Another double date but Xixi is registered

Up early but had a morning siesta again after I had a missed call from an unrecognised number. Well I tried to answer but there was no sound on the other end then they just hung up. I realised later it could have been the police registering place telling me Xixi's deng ji biao was ready so I tried to call back but it was the same...no sound then hang up. Then I noticed a new friend request in Weixin that had been there since 9am and I'd missed. No sooner had I accepted the request when I got a message saying indeed the deng ji biao was ready, so I thanked her and said I'd be there at 5pm.

A slightly scary sight if not expecting, but far from the KKK this is simply a way to keep the sun off one's skin (I hope)

Then Tan sent me a message (in Chinese for a change) to say we were going to eat at A Hua's again. That was great, but a friend had pinged me to invite them for a bite to eat this evening as well. Ok I've managed that before, I said 6.30pm would be better than 6pm and realised I didn't have much time now to sort stuff. So I grabbed a shower and got to the police place shortly after 5pm where indeed Xixi's passport and register form were waiting for me. When I got back Tan and the kids were waiting for a didi che to take them to A Hua's and I said I'd meet them later. Indeed I even found time for a quick cold Li Quan and a chat with Awl before leaving for A Hua's at 6pm. And I'm glad I didn't leave earlier as I found the kids all sitting on the sofa bored, but two minutes later it was time to eat. I made sure I stuck to the sweetcorn and other cai, and only had a few slices of the lovely crispy pork, before making my excuses and telling the truth that I'd been invited (well I was the inviter) to another meal. Of course no offence was taken and I wasn't even the first to leave.

Another delightful meal at A Hua's I wasn't able to enjoy too much but at least the kids did

So it was a case of popping home then I should have walked the 50 yards or so to the beef restaurant but I didn't want to turn up sweaty, so took the dian dong che for 30 seconds. The meal consisted of a large frying pan-like thing in the middle of the table (in a private room of course) with a load of raw meat from various parts of the cow. Then you just turn on the heat and a few minutes later it's cooked. But it was a little spicy for the friend's daughter so we ordered a non-spicy dish and a huge one turned up shortly after. I said I thought they'd screwed up the order, and indeed after we'd already made a start on it someone came and swapped it for a smaller dish. We had homemade berry alcohol at first which was a little sweet for my liking, then plum alcohol which was quite a bit nicer. During the meal Ma Laoban got in contact again to ask whether I'd like to meet him for lunch or dinner tomorrow so I said the former would work and he sent me a weizhi so I'd know where to go. Wow, something planned more than 12 hours in advance.

I was glad that nothing to eat was wasted, but then we (they) decided to go to south of the river to follow up with something called you cha which is basically like soup but with lots of bits you can put in like nuts. I wasn't at all hungry and could barely have the soup without other bits in it but the others somehow managed to finish it over the 2.5 hours or so, and I gathered it was to sober you up as there was not a drop of alcohol and I certainly didn't complain.

Finally they've developed south of the bridge and it looks very tasteful...will have to come back

Back home I wasn't that tired so tried to watch the next Black Mirror episode but despite the British VPN this time it wasn't available so I ended up watching a sci-fi film that I got bored with before the end and it will join an ever-growing list of films that I'll never see the end of.

Yumi tang and Mole crickets

Oh woe is me it's happening, next Thursday we'll be on the train to Guangzhou. Maybe because it's been the first time in over three years or maybe because the kids are becoming adults, I just want to hang on to this time. I've loved not having to work for a while yet still been super-busy with socialising. But it's going to end soon. I wonder how the boys feel...I guess similar but who knows? Nezha has a six year-old sister he misses and Leilei will have to face the reality of A-level results.

It was another daytime of avoiding going outside, and Tan ordered three chicken burgers to be delivered. She called me to go downstairs to get them from the driver but no-one was there, so she called the driver and he came back to the house to show he'd hung the stuff on our front door. She apologised to the driver and then then had a go at me! Who was the one to say to go *down*stairs to pick it up? Well no-one was up and I was a little peckish so had half a burger and it was pretty much the worst thing I've eaten here this year. I gave the other half to Xixi who was awake but still in bed, and the boys were nowhere to be seen.

