff of BO and I felt embarrassed as I sniffed both armpits, but in fact they were fine (I had used a 72hour deoderant before going out so should be ok). I tried to find the source of the smell when it dawned on me that the reunion shirt I'd been given probably wasn't out-of-the-box, but rather off-the-back of someone else. Yuck. At home I grabbed the fags, then, as I was committed to wearing the stinking top, turned it inside out and used half a can of Gillette deoderant on it and then did the outside for good measure. Also, it was size M, but being Chinese that's pretty much an S so it was tight it a way I wouldn't have minded if I had rippling biceps, and short I wouldn't have minded if I had a six-pack.
Class 44 - "we are the best"
This time when I got back I went straight to the blokes' eating place, so the KTV crowd wouldn't see me. Boss Zhou, the main boss there, was very happy to accept 10 packs of Marlboro Red, and thankfully shared them around the others. I asked if he would mind if I took one for a mate in the KTV and of course it was ok. I said I'd be back again in a few minutes. As I did have the new top on I knew I had to see the reunion people even if I only knew two of them. Of course as I walked in I was plied with thimble-sized glasses of weak beer and gan bei'd with many of them. I gave the pack of Marlboro to police mate, but a couple of minutes later the pretty girl with the no-so-happy husband came over to me with them in hand. Apparently she'd never seen a hinge top pack before and had opened them like a soft pack, and was asking what to do. I didn't really have much of an idea so pulled on out and gave it to her. That seemed to work. Then I made my excuses and went back to the bosses across the road.
I used the kids as excuses to leave the meal a little later, but I was then given big bags of dragonfire fruit and star fruit even though if I only ate fruit for the next month I'd have more than enough. Yang Haiwei then called me after I'd picked up the kids to ask me over to drink "tea". So I dumped the kids off at A Ni's and went to see him and a couple of mates at the Lang Fu tea place. Of course tea meant beer, but I only stayeed an hour as once again the kids became my excuse to leave at 11.30 so picked them up to shower and sleep for another post-midnight night.
Damnation to my 4-5am window. Getting to sleep at 2am I thought I'd at least last longer than 5am but it wasn't to be. So at 6am I got up and found some shorts and by 6.15 I was at the guangchang with nothing but phone and keys in hand. My only target was to do more than the three laps I'd managed last time but rather than try four I walked the first half lap so would only be attempting 3.5 laps. It would be easier to beat the record of three laps that way. But on the second lap I wasn't feeling up to it, just no motivatation although beating last time should have been enough. Then I came across Zhang, who was jogging with a female. He noticed me and made the Chinese sound of recognition between males: "ah", and bade me jog with them.
It transpired that he and his pretty (for her age) friend had been jogging partners for 15 years. I had already noted that last week when I went with him to play ping pong he was wearing a top that mentioned the Nanning marathon. I hadn't been aware of such a thing but he'd done it. Luckily they weren't running any faster than a tired me so I stayed with them for a bit. They were doing longer laps than me and normally did four of them. The conversation and just company did for me more than I could have expected and I jogged a lap and a half, after which they (the woman is called Huang, I just learned) said I should relax as I'd started earlier. But I wanted to prove something to them so started a new lap even though I'd already well beaten my previous record here. It was slower, and my average speed per mile came down to 10m25s but I managed it, even with a sprint finish and was happy to see I'd done a 5.24 mile rather hot jog.
At home, just to make it better I forced myself to do a 7-minute workout, during which I sweated more than is decent. But the shower felt good. The kids and I walked to the dou jiang place on way to Waipo's with Tan, then after having a bite of brunch, left her as she was going to Baise a bit later for a few days for a primary school friends' reunion.
We went to the jade place where I had my annual change of necklace string for my jade pig. This year it was 10 kuai, as opposed to 6 kuai last year, but it had been more in the past. Pretty random but I'm not going to complain. After, the kids and I went to look for something new but even the bridge that had been built some seven years ago still didn't have a road on the south side. I tried to explain to the kids why this may be but could only muster that it was a project gone wrong, something I don't wholeheartedly believe in this place.
