Tan to Hangzhou for beauty course

A relatively quiet day, but extremely hot. Tan went to Nanning at 4pm to catch a flight to Hangzhou where she is doing a beauty course on behalf of A Hua who cannot go due to work constraints. I suppose Tan will teach her what she learnt over there. Kids wouldn't sleep during the day so were not best-behaved during the evening. However, Leilei decided he really liked the dumplings that Waipo cooked and he ate two bowlfuls. I had waited till after 7.30pm before trying to feed them as 5pm is too soon after lunch in my opinion. I was quite peckish at night so I went across the road near midnight to get a little bbq. The second I sat down to wait I was called over to sit at a table of four blokes and a woman and gan bei'd and cai ma'd till my duck tongues and pork were ready.

Football betting

I brought a DVD player from the UK as strangely they are cheaper there than here. It was only 16 quid but I've just realised that it only has a scart output and that they don't have scart here. I'll have to see if I can get an adapter so the kids can watch some of their UK stuff, not that they're particularly missing it at the moment.

While Leilei was out with his friends I took Xixi out to see mama at A Hua's beauty shop. I left Xixi there and went to meet Lu Hai, who I hadn't seen since last year. He was one of the first people I met in Pingguo in 2003 and I always make a point of going to his salon for a haircut. I invited him to Number 5 Cafe and he was happy about that as he loves his football as most of the people do here at least for the World Cup. He explained he lost 300 kuai on Holland beating Brazil. This is not the first time I've heard such a story. At least two people (one of whom was a woman if that means anything) had told me they lost a few hundred kuai when Germany beat England. And just about everyone has told me that if that disallowed goal had been allowed England would for sure have gone on to win. I disagree but maybe they are just justifying their bets. I drew a very clear map of where Number 5 Cafe was, relative to the guang chang, but I got a phone call before 10pm saying he was already there and I should hurry up. I arrived a couple of minutes later to find 15 of my friends there but no Lu Hai, so called him and found he was in the wrong place.

I warned everyone that Germany would win as Argentina had no defence, and was proved right by the 4-0 drubbing. How can Messi be so ineffective in such a good team on paper? Then again the same could be said about Rooney (or "Looney" as he is known in Chinese) and Ronaldo and a few other big stars. I should have bet on the game too. Andge sent me an email saying he'd bet 2 quid on Germany to win 5-1 at 150-1....ooh so Klose.

A Wu left at half time to go to KTV, which he bade me go to. I said I wasn't sure but by the end of the game I thought it would be nice to take Lu Hai there as I guess he doesn't get out so much. We stayed under an hour and did exactly the same as we always do in terms of the songs and the beer.

Embarrassing moment and BBQ with the Americans

Although it was tiring getting up so early to do the kids, at least Tan or someone had got them dressed and I just had to bike them to school. Xixi still cries when I leave her and Leilei was a bit tearful today too. At least it's Friday. I had a morning nap this time. Was about to go out for a bite to eat when A Wu called to ask me to eat with what has become the main clique of bosses I know: Boss Yellow and Boss Yang, together with some girl whose name escapes me. I noticed she wasn't really in the conversation much, so as I recognised her as the only girl at the meal last night I asked how her tummy was as she'd been drinking white alcohol then. Very embarrassingly for me she was not the same girl as last night and the blokes laughed at how westerners thought Chinese all looked alike. Bugger. I picked up my nice clean trainers and put them on over a glass of tea with the bosses until they all decided to go for a nap.

