Return of Running Dog

Somehow got up at 10.15am and did some boring chores like washing clothes before it got too hot to bother. Lunch was the familiar boiled egg and yoghurt, with maybe a few nuts from the wedding last week. I was trying hard to get a siesta and almost dozing when Ling Ming pinged me to let me know we were nearly out of electricity. So the last 200 kuai must have lasted only 10 days or so. Not dreadful when you consider that's three A/Cs on around 18 hours a day (or more when the boys forget to turn them off), but still not that cheap either. So I sent a red packet of 200 kuai again and within seconds he'd topped us up.

Then, half an hour later he called me to let me know someone would deliver my tea table shortly and it would be 50-60 kuai delivery fee, which for here felt a bit steep but whatever. Hang on, Tan just told me on Sunday that the tea table would be delivered on Tuesday...oh of course why would I take anything at face value? Lucky I didn't have any plans for today I suppose...but who plans anything anyway? I noticed my voice had become deeper and I'd started coughing so feared I caught something. I certainly hadn't caught a siesta, and now wouldn't for sure.

Ling Ming pinged me to tell me the bloke would be here in 5 minutes, and indeed he was bang on just as I'd put on a top. He just told me in a matter-of-fact that it was bloody heavy (I don't think we really have a word for "bloody" here but we should do). He'd also brought the wooden stool I'd nearly forgotten about, plus a small metal box containing a few sachets of tea that had been gifted me 10+ years ago, which seemed rather unnecessary. I'm so glad we're on the first floor, which is the lowest living quarter, but it still took a few minutes to get the heavy bastard up the stairs and into the living room. It had suffered a little, and had a couple of scars, but it was generally good to go. I scanned the bloke's Weixin QR code and eventually it worked and I paid the 60 kuai. It was great to be reunited but the reality of what to do with it was starting to dawn on me.

Return of Running Dog

Yesterday I'd pinged a mate I'd met in November 2019. Well not exactly a mate but he is a friend of Si Si, and I'd been out with him for one meal back then and we'd sort of maintained contact. I'd pinged him because I'd promised I would, and would be happy to have a bite to eat with him if he wanted but of course yesterday was not going to happen due to the football. So of course he said to meet up today instead. But it was getting on for 6pm and I'd heard nothing. Again, this was a totally Pingguo experience; I should never have expected to meet up until I'd heard the name of the place we were going to. I was hungry so started pecking at a few wedding nuts but A Wu called a few minutes later to say he had just been exercising and we were to go to Boss Zhou's place to eat. Interestingly, he said we wouldn't be drinking as we have been doing too much of that recently. I totally agreed and was happy to have somewhere to eat and not drink.

Well I did have the last naughty beer in the fridge as it's basically a soft drink here, and was cold and fizzy. Then drove there and met him as he was trying to call me to ask where I was. Indeed the meal was beer-free, and very nice too with a mixture of wives and kids. I particularly liked the grasshoppers and can't wait till they become part of a western staple diet. But then, almost 30 minutes into the meal, three boxes of beer were delivered, and Boss Zhou brought out a "special" bottle of baijiu and poured glasses for himself, A Wu, and me. It's literally the worst tasting drink in the world after milk, but I do like Boss Zhou so did my best to down a tiny mouthful. I nearly heaved and immediately had to wash it down with a glass of 2.8% "Struggle" beer. I struggled with the baijiu much more than the beer, but Boss Zhou saw that and poured the rest of my glass into a small jug they would use for the rest of the evening.

I learnt a new word: 蚱蜢

Struggle beer?

At about 8pm the mate who said he'd invite me for a meal this evening got in touch to ask me to go for bbq. Damn, I should know his name really. It's not 天上白云 as is his Weixin but I'd better find out soon. So I said I could meet him some time after 9pm on the dian dong che but he said not to use that and he'd come and pick me up as there were traffic police. I've heard this so many times, and still half the people on bikes don't wear helmets. I bet the boys don't either even though I've repeated there's a 50 kuai fine if you get caught. A very big "if". Then he asked me if I wanted to invite Si Si and Zhang Hongping (aka Wu Ge), and I said sure, but he said I should ask them to come along. So I pinged Si Si and she said she'd just been invited out already. No problem, maybe later, sure. But at least she'd told me how she refers to him: 刘哥 (Liu ge). I told Liu ge I'd drop off the dian dong che at home then he could pick me up which would be a reasonable compromise, but he then suggested meeting up tomorrow when Si Si was available. I was totally fine with that, and suspect maybe he fancies her...well I won't try too hard to be a matchmaker but if I can help why not?

