Watching the buildings grow

Literally worked all day. The most interesting thing was watching the buildings grow below as I waited for the lift...

Watching the buildings grow...

Nice boring

Well on paper it was very boring; jiao zi and pancakes for lunch for the kids and me, then working the rest of the day. I did go for an evening meal with A Wu and some friends but went easy on the beer and excused myself early as had to go to a meeting. It’s really pretty cool that you can be half a world away from “normal” work and yet work as normal.

I did regret the fact that the kids spent most of the day inside playing games, but that was not really my fault, and it is pretty hot, and most kids were probably having a siesta during some of that time. In the evening I went for a bite with Tan, then met some friends at a local bar at 11.15 for an hour or so which signified the end of my working day early for a change.

Writing school twice

Happy Birthday Mama! Up at 9am and did some more 7 exercises before a writing teacher I’d met a couple of days ago outside the supermarket texted me to ask when to meet up. So I said we would do after lunch, but she then proceeded to invite us to lunch anyway. I picked up the kids at midday from making cake for Tan, to take them there. As is quite normal, when we arrived all the adults wanted to take pictures of them, and they were not really happy about this, but I tried to explain that they should see it from their eyes but I don’t think seeing anything from others’ eyes counts for much for 12 and nine year olds.

Making mama's birthday cake

Well it was lunchtime and I wondered what they had, but they asked us what we wanted. I was a bit taken aback by this and asked the kids. They just said “jiao zi” so that’s what we asked for. The teacher looked almost a little bit disappointed as if we could have asked for something a bit more challenging, but made a phone call and said it would be on its way. Well maybe it was but it may have started its journey in a different town because about half an hour later one of the newly ubiquitous black and yellow mopeds turned up.

Xixi practising at the handwriting place

So another of my dreams of getting some afternoon sleep evaporated with each passing minute of the afternoon and although of course I wasn’t really angry I was slightly annoyed. But we got home around 3pm and actually I did manage between 20-30 minutes of less-than-awakeness as I recall not getting further than 13 in German counting.

The kids had no intention of sleeping so I took them out a tad later to the Golden Horse table tennis place but strangely there was no-one there. But I needn’t have worried; the writing teacher place had already invited me to go to theirs for a drink this evening so I thought I should take them up on this offer, though the kids weren’t too excited. When we got there they were in full swing and there was more than beer going around. I stuck to the former though, while one of the blokes was drunkenly going on about how his beef jerky was the best in the region. To be fair it was bloody good, especially on a nearly empty stomach. But pissed people often just get a bit more boring and that was the way the evening went, so we didn’t stay that long….

Getting a bit of fresh air from the boozy inside of the writing place

Too much red wine for me....

Thankfully, Yang Haiwei called me later in the evening to go for a drink with some of his mates. I dumped off the kids and went to what normally would be a pleasant evening. But for some reason it wasn’t. Maybe it was people getting drunk on red wine, and the fact there were blotchy-faced women that didn’t do it for me (nothing against women, just those drunk on red wine with similar coloured faces, as for blokes). So after a bit I went downstairs to the tiny tobacconist where my mate Huang works and I spent a few minutes with him having a chat and a weak beer, which was much more preferable.

Long day and some ping pong and first game of season

Got up at 9am which was too late for TT or even jogging unless you particularly had some sort of heat-wish, which isn’t very different from a deathwish at least in terms of spelling. Somehow met up with A Wu as he had an injured hand. I didn’t quite get what was wrong and it didn’t hinder his driving (but no man would admit to that anyway). We passed by some bloke selling a bubble-gun thing and A Wu stopped and bought a couple for his one-year-old son for 10 kuai each. I was tempted but knew they’d be broken within minutes.

A man selling bubble machines

Then somehow we went for a magical headwash. I know I generally prefer these in the evening or any time after a full meal but it was damn good at this time anyway.

While we were in this vicinity I noticed a place I thought I recognised from years ago; a small Septwolves shop I attended the opening of in something like 2008. I wasn't sure if it was the same place so took a pic of it so I could compare. I did go inside and ask the lady at the cash register but she was probably five at the time so wouldn't have known.

