Wii cleaning and Mario Kart

Up at a reasonable 10.30am to have a breakfast of a custard tart the kids had left in the fridge. Worked till the early afternoon but needed a break so played a game of Worms Armageddon on Steam that I remembered doing while living in Portugal 19 years ago or so but why not?

As I was in a sort of gaming mode I decided to sort out the Wii. For some reason before turning it on and making sure it worked I decided to clean it of its 10+ years of yellowing. I took a good 10 minutes doing this including the flexes and each passing minute I became more convinced that it wouldn’t work, yet I adamantly stuck at the task as though I had a speck of ADHD or whatever. But the nice clean Wii did turn on and I did manage a couple of games of Mario Kart which was half fun and half sad. I’d rather be playing with someone else. I’ll have to sort it to work online like I’ve done with the Wiis at our UK home.

I do like a bit of Koopa Cape - almost retro now the console is 12 years old

Then Haiwei reminded me I was going to his place in an hour so I did 20 press ups and a minute’s plank before showering after a quick beer. It was pissing down so I put on the blue overall for the dian dong che and managed to stay relatively dry this time.

When I arrived Haiwei was still cooking so I spent some time with his son speaking English which is really one of the reasons I was here. He spent most of his time playing an excellent looking game called PUBG and pronounced "Pub". It looked more like Fortnite for adults, as there was a bit more killing. I expressed an interest and started downloading the Chinese version only for the download to stop after a few minutes on the local wifi. Eventually Haiwei's son had the good idea of making me tether on his phone and within half an hour the gigabyte or so of data was downloaded. Great. Except I needed to register with a Chinese social media account that had KYC and basically my WeChat didn't have that so I was buggered. Still, it was interesting to watch him play with the thumb-thingies that made his phone more tactile. He said he would sort me out a pair for Leilei.

PUBG - Looks pretty good actually

The meal was a sumptuous family one though Haiwei and I were the only men, but that changed an hour later when some more people turned up. One of them was 2-1, who I remembered from many years ago, and we enjoyed reminiscing a while.

Another sumptuous meal

The fashionable Li Quan beer this year: "1998" Bill Clinton....

Despite the good meal I ended up having to go home to work as my clients were getting to the office on the other side of the planet. Not complaining though - just needed to send a couple of emails and IMs to show I was looking after them. I did prefer when I was on English/European projects working from home in China though….

Tan and kids to to Kunming/Dali

Got up to say good morning and goodbye to Tan and the kids as they were about to head off to Kunming (actually Dali a bit beyond) and I was about to head back to bed for a bit, before work raised its predictable head again, but as I was about to get on with it Haiwei rang to drink tea. That sounded a nicer prospect even if it would mean having a later night so I went there to talk shop and eventually a bloke went out and came back with four portions of bao zi, nearly as good as the ones from downstairs at our place, and I gobbled my portion as breakfast had made way for sleep earlier.

I then made my genuine excuses and went back to work on through to the evening. At 6pm Haiwei called for me to go out to eat but I had to be good and stuck to my tasks at hand. During my 9-10.15pm meeting he called me three times to ask where I was, even though at the end of the first call I told him I’d call him when finished. Anyway I dutifully did and I found him with his sons at some eatery by the market supermarket. For a change it was not loads of meat, but white carrot in a soup with spicy bean sprouts, a refreshing change. Then came the tofu skin and fried tofu, followed later by a load of oysters done with garlic and a bit of chopped vermicelli spaghetti which were delicious.

Some more people turned up and one had a son of 12 years with whom I managed to make speak a tiny bit of English. Then he built up some confidence and lifted up his glass and said “cheers!” to everyone’s delight. But by close to midnight I could see there was still stuff to do for work so again made my excuses and went back. Ended up working till 3am then chatting to Awl till 4 as there was no-one in the house to disturb, before falling asleep without the air con on for the first time this year.

Leilei's First Drive

It was a bit of a late awakening for one and all but I did get the kids out to eat some jiao zi and bao zi at the usual place and they ate pretty well. Afterwards I thought I’d let Leilei have a go on the dian dong che in the car park of the unused hotel we checked out (not of) the other day. He absolutely loved his first experience of driving by himself and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that vehicles would mostly be self-driving by the time he would be legally able to drive, and I’m quite glad I didn’t because I will likely be wrong. But when it happens it will happen quickly and the number of lives saved on the roads will be numerous - it’s an absolute no-brainer that it will happen...a bit like lab-grown meat (or at least not growing animals to kill and eat) but on a shorter timescale.