Raw fish with oil and red onion - a delight!

I'd already told A Wu I'd have to leave soon after 9pm, and by then I'd been cai ma'd out by many people plus the young chap that calls me by 您, the equivalent of "vous" in French. I've told him in no uncertain terms he should call me 你 ("tu") but he doesn't want to. He's almost the only person here who does that and I really don't like it. Even in French "vous" is becoming less prevalent in my experience. Didn't we used to use "thou" in English for "tu" before we effectively got rid of it except for prayers?

So I left at 9.30pm and decided I should go to the supermarket to stock up on eggs (something that's not so expected anymore in the UK), and passed by Huang's seafood place. I thought he hadn't seen me but a minute later I got a video call from him chastising me for not stopping off.... I explained I needed to do some shopping before they closed, which was true, and said I'd be back in a few minutes. Indeed, after dumping the shopping (with more quail eggs), I necked a quick cola and popped down the 100 yards or so to his place. He was in fine fettle of course but not wankered at least so I spent a good hour with him and some mates chatting and doing the occasional cai ma. It was another genuinely good evening, with Huang again stretching my Chinese, and me commenting positively on China and his wife hulahooping. As random as it was fun, the other blokes had to leave around 11.30pm and I was flagging so left too and actually got to bed before 1am.

Guangchang singing and more football

Somehow I got up at 8ish. It was a bit late for table tennis but I've been neglecting exercise recently so went for a walk in the guangchang. It's been a while and I'd forgotten how many people not that much older than me go out and sing in the morning sun. It's not like they have much of an audience so I suppose it's a form of mental exercise. I can barely get the confidence to sing in a private room after a couple of beers let alone be in a public square with a loud speaker.

Guangchang by morning

Singin' in the guangchang

I had a portion of jiaozi at the usual place and got one to take away for Leilei as Nezha was already up and out. Apparently he'd slept from 6pm yesterday to 6am this morning. Here's hoping he's adjusting to the time here finally. I also bought my first watermelon juice this year to take home to put in the door of the fridge, and of course as soon as I opened it again it fell out and painted the floor pink. Damn. 

Watching the water deliverers while waiting for my jiaozi

I will miss my portions of jiaozi and lajiao for 6 kuai

So annoying to have to clean this up in the heat

Then Tan pinged me to say the new owner of the flat would be back in Pingguo on Tuesday and would send my tea table "Running Dog" and that I would need to be home to pay the deliverer. Ok, this is something quite important. It's sad we no longer have the flat, and that we weren't even able to choose what to keep. But the three most important things we do have: the guitars, the Wii, and soon Running Dog. What the hell I'll be able to do with a tea table here I really don't know though. I guess it can stay here for a while, but I did make an enquiry on allcargoexpress.com to ask how much it would be to send to the UK. I somehow doubt it will be worth it and doubt much more that Tan would appreciate it in the house but it is unique and I'd love to have it there so not yet giving up all hope.

Running Dog 13 years ago with two exins barely recognisable now - justifies getting it back

Today was to be the second and final home football match for our stay, so we'd managed to get tickets by buying clothes yesterday. I went and got a couple more tops for friends from the same place in the afternoon before getting to the stadium by around 6.30pm. As usual it was very busy and fun to be there. I double-checked with security that we were not allowed to bring in our own drinks and the bloke confirmed. I then saw that Leilei and Nezha had just purchased litre bottles of water each. Typical. I let them queue up first and get past security before handing them their bottles as they walked up the stairs just like the other week, before doing security myself. It doesn't seem the most strict security really but hey.

Do you need to look that angry Nezha?

The match was a pretty boring affair, and I sat down quite a lot more than the first one. I moved to sit with a friend for the second half in order to speak more Chinese and give them their football tops, and was glad to hear the final whistle confirming the 0-0 bore draw. Afterwards I was meant to see Lu zong but I didn't hear from him, and instead got a weizhi from another friend that I'd met after the meal with Teacher Ling so thought "why not?" and drove on down to the same bbq place as that night.

There were quite a few people dressed in football colours and I was greeted by more cheers than I deserved. The food was good and the company was too, and it didn't take too long to descend into cai ma and I did fairly well again. Somehow 10.15pm turned into well after 2am by which time I was flagging so carefully took Jiuma's dian dong che back home to be asleep by 3am.

