I woke up in the morning worrying about the Bangxu concert later today. I went for a walk to practise my lines, all two of them, but kept fluffing them. Literally a dozen characters or so but for some reason they wouldn't stick in my head. I went to the closest supermarket to pick up some jing jiu and cola again, should I need it later, then went home still saying my lines out loud.
It was strange that Lin Hong hadn't pinged me to go as it was late morning already so I pinged her to ask if we were going and she said no (not yet?). Then at 12.30 I'd still not heard from her and then Jiuma got back to tell me it was tomorrow but I wasn't sure. I really hoped it was though. Then I checked the Bangxu group I was part of and found there was an updated document so downloaded it and opened it in Google docs and found to my horror that I was now presenting a few of the acts on the first day, not to mention being one of them.
I reckoned by 1pm Jiuma was right and then saw that the days of the festival were Chu si and Chu wu, being the fourth and fifth day of the lunar New Year. Phew! What a massive relief! Ok, I translated my words from characters to pinyin as many of them were unknown to me. I also sent them to Tan and even she said she didn't understand some of it as it was written in a very poetic manner. So once translated I downloaded the doc as a pdf and stuck it on my USB drive and walked to the place where I'd printed off my music a few days ago. So now I had a printout with my bits highlighted, and I did my best to pronounce them as a bit of practice. I picked up a lovely glass of mango juice on the way back and realised I was really lucky to be in tee-shirt weather when it was pretty grim weather in the UK.
A seemingly random poster about network security I passed on my walk - I guess it's good to make people aware
Lin Hong then sent me a message to say tomorrow 8am. I asked whether that meant 8am at her house or what but got no reply. Ok so I'd need another early night. I decided I'd better have a haircut so set off to walk to Lao Ma's but almost immediately bumped into Lin Hong on the street who was of course talking on her phone. But she asked where I was going and invited me to eat tonight at her place so I said I'd be there when I'd had my haircut. I walked on down to Lao Ma's where I'd been earlier in the day but she had been cooking. She scolded me for not telling her I'd be there at 5.30pm as she was just about to go out shopping, but did my haircut anyway and said it would be 68 kuai as it was New Year, and not the usual 30 kuai. Well, I wasn't going to complain and as soon as I'd paid I had Lin Hong on the phone again asking where I was so I said I'd be shi ji minutes.
I did stop off home to pick up the dian dong che and maybe have a little nip of jing jiu before getting to her place to eat with her and A Zhong and an aunty and niece or something like that. They had gorgeous big red prawns that would not be so nice tomorrow so I had to finish them off that evening and it wasn't that difficult. The home made la chang was also fantastic and I had my fill of that and couldn't take any rice. Lin Hong once again insisted that A Zhong's mum would make me zongzi so I sent a message to Tan to make sure Erjie wouldn't waste money buying them. Tan sent back a voice message in the local language so I let Lin Hong listen to it as I literally couldn't make out a word.
Lin Hong said she'd call me at about 8am tomorrow so I made my excuses and left for my early night. I was actually quite tired but awake enough that I decided to go to Tian Yang Po's for a little bbq at 11pm. She was actually quite busy so I left my order and said I'd be shi ji minutes, meaning I'd probably be longer and got home and had a chat with Mat before getting back to Tian Yang Po over half an hour later and she scolded me for being longer than shi ji minutes! But it was worth it and by 12.30am I was asleep for the earliest time in weeks.
At least I got up in the morning and went for a walk as there's not much time left now. I pinged A Wu to see if he wanted to go for a bite to eat but he said he wouldn't be back in Pingguo till the afternoon. Then he sent a message to say he would send someone to pick me up and I would go to his wife's hometown village at 2.30pm to eat. Well I had no plans so why not? He called me before I had time to finish the message to say exactly the same thing so I went home with a vague idea to get some sleep first.
I managed a couple of midday beers but for some reason sleep didn't follow, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and at 2.20pm received an SMS from someone saying he was waiting outside in a red car. Yes, typical, but I'd had my shower so 15 minutes later walked out with a bottle of cola and something and met the bloke, and we drove about 30 minutes south of Pingguo till we reached the hamlet called Huangtai Tun.