Jiuma had popped back for some reason, and had lit some joss sticks and stuck them in the place to remember those in the family that have died. Tan told me that Xixi had already done this and that I had to do it to as was family. I was more than happy to join in with this and actually felt a bit emotional as I lit them and poured some baijiu from a little pot into three little glasses. I didn't want to ask too much about why there were three joss sticks and three glasses but I guess one was for Waipo and one for Tan's dad. It's sad and yet happy to be recognised as one of the family here and not a tourist.

The end of the corridor reserved for respecting those who are no longer with us

I realised I was late with registering Xixi again so went to the police registering place on the other side of town and managed to remember exactly where it was, mainly from remembering the strategy of avoiding red lights and taking pedestrianised areas when I could. Annoyingly the lady said the person who does the deng ji wai guo ren had already finished for the day, but I could leave the passport and my phone number and she could sort it tomorrow. Fair enough I also left my Weixin ID in case that was useful.

By the time I was back it was teatime and Xixi and I went to the yumi tang place for the first time this year. The place was mostly full of delivery drivers, which I suppose says something positive about the the food. But it wasn't the same woman as last time and they'd run out of sweetcorn soup so we settled on rib soup instead. Then for my omelette I couldn't describe what exactly I wanted as last time the woman would pretty much say "the usual?", so I explained about fried eggs with greens and I thought she understood but we ended up with a plate of rice with some fried egg and tomatoes on it. Well it wasn't exactly what I wanted but I wasn't going to complain and this single portion was more than enough for both of us and came to 30 kuai for pretty much a full evening meal for two.

I'd promised Lu zong I'd meet up with him tonight at 9pm. A few minutes before I pinged him to check we were to meet at his shop, and he said he was already there and then to hurry up! But when I got there I found the shop was closed, so pinged him again and he said he was in that private room in the place on Jiang Bin Lu. Ah, I'd used 点 instead of 店 which had completely changed the meaning of the sentence. I'd been hasty while IM'ing and now was experiencing the "less speed" of the proverb. Not that proverbs are to be relied on in any way. Too many cooks spoil the broth but many hands make light work. Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves, but penny wise, pound foolish. In fact for the latter I definitely agree with the second one; focusing on trivial things is quite easy and then you may lose focus on the much more important things.

So, having maybe learnt a small lesson I drove on down to Jiang Bin Lu and found his place without too much bother. I was only the third person to turn up but thankfully over the night more mates turned up, some of whom I recognised from before. I wasn't massively in the mood for such an evening but after a couple of gan beis I started to enjoy it a lot more. The main attraction in terms of food was the plate of gryllotalpidae...yes of course that's the official translation from the Chinese but I later found out they are known as mole crickets, and they burrow in the ground so don't have wings, or least usually not very functional ones. But they are generally considered to be pests so it was a win-win to be eating them and getting some decent protein at the same time.

A mole cricket

Various bbq goodies including more pig penises upper middle

Footy in the street and horrid disco

Yet another dozy morning...I really should have taken up Zhangwen's invitation to go swimming between 9-10am but just wasn't up for it. So at lunchtime I heated up the cha siu we took back from A Hua's yesterday plus some jiaozi that Leilei hadn't eaten last night, and that was more than sufficient for the ladies and me, as the boys had already left to go to Li Kun's again.

I'm so aware that there's little more than a week to go. I tried ringing BA last night to see what options I might have about changing flights but they rudely said they were busy and didn't even put me in a queue. So at 1pm I called again as I knew they opened at 6am UK time. I'd even put some credit in Skype for the first time in years as wasn't sure of a better way of calling a UK number from here. Well it took getting on for half an hour before the bloke said he'd have to call back office and they'd email me with a quote. It wasn't his fault; I guess because I booked via BA but it was a China Southern flight we weren't able to do this online. But anyway I'd already booked the train tickets, Nezha would not be able to change his flight, and we'd been here for six weeks already. I suppose in some way it was getting time to leave.