Still on the bike, we noticed we were getting battered by the soon-to-be-midday sun, so took a turn to Ma Laoban's place where we hugged as it had been nearly a year since we last met. We shared a couple of cups of tea then he said we'd call me to eat with him tomorrow lunchtime. I had semi-hoped we might go for a bite with him there and then, so instead we all went to A Ni's. There, the bloke with the same surname as Tan, Tan invited us to eat with him upstairs. It transpired he had some extended family for a meal, so that was quite good timing. Tan ordered steak for me and I asked for boring chips for the kids. A bottle of red wine was ordered for some reason, and some poured for all the adults. We all got up to cheers and I followed the Chinese tradition of gan beiing my glass only to find that everyone else just took a communion-sized sip from their glass. I felt rather sheepish as I was poured another - I wouldn't have downed it if I didn't think everyone else would.
Lin Hong called and came to take the kids to play, so I went home but decided it would be better to go for a massage as I haven't done that yet. It seemed that, without the kids, and with the whole afternoon and a sleep to come, not pouring a nice G&T would be bordering on criminal, so I kept on the right side of the law and had a wee glass and one for the journey. Five minutes later I was at A Wu's favouring massage place and was told to get upstairs. So much for a relaxing massage I could fall asleep during. This woman had it in for me. She kept telling me this place and that area were "ying" (hard) so applied more and more pressure. As tired as I was sleep would not happen in the next 70 minutes. But as soon as she was over, the soothing calmness of not having your muscled pulled and pushed to unnatural places brought me to a slumber that lasted another 70 minutes. I only woke up as the air-con was set at its lowest, and pushed it to 26 before resting again. Thankfully this place never seems that busy so sleeping after is quite the norm.
Not a good idea to take a selfie while taking the dian dong che back from the massage place but hey
It was already 4.30 and not long after A Wu called to invite me to eat steak at A Ni's again. It's more than I really want but it's company. There were a couple of other blokes too and beer was taken, but not more than a couple. The kids came back to then A Ni took them out to Yi Xiao to spoil them, and they came back with new shoes, clothes, and toys. Then it was my turn and I took them to the guangchang where once again they got absolutely soaking wet on the jumping castle. As it was pay day, and I'd thankfully got a bonus, I was able to withdraw 5000 kuai to give to Ling Ming for helping sort out the house. 5000 was a lot (especially with the rotten exchange rate since Brexit), but fair enough he had sent a breakdown of the costs (which I'm yet to translate). Ling Ming, his wife Xiao Nong, and their now 18 month old son came to meet us at the guangchang, then we went to A Ni's to see her son and to exchange the cash.
Then I saw Leilei was doubled over in pain. He wouldn't eat or drink so I got them both back home where he just lay down. I guessed it was the jumping and drinking of water too quickly and that seemed to be it for a few minutes later he seemed ok again. But it meant we were no longer to go out tonight and have a relatively pre-midnight bed.
Although I did rise at 11am, I went back to sleep till half past midday after the kids went out with Tan. I felt not great but better for the sleep. I decided to go to the local jiao zi place to eat as it was pouring outside and had been from before I got up. Often these showers last around 30 minutes and deposit enough water to keep the fruit happy, but this was more of a Pingguo-style drizzle.
Pingguo drizzle
As it has been well over a week since the last time, I had a hankering for getting some piano practice in, so I went down to the place by the river I went to a couple of days ago where they told me they were open every day till 4pm. It was about 2.30pm so I was slightly disappointed to see they were closed, or at least the shutter was 3/4 down. Last year I had looked without much joy for a similar place to what I'd found in 2014, but I went on the lookout again. It took a couple of rides down one of the streets near our local market before I noticed such a piano place, probably because it was on the opposite side of the road from where I remembered it. The usual comments about the rain were made (like how could you come on a dian dong che in this weather?) but I waved them off and asked if I could stay for a while. Of course I could, and I spent a happy 45 minutes or so torturing Scott Joplin's ghost yet again.
But it's funny that although it's not a massively physical exercise, playing the piano, or any instrument I suppose, can really take it out of you. It's a bit physical and quite emotional and the combination actually requires a bit of constitution that I realised in my semi-hungover state I was getting to the end of. So instead of learning any more of Magnetic Rag, I folded the cover down and offered to pay (they would have none of it) and went back home in the still pouring rain.
I picked up the kids when the rain subsided enough to do so and we went to do the important job of getting stickers for the dian dong che. We found a place by a small guangchang and the old woman apologised that they didn't have much in the way of stickers but we found a couple we liked. The problem was they were ancient and once we'd put them on the protective transparent covering hardly came off and it looked a bit messy. Oh well, it's not that bad and at least now we can tell our dian dong che from the plethora of others parked outside the supermarket.