It was great to see A Wu's kids and they ran to hug me. I was wearing far too much as it was around 20 degrees so I shed my think coat and hoodie and took the kids for a walk around the place. I love these little hamlets; almost no-one has seen a westerner before so it's a bit like being in Bangxu in 2003 again. I held hands with A Wu's daughter and the daughter of his wife's wife as you do, and we ventured down some thin winding paths to find houses where of course people knew us via other people. It was another of those money-can't-buy moments, despite it being £535 air fare. But the other costs have been time getting used to the lingo that really made this trip possible.
Yi yen, A Wu's wife's sister's daughter, A Wu's daughter
We were called to eat soon after 4pm and I knew by now this was a loose term. People would come and go for the whole evening and I only wondered when I'd get back. But I wasn't concerned. As the beers started flowing and we descended into cai ma I was in my element but slightly worried I wouldn't last that long. Not to worry, I lay on a bench and pretended to sleep for half an hour. Maybe I even did have 40 winks.
Lovely village meal
I got up and more people were there but after a bit I couldn't handle any more fizz so went for a walk around the village. Some bloke told me to follow him to have a game of pool. So I did and had a good laugh not really understanding Chinese rules. Then I decided to see a bit more of the village and it was really worth it. I happened upon various families, all of whom invited me in to eat even though I was full. But at one place a woman was doing bbq and I sat down with who I guess is her husband and a couple of kids and managed to eat a sausage and some squid. The young girl, who I guessed was about 11 said she was 19. I know my Chinese isn't that great but I asked her twice more how old she was and she confirmed 19. Jeez, it's nice to looker younger than you are (I love people guessing I'm in my 30s) but that difference is almost a deformity. She was lovely to talk to though, as was everyone in the village with no exception.
Playing pool in the local shop as you do
I happened upon a woman doing bbq and had some
I realised I was having one of the times of my life after only having been invited a few hours ago. It was a mix of being accepted as a speaker of the language yet being an outsider who joins in. It'd days like this I will cherish. On the way back I got lost and found myself at another house where the lady bade me to come in and took a picture of me. Not two minutes later I received a call from one of A Wu's wife's relatives saying he knew where I was and was coming to pick me up.
So back at the main house we had a few more drinks and cai ma and finally at gone 11pm it was determined that we would go back to Pingguo. A Wu had been drinking but said he'd drive carefully and I suppose he did, stopping only for both of us to have a wee. He dropped me off at the bottom of my road and I'm glad he did as I popped in to the local convenience store to pick up some jing jiu to help with confidence as I'm due to perform in Bangxu tomorrow. Back home I ended up having a chat with the lads and they tried to instil some confidence into me about playing the guitar and singing in front of 2000 people. It didn't really work.
I once again forced down a couple of boiled eggs for lunch as didn't have much of an appetite again. Fen pinged me just after 1pm to meet up and as I didn't have any other plans I said I could do so we spent a couple of hours together from 3.30pm, but I knew I was expected at Lin Hong's husband's father's house again, and of course she pinged me at 5pm to go over.
So around 5.30pm I got there and it was another lovely family meal. And just like yesterday I needed to go for a second meal soon after so made my excuses to go to the calligrapher's place that Haiwei had sent me the location of. Except it wasn't exact and I thought it was in A Wu's complex. It took 20 minutes of location sharing and phone calls before I realised it was in a neighbouring complex but I eventually got there not too long after 7pm. Evidently they had waited for me to start, which was slightly embarrassing, and I would have really enjoyed the meal if I'd still been hungry.
The bloke who sat next to me shared a few beers with me. His wife sat opposite me and was apparently an English teacher, but she barely spoke any English, explaining that she only taught young kids and the English was very basic. I did make an effort to speak with her in English but fair enough she could barely string two sentences together.
