Early skate and late cai ma

Mainly work today as it should be and I’m grateful for them letting me WFH here. It was gui jie today, meaning some festival of the dead though I’ve never really understood it properly as they have some other special day in March or April to remember the dead. Took the kids to the guangchang again for 40 mins only as was so hot today, then worked till 10.30pm, having only eaten a little at midday and at 6pm.

Actually skating in the light for a change

I popped to see racist Huang but his wife told me he was back in Beihai till 15th, so decided to see if Boss Zhou was about. Indeed he was and he shouted to me to come over and have a bite, and I ended up staying till 1ish as more friends arrived during the meal so cai ma blah blah. Then, as going back, Zhang Hongping shouted at me from another place to have more beer and chat and didn’t leave till 2.30. A typical evening in the life...

I hope it's not serious but I have a need to take a photo of the mileage every time I charge up - I think I'm planning to make a chart to plot how badly the battery is holding its charge and help me decide when to change it

No thermometers in Pingguo, but condoms with wine

Up slightly late, as were the kids so we once again went to the yumi tang place for lunch. I straightaway felt rather sick and had diarrhoea all afternoon. Waterman called me to ask me to invite him and some friends to drink at the same place we went to the other week. Oh well I suppose it’s my turn to do this and it’s a good thing to pay back in a way.

Yesterday a large green container was placed outside the bottom of our building. It surprised me to find out that it was actually a clothes recycling place, not just for clothes, but bags and books too for good measure. Finally something practical for the shoes the kids have grown out of but I didn’t want to chuck, and we got rid of Xixi’s white trainers that were now yellow and the shoe-cleaning shop even admitted they wouldn’t be able to get back to their former glory. Hopefully some child won’t mind and will make use of the half a million or so paces they have left in them (depending on the gait and weight of the said child). I now have an option for some of the many clothes I’ve been hoarding for the last 10 years in the hope that I might spend time here when it’s cold.

Xixi at the new clothes/shoes/bag/book recycling place having dropped off her too-small trainers

In the boiling afternoon I went out to get drinks for Tan and the kids and went to the football pitch I played on last year from where I could see our house. Why I did this I don’t really know - it’s not that interesting but it was to me - I even called Leilei at the house to come to the balcony to wave at us. He didn’t “pick up” my first call but did my second, and duly went through the kitchen to wave at us from the patio and seemed to understand why, justifying my interest a little.

Missed capturing Leilei in the window four floors down from top

By now it was so hot I wanted to know how much. I didn’t know the word for thermometer but suddenly needed to know so looked it up. But after three shops I realised it wasn’t being translated properly - they all said I needed to go to a hospital, which was probably true but not for this reason. For one of the only times here I decided to give up. It was hot and I could deal with not knowing whether it was 38 degrees or 42. Well actually I couldn’t but I didn’t want to show the kids that.

Is it wrong to find a shopping security box ticket so interesting? I don't think so...and neither do my frie...hey, where have they gone?

Going to the supermarket to look for a thermometer, the first thing you have to pass is the alcohol aisle, which I noticed had some interesting, and possibly quite appropriate, product placement

When we got home a bit later our ex-neighbours from the same floor were also there. They are selling their flat opposite ours as  they now live in her place of origin (there is probably a better term for that). They’d brought us some speciality tinned meat as a present, which Tan had for lunch. They chatted for ages and she moaned that her city was the strictest in China regarding letting civil servants travel, and they weren’t allowed to leave the country under any condition. Pity, but I guess they had a choice about moving there. Otherwise civil servants still have very strict conditions under which they may visit a foreign country, for fear of not coming back and giving out state secrets I suppose. But it was refreshing in a way to hear someone complaining about the state here, not because I agree necessarily, but it’s so rare to hear. Anyway, it looks like we will have new neighbours soon.