A Hua rang to say Nong Kaicheng wanted to play with Leilei - fine - they came over to the little guangchang I let Leilei go off with them and Xixi and I did a little exercise before grabbing a bite to eat and going to the proper guangchang. She has now had four weeks without her plastercast and can finally go on the jumping castle, but first we went to do some art, as I knew it would be shower time after bouncing. Just as Xixi finished her painting that would be heated and turned into something like rubbery stained glass, Leilei and Nong Kaicheng appeared. Leilei really wanted to go on the bouncy castle too, but Kaicheng didn't. It's really that Kaicheng is now 16 and well on the way to being an adult and Leilei is clearly not there yet. Kaicheng said he'd go and play, and I said we'd call him later, which was really a sign to say we probably wouldn't. It's a pity as 2-3 years ago they were a lot more like peers. Bloody puberty.
Xixi artwork at the guangchang
The kids spent the best part of an hour getting sweaty-soaked jumping about, so after getting them some water I got them out at about 9.30pm. I decided to ring Yang Haiwei to meet for a bit of bbq. He said great, and I said we'd meet in "shi ji" minutes, which is a great way of saying between 11-19 minutes. I assumed he would be some time after that so was surprised to receive a call from him while I was showering the kids. To be fair it had been nearly half an hour since I called, and he'd turned up already. I apologised and said we'd be there in five. It was great to meet up with another old friend, and his wife and younger son were there too. Of course I'd forgotten I needed to pick up Tan's ID card from A Ni's, so took the dian dong che there, and no sooner was I back when the kids wanted their stuff from Waipo's (fair enough - phone and charger). Unfortunately Waipo and anyone else in the house was asleep or didn't hear the doorbell, but getting back I was glad that the kids wouldn't be glued to screens, and they actually got up and played with a couple of other kids in the street.
Who doesn't like bbq duck tongues?
We didn't spend too long or drink much beer, but at least the kids had a fair amount of bbq, including duck tongues. Haiwei was explaining that he had a new job in Tian Yang, and he generally only came back for the weekend, but happened to be here today as his car was getting fixed. He explained that Pingguo bbq was very good, but Tian Yang had the best bbq in Guangxi. So it was decided that next week we would go to visit him there and spend a night there.
After saying goodbye at gone 11pm, we took the dian dong che for a little more of a ride to use up the electricity as we were going to charge it. We popped down to the Beihai seafood place and saw Boss Huang there again. This time though, he was much soberer and we had a nicer conversation and no gnarled hand shakes. As it was late we only spent 15 minutes, as I'd promised I'd bring the kids. We were home at midnight, and in no need of further showering.
Literally no sleep. Gave up at 5am and got up at 6.30 to go for another jog. At least I had a target - three laps, which I just managed but the last one was hard. I did it in just under half an hour so room for improvement. Of course no-one was up when I got back so I thought I'd take the dian dong che for a little ride. Before 10am it can be quite quiet here, but I happened upon a nice soup place that I'd been to before so decided to stop for a sweetcorn soup and a fried egg. For some reason the fried egg request required a bit of conversation to properly imbue what I wanted but that was ok. I had my light breakfast but not before Englishly apologising for not ordering very much as I wasn't really that hungry.
Hardly a full English
Tan took the kids out and I managed to stay up till A Wu called me soon after midday to eat "steak soup". Ok let's do this. We drove a whole minute away from our place to this place that served soup with some beef in it and it was fine. But I was starting to flake. Problem was we needed to go to the boss's place to drink tea for a bit. Well it was ok, I didn't talk too much under the excuse of being tired and A Wu was actually true to his word that we'd leave at 1.30. So I got to sleep soon after 2pm but for some reason I woke up at 4.30.
Not a massive lunch either
I would have liked at least another hour, but Tan called to say we were going to A Wu's son's birthday dinner at 6pm. Well yesterday A Ni had said it was at 6.30, and at this moment the extra 30 minutes would have meant a lot more rest in terms of percentage at least. So I grabbed a coffee, which is about the only thing I can make for myself in our house, and then grabbed another.