I'd hoped to watch the City - Everton match at 8.30pm, but it was already gone 8pm and we were to go downstairs to the calligrapher's shop. Fair enough. When there he made me a really nice wall frieze with the words "friends forever", which was really appreciated. But we had to wait for the ink to dry, so of course we went to drink tea. For the next half an hour without exception each of us was stuck in our phones, me trying unsuccessfully to find a stream of the match.
Haiwei's second son, me, Haiwei, posing in the calligrapher's shop
The calligrapher and me with my lovely frieze
Eventually the calligrapher left and came back with my rolled up parchment, which I thanked him profusely for as it's a pretty unique present. Then we left to go and Haiwei and his son took a didi bike and I found my dian dong che and got back just before the second half started. Yes! Haaland struck twice after 70 minutes and we got a well-deserved win.
But Li Kun had got in contact and I'd promised to go and meet him. I told him 20 minutes when the match was 70 minutes old but due to 10 minutes of injury time and some faffing it was nearly double that. But I made it and it was again cool to be playing with his kids. More beer was partaken and I got back at a respectfully late 1.30am for a brief chat with the lads.
Managed to sleep in till gone 1pm and when I got up Jiuma was about and told me to eat. I couldn't really disagree so asked her when as at 1.30pm it was a bit late for lunch and a bit early for tea. Her answer was the typical 等一下 so I still didn't know, but I'm used to that sort of response now.
Food being offered to Tan's parents, may they Rest In Peace
At 3pm she knocked on my door to eat. Well that's a first for me at this time. As it was New Year's Eve I expected a family meal but in fact she'd cooked for me only. A whole chicken breast and some beef with a large bowl of rice. Ah, that was so kind of her and had I known I'd never have let her spend all that time cooking for just one person. And of course I couldn't finish it, so when she wasn't there I had to chuck half the rice, but I put the rest of the meat in the fridge. I knew I was invited to Haiwei's again this evening and would need an appetite.
I somehow found this printout of how they are going to introduce me in the Bangxu festival: The next moment that is refreshing for everyone has arrived. Are you looking forward to it? Where is the expected applause? Next, I invited a partner from the UK to bring us an English song "Sounds of Silence". Everyone gave us the warmest applause and invited our Mr. Peng Duoming to give us a wonderful singing performance. !
But soon after 4pm Lin Hong called me to eat with them. As she is genuine family she took precedence over Haiwei so after I got a message from him to come over I let him know my plans and that I'd be there later and he was of course fine with that. Lin Hong had said to come over in 10 minutes. I know from experience this was not necessary and told her I'd need to shower and be over in 十几分钟 which I still don't understand exactly. It literally means 10 minutes plus some, but I don't know if the "some" is between 1-9 or something else. Maybe it's the equivalent of "umpteen" but Google boringly translates it as "ten minutes", which is definitely not true. I guess I'll think of it as 10+ minutes where the "+" is indefinite. I was watching a fascinating video about linguistics the other day and there was a bit about the Piraha Amazonian tribe that literally does not have the concept of numbers. Wow, it's almost unimaginable. Apparently if they watch sports they can't conceive of the "score" but just enjoy it. It's almost too extreme to believe.
Well anyway I grabbed my shower and of course with tooth brushing and moisturising it was closer to half an hour by the time I left, and then I received a message from Lin Hong to come in 10 minutes. But I was only 2 minutes away, and she had said to come in 10 minutes 30 minutes ago. I know she is not a member of the Piraha but I wonder if she is some distant relation. Anyway I said I'd be a couple of minutes as her house is opposite our old house by the guangchang, and she said she'd send her husband A Zheng down to meet me.
But when I turned up, after stopping off at one of the few open shops to pick up some longyan fruit, he wasn't there. I got a phone call from an unknown number and unlike in the UK I answered it and it was him asking where I was. I said I was at the main entrance by the guangchang as would be expected. He said ok he'd come to meet me, and I expected that he'd come from another entrance, but in fact nearly 10 minutes later he turned up on a dian dong che. Oh, apparently we were going to eat at his father's house. Blimey, Lin Hong! Couldn't you have just communicated that slightly important piece of information when we talked on the phone just 40 minutes ago? I really really like Lin Hong. I feel she's genuinely like an aunty to me (and I think she genuinely is as her and Tan's grandfathers are literal brothers). But for want of a handful of words I was in the wrong place and her husband had to spend minutes of his time coming to meet me. Moreover, when we got to his dad's place Lin Hong wasn't there as her father is seriously ill and she had to help him have a drip.