There was no going out until guangchang time, which is becoming a good habit now, and we left at a far too early 6.30pm and Xixi skated for a full 90 mins, before they got showered and I took them both to the bar at Jiangbin Lu to meet Waterman. I managed to get them to eat a few morsels but not get them engaged in any meaningful way so gave up and took them home at 10pm. I hope eventually they’ll become more social but with this company it won’t happen for a long time. I got back to Waterman and mates and enjoyed the next hour or so before making my excuses. They were having nothing of my attempt to pay even though I’d “invited” them, and my arguing was to no avail. I guess I have to actually invite them rather than wait for one of them to tell me I’d invited them. Fair enough. Got back in time for the 11.30pm match to see Utd beat Chelsea 4-0 - that shouldn’t have happened.

Can't imagine why the kids weren't too interested in the company...

Perfect meal at same place as 2008

Well it was a bit of a late wake-up at 10.30, which became 11.30 after dreaming about getting the Eurostar for some weird reason. Uncle Yellow texted me at 10.30 I found to go for a meal at 12.30ish. Man I’m supposed to be working…

Anyway, I went to where we were supposed to meet, and I realised this was a re-run of our meal in 2008 - something that sticks in my mind as a particularly bonding moment with my mates and me, when we ate dog in the mid-December sun and had a really nice time. Today would be no exception, and was one of those meals when you’re expecting to go for lunch but it ends up being linner. It took me longer than it should have to get there as despite WeChat location sharing they still didn’t have all the little dirt tracks that I needed, but nothing a quick phone call couldn’t fix. I imagined the same situation 11 years ago without the language or technology but even then it worked out pretty ok in the end.

Wading out to release my bad fishing error

This time we clearly had time on our hands and I made use of it by trying to fish. I was crap. I rolled up balls of bait and stuck them onto the two hooks but as soon as they entered the water it seemed they were either eaten by clever fish or just fell off. I tried to be clever and swing my line to another place but embarrassingly got it caught in some fencing in the water that I guessed was for some other sort of fish. In the end I had to call some local bloke who waded into the water to free my line, and after thanking him I didn’t try to fish again.

A cute puppy to accompany us

Eventually we ate at 3.30pm  so I’m still not sure if it was lunch. But it was lush, and we were accompanied by cute puppies and some women. I finally left at 5.30 after a decent amount of cai ma and went to meet Yang whom I’d promised earlier I would dine with. Well I’d hoped to leave at 7.30 to watch the City match but I only got to his place at nearly 7, so brought my laptop. There were two other friends and they were all drinking white alcohol with the meal but I stuck to Li Quan beer, and apologised as I opened my laptop to and asked for the wifi password in order to watch the match. The company wasn’t that amazing, and strangely, as we finished the meal we all moved on to drinking only tea for the next 45 mins or so during the second half. The others seemed to use my excuse of leaving as their excuse of doing the same at nineish, but at least we won 5-0.

Literally one my best memories from Pingguo

And the same place in December 2008...plus ca change...

Then I was to meet up with Yang Haiwei where it was a lot more fun and we drank with some outsiders (outside from Guangxi at least), and I didn’t get home till pretty late but was at least able to watch the Spurs game.

Eating and drinking with Yangliang

Muslim meal and Zhang Hongping again

Up at a more appropriate 9.30 and lingered in bed. Despite work I took the kids to lunch at the Yumi tang place. Then back for more work until 7 when I took them to the Muslim place for dinner as they didn’t want to go with Tan to eat zhou. I always feel embarrassed eating here (and most places actually) - I don’t want to order too much and not eat it, but if I order just enough for the kids and me I feel like I’m being mean. I just can’t win in this situation. The only way I could be comfortable is if the kids would eat a lot more, but then I’d just worry about them getting obese, though this is a million miles away thankfully. I think some people almost force themselves to worry about every situation. I’m more 30-40% of situations so relatively sane. The way I look at situations is to imagine I’d made a different choice and see how I would be regretting that. Like if you arrive late at the airport you worry about missing the plane, but if you arrive too early you worry about having to wait ages before you can check you bag in, and that you may get too hungry before the lounge and buy something to eat. Literally first world problems though. But still as we eliminate the third world (I think we will) we may soon have to consider these ones. Bulimia is, I consider, a first world problem, but despite this it affects a few people really seriously. Once everyone’s mouth is fed we may have to start really looking at mental issues like this. I don’t imagine bulimia occurs much in drought-ridden regions.