There were more adults and fewer children than I expected for a baby's first birthday, and soon discovered it was more an excuse for a get-together as the beers came out. Every five minutes or so another plate or two of steak was served. It was quite amusing watching the locals go at it with knives and forks, and when I had a go they all looked quite surprised at how able I was to cut chopstickable-sized portions with ease. Then it was my job to do all the cutting as the steaks arrived on their plates, as we weren't going to be having a plate each as per Western style - there was already a lot of local food on the table and no space for them.
Oh why do they still chill red wine?
About as successful as most westerners are at using chopsticks
Lads and beer
As other such evenings have worn on, this one saw the kids leave first, then the ladies, leaving the blokes with their beer. I couldn't very well not join in but I was trying to be good and not over-imbibe. Cai ma was followed by a new drinking game which is actually rather fun and simple. The blokes stand around a table (preferably wooden and varnished) and one has to slide a half glass of beer to the bloke at the other end. If it gets beyond a certain point (I never did ascertain exactly where the point was) the bloke you're facing has to drink the beer. If it doesn't go far enough or goes off the end, then guess who has to drink. Needless to say on my first go and slid the glass straight off the table. It reminded me of that school game where you have three goes to nudge a 50p to leave it hanging over the end of the table then you flick it up and try to catch it.
Really poor shot from me but not as bad as the camerawork
Some time later instead of going home as I had hoped, we went to one of the boss's office where there was more beer, and tea if anyone wanted. I didn't want either, so as an excuse to stop drinking I went downstairs and found a foot massage place. My word, it hurt it was so hot, and I don't have the most insensitive of feet either. But my plan worked - for 40 kuai I had not just a foot but a body massage (which are always better when slightly tipsy), and an hour off the booze. Of course I was made to catch up back in the office and somehow we found ourselves in a KTV place later.
Blimmin' well woke up at 4.30am and fought against wakefullness without success. Well sleep's loss would be counterbalanced by fitness's gain, as at 6.30 I resolved to do a couple of laps of the guangchang. I downed an open can of sugary Vit C lemon drink that had lost its fizz and took just the dian dong che keys, the house keys, and my phone. Outside the building I couldn't see the dian dong che. Had I parked it by the wrong front door? I walked up and down the back of the building clicking the unlock button on the fob in vain hoping to hear the "wee wee" sound of it unlocking the alarm. Finally I accepted that it had probably been stolen - I've often been told to make sure I lock it by putting a metal thing throug the wheel but I've never bothered so it's only my own fault. What would I tell the kids? As I went back up the lift to put the keys away I traced my movements from yesterday...but I hardly moved yesterday...A Ni's place opposite, then a lift with Zhang to and from the table tennis place.
Runkeeper uses Google Maps so it doesn't look like anything, but one lap of the guangchang is almost exactly one mile
But then I had a spark of hope. How did I get the 50 yards from our door to A Ni's place across the road? I wouldn't have driven would I? As I approached the entrance I could see some cars parked outside her restaurant and had to walk for an agonizingly long time until I saw what I thought might be a wing mirror between the cars...oh yes it was my trusty steed and my relief was audible.
I found that the perimeter of the guangchang, or at least the perimeter that I jogged, was exactly one mile, and managed two of them, the second being considerably slower and hotter than the first due to the rising sun. A quick trip home to eat a cereal bar and pick up my bat, then went for an hour's ping pong at the old people's leisure centre to finish off and I felt I'd done a decent morning's workout, and one I can improve on.
I went for a quick trip on the dian dong che and knew one of the things I absolutely had to do was to register us with the local police. For once it only took me about 10 minutes to find the place as I knew the vicinity roughly. The bloke in the first office I went to told me to go to another office upstairs, where the girl told me I needed to go to a downstairs office. As I walked in this one I found myself behind the counter of a public office, but on the side with all the police people and the general public on the other side. I embarrassedly excused myself and found my way to the street entrance where I waited my turn and explained to the stern looking woman what I needed to do. She then told me to come to the back entrance again and then took my upstairs to the first place I'd been told to go to.
Apparently there was a new system in place, so now the girl from upstairs accompanied the stern uniformed woman and me back downstairs to the original place I'd stumbled upon on the police side of the counter. It would have been a bit unfair expecting them to know how to use a new system for something that happens pretty rarely in Pingguo. The girl used a horrifyingly easy username/password combination to log in (the same single letter for each), but couldn't see the screens she was after. She took a couple of photos of the screen with her phone and sent them to a colleague via WeChat. Eventually it transpired they were using the wrong credentials to log in (phew). Then she logged in with the number of the uniformed woman who by now appeared to be warming to me. We got as far as inputting most of my details before it became clear there was something wrong. It seemed that this login also had some issues - it was apparently associated with a different area or something.