Leilei driving the dian dong che for the first time...

Work took up most of my time after lunch until the kids went out to the supermarket to get stuff for their upcoming trip to Kunming that I unfortunately will not be able to participate in thanks to the aforementioned work. But at least it will give me more time to focus on it. I nibbled some spicy dou fu for tea on my own.

The view while waiting for the lift...changes each year a bit

Then Yangwen IM’d me to ask if I was able to go for a walk. I’ve been saying no for too long now so I decided I would go get some fresh air. Not that it was very fresh - it was one of the muggiest evenings I’ve known and I was wearing fairly heavy shorts and a cotton shirt unlike literally everyone else out, who was wearing very light sporting clothes (well I wanted somewhere to put phone and keys and money). We walked up a new road north east of the guangchang, wider than the M25, for a whole 2k and met up with some other bloke along the way who accompanied us. He also was from outside Pingguo so the conversation was slightly easier as it was more “normal” Mandarin.

Eventually get out of work at 10.30pm and went for a bite to eat with a neighbour and her “sister”. When I arrived at the Beihai seafood place Boss Huang was rather drunk and greeted me like an old friend (which I suppose I am) and then gabbled for a few minutes while I pretended I understood and afterwards said it was because we were nalouzhan (old mates) and he shook my hand so I felt a bit better.

We left around 1am as the little sister was being called to go home and look after her three month old daughter. As we’d only had three bottles in an hour and a half I was still a little thirsty, so I went for a quick ride and found Zhang Hua outside his little cigarette shop with some mates eating and drinking. Of course I was called over and joined them for a while. One of the blokes hadn’t seen me for years and kept saying that. I wish I remembered him and pretended I did.

After that I stupidly went for a ride to use up the rest of the dian so that I would get more for my buck when I charged it up later. Loads of people were still out, and I arrived at Lao Tong Kao Ji where I had performed the other week, and got called over to some people I apparently knew. I had a couple of beers but had to call it a day at 3.30am. Got back and remembered to charge the bike and went straight to bed.

Yumi Tang and Massage

I took the kids to the Yumi Tang place as we hadn’t been for a few days. Sadly I had to work after that so dumped them at A Xia’s until a couple of hours later I got a phone call from Xixi saying mama was going for an hour-long massage so I needed to pick them up.

I had a message from Uncle Yellow later in the morning about meeting up for a bite to eat at 6pm. As it rolled around I realised I’d have the kids still so took them along. We ate cow’s head and tongue, along with some more edible chicken, but not a quarter as good as last time I was here.

I took the kids shopping at 8pm, then back 40 mins later as mama wasn't answering her phone. Leilei got some wireless headphones I begrudgingly allowed him to as we did a check and found they were the same price on Amazon (about 30 quid). Got back to Uncle Yellow to find mama was out eating bbq so took the kids there and could finally enjoy a few beers in the company of adults.

It was only a few though, as a friend called and we went for a late foot wash at nearly midnight. Very nice, and where else could you be so indulgent at midnight? Sleep was easy after that.

Guess Age

I awoke to Tan asking if we could get tickets to go to Kunming. I wasn’t awake so said “yes” of course. Why wouldn’t I? I was then thrust into work as is my wont this year it appears. But I did make a point of taking the kids out for a Magical Mystery Tour as is another wont here, though not necessarily as exciting as it sounds.

I met Ma Laoban for dinner for the first time this year, with some colleagues and red wine. Luckily only two bottles between six adults (and one kid - Lao Pang’s son). But Ma Laoban only had a sip as he was driving (about the only person I know who would do that, but he technically doesn’t drink anyway so hardly a big deal), and one of the ladies had just had an injection so didn’t partake. As Lao Pang was Tan’s friend, I knew I wouldn’t get into trouble as I would have a witness to me not drinking too much, and anyway I had a meeting scheduled for 9pm, so I had to leave at 8.30. Then I found the meeting had been moved to 11.30pm - damn.

Then as that time rolled around it got cancelled, or at least I no longer had to attend, so went for a ride and met Zhang Hua, then went out to another place with some of his mates and played “guess age”, which .makes a change I suppose.

Zhang Hua's little shop

Outside Zhang Hua's shop with his wife and son

Zhang Hua and me enjoying a latish beer