Eating at the nice Muslim place

Anyway after ordering not enough and still not finishing it (a double whammy) we went home to get water and Leilei’s skateboard then on to the guangchang for what is becoming a nightly skating session. We also met some 15 year old girl who’d been talking to my kids and now was talking to me. It was slightly surreal as she wanted to keep talking (in Chinese) and also said she was a great fan of talking. I didn’t know how to react other than continue talking with her.

But Wenliang arrived and shouted out “Duoming!” and came to my rescue. He’d had a couple of beers for tea and decided we needed to go to walk it off so I let the kids know and we walked a lap or so of the guangchang. He is still the person I understand most here, mainly because he isn’t from here and also has worked abroad, though doesn’t speak a word of English. So it was an enjoyable conversation before bringing the kids back for showers and sleeps.

Well unlike what he said yesterday Haiwei didn’t contact me for a meal or drink, but instead later at 12:30 Zhang Hongping called me to go for a beer and I thought why not? I was glad I did as we had a good catch-up session until 2.40am when I decided it was appropriate to leave as I was due to be going out midday tomorrow.

Nice meal and drinks with Zhang Hongping

Jog and Haiwei's brother

Oh no...it was back to 5.30am wake up again. Try as I might I didn’t get back to sleep, even after some Jetpunk quizzes, so after a quick chat with Andge I made the decision to go for a slow jog as I knew I probably wouldn’t regret it. Half an hour and nearly 4k later I did start to almost regret the decision as I slowed to a walk; I just didn’t quite feel up to continuing but forced myself to slow-jog the last 500m.

Some sort of rules for the guangchang that I need to learn

I decided to lunch at Luwen’s place with the kids and we had the only offering they really have: beef with noodles except they differentiate between noodle noodles and rice noodles, at least as far as I understand. As well as not allowing me to pay he also insisted on having a couple of beers. As I’d been awake over seven hours I somehow justified it in my tiredness, then took Xixi to buy some pencils before going home for a well-earned sleep.

Noodly lunch at Luwen's

Then it was up for the usual work routine until guangchang time though only for 30 minutes this time, where I left the kids to themselves. By the time I got back I found Leilei exchanging WeChat details with some girls with skateboards and I was slightly jealous but also a bit proud. This could have been me 20 years ago, minus the skateboard or good looks, oh, and mobile phone.

Leilei adding some contacts

Apparently I’d agreed to meet Uncle Yellow at 9.45 so duly did but I also had an arrangement with Yang Haiwei at 10.30ish at my local bar 3000 Degrees. We only had about four beers, and Haiwei didn’t seem to be his usual self. Then, quite unannounced (though why you would announce this I don’t know), he showed me a video of his elder brother just a few months ago before he died of cancer earlier this year. It was a really harrowing experience as a previously fairly well-built man with whom I’d cai ma’d on various occasions, had turned into but skin and bones and a horrid orange colour. He was sitting up on what was probably his deathbed, smoking a cigarette in what I expected was some intention to make the inevitable come quicker. I couldn’t imagine keeping such a video on my phone let alone seeing it again. I just don’t deal well with such matters. In a sort of attempt to make the situation a bit lighter I mentioned Waipo’s passing a few months ago, but it didn’t really lift the mood. Maybe by showing me he was trying to say something else, or confide something. I may never know but if anything it may have brought us closer together.

When we left he said he’d invite me out tomorrow evening after work, and I thanked him and had another relatively early night.