Taking the practical screenshot option and sending over WeChat
The previously stern uniformed woman was now smiling about me being a Bangxu something-in-law and offered me grapes, which I took so as not to offend and because I was a little hungry now. I was careful not to eat the skin but not as skilled as the locals are at doing it and got juice down my hands.
Eventually the third login (still the same password) seemed to work and we put in all our details. I thought we were finished but they couldn't print it out because the system didn't understand the multiple entry visa (which is the only version these days anyway). But somehow, thankfully, this was resolved and finally I had three print-outs that I had to sign and date. I was actually quite glad they asked me to sign in Chinese, but have doubts as to its legal authenticity.
I wonder how official the signature is
On the way back home I picked up some more soda water at a different supermarket. I also spent longer than I would have in the UK searching for fabric conditioner after having realised that the "White Cat" branded one I bought a couple of days ago was actually detergent (I'm surprised Tan hasn't found that out yet). Why they hid it with the dishwashing stuff a couple of aisles away from the detergent aisle is beyond me but I'm guessing not that many people use the stuff so it doesn't really matter where it is.
Lunch was jiao zi again, but to take away. The woman didn't want me to pay as apparently I'd paid too much yesterday (I may have mistaken 4 for 10), but I insisted, and picked up a cold pack of Li Quan 3.1%ers as I thought one or two of those would hasten my descent into the sleep I now really required. And indeed two did, before 1.30 I was gone and only resurfaced at 3.30 for a minute before the next I knew it was 4.30. At this time I got myself up and drank two coffees and got on with a little work until teatime. At least today we seem to have had leccy all day.
I ended up going to A Ni's again for tea as the kids weren't here and if I rang up a friend it would probably involve alcohol and I didn't really want to imbibe as I had work to do. A Ni was working on pronouncing English translations of food - mostly what she sold in her place and I helped her as I ate my beef morsels wrapped in little leaves and deep fried. I specifically told her I wasn't going to drink beer and wanted to be healthy so she said she'd get the girls to make me some niuyouguozhi. Great, I was rather embarrassed to ask what it meant but it was healthy and it was juice, though internally I translated it as beef-oil-fruit-juice. Then the girl pulled out an avocado and the reality of the situation set in. I've never had one in my life so I should have said no I'd rather have watermelon juice instead, but I'd already said yes and some bloody British gene in me refused to let the words surface to my mouth. Or maybe it was my sense of adventure...trying something new. Maybe it would improve my ping pong skills.
I've only not tried avocado before as mum says she's allergic and therefore I may have inherited it. Plus it's one of those "false" fruits that I would re-classify as a vegetable as it's not sweet. Apparently peppers are fruits too - utter tosh. Tomatoes I can nearly understand, but not peppers. And avocados are only classed as fruits as someone deemed to call them "pears" because they're pear-shaped. By that logic an onion's a fruit as it's apple-shaped - that's bananas. Anyway, I forced myself to finish the "pear" juice after the nice wrapped beef, but it was not great - neither sweet nor savoury, neither liquid nor solid. I did make a point of telling A Ni that avocado in Chinese should be "e li", as that's what I knew it as (it's another word for it that Tan uses). If she'd said that in the first place I would have gracefully not accepted it.
I choose to blame the avocado for what happened when I got back, though it could of course have been the beef. Suffice to say that when A Wu rang me to go out to "drink red wine" my excuse wasn't that I was going to play ping pong (as was my plan) but rather that I couldn't move more than a few yards away from a toilet. He seemed to think this was very funny and to be fair if the pants were on another bum I'd probably have felt the same. But I'd succumbed to my first diarrhoea attack of the year and was staying put.
At least I managed to get my appraisal completed. I also got in contact with a Chinese colleague who was very keen for me to go to Beijing for my work week and help out the sales guys there. Something which is very unlikely unless they pay for it all. Bed was a reasonably early 12:30 but sleep certainly wasn't.
