Tan and the kids were taking the train to Li Jiang at 10.30 from Pingguo, which meant I was up at 8.30 to see them off, as apparently they need to be at the station an hour beforehand. From my personal experience, at least in Pingguo, you can turn up 20 minutes before your train and do security in 2 minutes but I was not in a mood to argue. I was a bit sad not to be going with them but also aware I’d need to be doing some work and maybe catching up on some socialising.
Sadly I am still keeping track of how many kms I am getting per charge
I skipped breakfast thinking I’d do lunch at Luwen’s as I was by myself, but he was closed for some reason and I realised I’d have to do something new. I found the next closest place and realised they didn’t have what I wanted (dumplings) but felt too embarrassed, as literally no-one else would here, to leave and find somewhere else. So I ordered something, and it wasn’t that bad but rather noodly, and the women at the other table spoke a little English to me. I wish I could change this. It’s not that I don’t like it (I don’t, but that’s my problem), it’s just it is almost without exception that the females less doted with physical beauty speak foreign languages better. And of course it’s not just here, but everywhere. I like to think of myself as being ok (for a Brit) at other languages, but I’d hate to think that meant I was worse looking than I am, but I guess the stats say otherwise.
Work took up the rest of the afternoon and I had no excuse as I was by myself. Yesterday I should have gone to meet Zhang Hua for the first time this year but work and stuff had got in the way. He had joked that he would be in the same place today and I didn’t think he would be but pinged him anyway. He said indeed he was going to the same place at 6pm, so I managed a 10 minute sleep and forced myself to get up to go soon after 6.
I’m really glad I did, and he was happy I came too. There were some football mates of his that came and after 20 minutes we had a full table comprising all blokes plus one woman as is often the case. They didn’t all know each other and the bloke to my left introduced himself as “Peng Dehuai de Peng”, meaning he had the same family name as a famous army general from the past. But that was how I was used to introducing myself. I thought for a moment, and wondered if he was actually introducing me, but by the way he was gan bei’ing with them he clearly wasn’t. So I asked him to repeat his surname, and when I was sure it was him I told him I was also “Peng Dehuai de Peng” and the whole place burst into laughter and applause. This was only the second Peng I’d met in the mainland, and the last was 10 years ago or so. Obviously this called for some sort of celebration, and although I was taking it really slowly on the beer as I had to get back to work, a few more gan bei’s were had to celebrate our mutual surname. I’m trying to think of what an equivalent surname would be in the UK. Something heard of, but definitely not common...like Burley maybe?
Cool meal with Zhang Hua (bottom left in blue) and mates
Anyway I did go pretty easy on the beer but soon after I got home Li Kun called me to say he had my guitar cover and that we were to go to his mate’s camping shop to buy discounted clothes. At least that’s what I understood. Even after 16 years I still find I misunderstand things more than I would like, but as he’d gone to the effort of getting the case I couldn’t not go, despite not having really done enough work. He turned up a few minutes later and I brought my new guitar down to make sure it fitted. It did - snug as a bug. Then I was whisked off, guitar in back of car, to his mate’s camping shop. I performed an in-memory fist pump as I realised I had understood our earlier conversation 100%. Indeed he was having a sale, if indeed there was absolutely no advertising about this fact.
I was a bit worried I’d be “forced” to buy stuff I didn’t want but in fact I found some really good stuff: a tee-shirt that was XXL yet still only just big enough, a pair of perfect zip-off trousers that were so light you barely knew you were wearing them (I’m so gutted I spent 35 quid on a heavy pair from Amazon last month), a pair of the lightest trainers imaginable, and a foldable cap I’d wanted since I saw Li Kun’s last week. All for about 200 kuai, which was a good 70% off the marked prices that I wouldn’t have paid anyway. All in all a good 20 minutes’ buying experience. Li Kun bought much more, and kept saying the prices were “loose change”, which is a very relative concept.
Bargain hunting at the camping shop
Li Kun's charming daughters
Eventually I got back home at 9ish to continue work, until I decided enough was enough; last year I was travelling around the globe and didn’t get much chance to chill, so I took advantage of my base now being Paris instead of London and the extra hour closer and finished at 10pm. I nipped out to get some bbq as a little treat but bumped into two blokes just outside our block. They invited me to eat with them and although my reaction was not to I thought “why not?” and as soon as I sat down one of them went to the fridge and brought out four new “Shuang Pi” Li Quan beer bottles. This was a new one for me and although I was told they were new and expensive I couldn’t tell the difference and they were still 2.8%, so ok for me.