Picked up the kids, where I found that Xixi had been good today. I was worried as yesterday the teacher told me she had been hitting other kids.. At 8pm we went down the the "ye shi jie" (night market street) down by the river, which is pretty much filled with barbeque places. Our American friends had invited us to eat, and I suggested "ai yi" (aunty)'s place that Tan and her friends swear by. Although they have spent much longer than me in China and were fans of ducks tongue, they had not tasted the delights of ducks intestine or chicken claws, so I ordered some of that together with the more normal pork. To slightly balance out the meal we had some greens and a bowl of fried sweetcorn too. The kids were a little tired and getting fractious and as Tan has a bad belly at the moment (doesn't only happen to me), she took them home so we could have a proper conversation. By the end of the meal it was time for footy so the three American kids and their mom went back home while the dad went with me to what has become our "local", Number 5 Cafe. All my friends were there (i.e. mostly bosses), and we enjoyed an exciting upset as Holland beat Brazil 2-1. I do hope Robinho returns to City though I doubt he will.

Rare meal at home before common meal with bosses

I have found a cool phone browser that works very well on my Nokia E71. I generally use Opera Mini but that no longer works here (you are directed to install a Chinese version). So this year I had found Skyfire to be pretty good, but I started to get a warning that it would stop working on 1st July in this country. So I found Bolt, and so far so good - I can check the news and the footy results away from home.

Had a quick nap after taking the kids in, then after some nice exercise in the air-conditioned bedroom I noticed Tan was listening to her music through the crappy built-in speakers of her netbook. So I thoughtfully went down to Ma Laoban's computer shop to get a pair of speakers. He had just left but his wife was there and helped me choose. It was a toss up between a pair of Lenovo speakers that got their power from USB, and another identical pair but smaller and fatter and 50 kuai cheaper. I couldn't tell the difference in sound (both were good and had a nice bass), but Ma Laoban's wife said the cheaper ones were much better quality...I didn't argue and took them and an underneath fan cooler thing for my old laptop as in this weather they can overheat quickly. The total should have come to 118 + 68 = 186 but she charged me 140. That is what I would have expected in a normal shop but there I would have had to ask for such a discount. I'm glad she didn't just give them to me as has happened in the past.

I rarely feel ripped off here, and people are not out to get you as they would be in touristy areas. Last year I remember I had a bunch of 100 kuai notes falling out of my pocket and some old bloke ran across the street shouting "Boss! Your money is falling out!". Today when I bought a nine-pack of beer for 29 kuai the woman wouldn't accept keeping the 1 kuai change! That's around three quid for ten pints of bottled beer! I then went to have a couple of chang fen (flaccid penis-like noodles) for lunch with a can of Li Quan. The can cost more than the food. My nice new trainers were now nice dirty trainers due to the meal outside of Pingguo on Tuesday so I took them to a local shoe-cleaning shop as you do and paid 5 kuai and was told to pick them up tomorrow.

A beer and flaccid peni for lunch

After the school run we had a rare meal at home with the family. They'd cooked a whole duck especially which was very enjoyable. Then Er Jie took the kids out to the guang chang and I rather predictably got a call from A Wu asking me to "drink tea" with some bosses. This meant going to another private room in a restaurant to eat meat and drink beer. I was full but thought "why not?". This particular restaurant had a lovely area on top of a four storey building where there was a courtyard with a fountain. Note to self: invite friends there before we leave. At the table I sat next to the boss of the restaurant himself, who was rather the worse for wear. Half the bosses were drinking thimblefulls of white alcohol, and the others were on red wine with ice cubes. This time they didn't try to serve me anything but 7 degree (3%) Li Quan, which I appreciated. I was too full to gorge on much more than the lovely Lao Hu Cai (tiger salad - very spicy) and some smoked meat. And I really couldn't drink much beer, so I picked the wrong time to play cai ma with "Big Boss". I lost my first seven hands and felt totally bloated. But as custom has it (unless this was made-up) I had to at least win one hand before I could leave. I showed all fingers and shouted "chut!", he showed two and shouted "clee!". Finally I'd won a hand and they all had a hearty laugh. I made my excuses and left as I had to get the kids to sleep - Tan had gone out with friends.