Meal at Zhang Hongping's and more football shirts

A bit of a normal day, though even normal days here don't feel normal yet. More normal in the sense I don't feel the need to take photos all the time, but still a very much heightened sense of awareness that makes me so much more sensitive to "normal" things like going to shop in the supermarket. But even that is starting to become normal and it's surely a good thing. I can and I can't imagine living here full time. Knowing that you'll be leaving in a few weeks or a couple of months puts a perspective on things that doesn't exist when you're properly living somewhere. Yes, I pay bills and do shopping and in many ways mirror life in London, but in London I know I'll likely be in London for years, and don't treasure the time there in the same way. I treasure the ever less time I'll spend with my kids of course but that is almost independent of the country I'm in. Having said that I can't wait for Xixi to arrive and hope she will spend some time with me as Leilei is pretty much out with Nezha all the time now.

Apparently I got to sleep at 12.23am according to my app but I was texting Tan at 1.30am so it can't be that accurate. And up at a reasonable 10ish in the morning and tried to doze for a while but in the end thought better of it and would be better to get an early night later. Lunch ended up being one of the boxes we brought back from the wedding the other day which comprised (of?) monkey nuts and seeds and some biscuits that weren't healthy but hell it was more of a light snack anyway as Zhang Hongping had pinged me to go to his place for an evening meal and I'd finally got in contact with A Wu just to confirm that we hadn't planned anything for this evening. In fact he said we were to go to a place to slaughter two pigs and eat them but when I mentioned I'd been invited he seemed to think that was ok. I mean I've been out with him about 3/4 of the evenings so far anyway.

So at 3pm I woke up Leilei to let him know we'd be going for 6pm and at least he acknowledged me. So a few minutes before 6pm I got the call from Hongping and told him we'd be a few minutes. Nezha was not to be seen and I dread to think what time zone he's in now. So as we now had my dian dong che Leilei was able to be my passenger for the first time in four years. It actually felt like having a boy-son rather than an adult-son for a few minutes until we found Hongping's house fairly easily. I'm getting a lot more used to the characters here and was able to ask the security guard where his apartment was and got found it without having to make any phone calls.

Of course Leilei didn't want to be there but I've already explained part of being an adult is doing things you don't really want to do, but trying at least to make the most of them. So he ate and he spoke enough to make the others happy and I let him go 45 minutes later at 7pm. It was actually nice to eat in a friend's house, and more people came as the evening wore on. Except for one woman everyone else was was drinking 22% white alcohol and one woman on 53% stuff, and of course this had its effect. I was totally sober and made my excuses to go and pick up our football kits and tickets at 8.30pm, on the promise that I'd return within half an hour.

Lu, Hong ge, me, Hongping

Ah it was a nice break from the boring beer and increasingly boring company, so I walked the 5 minutes home and picked up the dian dong che and 5 minutes later I was at the shop and of course the shopkeeper chastised me for not bringing my son and a foreigner. She still made me take a photo in my sweating body and I changed in front of her and a pretty girl as I think that's pretty much ok now for men at least. A couple of photos were taken and I said I'd try to bring the boys back tomorrow to do another shoot. But now I had the clothes and the tickets so we should be sorted for tomorrow. I just needed to withstand another hour or so at Zhang Hongping's.

I duly got back and of course they were more inebriated than before, and the father of the child that was here before was now trying to get off with a rather plump lady who'd been on the 53% white alcohol. I didn't want to see the results and made my excuses at 10pm as Leilei wanted me to get hair oil from the supermarket. I don't even know what hair oil is other than the literal translation but after a couple more ganbeis they let me go at 10.07pm and 5 minutes later I was at what has become my favourite supermarket. I was slightly ashamed to pick up a bit of gin as I'm still scared they may want to interview me tomorrow at the match, and picked up more boiled eggs as they have become my staple lunchtime diet if I'm not going out. At home I remembered to take a melatonin for the first time in many days and had a relatively early night.

Early KTV

I lingered in bed till 11am all the time expecting A Wu to call to say we were going to this place half an hour away. He did finally call at midday but it was about the football tickets; apparently the woman who sold me the clothes yesterday had managed to get three tickets and I was to go there asap to pick them up. But I've been told too many things too many times so I took my time and grabbed a shower and got there an hour later. No, she didn't have the tickets but would have them tomorrow, and yes, we'd have to buy a top each in order to buy the tickets. I smelt a rat but I much prefer this top to the other one we got for the previous match so I'm not that annoyed. And this time the top is 70 kuai plus 30 kuai for the ticket so a bit cheaper than the first match.