Woke up about 10am, then mulled about in bed half sleeping till midday when I decided I'd better eat. I hadn't had that much of the litre of water I'd brought to bed - one of the positives of drinking beer that is a lot closer to H2O than what we're used to. I went down to the jiao zi place and the woman greeted me with a smile, stating the obvious "ni huilai le" (you're back). But it's more of a greeting than an act of stating the unnecessary - like "chi fan le mei you?" (have you eaten yet?). She doesn't normally smile though so I took it as a compliment, and chose to eat there rather than take back. I asked for a drink, and the daughter offered soya milk. So I asked specifically if they had water. Of course the answer was in the affirmative, and a minute later I was served a metal bowl of hot transparent liquid with chopped spring onion. Ah yes, I remember the Chinese often consider soup as a drink, and therefore as a replacement for what you might have in a cup. I was fine with it, but would have liked something cold to quaff.
Jiao zi and "water"
Back in the house I actually needed to get down to some work and did so until bang - the internet went down. But this was accompanied by a worrying surge in temperature as I noticed the air con was no longer on. Oh no, the promised electricity cut for two days ago that never materialised had now made an ugly entrance. I guess this is why we never put much food in the fridge.
Well one of the best things about our flat on the 14th (or 13th in UK terms, or 15th in Chinese luck terms) is that it spans the width of the building north to south, so on the stillest, muggiest day, we still muster a nice breeze through the place that has meant we've not needed to buy a big air con machine for the living room. And so I sat in my office to get some work done in just a pair of shorts.
I realised I needed a shower but to my disappointment there was no water at all in the house. I called Ling Ming and he said it was all paid for so must be related to the leccy - apparently they are repairing something so it's not that unusual to turn it off during the day. I hoped 6pm would see it return but nay, and it seemed to getting less breezy so I paused my work and walked down the 13/14/15 flights of stairs to take the dian dong che to go to A Ni's new place for a bite to eat - no sooner had I stepped in when I heard shouts of "the electricity's back!". Good timing.
I'd remembered to take a bottle of Baileys and a quarter bottle of Bombay Sapphire to A Ni and she was so happy to see them (or me) that she gave me a big hug, and looked longingly at the Baileys before putting it on the shelf. Without asking she said I was her guest to eat and poured a beer that I didn't particular hanker after but couldn't refuse. There was an electric cauldron of noodles on the table and she and her mates laughed a bit that the English only had one word for noodles and I sort of countered by saying we also had spaghetti but I didn't really want to start a losing battle. The noodles were fine, but as I finished she brought out a plate of steak and chips that I wasn't expecting, and she sat down next to me with a plate of the same so I ate that as well - it was as well that I'd had a light lunch of jiao zi.
A pretty cool device for calling the waitress, ordering water, or asking for the bill (or cancelling) which is rendered slightly unnecessary by the small size of A Ni's place - and a pretty cool beer in what they call a pineapple glass
A Ni smiling because she's pouring her own glass
Just as we were finishing Lao Zhang from ping pong called me up to go to play table tennis. This was a suitable time and made a perfect excuse to excuse myself. I said I'd be 10 minutes and he said ok he'd come to collect me. At least that's what I'm sure he said but half an hour later he hadn't, so I called him and he asked where I was. I guessed then I'd misunderstood, so he told me to meet him at the old people's leisure centre - ah I thought we were going somewhere else. He was nowhere to be seen there so I called him again and he said he could see me as he was just arriving. Now I was clueless - were we playing here? Was I being picked up? Ok, in these situations you just go with the flow. No, we were playing at the more professional place on the west side of town, and yes he was giving me a lift there on his motorbike.
Strangely, this place, that I'd been to a few times before, was empty except for the Doctor lying on his bench in front of the show court. He shouted my name as soon as he saw me and bade me sign in in the visitors book - he wanted my Chinese and English names, and sex and whether it was morning or evening too. I nearly asked if he wanted my passport number too but held back just in case it would be taken in offence. Zhang and I played "the best of" five games and although I won the first, I thought possibly fairly and squarely, he won the next four to match the last competition I had with him a couple of days ago. Then an oldish woman came - she was introduced as a teacher but I wasn't quite sure of what. She certainly taught me some table tennis and although I was topless I was sweating prolifically which is more than I can say for my play. But when they asked for photos I promptly put my top back on.
From left to right, the teacher, the student, the doctor, and a bloke who was practising nasty spinny serves that I don't fancy playing any time soon
I was home for a shower at 10pm and not too tempted to have a drink after last night so went to bed early but didn't sleep till 2.30am...grrr.
Xixi sent me this horrid pic from here phone - I think she needs to learn more about "beauty cam"