When they were asleep I helped myself to a Gin and Shui Bi, then took the bike out for a ride in the slightly cooler night air. I fancied a little barbequed ducks tongue so I drove to the place I used to frequent when we lived here two years ago. Ten sticks of tongues (two per stick) and ten of beef cost 40 kuai which I thought was on the pricey side. While they were being cooked two oldish men invited me over to their table were we had an enjoyable few minutes talking about Bangxu. One of the men's wives was from Bangxu too and we found it amusing to have that part of our lives in common. As they were drinking a weaker variant of the white alcohol I had a small sip with them as it would have been rude not to do so. Then I was called over to another table who had overheard our conversation and wanted to drink a glass with me. It would have been rude not too so I gan bei'd with them a couple of times with beer until my bbq arrived and I explained I'd better get back.

At home Tan was there with A Xia and A Ni, plus Er Jie and her kids Chuan Chuan and Qiqi. Am I supposed to put a gap between the syllables in pin yin Chinese or not? And do I capitalise both words if they form a name? I've not been at all consistent.

The television was not working and some bored faces were watching the blank screen with it turned on in case it should come back any time now. My bbq was demolished by all in the room so Chuan Chuan and I went out to get some more, plus a portion of snails. This errand took half an hour and by the time we got back at half midnight there were some hungry bellies that once again demolished the food.

Had a skype chat with Awl at gone 1am but I was flaking and nearly dropping off. Apparently he won't come this year as it's too pricey including the fact he doesn't get paid leave. Big pity as he would have had a great time...there's always next year....

Flat progress

Back in December last year Waipo's younger brother died. He had been ill for a long time and it wasn't particularly unexpected, but we didn't tell her anyway as being stuck in the UK may not have been the best place to mourn. Waipo was talking about it the other day and how no-one had told her in the UK, and I didn't know if she was in some way scolding me or just mentioning it. But her main point was that one evening Xixi was throwing a massive tantrum which is not like her. Waipo did something really weird; she lit a piece of paper and let it burn on the floor in the hallway, then picked up the smoking black remains and tried to smear it on Xixi's forehead or neck. It looked a bit voodooish and didn't do the trick and she was only consoled when I held her in my arms (Xixi, not Waipo). Anyway, Waipo told me that that was the day her younger brother had died, and that Xixi's behaviour was an indication of that....

Anyway after leaving Xixi crying in school again I later went to meet Tan and the girls for lunch at the Ming Dian Coffee Language Hotel restaurant. The weather has become properly hot now, though not as humid as when the clouds were ever-looming. Now the streets are emptier during the middle of the day, except for a tall foreigner who insists on going out on his electric bike. I really like the meals they served in the Ming Dian last year and the year before in what looked like a bento box. I asked Tan if they still did these boxes and she said "yes". Then the waitress came and Tan found that they don't do the boxes anymore. What is wrong with "I don't know"?

I asked Tan if Lin Hong had the house keys as I wanted to keep an eye on progress but she said today she was busy at work and didn't have any time. So after lunch I rang Lin Hong anyway and she said she was on her way there: "zhun bei dao le" (just about to arrive). Ten minutes later she did come and explained that she had just picked up the keys to her house today as we had ten days ago, and she also wanted to check our house. So much for busy at work.

Well there certainly were changes. Unbeknown to me there were now railings all the way to the ceiling on all the balconies. This gives the place a bit of a prison feel to it but it is done purely for safety as there will be kids around. More predictably there were lots of pipes around the place. The floor was littered with water and electric pipes stemming from the mains and going to all the rooms. There was already some electricity built in but I guess we were expanding it. All this will be covered in concrete soon so I managed to get some grainy snaps on my phone camera first.

This is a pile of stones to be used for making concrete for the house, and was donated to us by A Wu. Thank you A Wu

The full-length bars we now have on all the balconies

Some of the pipes that will soon be covered by the floor. Green for water, white for electricity

Back home I had a little nap and when I woke up to get ready to pick up the kids I found that some bastards had hemmed in my little bike between theirs. If I had knocked one of theirs over there would have been an expensive domino effect so I had to be careful and only set off two alarms while slowly getting it out.