I also found a bit of time to practise Bleecker Street, which has recently become a bit of a favourite of mine
It was very enjoyable to sit with them for 40 minutes or so, partly because of the randomness of it, or rather the unexpectedness. I insisted on actually buying six beers from them just to allow them something back from what they’d given me, and at least they allowed me to pay for them. Back home a minute later I thought I was knackered but still didn’t sleep till 4am...is jetlag still an excuse?
Up at 10ish to the sounds of literally bumping and grinding. Oh no was the A/C broken again? After a few minutes I realised this was not air-con gone wrong but the unmistakeable sounds of next doors doing up their house, and in this case it sounded like next doors were upstairs, not something we’d consider next doors in the UK. Well I suppose there is nothing I could do about it...possibly people had already moved in below us when we started doing the same thing 10 years ago. But it could go on all summer...lordy.
So earlier than expected, and before Tan got the chance to order crappy DFC, I took the kids to eat yumi tang and egg-fried rice. To my shame we’ve ordered the same meal here for two years solid, but at least they mostly finish it and it’s sort of healthy. And it’s always the same 30 kuai so we know it’s basically 3.50 for eating out decently at the cost of a dian dong che ride in the searing sun that we’ll actually miss in one month.
But on the way back it was the hottest it’s been for a good while...there were few people on the streets in vehicles without shade or A/C, and when we stopped at red lights to turn left and found out it would be 80 seconds till we could I was a bit naughty and turned a sharper left to mount the pavement and get home that way just to avoid the sun. The kids appreciated it although I told them there had to be a good reason to break rules.
But there was to be no siesta; the kids were too awake and Xixi had showed interest in the guitar, and given we now had two, I said we should go and find new strings to replace the old ones that must be around three years old now and sound horrid. It was more a journey to be with the kids; I knew we’d find somewhere eventually, and after some stopping in shade we found a music shop on the corner of a road not too far from home, but they wanted 35 kuai for a set. Of course I wasn’t going to argue but had I known I could have bought a better set from home over: note - next year bring guitar strings over.
While we were out we also got a replacement phone cover for Xixi’s phone for 15 kuai, and got a quote for a replacement battery for 80 kuai, which in retrospect we should have gone for as the current one is bulging...having said that the last non-official one we got in London bulged so much as to deform her last phone….
Uncle Yellow texted me in the evening to see if I was free. I then found out it was him yesterday texting me, not Li Kun - I felt like a right tit when I realised I’d sent him a photo of my new guitar yesterday attestifying my love for it, thinking I was writing to Li Kun. Anyway I was free and needed to be there at 6.30. Xixi was out with Tan so I took Leilei and met up with Boss Zhou and then various other people turned up during the course of the meal. I took Leilei back after 8 as he was rather bored then somehow came back and continued eating and drinking till gone 1am. Two of the women there, it turned out, were after foreign husbands, around 50 years old! So exact...I told them I’d look out for them and they genuinely seemed appreciative! Jeepers I hope they don’t hold me to it.
Uncle Yellow and Boss Zhou - really good mates
The cat that was a kitten last year has really become quite sassy
Got back at nearly 3am after a very enjoyable night meeting new people and after having made sure the kids were asleep. Hope to get a lie-in tomorrow.
Up at 10.30 wondering if that is enough sleep to go without an wu shui. However, it appeared that we had all been invited to one of Tan’s ex-colleagues at 1.30 who lives just a little south of Pingguo.... Haiwei also called to invite me for an evening meal and said he’d call back at 5pm with the details, so no likelihood of an wu shui then.
But 1.30 turned to 2pm and we got to the house nearer half past. I started to doubt we were having lunch and my fears were confirmed when I was told we were to drink tea with some more ex-colleagues. I should have guessed it wasn’t going to be lunch - no-one arranges lunch at 1.30 or later. So I texted Haiwei and gave him the honest reason I wouldn’t be available at 5 and he seemed to understand - I’d ping him when I could.
We picked what I thought was a massive pear but apparently it was "just" a grapefruit
I went out for a walk by myself and found a place where I bought some little meaty snacks as I hadn’t eaten all day, before the heat forced me back to find shade. They were busy cooking upstairs and it seems I wasn’t the only hungry one as others were picking on the rooster balls before we finally sat down to eat at 4pm, which if this was an evening meal was rather early - linner? Lupper?
