Looking at a second hand apartment and meal with Sao zi with "medicine alcohol"

Rain again:

The three-wheeler taxi drivers to good business when it rains just taking people across the road

The other day Sao zi said she had a friend who was selling an apartment and it was pretty cheap. Actually 16,000 quid is pretty cheap considering it has three bedrooms and is decorated. Decorated here means plastered and has a floor; when you buy a new house you can count on another 20% of cost price to add these luxuries so you can actually use it, otherwise it is not much more than a shell.

Well we went to see this place and weren't overly impressed. Mainly because it seemed rather far from the town centre. Having said that it would take 3 mins on an electric bike. Also it only had one bathroom. English houses suffer from this problem too much but generally foreigners do better than us on this front. Even a one-bedroom place should have a bathroom with a toilet, plus a separate toilet. Anyone who's ever lived with a woman should know that.

One part of me says we should buy at this ridiculously good price, but another wonders why. If we were to spend appreciable time here in the future it would be better to have a nicer area and maybe not the 5th floor (thinking kids). Anyway here are some photos:


View from entrance of apartment


Living room area


One of the main bedrooms


View from the balcony (5th floor)

We went to Sao zi's house again this evening for tea. This time her husband Biao Ge didn't drink beer, but gave me a small glass with a metal cover over it and told me it was "Medicine alcohol". Hmmm. Looking at the 95ml glass I discovered it was 32% strong. Actually it was rather nice, with a slight Laphroaig hint to it (or was it TCP?). He told me it didn't make you drunk. I thought about arguing with him on this one as his face was getting redder but thought better of it.

Rain, rain, you can go away now...while trying to rid Xixi of nappies

It rained again for the 7th day in a row. I liked it at first. Now it's just a bit too UK except warmer.
Tan's mum has been looking after Xixi a great deal of the time. She loves doing this but it does take it out on her, especially as we are trying to get her out of nappies which means hanging her over the toilet hole every 20 minutes saying "wheeeesh, wheeeeesh" to get her to go. She has gone. Both number ones and twos, but it's not consistent enought to not have nappies around. So Tan's mum and Tan's brother's wife have taken Xixi to Nanning to Tan's big sister's house where they'll look after her and Tan and I will have some time remembering what it's like to not have kids (great for a couple of days but soon miss the hell out of Xixi).

Xixi enjoying a bath with Waipo

Meal with Americans and Wii-Fit and annoying late night work call

Found out I have a meeting from 11pm to 1am tonight. Great.
Xiao Li and I went to pick up Leilei. He wanted to meet the American mom, but when I got out of the car to meet them he sheepishly elected to stay inside saying he was a bit embarrassed.

The Americans came along a bit later as their youngest daughter attends a dance class after school, so we got the chance to chat for a while while waiting. The woman's husband is a business consultant and they have been in China for about 3 years, moving from Nanning to Pingguo 18 months ago simply because the life is nicer here - more open spaces for the kids to enjoy, less polluted etc.

Although I'd told Tan they were coming for tea, because I hadn't put it in writing or something she thought they weren't coming, and then panicked because I hadn't bought food by 4pm. I suggested we buy a takeaway as we often do (full roasted duck for 2 quid etc) but she said it wasn't Chinese culture (???as if we haven't been doing that). I reminded her that these were American guests, so she said she would go out then.

So I decided we'd eat out instead. We took them all in our little car to the restaurant we went to during our first day in Pingguo. It was a lovely feast of fried bees, beef, duck, chicken, greens etc. The 4 year-old has learnt to use chopsticks and refuses to use anything else, and only eats meat! Leilei got on very well with her though - but she is 6 months older than him so hopefully no romance in the air.

During the meal I had some "I'm the only gay in the village" moments dispelled. Apart from not being the only whitey, we're not even the only family to have a Wii. To compound things they even have a Wii-Fit - something that I compromised bringing quite a few clothes for just to fit in the suitcase. Having said that it has become quite popular at our place and I'm glad I brought the battery charger.