Tight squeeze

As there was no space to park in the appropriate zone when we got back I just left the bike near the door, out of the way of anyone else. Later when I popped out I found I had a sticker on it saying something I didn't understand, but along the lines of "Don't park here!". As yet I don't know if there is a fine. I decided to go to the old people's place to play table tennis as I hadn't done so in a while. Boss Yang was there along with some mates, one of whom was probably the best player in Pingguo. I sat mesmerised by the quality of play and was sadly aware how far I was behind. It didn't stop them wanting to play against me though and to my credit I did score a couple of points on returned smashes that got rounds of applause.

Boss Yellow's new wood factory

Took the kids to school again, and on the way back I was enjoying the slight breeze in my face as I rode the electric bike down the long road past the guang chang. I closed my eyes for five seconds which was quite exhilarating at 40kph. I opened them and found I hadn't swerved a foot from where I was on the road. I did another five seconds blind driving and again the same. There was still a couple of hundred yards to go before the lights so I decided to go for ten seconds. By seven I was getting scared...eight seconds arrived a long time later...nine seemed like a minute and the moment I got to ten my heart rate had raised dramatically. A cheap buzz maybe but when I opened my eyes I was in the middle of the road a few feet from running some bloke over who had unwittingly decided to cross the road without looking for some stupid lao wei on an electric moped with his eyes closed. I did swerve and avoided some embarrassment. I won't be doing that again in a hurry, although it was fun.

A Wu called as I was on the way back to ask me to go to Boss Yellow's factory opening. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a Quentin Tarantino film. I told him "wo you shi" (I have a matter), meaning I was busy. That didn't stop him calling again at 11am saying it was an important occasion. As I wasn't actually that busy I said ok I'd go, just give me 15 mins to get a shower. Surprise surprise 30 mins later he wasn't there, so I called and he said 2-1 was coming to pick me up instead, and to hurry up! Sod that, I got in the car with Mr Football Score and we drove for three minutes to the shop where we're going to buy our tiles from. It transpired we were now going to wait for some other bloke (Mr Pink? who the fuck knows?). We ended up waiting half an hour for this bloke, during which time we had a nice few glasses of tea with the shop's proprietoress if that is a word. Then I found out this place was outside Pingguo town, on the way to Bangxu, where Tan is from originally.


Tan's 2nd sister's lovely new Mitsubishi Outlander. She doesn't even intend to learn to drive...I hope I will have use of it in Pingguo while she is here as I did a couple of years ago with her smaller car

As we drove the half-hour route we kept getting phone calls telling us to hurry up. I told 2-1 "an quan di yi" (safety first), and he was one of the few men who actually seemed to know what I was talking about. I think most of them think driving accidents are all to do with "fate", and they are the ones who won't live to show that that is a load of bollocks. Although A Wu had said I would be leaving by 1pm it was already gone midday when we arrived.

I hadn't actually realised this was such a big deal. I quite like Boss Yellow, and although I couldn't quite work out what his factory was for - something to do with cutting wood judging by the tools - there were a good thirty people there if I'm not mistaken, many of whom were women. They were possibly relatives of Boss Yellow as they were not particularly slim, as most Pingguonese women are. By the time we got there it seemed they had been holding out on eating, but not drinking as they were all half-cut. Well I understand that starting a business is a big deal and this is all part of the culture but I could hardly physically gan bei as much as they wanted me to. I toured every table and gan bei'd with various women and bosses much to their delight, before managing to tuck in to some rather nice lamb, beef, chicken and finally some rice.


Where the meal took place

I cai ma'd with a few blokes who I'd not met before (increasingly rarer now), and was immediately accepted as family as I was able to explain that my wife was from Bangxu, that the food was good, and that I knew they were from Bangxu too, all in the Bangxu language. But I got to the stage where although hardly light-headed I could not drink more fizz, so I went for a walk by the road in the particularly beautiful countryside so prevalent in Guangxi. I'd asked to go home at 2pm but we were apparently waiting for someone to go with us. This person didn't turn up so 2-1 eventually got A Wu's keys (luckily meaning A Wu wouldn't drive but I hate to think of the amount of inebriated people who did drive back that afternoon).