Well it really didn't matter. I'm here in Guangxi and this sort of thing is to be expected. I followed A Zheng on my dian dong che and got to his dad's house around 5.30pm. His dad is very aged, and was sitting in a comfy chair around some burning wood, although today it's been a pleasant 17 degrees and I could remove my coat inside for the first time in days. I was slightly bored sitting indoors, with everyone, including the aged dad, on their phones, so I went for a walk but of course A Zheng accompanied me.
I noticed some young kids playing with bangers and fireworks and my youth instantly beckoned me to go over to them. I so miss playing with fireworks and it was great fun as they ripped the sticks off mini rockets and put them in little tubes to fire up, except one nearly flew into a house and A Zheng scolded them a bit and told them to aim it better. I could have stayed to join in but eventually Lin Hong came back with her daughter driving the dian dong che. Funny to think I remember her mostly as a 7 or 8 year old taking out my kids to play but now she's 24 and driving her mum around.
The meal was fine despite the constant contradictions of being told to relax and being told to eat more all the time! Literally every 2 minutes I was being told to eat more chicken! But fair enough, apparently it had been raised upstairs on the 5th floor as is normal here. Despite my 3pm lunch I managed to eat a slice of zongzi and four pieces of chicken and some greens before I made my excuses after some other people had. That was fine, and I was told to come back tomorrow at 5pm and I really appreciated it. This time of year is for families after all.
Lin Hong on the right and her daughter Tian Tian in the middle
Lin Hong has been really busy helping to organise the Bangxu festival I'm due to take part in on the 12th and 13th. But this morning I found out I'm also due to be one of the presenters. I've been given a document with the words I need to say and thankfully it's not too much and hopefully I'll be able to commit it to memory: 在新的一年里，祝大家财运亨通，事业有成，幸福美满，万事如意! (In the new year, I wish everyone good fortune, success in career, happiness and all the best!). I was getting worried as Tan had said that there would be thousands of people but she is one to exaggerate, so I asked Lin Hong how many people there would be there. She said 200, and then without even looking like she was joking followed it up with "tables". Then A Zheng did the math and confirmed that meant there would be 2000 people! Shit! I then asked the obvious question as to when it would start and Lin Hong said eating and drinking would start at 4pm and the show itself would start at 7pm. I will absolutely need some Dutch courage if it's true about 2000 people as it's literally 20 times more than I've ever performed in front of before.
Next it was back to Haiwei's mum's place for a second meal. This time I had the forethought to get some longyan and 12 cans of Li Quan weak beer. And it was worth it as they still only had Hoegaarden from yesterday. Again, I couldn't really stomach much, but the bloke sitting next to me with an 80s Hong Kong hairstyle kept putting stuff in my bowl anyway. Apparently he is a calligrapher, which is a pretty important job here. Well I did have one thimbleful of Haiwei's tealeaf alcohol and it wasn't half as bad as most baijiu is here, but it was still baijiu so I moved on to the beer afterwards, as did Haiwei. During the meal Haiwei's second son told me that there was an English girl in his school. Damn, that would mean there were at least three more foreigners here as I assume her parents are also here. Also, she spoke very good Mandarin which is fair enough I suppose but at least I've not yet seen another white person this year.
My one and only glass of tealeaf alcohol
The calligrapher bloke noticed me using my left hand for chopsticks and started using his too. I tried to show off that I could use my right hand too but I'm still rubbish, like the correct muscles never developed and I can barely get enough pressure to pick up a single noodle. But he said he was ambidextrous and could use either hand for chopsticks or for writing. I know that in general the Chinese think this is a sign of intelligence so I praised him for it but he said no it wasn't a sign of intelligence at all. Oh well, at least I tried. Anyway, I was invited to his house to eat tomorrow which was nice of him.