So, empty handed I came home via the jiaozi place and picked up the last three portions that were there for the boys. A Wu called while I was there to say he was having a hair cut and would go to the duck fen soup place we went to a couple of weeks ago, which suited me fine as the boys would get through the three portions of jiaozi without my help. As we ate our soup A Wu said we didn't go to the place north of Pingguo this morning because it was "too hot". Yes, the temperature has barely changed for a fortnight so why did you even plan to go in the first place? "Plan", haha of course that's too strong a term..."suggestion" more like...anyway instead of that we were to go for a meal tonight with the people who had invited us to go this afternoon. Oh, whatever, no problem I'd be picked up around 6pm.

The dian dong che seemed to be working fine now, since yesterday's scare after the wash, so I'm really hoping it was just excess water. But it was kicking a little bit and I hoped it was because the batteries were running out. It had just passed 50km after putting in the new batteries, so I was ok with that. I took it round the block to try to use up the rest of the juice before putting it to charge for the first time. I know the boys will probably be using it more than me at least at night so they should really learn how to charge it now.

At 5.30pm A Wu rang to say he had arrived to pick me up. I told him he should have called me when he was setting off rather than when he arrived and said I'd need 3 minutes to clothe myself. As I was doing so he called again to say it was already 6 minutes since I told him 3 minutes. I explained that these were English minutes and he saw the funny side. He needs to learn people are not at his beck and call all the time, although maybe I'm one of the few exceptions. Anyway I said I was on my way and indeed was a couple of minutes later. I needn't have rushed as we drove to the market and spent 20 minutes picking up some yumi powder and peanuts and finally he decided he wanted some mini-pears, before we went to pick up his wife and daughter, who also were not ready so we ended up sitting in the car for 10 minutes waiting for them. All this time I could have been doing useful stuff in the house but hey-ho that's life here.

The boys weren't interested in going, preferring to go to the guangchang to work out. I hope that was the case, though at 6.30pm it was far too hot. We ended up parking on the street by A Xia's old place and walking in to a nice restaurant near the cinema. These days you need to pay to park, but there are no machines; instead someone will come and print out a ticket and stick it in your door handle, and you have to scan it and pay it or get a fine. Anyway, this time instead of sitting at one of the tables we walked straight through to a private KTV room. It felt a bit odd being in such a place before 7pm but I was hungry and there was food. One woman delighted in finding me duck ack and I delighted in eating it, followed by some quail eggs and snails...another relatively high-protein meal that was "balanced" by the copious beers I had to take.

A Wu ganbei'ing the woman on the right who'd just given us a nice rendition of a famous song

Sing for your supper

Eventually the usual cai ma started and I held my own pretty well, but I didn't mind losing a bit as I was told I'd need to sing Pengyou again, this time with A Wu actually remembering it. Boss Wei saw me looking at my phone reading the Cantonese pin yin, and snatched it away from me in jest. I managed a couple of lines but reading traditional Chinese and interpreting it as Cantonese is just beyond me currently...though I should have memorised it by now. We stayed till gone 10pm before getting a san lun che to Boss Zhou's place behind the other KTV. At least A Wu was sensible enough not to drive. Obviously more ganbei's were done there and I ended up walking back not long before midnight and it didn't take much to get to sleep shortly after.

Trial English lesson but clean bike stops working

I awoke to a message from Haiwei's older son at 10am inviting me to go to a trial English lesson he is giving, but was too tired and dozed off till Haiwei called me to come and pick me up at 11am. Of course I couldn't not do this so I told him 15 minutes and grabbed a shower and shave. I had no idea how many people there would be so put on a decent shirt just in case. Haiwei picked me up bang on 11.15am and a few minutes later we were at the school. We walked upstairs into a room where I saw the older son (I really should know his name after 15 years) standing up in front of the younger son (Zixuan) and two other 13 year-olds.

Trial English lesson

My job was to be English and try to engage the guys in some sort of conversation. After a while they came out of their shells when I got them to talk about what they wanted to talk about rather than teaching them about King Charles III. One of them wanted to talk about Japanese sports cars and the other about sports. Then one of them asked how old I was, and as usual I told them to guess. One said 40, another said 30, and Zixuan said 66! But I was shocked when I asked Zixuan what his name was and he replied with the N word. Jeez, for all the "development" the country has gone through, some aspects have been left behind. It's quite shocking that this is still used in daily parlance, but maybe it's now restricted to relatively uneducated places. I told them in no uncertain terms never to use that word again.