I chilled in the house most of the day, and the girls went out shopping soon after 3pm again. I needed to get out so left around 4.30pm and happened upon Huang's Beihai place and found him eating tea - I guess you need to eat so early when you'll be cooking all evening. We sat outside for a few minutes and he told me to come back for a beer later in the evening, and I made my excuses to go, which really just meant it was too hot. On the walk back I noticed the road that Boss Zhou's restaurant used to be on and it brought back nice memories. It was a dead end road and as I walked up I heard "wai guo ren!" from some five year-old kid on the street who ran into his house and came out with two other kids and a football. They were all smiles of course and asked me where I was from, so we had a little conversation. It was that age where they haven't yet learnt to be shy and were just curious. I told one of them to kick me the ball and we spent a cool five minutes kicking it about in the street and it could have been anywhere. Except it was Pingguo in the late afternoon and I'd broken into a sweat after managing not to up to now by walking at a Pingguo pace. Oh well I'd not showered yet, and this was more fun than I thought it would be.

Playing footy in the street with some local kids

I managed a quick chat with Awl on Zoom as I picked up some more 0% sugar soft drinks, and noticed there was a lighting shop next door. As the bulbs in Leilei's room and the front room have both gone I got home and removed one and took it to the lighting shop, where the lady explained that these were very old bulbs and hard to find these days as people were using LEDs. Of course, it made perfect sense, as we'd done 10 years ago in our flat. But I'd need to change the housing for the bulb and as it was getting on for teatime didn't feel like doing it just then.

My mail from BA hadn't arrived within the two hours they said, but at getting on for 5pm I finally saw something in my inbox. £690 to change dates! Ha, I was entertaining the thought of staying another 10 days if it was going to be maximum £100 more but for £690 I could practically get a return flight again. So now we're definitely leaving Pingguo next Thursday. In a way days like today are good as it wasn't action-packed and as I don't have a study anymore I can't really do much productive stuff during the day. But I'll miss here awfully, and if it's possible to sort Leilei's university application/clearing later in August I might well see if I can sneak back here before I search for work.

Xixi pinged me to say they'd be eating at A Hua's again, and I thought it was a bit far to walk, but as the boys had taken my black dian dong che and Jiuma's one I thought I'd risk taking the large red one with the crappy batteries. Well it got me there at 20kph max and we had another delightfully family meal with lots of raw fish. Even Xixi had two bowls of rice before we were both full. I asked Tan if she planned to chat for the foreseeably future and she said "dui" so I dared take Xixi back on the bike. She was a little embarrassed as it would almost have been faster to walk, but at least it wasn't sweaty and we just made it back to be put on charge for probably only a couple of hours.

At 8.45pm Huang pinged me to say they had "started", so I told him I'd grab a shower and got there 25 minutes later to find him with just a couple of blokes who also work there. Normally I don't mind, but tonight I was sober and could have done with more company. I managed a few beers till 11pm when I said I'd promised to be with my daughter as indeed I'd said I'd help her learn to drive the dian dong che. He let me go but the boys hadn't got back so there wasn't much I could teach her. Not wanting to waste the night too much I went for a wander and picked up a couple of cold beers for the evening.

Then, unexpectedly, at 1am I got a text to go to a bar. My "why not?" reaction didn't arise though and I thought logically that it would not be a good idea. But a few more texts provoked "why not?" and as Leilei said there was still some dian in the dian dong che I went the rather long route to the south of town. Bar my arse, it was a full-blown disco with music so loud I hadn't felt since student days. And the amount of young women dressed so skimpily made me feel uncomfortable to be there, and at least a generation out of place. But I obligingly engaged in some gan beis that tasted like weak Ribena (and were the usual 2.8%). After a short while bright yellow covers were brought out to cover the tables with the glasses before a load of confetti came from the ceiling. This happened on more than one occasion. 

Our table had its own server who ensured glasses were filled and accompanied me when I went to the loo, and even pulled tissues for me to dry my hands. I'd only gone to the loo to get away from the music for a while, but he asked me for 200 kuai - something to do with women or lap dancers or something similar. I told him I had no interest in such a thing and was married etc., so somehow we "settled" on 100 kuai. In terms of "entertainment" and drinks I suppose it was fair in a way but had I known what sort of place this was I'd never have come in the first place.