One of three transformers I met on my walk
I suppose it was a mini-reunion meal and there were around 10 of us and wine was forced upon me as apparently there was no beer. After an hour or so it typical style more people arrived and others dropped off. Then a bloke arrived with a box of beer so I had something more palatable to sip on, except sipping wasn’t an option.
For the first time ever I found a sauna in Pingguo - what? The whole place is basically a sauna 80% of the year
Waiting for the meal to be ready from outside the sauna
One of multiple plates of rooster balls, or would it be more appropriate to say cockerel balls?
It was a lovely meal though, especially the company
I had explained my prior engagement with a friend at 5pm and they said they’d take me there “very soon”. As it was of course I was obliged to participate in multiple gan bei’s before they let me leave and some non-drinking bloke gave me a lift to where he was at 6.30. It wasn’t his own house, and it wasn’t his mother’s house, but his wife and younger son were there so it must have been legit. Haiwei made me talk to his older son to come around and speak English but for some reason he was adamant that he wouldn’t come. I didn’t quite get the reason and although slightly happy I didn’t have to speak English, was also slightly concerned. Anyway, Li Kun called me to say my tee-shirt from yesterday’s picture was ready so I went home with an excuse and picked up Xixi to go there in the dian dong che to pick it up with her. I didn’t mention it looked rather like a New Zealand top. I appreciated it but had to leave to be with the kids for the evening.
Later, Li Kun IM’d me to see if I had time to meet up but I was still with the kids so had to decline, but I sent him that picture of my new guitar and told him I loved it! I did make the effort to meet a friend to drink tea though to counteract the beer, and afterwards I was really tempted to go for another massage but I soberly realised it was rather late and should get back. That didn’t stop me chatting with Awl till 4am though….
Oh it was horrid without A/C. I woke up early but still managed a bit more dripping sleep.
Tan called a bloke about electricity and he said he’d come at 12.10 which was in 20 mins so I stayed in rather than go to get lunch, which was horrible DFC delivered for the kids as Tan was about to go out.
The electric bloke arrived and quickly determined that one of the electric switches was not working as it was too hot. He removed the surrounding plastic of the main fuse box to expose a load of wires but didn’t turn off the mains (if that was even an option). Then he tested all the main switches and did some other tests before stating that something was wrong with the water heater. He left, then came back 15 mins later, Tan was by this time gone so I was all by my own trying to understand something quite important. He showed me that when he stuck one end of a voltmeter(?) In the socket and one on a tap there was virtually nothing but when he stuck the other end on the actual water boiler it went to 256 (volts?). Then he said it was dangerous and we shouldn’t take a shower near it when it’s on yi fan wan yi (just in case). Then he said something about safety first, which I understood and appreciated, but was still mindful about his working with the mains without turning them off first.
The one on the left was buggered apparently...cost us three nights' sleep without A/C and saved us probably a quid of leccy
Disgusting DFC again - I will not touch it
As we were talking he mentioned something about Yang Shuo and Guilin, and I belatedly realised he’d turned the conversation to where to visit on holiday, which was slightly weird. Anyway the work cost 80 kuai and I gave him 100 and he tried to send me the change via WeChat, and although I told him it wouldn’t work he insisted. So now I have a useless red envelope that will expire soon. I have read that it’s possible to get a Chinese bank account on a tourist visa - it’s just that it may take several attempts. I should at least give it a go, then I could pay like a local.
So, with a semi-fix for the electricity we now were able to turn on three or more A/C units at a time but we should not leave the water boiler on when it was not necessary...well we could live with that.
Next I planned to take the kids to meet up with Li Kun. I’d decided I wanted to upgrade my rather crappy guitar I’d had for nearly 11 years here so went to the guitar teacher’s place by the stadium we’d gone to on our first day here.
Li Kun insisted on giving us a lift in his white 4x4 though, which given the now searing heat actually seemed like a better idea. We broke into a sweat just walking to his car, and from it to the guitar place. Once there he brought out a selection of guitars as if he owned the place and gave them to me one at a time, as if I could actually value them in a glance. I did make the time to tune them up and pluck a little, but didn’t have enough of it to check each fret for each string. He told me this one was 2600 kuai and it was really good and I told him I was here for a few weeks each year and wasn’t going to frivolously spend £300 just like that. The last one he brought out was a dark shade of green, but it played nicely and the action wasn’t too high unlike some of the others. I took a bit of a liking to it despite its colour, then when he told me it was 680 kuai I pretty much made my decision on the spot. It had the hole for an amp, which I’d been told was necessary (did that mean I was expected to play??) and it just felt and sounded nice.