I left around 8.30pm and got home and realised I was really alone. I couldn't just go out for a walk and get randomly invited to eat with people as no-one was out and about. Almost literally. I've never known Pingguo to be so quiet. At around 10pm I pinged Fen, who got back to me to say she was drinking with friends at a location near to A Wu's office, and to come over. So that was my New Year's Eve sorted.
I turned up and found a load of blokes eating at tables outside and was immediately invited to sit down with them and ganbei. Fair enough! Much mirth was had in the ensuing 15 minutes or so while Fen came down from the 3rd floor to fetch me, but she also got held up having to ganbei some of the blokes. Eventually we went upstairs in a neighbouring house where there were a few women and just two blokes, and I was poured a large glass of what looked like tea but was obviously fairly strong fruit alcohol. Well, it was New Year and I wasn't going to stand on ceremony, so joined in and enjoyed the experience, with all the bangers and fireworks going on in the background.
New Year's Eve was not alone at least
As midnight arrived there was no counting down or anything. We just continued chatting and drinking and I can't remember what time I got back home, but I managed it safely and had had my first Chinese Chinese New Year in 20 years.
Managed to grab another hour's sleep after waking up at 11am , which was really nice, until I realised it still was not much more than 7 hours' sleep in total. But hey-ho, I saw I had a message to eat with Haiwei tonight, so that was the evening meal sorted, and I forced down a couple of quail eggs I'd boiled the other day for lunch though I had little appetite.
Later in the afternoon I went for a walk to the supermarket to pick up beer and yoghurt. Already more than half the other shops are closed for the New Year and it's only New Year's eve tomorrow. On the way back Li Kun called me to eat with him but I told him I had a prior invitation and of course he was fine with that. I told him I'd call him after I'd eaten and "communicate" with him, thinking that was a reasonable term, but he chastised me and said I would call him later to "arrange something". Ha, fair enough, I'm gradually learning these little nuances. Another one I've learnt this year is not to say 我要走了 (I'm going back), but to say 我回家了 (I'm going home). I have no idea if this is specific to Guangxi or is more general but it's good to notice progress, if very slow.
After a couple of beers I left to find Haiwei's mum's house situated in a school living complex from what I could make out. I remembered to get some fruit but couldn't find anywhere open, so I headed back to a supermarket I'd seen before, but heard a shout and it was Haiwei's second son waiting for me. I told him I wanted to get some fruit but he said "no!", we were to go to eat. Well fair enough. There were three generations in the house and I could see it would be a lovely family meal. Clearly they were still preparing it which is why I arrived after the advertised 6pm but not too late to be rude, and soon after 6.30pm we sat down to an excellent meal with raw fish and two huoguos, one with beef ribs and one more normal one for heating up the already cold chicken.
Nice family meal at Haiwei's mum's place
I mostly stuck to the raw fish, but Haiwei kept putting boiled squid in my bowl and I couldn't really complain about my protein-rich supper. After 20 minutes the alcohol was brought out but they only had Hoegaarden cans of beer that were 4.5%! I so notice the difference and didn't even manage two cans before Haiwei moved from the baijiu to beer and helped me finish of the second one and we shared the third. It was quite a relief not to be playing cai ma, but instead talk, and indeed I did talk English with Haiwei's first son, whom I noticed had had his nails painted, so I wasn't the only bloke in Pingguo with at least one painted nail. I wonder if I should get all of mine done.
Apparently the 2nd and middle finger represent devil eyes
He's also shown me where I can get mine done and sent me the contact details of the woman that does it. Should I?
During the meal A Wu called me. He'd originally arranged for me to go to his wife's home town tomorrow for New Year's Eve, but now said that there weren't any beds and it wouldn't be convenient. Oh, I wasn't expecting to stay the night anyway but I guess that had been that plan that was now changed. So now I was planless for the biggest night of the year! Oh well, hopefully something will sort itself out.