Some of the folks I ate with. Boss Yellow is the one wearing the pink top (obviously).


Afterwards I had a bit of a saw head


Typical road scene in Guangxi

2-1 got me back by three and I managed an hour an a bit's kip before going to pick up the brats. Xixi was fine again despite pulling a tantrum in the morning as I left. She will get used to it. I found out that Tan and A Ni had got back and that they were doing their hair or something. I took the kids to the old people's leisure place where I played a little table tennis with a couple of them. But it was hard as both the kids wanted to play too. So I gave up and went home. We went out with Chuan Chuan and Qiqi (Er Jie's kids) for some fried noodles and ducks' tongues outside our house and unusually both Leilei and Xixi ate well. It took a while for them to get to sleep after the excitement of having Qiqi around but finally Leilei dropped off, then Tan came back and gave me a reward for being a good baba.

I watched the second half of the Paraguay - Japan match with Er Jie's bloke Lao Pan. I know he is the father of their second child but I'm not sure they're married and I was embarrassed to ask. Anyway I got a text from Tan during the match to STFU as Lao Pan was being noisy (he does have a very funny high-pitched laugh for a bloke with a deep voice). So when it was 0-0 after 90 minutes I asked if he fancied going outside to watch extra time. He didn't as he was watching currency movements on his laptop. Since I set up wifi in the house he is now able to connect from any room, which he really appreciates. Although his laptop is only a year old there is a problem with the internal wifi (as far as I can fathom with a Chinese OS and having no luck installing updated drivers), so I happened to bring a USB wifi stick that I've installed so he can be online to keep his eye on whatever currency he likes. For what ends I don't know, but Er Jie has a beautiful Mitsubishi jeep that if I understand correctly cost around 40 grand in UK money.

Anyway I stepped outside to watch extra time at my local outside eatery with the big screen. As soon as I tried to order a beer at a table by myself I was invited to sit with the people at the neighbouring table. Well, what could I do? I sat down with them and gan bei'd a little and cai ma'd a little while ooing and ahhing at the footy. We were having a really nice time when Tan rang me to ask what I was doing in the second period of extra time. I explained I was watching the last few minutes of footy and she said Leilei needed to go for a wee as if it was my fault. I mean she complained about me watching the game indoors and now she was complaining about me being outside. She also asked who I was with as if I knew. Maybe she was being protective but certainly too much so. I've been here long enough to know who are ok people to sit down with and share a beer. Five minutes later, during the penalties she rang me again! Bloody hell dear, I said I'd only be a few minutes. Last night she said she was just going out to pick up a book at 9pm and didn't come back till midnight as she decided to go for barbeque without telling me...let's put things in perspective here. Anyway Japan lost unfortunately as they'd been the more entertaining team in my opinion.

2-1

Got a call from Boss Yang to go for a late breakfast at around 10.30am. A colleague of his picked me up. On the way to the International Hotel I was asking his name so I could put it in my phone. He said 2-1, and I said I already had his phone number as he had already rung me, I just wanted his name. So he started again, 2-1. I thought my Chinese may not be good enough so I read out to him his own number, then I said "my name is Peng Duoming, what is your name?" (in Chinese) and he started again: 2-1. I was a little bit embarrassed to find out that his name (or least what he is called) is "er yi", i.e. "two one". Don't ask me why.