I told him I wanted the green one and I had the slight feeling he would have preferred me to take the expensive one, but I explained what I saved could go towards other things, and I think he got it. It was a Chinese brand hence the price but I think they all were really. Next he got out a cable and plugged me into an amp and then shoved a microphone in front of my gob. I wouldn’t have minded late at night after a few beers but we’d just barged in the guitar teacher’s shop and disturbed him teaching three young students, and now I had to perform. Well I couldn’t not really, so grabbed a capo (which was included in the price) and banged out Sounds of Silence for the first time soberly in front of people in Pingguo - and they seemed to appreciate it as they asked for more…. So I thought I’d give my fingers a bigger test and let out a couple of verses of Bleecker Street, which guitar teacher appeared to appreciate more than Li Kun as it is rather more complicated than SoS. Li Kun managed to arrange a new case for the guitar as well, but it would be delivered in a couple of days so I took an old one for the purposes of getting it home.
But we didn’t go straight home. For some reason I’d told Li Kun I missed playing the piano, which is very true when I come here even though in previous years I’ve managed to find piano schools and have a little practice now and again. So now, keeping in the musical theme, and rather to the chagrin of the kids, he drove us to the music shop of the keyboard player of his band. Once there I was tempted to have a go on the electric piano, but he seemed to think I would prefer the real piano. Most times I would have done but Pingguo pianos have never been in tune in my experience. In this case it was certainly not in tune but so much better than any other one. I went through some of my Scott Joplin repertoire, knowing full well that no-one had heard any before, and got polite applause from all except my kids, who had started bashing about on the electric piano rather rudely.
I liked it more than I showed...gosh if I lived here I'd definitely get an electric one to wile away the evenings that I wasn't out
My lovely new guitar with my old one which has served me well over the last 11 years (the clothing in the background is the teeshirt Li Kun's group wears - it's as if I'm a semi-member)
Well, it had been a productive afternoon for me, but not so much for the kids, so when we got back I forced Leilei to do some maths homework that he really didn’t want to, and as I had two guitars now, helped Xixi to learn G, C, and D chords on the old one. To be fair she did ok, having had her callouses developed by violin playing over the last couple of years, though it was a bit of a stretch, being full-sized. She took it away and practised in her room, and I didn’t try to force it too much. If you want to learn a musical instrument that’s the point - it should be because you want to. I would be ok with her stopping the violin if she really put an effort into another instrument.
As teatime came around we were rather lazy as Tan was out so I made the kids convenient noodles. I suppose we would call them instant noodles but I prefer the literal translation. I didn’t have any though as I’ve had enough carbs from weak beer, but I realised I’d had no lunch either so I forced myself to have a couple of really light, salty biscuits, the size of those rich tea fingers, before we went to the guangchang again but this time at 7.15pm when it was still quite light.
We went to the basketball area first for Leilei to try out the ball we got him the other day and he was sort of forced to join in with a couple of other people as there were only two hoops, then 20 minutes later we were back at the rollerskating area and Xixi had another 5 kuai to spend on hiring a pair. This time Leilei had brought his skateboard, that he’d brought from UK, so they were both on wheels for a good hour or so and I learnt two new words - liu bing for roller skates, and hua ban for skateboard.
While they were skating I got an IM from a contact in WeChat, but wasn’t really sure who they were. They said they’d invite me to eat in a few days. Fair enough - that seemed jolly nice and I responded as such. Then a couple of minutes later I got a video call to go for a drink with them and some colleagues now. It was a woman who was apparently an ex-colleague of Tan’s and I guess we’d met a year or so ago. I told them I was with the kids and I’d be an hour or so and that seemed ok.
At about 9pm we went straight from the guangchang to the location they’d sent on WeChat. Sometimes locations are not that accurate and indeed this was one of those cases. So when we were off the bike I called them and within a minute someone was outside shouting to us to come over. It appeared that it was a woman from Bangxu with about 14 other friends, mostly other women. As the three of us entered we received a cheer - just for being white (or half-white), which is a bit like positive racism. I guess being on the receiving end of that is literally the opposite of being on the receiving end of “normal” racism.
They proceeded to order food we didn’t want, and beer I did, as the alternative was red wine. The main bloke of the party then stood up and sang a song and which made everyone laugh (except for my kids), and all in all it was a very jovial time. Very random, very silly, and very funny, especially when I gave them my well-rehearsed one-liner - “I fear nothing in the sky, nothing on the ground, I only fear my wife speaking Bangxu language” which put them in fits of laughter. I’ll probably never understand 100% why it’s so funny….