Back home I pinged Li Kun to "arrange" something and he said to relax for a bit and later we'd go to Xiao Bai de Tian. Cool, so I enjoyed a much weaker 330ml can of beer but before I could finish he'd pinged me the location of the bar, not that I needed it any more and I told him so. 20 minutes later I was there and it was the busiest I've ever seen it. On the left was a table of people I'd met a couple of weeks ago at Tian Yang Po's bbq place, and they called over to me and I said I'd have a drink with them "in a bit", and sat down with Li Kun and his wife and three kids, well his eldest on her pad as the other two were running about like...kids do. The owner and the Shandong bloke from last time joined us for a few drinks and then some bbq lamb turned up which was fatty but delicious.
Great food and company at Xiao Bai de Tian
I did go over and perform my ganbei to the other table, and thankfully didn't have to ganbei each of the six of them. Then the Shandong bloke went round the back and came back with two large bowls of noodles, Shandong style (meaning cold I think). I didn't avail myself of these, but when he came back a second time with some cold horse meat I certainly did as it was really nice. And then shortly after he brought what is possibly my favourite dish, 皮蛋, preserved brown eggs - the texture of boiled eggs but brown and semi-translucent, served with garlicky relish.
The owner then got up and performed some guitar songs, and Li Kun said I should do the same, to which I shook my head. Then Ma Laoban (Li Kun's Ma, not my tea drinking friend) turned up to sit with us as Li Kun's wife had taken the kids home by now. Then a bloke from the table I'd ganbeid with earlier got up to sing a couple of songs. Li Kun then told the owner that I could play the guitar and sing and he looked at me as if to say why hadn't I told him after coming here so many times?
So when this bloke had finished his set on the guitar, Ma Laoban started shouting "Duoming! Duoming!" and within seconds the whole of the place was doing the same. I had no option now, but had suspected it since the owner had found out I could play so had been doing ganbeis rather than half glasses for the last 10 minutes. They wanted Sound of Silence and they got it, despite a few fumbled words. And I guess it wasn't too bad as they insisted on another so I did The Boxer again. Fair enough, Li Kun made the excuse that it would be good practice for the Bangxu festival in four days and I can't really argue with that.
Sound(s) of Silence with some jumbled lyrics
They made me do an encore so might as well practise for the Bangxu festival
Fun "wanted" posters for Harry Potter characters in the same place as actual communist leaders...some sort of joke?
I was a bit of a relief to get back to the table though, and then a woman who told me she was called Maria then got up to the front to sing some songs and we ended up staying till getting on for 2am. I gave Li Kun a lift back that I probably shouldn't have, then got home to have a chat with the lads and it ended up being another near 4am end again.
Managed to sleep in till midday or so and didn't feel great again. It took a great effort but after a quail egg I managed to do most of another stint of dumbbell exercises. A Wu pinged me in the middle to see where I was. Then at 4.13pm to say we were going out. Ok, I told him I'd need to grab a shower first, to which he replied he was waiting outside. Well he'd have to wait. I told him 5 minutes but it was more like 15 before he called again to ask where I was.
So at about 4.40pm got in his BMW and then we drove to the office just north of the guangchang, where we entered and left the doors open as it stank of smoke, then he put his phone on charge and went outside for some reason. I spent the next 20 minutes drinking tea with a couple of blokes and there was clearly no hurry at all for anything. I did manage to pop outside and chat with a family keeping warm around a burning log, until A Wu turned up to say we were going. We got as far as turning the car around then stopped again to chat.
Finally we were on our way at getting on for 6pm and it was only a 10 minute drive north of Pingguo to some place I'd not been to before, but it was someone's hometown. Then more waiting around ensued. This enabled me to have a walkabout and I bumped into a couple of ladies cooking zongzi, and of course they made me try some. I didn't realise how hungry I was and ate a whole slice at their insistence before being called to come down as the car with the beer had arrived and us lads each had to bring two boxes to the meal.
I hadn't expected such a big feast. There were about 10 tables in total, 9 of which were filled with blokes and just the one with womenfolk. It was pretty good fun of course. One of the blokes on our table said he was born in 1968 so he was the elder and therefore led the ceremony of ganbeis, and I was just glad it was 2.5% beer. After a while Huang Lei turned up too, and then the table-hopping began and I started to drink only half a glass for each ganbei and quickly top it up again before anyone noticed.