Me and 2-1 having breakfast at the International Hotel. Too early for the chicken claws for me but the dumplings were ok

A Ni had had an argument with A Wu last night for some reason so her and Tan went to Nanning as ladies do. At least she took the kids to school first. So for the first time in a long time I actually had some time to myself till 5pm, which I pleasantly spent catching up on news online, and a little sleep in the afternoon. Although we gave most of the booze away as presents, I kept a bottle of gin for such pursuits (and it wouldn't be the done thing to give a plastic bottle as a present). It mixes ok with the "shui bi" lemonade but I'd love to find somewhere that sells tonic water. I had to go to the supermarket after dropping off the kids at school as Xixi needed a pillow and a cup, plus a blanket that I took from home. I have found that the local supermarket now sells Gordon's gin plus Smirnoff vodka at around a tenner each for 75cl. Ok it's not particularly cheap (though it is the stronger imported stuff), but it's still a sign of where this place is going. Two years' ago I saw locally produced "Finnish" vodka for sale for the first time, as well as Coca Cola Zero, which meant I had more than one choice of palatable alcoholic beverage for the first time since I've been coming here in 2003 (the wine does not count as palatable). There was one specialist alcohol shop that carried a couple of bottles of western vodka but at highly inflated prices and I don't really like vodka anyway (can only do with sugar-free Coke). I asked the woman in the supermarket if they sold "kui ning shui" (tonic water, literally "quinine water") and she said "no" obviously, but that I may be able to get it in Nanning.... I will go there this weekend.

In the evening I got a call from A Wu to go for a meal with more bosses...a bit tiresome but as Tan was out and I was with the kids we went with him. Not a great idea. Leilei was behaving badly and I warned him a couple of times that we would go home if continued to do so. He did so once more so I thought I'd better be true to my word and marched him and Xixi out to get a san lun che back home. He was sullen and rude all the way back but unless he knows that I mean what I say he will continue the same way in the future. "I hate you, I hate you!" is a horrible thing to hear but I told him I loved him very much but we just need to behave nicely.

Waipo was home and I left them both with her and went back on the moped. I was glad the kids weren't there as not only was it rather smokey, the blokes were all drinking an insipid yellowy alcoholic drink that tasted horrible and was 22%. I said I'd only drink weak beer so that was forthcoming. But they were quickly trolleyed and I didn't have much interest in staying there. We were in the middle of a long photoshoot with the camera I gave A Wu four years' ago when we stayed at his house for three months, when one of the more pissed-looking men grabbed me and moved me out of the room in a very rough manner. A bottle of beer had been pushed into my hand and he grabbed it and shoved it into the waitress as we left the room. He bid me to go down the stairs and get out, and I realised he'd seen that I wasn't comfortable and that the others were really caned; he was doing it more for my own safety and I really appreciate that.

Back home I got the kids to sleep by 11pm then watched some of the footy with Er Jie's husband (the father of her second child). They all came back yesterday as their son Pan Qi has finished school for the summer. It was all unannounced so once again the house is pretty full.

Charging and unlucky charger

Tan has been told that we're not allowed to charge the electric moped ourselves as if everyone did there would be wires coming down from everywhere and it wouldn't be safe. Not that this is the most safety-conscious place in the world but it does make sense. Instead we need to pay 10 kuai a month to charge up the bike. Bit of a bargain I reckon as I'm sure it would have cost more than that to do it from home. If I was so inclined, I could hide a car battery under the seat and charge that instead and run the house lights off it. But I'm not that way inclined. The way it works is that there is a box attached to the wall where you park the bikes that has a lockable opening to which only the security guards have the key. Inside the top of the box are the slots to put the charger plug in, and at the bottom is a biggish hole where the wires go through to the actual charger. So I tell the guard I want to charge up the bike and he'll come and plug it in for me, then when it's done (this bike takes around 6 hours to fully charge) you just yank the wire out of the box without having to open it. Quite a clever way of ensuring that the security guard only needs to come out once.

Charging a "dian dong che"

With the remaining juice I had in the moped I took Leilei down to "Old Macdonalds" as he calls it. Actually it is more of a KFC place and the only place I've been to where the chicken is tasteless. Waipo and Xixi joined us and at least they had some food. I then dropped them off with Tan and picked up the key to the flat we lived in last year as I wanted to go back to pick up my flipflops. Waipo came with me and we slowly walked up to the 5th floor. The stairs had not been cleaned for months and looked very unkempt. Waipo said she was the last person to clean the stairs, then it dawned on me that she had been away for a year.