This bloke was the life and soul of the party
We had to make our excuses and leave by around 9.45pm as Haiwei had invited me to his office to talk with his eldest son in English, but I first left Leilei at home as he was tired. Xixi though was hungry and wanted jiu gui yumi, which is a lovely fried sweetcorn dish, so we took the bike to Zhou Laoban’s place, where we bumped into him and some mates having a meal so I was obliged to have a couple of glasses while they did the yumi. Then on the way back we bumped into Zhang Hongping, whom I hadn’t seen for years so gave him a hug, and told him to call my phone so we could meet up soon. I honestly thought he had died six or seven years ago as contact had stopped abruptly between us. Then I finally got Xixi home and left her as Tan was back, and finally went for for a couple of beers with Haiwei, strangely drunken out of champagne glasses, and I think he was happy as I did speak with his son in English for a while.
Back home I should have slept but for the same reason that always happens here I didn’t. 5am swung around and I decided sod it I’d stay up till 6 and go for a jog, but that was the last conscious thought I had.
Up at 6am again! Dammit, or damnit, I did try to sleep but thought I might as well make use of the situation as Liangwen had just IM’d me that he was going for a jog in the guangchang. But my legs were leaden after yesterday’s effort so I made it a walk instead, and as he’d already run 11.64km he accompanied me to Lu Wen’s place for breakfast of beef noodles and insisted on paying.
The boring things in life happen here too, and I was obliged to pay the water and service bill, so went to the place downstairs and interrupted the woman from her brunch noodles. I said I could come back later but she was adamant it was fine. And a few minutes later I handed over 954 kuai. That paid for either the last year or the next - I wasn’t quite sure even though I asked. But whatever the amount it sounded reasonable for whatever it was. I really want to know more about utilities here; it seems I only hear about them when they stop. Like suddenly there’s no water because we haven’t paid the bill, or worse, no electricity. If I just knew what we owed it would be so much easier. To be fair Tan did say that the blue electricity book had our unique number on it and there was some way of checking what the balance was.
I'm not sure this was supposed to add up to 964.48 kuai...
It was quite easy in the end - prepend 040100 to the number in the book and the electronic display shows how much credit you have for electricity...at least it was easy when the person in the shop showed me how...and we had 354 kuai
We needed a couple of things from the supermarket, including a bath mat. Such a simple thing I thought I could get at a local market, but try as I might no-one had any, until I found one in a supermarket for 80 kuai. No way I was paying that much for one. I was at Guan Mart and since I’ve been coming here I’ve been tempted to buy a replica shopping trolley for what reason I cannot explain other than I can’t get one in the UK. One was 20 kuai and definitely less than a quarter useful as a bathmat but for some reason much more satisfactory.
Somehow we have ended up with an autonomous vacuum cleaner that we don't really need but Er Jie gave it to Tan when they went to Baise - hmm...
As darkness arrived I took the kids out for our first together trip to the guangchang this year. They both really wanted to go on the bouncy castles but I had to insist Leilei at least, at virtually 6 foot could not go. Xixi wouldn’t go without him so they both pushed me but I held firm. The average age there was 5 and I wasn’t having them increase that to 7. They were really bitter until I let them have a go on the guns to shoot balloons to win a prize. Then it was my turn to be bitter as after giving them a few goes each and spending a fiver during it I realised the red balloons appeared to be made of tougher rubber than the others that popped easily with the ball-bearings. I nearly had a go at the stall keepers but thought better of it, as we walked away without any teddy bears they’d been hoping for.
Shitty non-popping red balloons - we won't be going back there...
So far the night was a bit of a failure but then Xixi saw all the kids on roller skates. We walked over and women came up to her offering skates for hire and we found out it was only 5 kuai, so she got a pair straight away. She spent the next hour learning to inline skate, half the time holding on to me, and got 100x the money’s worth than from the shooting.
At last some fun on the in-line skates
Drenched in sweat, I had to take them home as Waterman had invited me out at 9pm for a drink at his shop. I duly obliged and had a great time until I was also obliged to meet Haiwei at 11.30 for a few beers. And then Li Kun contacted me for a few more after midnight. Gosh my social life is fairly busy at the moment - this should quieten down soon I think.
Keeping track of the kms on the dian dong che
More food at Li Kun's while the teacher was falling asleep
I probably would have been more annoyed at the lack of A/C had I been more awake and more sober but I made my way to my sofabed in my study and just managed to put on the sheet before slumber called to me in a way that my friends just couldn’t.