Well, as if to prove to their parents what a good class this was, Haiwei filmed almost all of the 45 minutes or so that I was there engaging with the kids. His older son said he wanted to break down the barrier between the teacher and the pupils but as good as that sounded he spent most of the time standing up by the whiteboard while I sat down with them. At about 12.30pm Haiwei and his kids and me went to eat at the goose place we used to frequent, and had a welcome meal of, well, goose. 105 kuai for all four of us seemed reasonable. One nice thing about this year is that I don't think I've had a single lunch with beer, not that I could have justified one having got up only 90 minutes previously.

A Wu called to say he would pick me up to look for football tickets, and indeed as Haiwei dropped me off I car-hopped into the BMW to go to some clothes shop that had a model with a replica kit in the window. Inside there was a woman and a little tot, and dozens of replica tops, unlike my top from the previous match which was not like what the players wear. At 70 kuai I couldn't resist and asked if they were genuine. Of course not, if I wanted that I'd have to go to the stadium where it would be 300+ kuai. So I tried on a 3XL and it fitted fine, so took that. She didn't have tickets but said she'd try to get some for tomorrow.

Pingguo Haliao replica kit

A Wu reminded me that we were to go to a town 30 minutes north of Pingguo tomorrow morning, and it was quite important for some reason. So I said fair enough but not too early please. We were also to go for a meal tonight with some bosses, and he would pick me up at 5ish. He said it was a consequence of society and I sort of got what he meant. He's put on weight in the last four years, as I no doubt have in the last four weeks. It's not been easy to find much time to exercise other than a few bouts of table tennis.

Back home I went through old photos of the dian dong che's odometer and worked out we used to get around 40km per charge, so I'm hoping for a bit more than that with the new batteries, and we'd done 30km already. I took it for a wash about 5pm and indeed it was pretty thorough, with pressurised water in every crevice. But it looked mint afterwards and 10 kuai was a steal after sitting through three Pingguo summers without being used. But halfway through the way back, while crossing the main road, it just stopped. It could be the battery but it was more likely water getting in the system. I walked it the next 50 metres and then it burst into life again to get home.

Good as new

I'm sure it's the end part of Magnetic Rag by Scott Joplin

But at home the boys were about to go out so I gave the keys to Leilei, and it promptly didn't work again. So I explained it was probably the water and they shrugged and went off walking instead. But an hour later A Wu still hadn't turned up and I checked the bike again but still nothing...oh I so hope the wash hasn't broken it. Finally at 6.30 A Wu turned up and I hopped in to go for a longer drive than expected north of the city, and even he got lost finding the place. It seemed to be some sort of farm, with two tables of mostly naked blokes sitting around them.

Blokey meal

But when we got out we were motioned to go to another table under a roof (not that it was raining or sunny) and eat with some other people a couple of whom I recognised from previous meals. They were already in fine spirits, and the usual ganbeis ensued. As is quite normal, there were a couple of young ladies at our table, drinking non alcoholic drinks. To take a "break" I took my glass and can to one of the outside tables and had a group ganbei with the blokes there, or two ganbeis as is apparently the custom when ganbeing a tableful. Then it was the same for the neighbouring table. So much for a break. Then a handful of young ladies turned up and sat at another table under the roof, and withing 20 minutes I was sitting there too being introduced to them all. At least I am introduced as Bangxu guye so they know my marital status.

Well we ate and drank till well after 9pm, when Haiwei rang to remind me I was going to meet him soon. So someone sorted out a didi che and I went out to meet it. But nothing came, so I wandered about and came across a family making aeroplane headsets as you do. But after a phone call it seemed the didi che had been cancelled so I went back to the table where I was to wait for Haiwei who turned up a few minutes later. We went to some bar with his two sons, but I was pretty tired and a bit the worse for wear, so I did my work of conversing in English for a while but I think Haiwei could see my state and let me go earlier than would normally have been the case. I walked home and nearly made it before I recognised a bloke sitting with a mate on the pavement drinking red wine. So I joined them for a solitary glass before making my excuses yet again and going home for a relatively early night. I noticed that our dian dong che was not there so pinged Leilei to ask if it had come back to life. Indeed it had, so I could sleep easier with that knowledge.