Inside, the place was obviously not lived in and had a musty smell to it. Quite sad as I remember the vibrancy of living there not twelve months ago. I didn't find my flipflops, but I did find my guitar from 2008 still almost completely in tune. And finally I got my hands on my camera battery charger. This is the unluckiest charger I have ever had. I was doing some last-minute charging before leaving for China in 2008 and of course I left it in the UK. I didn't make the same mistake last year except I did in the opposite way, and left it here. Now we are reunited it is a bit quicker to recharge the battery, though I've grown very fond of the makeshift chargers they have here where you just adjust some metal pointers so they touch the battery contacts and trickle-charge just about any battery.

A Wu had invited us all to the fish restaurant in the evening where we had some great beef, duck and lamb. I tried to join in with the men drinking thimblefulls of white alcohol but I just can't stand the stuff. I insisted on beer, and the ladies drank cold, sweet, weak red wine. In typical Chinese style I was led away from the table after an hour or so to sit in another private room with some bosses where we gan bei'd and cai ma'd until it was time to start preparing for the England Germany game.

All I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't a 2.30am start. Apart from the 20 minutes where we came back and should have been 2-2 we were by far the lesser team and didn't deserve anything from it. Oh well, time to take the flags down for another couple of years or so. Booooo.

Re-wiring the flat and making Pimm's for the ladies

In the morning Lin Hong called as she needed our new house key to give to someone who is doing the electricity. This is something I find annoying about house-buying here. You are in a bleeding hot place, every house is going to have air-conditioning, and they don't wire the place with sufficiently thick wiring so it all has to be removed by digging it out of the wall. Why can't you just pay a little extra and just get the proper stuff done in the first place? It's a bit like the gas - we're going to pay an extra 2000 kuai just to have the pipes fitted in properly rather than having them clamped on the outside at a later date. Having said that there is the option to go with gas bottles but for future-proofing I've opted for the installed pipes. Actually the 2000 kuai is for registering with the gas company, the work will be extra.

When I got to the house Lin Hong was waiting with the worker - a middle-aged woman carrying a number of 12 foot lengths of pipe I gathered were going to contain the wiring in the walls. There was no way they would fit in the lift so she started trekking upstairs. It would have taken her a month of Sundays on her own so of course I stepped in to help. It's not very comfortable lumbering of 14 flights of stairs on your own in late June in Pingguo. I was dripping by the time I finally got to the top, but it was good exercise. I saw that work had at least started and the wires had indeed been taken out of the walls. Then noticed that the lift wasn't working anyway so made the slightly easier trip back down to meet Lin Hong, where she handed the worker 5 kuai for her efforts (probably more than an hour's normal wage).

Got a phone call from Tan asking me to come to A Hua's beauty salon and make some Pimm's for the ladies. Fair enough I grabbed a shower, put the kids on the bike and went off to buy two large bottles of "shui bi" (lemonade, think it's 7-up), two apples, an orange, a cucumber and a large jug. Found the ladies eating chicken claws and spicy dried beef as you do so joined in for a bit. A Hua had had the foresight to prepare some ice, and also had some home-grown mint so I had all the ingredients I needed. Ten minutes later it was served to the delight of all the ladies. I left them on their third glass with instructions on how to make more. I understand they got rather tipsy during the afternoon.


Pimm's on a summer's afternoon

In the evening I took the kids out to watch the fountain display in the guang chang. The climax is the centre spout that gushes up nearly 90 metres into the dark sky. Strangely, about 20 seconds after each gush, we felt a strong blow of wind. It felt like it was coming from the hills, but it must have been due to the fountain because it happened every time. I don't yet have much of an explanation for it as the water was being push straight up, not sideways. A few seconds after each wave of wind we then got rained on by the droplets which was a bit fun at first and then slightly annoying, so I tried to get the kids to go home, something that took longer than it should when they are both running around like lunatics.