I didn't really care if I was being rude and made my excuses and left very soon after. For once I was really worried about whether the bike would get me back as it was a good 5-6 kilometres from home, but it just made it and I realised it was getting on for 4am yet again. Sleep beckoned but I'd realised I'd forgotten to put the bike on charge. It took a lot of logicking to get me out of bed to go down and put it on but I knew I wouldn't regret it.

Xixi hair do and bbq with Liu ge

Waking up at 10am didn't seem to agree so I slept-podcasted till midday when Tan asked me to take her to meet A Xia at a hair place as she couldn't get a didi che. Fair enough so we drove in the scorching heat and I did my best to keep to the shady parts of the road. Once dropped off I could feel my tummy wanting to play up again so quicky got home to relieve myself on the western toilet. Again and again...until Tan called to get me to bring money for the hair stuff as she'd already spent the maximum she could this morning on Weixin and Xixi was getting a perm. Also I needed to get panty liners. Man that's hard enough in the UK...that should be fun here.

I still hadn't grabbed a shower when she rang again to say the same thing. Repetition is a big deal here. I mean we have the same for sure but here it seems more baked into the culture. Most adjectives can just be doubled up to give more effect. In the UK I'm used to adverbs being doubled up a lot more..."I really really want that..." but not so much "the old old car" whereas here I'd feel quite normal saying that. Anyway I donned my cool black Man City away kit from a few years ago and went to Guanmart expecting a difficult visit but as I was looking at the liners a woman came up to me and asked me what I was looking for. I explained, rather than translated and we had a very "matter of fact" conversation about the rate of discharge and how this one was better for the evening and this one was better for the last couple of days. Absolutely no embarrassment about it at all and that's exactly as it should be. I walked out with three separate packets and when I got to the hair salon Tan didn't even complain though she surreptitiously moved them to another bag. A Xia spied my lovely Valencian market shopping bag and wanted it. Fair enough, it's lovely, and at least I'd have a better chance of replacing it. I still have my Sainsbury one here for this purpose.

Xixi's new hair do

Well I ended up not needing to go to the bank as the total for both the girls came to 381 kuai for apparently five hours work, and I just had enough to pay with Weixin. Then we were told we were to eat with A Hua which would be nice as I've not seen her this year, but Xixi wasn't too keen, so we compromised by saying I'd take her home and we'd pop back later for a bit. And indeed we did when Xixi deemed her face was good enough...jeez it's not like we were going to the Ritz. Anyway I shouldn't moan...we hopped on the bike and in a few hot minutes we were at the place we'd lived in for three months nearly 15 years ago, and not much had changed. We got the lift up the two whole floors and knocked on what used to be our front door.

Yes we hadn't screwed up and indeed A Hua was there with A Xia and Chen Mei. I actually had to ask Tan in English who that was to my right and she answered in Mandarin as if to chastise me for not knowing it was Chen Mei. Then I had to ask who the young man was next to A Xia and of course it was her son Su Liyi. Blimey some things change after four years. But it was a lovely meal and Xixi and I da bao'd the rest of the cha xiao after saying our goodbyes. We (I) decided we would pick up a couple of cups of watermelon juice from the place we'd frequented some years ago with the young ladies we'd known since they were babies. It took us a bit longer than it should have as I couldn't remember the road but it was fun anyway, and we eventually found the mini guangchang and the juice bar. But the girls were no longer there as apparently they were now of the age where they were away at school. No bother, the mum made us our juice and I specifically asked for mine without added sugar.

Four of the ladies at A Hua's for tea

Our favourite watermelon place

At that time Liu ge pinged me to let me know he was on his way back from Nanning and should be back between 8.30-9pm, and that we'd go for some bbq. Fair enough, I'd already met Lu zong who had chastised me for not turning up the other week after the footy, and he'd said he'd try to arrange something for tonight but apparently all his mates were busy, so it seemed I was free. Back home, Xixi and I drank our lovely juice and I realised it was actually my first one as the one I'd previously bought had found its way onto the kitchen floor. So while I was enjoying it I continued to update CTGP on the Wii...28 updates to go...I thought downloading it all to the SD card Xixi had brought would have avoided all that...very much 1st world problems.