Well they have a two year lease on their flat here, but don't intend to stay for more than a few months longer so maybe one day in the future I'll be the only gay in the village again...

We all came back to our place in the evening and played Wii-Fit until the kids were nearly asleep. I took them home to their nice apartment, and when got home myself treated myself to a glass of beer and thought about going to sleep....until my fucking phone started buzzing and reminding me of my 2 hour meeting at 11pm. It would have been 10pm but UK moved the time back during the weekend.

I know no-one will believe this but I played as Xiao Li's wife A Ni, and got my best score, including a 7-pack. So gutted I didn't use my own Mii...

Meeting the Americans

I had seen the American mum (mom) and dad (pop) while taking Leilei to school on occasion but not had the opportunity to say hello. This morning I found myself walking behind the mom and her two eldest kids and shouted "Lao wei!" ("foreigner!") to them, almost without thinking I was one too. They are a very nice family with three kids, boy 9, girl 7 and girl 4. The husband was away on business, but I invited them for a meal tomorrow anyway.

Deadline made at 2am after 2 hours' sleep and no electricity at home

Woke up at 7am after 2 hours sleep to take Leilei to school. When I got home I found there was no electricity. "Oh yes", said Tan, "there will be no electricity until 7.30pm tonight". Like, ok. But I have told you many times I have a deadline for today - when did you know about this? "There was a sign up all yesterday" Like, my Chinese is good enough to understand that? I managed to organise to go to Lin Hong's house while she was at work so I could prepare my delivery for later today. Tan hadn't thought to ask what their broadband password was, so when I asked she rang them up and the husband told her from the top of his head. This is a strangely Chinese thing. The password is composed of numbers only, and numbers in Chinese sound like other words and have strong emotional attachments to them. If I wanted a mobile phone number that ended 88 I would be paying 100 times more than one that ended 44, because the former is lucky and the latter means death. So, remember, if you ever get a phone call from a Chinese person and his/her number ends with a 4 it is likely that he or she is poor. Or just not superstitious. For the record both Tan's and my phone numbers in China end 637 and 697 respectively. Pretty neutral I reckon. Anyway I made my work delivery at 2am (6pm UK time) and managed a quick beer before sleep's tentacles enveloped me like a straightjacket with one arm free to hold your drink.

Work deadline but managed to watch the footy

I have a work deadline for tomorrow so have had a busy weekend.
But I managed to stream some of the Man City match (was willing to pay if there was any way of doing so). At last we put in a good display and Robinho got all 3 of our goals.
Some bloke brought our car back. We don't really need it to be honest. The electric moped does the job although needs a new battery as it really slows down after 10 mins. Anyway that means I have to take Leilei to school tomorrow after 3 hours sleep...

Environmentally friendly meal

Had a lovely meal out last night courtesy of one of Tan's friend's husbands. Today we cooked in our house and had A Wu and A Ni around as per usual. I read recently that eating with friends is an environmentally-friendly lifestyle; you cook once for lots of people rather than 4/5 families cooking and each using energy. Of course that would probably be cancelled out if each family drove to the host family for food.

Terrapins are carnivores

Another late night and early morning. Unfortunately the flat upstairs appears to be being built as during much of the day there is an extremely load drilling noise that doesn't help siestas. Today was just work work work.

Leilei was given two terrapins recently (he didn't ask for them as far as I know). They live in a tiny glass jar and I'm going to try to find a better home for them. Also I read they eat meat - not rice/grapes that people have been giving them...


Terrapins in their cage

2 hours' sleep after watching the footy

Went to bed 5.30am after watching Man City draw to 10-man Newcastle (still crap being a City fan) and got up 2 hours later to take Leilei to school on elec moped. After some much needed sleep I got a phone call from Tan just before 5pm saying the moped had run out of elec while she was on her way to pick up Leilei so I went in a 3 wheeler to pick him up. We did have a car until the end of last week. I remember I'd just filled it up and taken it for a wash - then Tan's sister needed it in Nanning and I suppose that's where it is now. Hence us using A Ni's electric moped. Reminder to self - replace battery.