The Septwolves shop in 2017

...and yes I found the pic of the same place from 2008

By this time it was midday so we went to a place that did goose - not the place we would normally have gone to a year or so ago but it was still pretty good if not air conditioned. And then on to some other place where he was to drop off some takeaway from the same place. You’d think dropping off a bag of goose meat and rice would be a 5 min job but when he left the car I had a suspicion it would take longer. I walked into the local corner shop of the apartment complex and started talking to the owner (or the owner’s wife). Normally I quite like this situation as I’m able to have a decent chat but I was hot and bothered and tired, and didn’t fancy a beer that may have made the situation more amenable. Also, I’d arranged to meet Liangwen for some pingpong at 3pm and now that wasn’t so far away. Actually that was why I was annoyed; I’d hoped to grab an hour’s siesta and I’d realised that clearly wasn’t going to happen.

After about 45 minutes A Wu came back and I asked to go home to pick up my ping pong racquet (apparently not bat as you would think).

A Wu fiddling with some bank dongle that fits into the 3.5mm headphone socket in an iphone

Liangwen had  told me to get to the Golden Horse Ping Pong Centre by 3pm for some competition (although of course I wouldn’t be competing). So A Wu dropped me off in time actually but there was almost no-one there. Liangwen arrived half an hour later and then I realised he was not in the competition either. In fact it was some guys from Tianling, and at about 4pm they started playing. Yang Haiwei was there of course and Pingguo won, as I think they usually do.

While this was going on some woman was sorting out food for afterwards. I made myself useful and offered to help cleaning greens and to my surprise was accepted. It wasn’t much but at least I did something more than just watching table tennis. But tiredness was calling me so I made my excuses and left before 5pm promising to be back for the meal at 6pm. At home I felt so pre-emptively guilty of not waking up in time for the meal that I ended up not falling asleep at all, and leaving less than an hour later at 6pm to go back for the meal where I would be expected. Bloody hell they didn’t even eat till 7pm mainly due to just waiting around, a talent most non-UK countries seem to have mastered. At least during this time I managed to practise a little ping pong which kept me awake.

The woman I helped clean greens with on the roof of the ping pong place

We didn't use these but I wondered how long they'd been out there for and who would use them next

I had time to ponder the view from the top of the ping pong place

The meal with the Tianling folks was very friendly despite the room temperature beers (35 deg C) and the smoking doctor bloke made a nice speech I didn’t really understand. Then to my surprise they got back to playing table tennis but A Wu had called me to go and play ping pong at his bosss’ office and eat more food there. I ended up predictably downing a few (cold) beers and cai ma’ing for a meal before actually playing table tennis against a machine which is bloody knackering. But it stood me in good stead for playing A Wu later, who although is much improved, still lacks enough for him to be able to beat me.

The meal with the Tianling folks was not quite as blurry as this

In the evening the kids went to sleep at Waipo’s so I brought over their stuff and clothes then went home to wait for the footy. I don’t normally have caffeinated coffee this late but wanted to watch the City-Brighton first game of the season and we won it quite convincingly 2-0. Walker looks to be a good acquisition. Also managed a chat with Awl in the early hours before sleep defeated any more chance of communication.

A day in the life...

Once again I disdained early morning exercise but mainly down to laziness justified by wanting to use the abdominal wheel thing I got the other day. Blimey it really hurt and I’m not going to go down too far for fear of never coming back.

I still feel the urge to capture the view while waiting for the lift

Tan had planned to take the kids to Nanning at 11am on the “dong che”, meaning the fast rail service we now have. But of course this didn't work as planned due to the fact that there was a) no space on the train, and b) A Yi’s ID card had expired (and you can’t get tickets without one). This was typical lack of planning that happens literally all the time. It’s not a big deal - they went by car in the end, but blimey it still strikes me as strange they tell me one thing and do something else. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest only I get scared of the thought of my family being on the road outside of Pingguo.

I worked till 7pm before meeting up with Liangwen for a walk. I’m getting slightly peeved he only wants to do enough exercise to work up a sweat (i.e. walking) when I need something more vigorous, but hey, it’s conversation with a friend.

Later I found myself with the Waterman for a beer. I really shouldn’t call him that as it makes him sound like the character out of Monkey but he is the boss of the place that delivers our water and he is a man. More embarrassingly I don’t actually know his name. It was very nice though to have a chinwag with this local mate but before long I was asked to go to a new German beer bar with an advertising friend. So I did and had to choose an appropriate beer from the fridge. This was only difficult because I wanted something low in alcohol and what was there was mostly 5%+ - unheard of in Pingguo normally. So I settled on some Corona at around 4.5% and hoped its lack of Teutonicness wouldn’t be disapproved of too much.

As much as I would have been happy to end the night there, I got a call from A Wu, as one does, and found myself in a KTV place a bit later, but not as late as has been known and was back home, absolutely shattered, at 1am.