9pm arrived at the same time as a message from Liu ge, who was about to arrive in Pingguo and asked for our address. I duly obliged and a few minutes later went outside to meet him. Indeed he was the bloke I remembered luckily, and wasn't driving luckily. Instead there was a woman from Henan in the driver's seat and a "daughter" of hers in the back with me. We drove carefully to the Pingguo Lu place to find what was apparently one of the best bbqs in town. Well to be fair it was very very good, and I'd go back there again. Vocabulary-wise it was pretty tough as Liu ge was talking about his work, and I was really trying to follow. It seemed that he was in the import/export business, and I was trying to gather what it was exactly that he was importing. Then it dawned on me that it didn't matter...whatever a country wanted he would arrange it. Well despite the recent economic problems everyone moans about in China, he seems to be doing pretty well as the Mercedes the woman was driving was apparently a gift from him.

Then the woman's son arrived. This time apparently it was her actual genetic son, but the "daughter" was her big brother's daughter. Real big brother? I don't bother asking any more. Apparently the son was in the 2nd year at university studying IoT, but when I pushed for more information it seemed to be more on the chip side than software. He'd just started learning English so we used that as an excuse to have a slow conversation, as he and his mum smoked during the evening. Liu ge had ordered Li Quan beer as apparently earlier that day in Nanning he'd drunk half a bottle of baijiu. Err...fair enough...still his sips of beer were generally 3/4 of the glass, and after two hours I could see the effects, so we decided to dao ba the rest of the bbq and he went with the son on a dian dong che while the Henan woman drove me back with her "daughter". CTGP had finally finished downloading so I enjoyed a quick GP before testing online and it worked well...12 people playing online Mario Kart Wii in mid 2023!

The Wiimote is a classic design icon IMO, and maybe part inspiration for the Sharp tv remote

Li Kun family meal

Well although I woke up at 9ish I had no intention of following it through to proper wakefulness and I'd had the forethought to make myself two half litres of water should the need arise. It didn't, but the need for sleep quickly arose and after putting on another podcast about the beginnings of the universe I slipped well into it. If only hypnopaedia was a thing I'd be so intelligent by now. But I managed some weird dreams and nice sleep till 1pm when I heard voices in the living room.

I put on a top just in case and found Chuan Chuan and her boyfriend and Tan chatting in the living room. So after a wee I basically joined them and really enjoyed a family chat...yes Tan chastised me now and again for not knowing certain stuff...but I'd like to think she really appreciates how much I've come along in the last few years...as if! Chuan Chuan and bloke left a bit later and I realised I hadn't had lunch so looked in the fridge and the only thing I felt I could stomach was the last huge cup of passionfruit tea that Tan had bought yesterday. In fact, with all the fruit, and just the volume alone it pretty much filled my stomach, and bonus points to Tan as she hadn't added any sugar so it wasn't sickly sweet. So I chilled away the afternoon sitting by Running Dog on the laptop catching up, while the boys did their music at Li Kun's. In fact apparently they had been there since 10am. What had happened? Normally they don't get up till teatime...I'm guessing they pulled an all-nighter. Well they would have to stay up a bit later as Li Kun had invited us for a meal at the nice restaurant by the cinema this evening at 6.30pm.

6.15pm came about quicker than expected so I checked the ladies and Tan was doing her face and said she'd be 5 minutes, then I was to take her and come back for Xixi and the boys would make their own way. Yet another justification for fixing the dian dong che. And being of a suitable size (the bike, not Tan, well yes Tan too actually), it comfortably accommodated us both, but wouldn't have taken Xixi too. 5 minutes later I dropped Tan off by the restaurant and she ordered me to get three red envelopes for each of Li Kun's kids. Yes he has a new son now. So him and A Wu both have one more kid than us but who's counting?