Just one of the rooms with a couple of tables...there was another next door and tables outside too
Pool was a welcome relief from the beer too...even if the Chinese rules are quite different from what I'm used to
But my gut was playing along so eventually I needed to go to the loo for a squat. At bloody least they had enough toilet paper. I got second wind and managed some cai ma'ing with a few blokes but needed to go for a walk after a bit when bloated. I came across a few women sitting round a fire and invited myself to sit with them for a while. It was so nice to be away from the endless fizz and have a semi-normal conversation for a change. But my presence was required so I went back to the menfolk until I realised A Wu wasn't about. Then he rang me to say he was in the carpark. Fair enough I'd seen him measuring out tiny shots of baijiu, probably as he knew he was due to drive later, and the two of us left shortly after 11pm, talking about his elder son. Apparently it had been a pain in the court after their divorce but I said he was a great chap and intelligent but A Wu said he wasn't. It's not really an argument I can win but I said I disagreed and that was all.
So home at 11.20pm, I realised I'd not really eaten all that much at the meal, so went for a walk to see what was about. So many places are closed now but after 30 minutes or so I came upon Tian Yang Po's bbq place and she was still open, so I ordered some beef and duck tongue as you do. There was one occupied table with three women drinking beer, so I cheekily asked if I could sit with them while waiting for the bbq. Of course I could, and I went to pick up a couple of bottle or Li Quan. Of course I was introduced as Bangxu guye, and Tian Yang Po's assistant kindly found a photo of Tan and her two sisters and everyone complimented her on her white skin (eughh) and good looks (fair enough). We ended up playing a lot of cai ma and I had some of their bbq and they barely touched mine when it arrived. It was a really fun end to the evening and we left at getting on for 2am, when I detoured a bit and picked up a bottle of jing jiu for a nightcap. This ended up being a longer nightcap than expected as another chat with Mat and Awl ensued till getting on for 4 am again.
Somehow I woke up at not long after 11am. I realised I'd not been asleep for much more than four hours so tried to get back to sleep but forgot to use German or Spanish counting so it didn't work.
I wasn't hungry at all but managed to force a couple of boiled eggs down, if only to justify taking my supplements. For the third night in a row I didn't have an invitation to go out to eat, so went back to the music place for some more practice before they close tomorrow. Of course as soon as I had put out the music at 7.50pm, A Wu called to go to his and eat. So I compromised and told him I'd go over in half an hour as was just starting piano practice. I managed to improve my Easy Winners a bit but still struggle to put it all together. But it's a labour of love I suppose. Similar for Mozart's fast sonata 304 which is still getting my fingers in a twist, but better than no twisting at all.
Although I've been to A Wu's place several times now I still forgot where his block was and he had to resend the address and location but 5 minutes after arriving I was in the lift with 4 jin of Thai longyan fruit that cost me the princely sum of 55 kuai. When I walked in I thought I'd overdone it with the fruit as there were just A Wu and two other blokes at the table, with A Wu's wife's sister in the kitchen. Well the little daughters came over and gave me a nice hug which alone justified coming over. As it was, at 9.30pm a few more blokes turned up and justified the amount of food on the table.
A Wu's son Yi yen grabbing some of the delicious bbq we heated up
It was great food, especially the pheasant, which for years I thought was wild chicken as that's what it literally translates as. But I was glad he has a western toilet as my guts didn't agree with something or other. Oh, and being heated was a great touch too. I could have stayed there much longer than I did. But Haiwei had called me at 10.10pm to go and eat at his place, and as I haven't seen him much recently due to his work I told A Wu I'd go over there half an hour later. Sadly, he told me a bloke he played ping pong with just suddenly died two days agoa from heart failure and he was only in his 50s. I think it may have happened on court too as Haiwei had driven him to the hospital but it appears it was too late. I didn't know what to say really but came out with something like we should live life to the full while we can for we never know when it will end.