I went to pick up Xixi and nearly forgot about the envelopes. "En"velopes or "um"velopes? It shouldn't bother me but I looked it up on forvo and it seems to be 50/50. Other searches suggested it should be "um" or "on" as it comes from the French. But if that's the case economics should always begin with an "eck" sound but "eek" seems reasonable. Well I'm not going to um and ah about it too much and will stick to eekonomics and ennvelope until I stand corrected. But yes I spotted a small shop that looked like it would sell the said red sheaths and indeed when we went it the shopkeeper asked us what was the occasion. Fair enough, some were specifically for weddings or other special occasions and I didn't want to be doing the equivalent of giving an Xmas card for a birthday. So we got our three red items and a bottle of orange juice for Xixi and filled them each with a 100 kuai note.

We ended up getting to the restaurant as the boys were turning up, a few minutes after 7pm, and were shown to a private room of course. Li Kun's wife and at least one kid were there, along with his mum and his friend and that friend's wife, so it made for a nice full table. The kids were all happy with Li Kun's choices of baked chicken and lamb and beef ribs. Yet again I forewent any rice, and gorged on the juicy meat. I know (at least believe) eating meat from dead animals will become like smoking soon, for good reasons, but to be polite I totally enjoyed these dead animals.

The boys asked to leave after 30 minutes and I told them again that part of being an adult was standing on ceremony, allowing your host to appreciate that you appreciate being invited, and told them to wait 15 minutes. And Tan backed me up 100%. I think they understood, and when Li Kun's mum left "to attend a matter" that was their cue to be able to do the same a couple of minutes later - presumably to go back to Li Kun's office to continue music-making. To be fair they'd again not indulged in any beer that Li Kun had ordered a good 30 minutes into the meal. I even told him we could have soft drinks (within Tan's earshot) but he insisted, but his mate to his left had brought his own bottle of baijiu as is many people's wont here.

All in all it was a really lovely family meal...good food and good company. Tan was happily chatting with everyone and Xixi was stuck in her phone. She did remind me that we were supposed to go to Guanmart at 7.30 for the draw but there was no way we'd be leaving here to do that. The only negative thing was around that time I could feel all was not well with my belly. I contemplated going home to a nice western toilet but didn't think I had time. I was right. I grabbed a load of tissues just in case, but the en suite keyhole at least had a full roll. And for probably the fifth time this year managed a squat and was a good 10 minutes. Not that anyone batted an eyelid or came knocking for me. At least my VPN was connected and I got to read the news (and saw that it was unlikely there would be any cricket today so Australia would win the ashes).

Family meal

Li Kun family meal

When we finally finished around 8.45pm Tan went to see A Xia and I took Xixi to go home. Except we decided to go via a scenic route for old times' sake, and headed north of Pingguo until we came upon what looked like a police checkpoint. I'd forgotten to put on my helmet so stopped and did so, but we thought better of going through, and did a U-turn then took a weird left turn and became lost in some dirt track-like roads near some construction. It was so Pingguo though and after a few minutes managed to get back to a normal road and found our way back. But we'd scratched an itch to explore a little and justified fixing the dian dong che a bit more.

The bbq friend had been texting me to go to some place to drink wine. I wasn't really sure what it was about but it was at the place I'd drunk tea with Teacher Ling the other week. So after dropping off Xixi I popped round to the tea place almost next door to our complex, and indeed there were about 15 people upstairs drinking various colours of wine. I didn't see bbq friend but I was welcomed as an old friend and made to sit with the bossman. For the first time ever in Pingguo I was poured a small glass of German white wine. For the umpteenth time in Pingguo I had to gan bei it of course with the boss but it was fine.

Interestingly there was a woman there who looked totally different from the rest. When I finally got to gan bei with her I found out she was from Xinjiang province. Being aware of any potential political issues I didn't mention anything that could be considered dangerous, but asked if she was Muslim (no), then what she was doing in Pingguo. "Business!" of course was the answer (in English) and then we managed a short conversation in English and she was actually pretty good. Photos were taken of course - hey if I can help with advertising her business why not? The bbq friend said they were going for bbq at the same place by the river again, and would I join? Well it didn't take too long to make a decision and a few minutes later I was there again, but at a relatively subdued rate until some other people turned up and we hopped tables until getting on for 2am when I called it a night and carefully took the bike home.

Sampling the wine with Xinjiang boss