It was nice to see the couple that I presume own the place again, and despite having already eaten enough I managed a fair amount more over the next nearly 3 hours. We ate some roubing, which literally means "meat biscuits", and is apparently made from 90% pork and 10% ice. I thought about asking exactly how that works, but will leave it for another time. It seems it is a way to get kids to eat meat when they won't eat it in a more natural format. Fair enough I guess. Anyway, I got home at just gone 2am but ended up chatting to Mat and Awl for longer than is decent but was asleep before 4am.
Up late morning and didn't fancy any of what was in the house to eat so went for a walk. I met Lu zong at his shop but he'd already eaten and anyway his youngest was having an injection, meaning he was on the drip. It looks like half the shops are now closed for New Year but there was one selling noodles so I picked that and had beef fen for 10 kuai. I then bumped into a mate with his two kids and spent a few minutes prising what little English I could out of them but it was much appreciated.
Back home I downloaded the sheet music to "The Easy Winners" and "Fig Leaf Rag", and walked off to get them printed off. The problem yesterday was that the paper quality was not high, and the paper kept bending and falling off the piano. So this time I popped into Guanmart to pick up a sort of folder with transparent pages to hold the paper in. Annoyingly it wouldn't scan at the till, so the lady told me to put it back and get another one. I wanted to tell her that wouldn't solve the problem (for the next person at least) but did what I was told and got another one that also wouldn't scan. It took about 5 minutes but I wasn't going to leave empty-handed so eventually one of the assistants got the label from the shelf and scanned that and all was ok.
So I had what I needed but suddenly I wasn't in the mood. It was one of those slightly "down" times again, maybe partly due to the realisation that there were only two weeks to go. But two weeks meant the train tickets should be on sale now, so I went home to check. Well no tickets from Nanning to the airport any more it seems, though you can go from Nanning East. I nearly bought a ticket but found that the Pingguo to Nanning tickets wouldn't be on sale for another 10 minutes. So I did what anyone would do and grabbed a cold beer. Then I heard Tan's brother arrive so stayed in my room for some time as he still slightly scares me.
But eventually the beer (or maybe the second one) meant I needed to go for a leak so I had to emerge from my room but he just asked me if I'd eaten and I asked him the same. It's almost the same as saying "how do you do?" only to be answered "how do you do?". It's quite nice in a way and reflects the fact that nearly everything revolves around eating here. Well he and Jiuma left shortly after and indeed I was getting peckish so heated up some duck and a bit of zongzi.
It was getting on for 7pm and finally I was in the mood for some piano practice, so took the dian dong che over there in case I was invited out somewhere afterwards, and indeed at 7pm when I sat down at the piano, Yangwen pinged me to go for a walk. So I said I would at 8pm and had a nice practice till 7.58pm when he called me to ask if I was on my way. So I packed up and 5 minutes later was at the tennis court place and he wasn't even there yet.... He arrived with a female friend I'd met before but I don't think is his wife. I was too embarrassed to ask though as I should know now after 10+ years of knowing him.
I'm so rusty it hurts...and I've found they're going to close for New Year on the 8th only to open on the day I leave
We walked and chatted for maybe 15 minutes before it was declared the walk was over and we said our goodbyes and that was it. I'd had no other invitations so just went home before 9pm。 Shortly after I heard the cackle of Bangxu women in the living room. Yep, Erjie was back with her friends and they'd probably be staying the night. Absolutely fair enough. Jiuma was cooking some sweet doughballs in sweet ginger soup, and I was instructed to have some. Well I'd not had much for tea, so I managed to eat a couple of them and they were really too sweet for my taste. Erjie was asking how many zongzi I'd be able to take back with me, as Tan had been asking if I was allowed to take them. Tan had asked me to take 5 but I'm hoping I'll be able to fit 10 as long as Erjie doesn't give me more stuff to take back like a load of mushrooms last time.
Then I remembered I hadn't booked the train tickets yet and refreshed the page to find them all sold out! Bollocks, they'd been on sale under 5 hours and the only ones left were far too late for my flight. It's ok, there'll be options, but the train is the far nicer mode of transport. I guess it's a symptom of the New Year period, when so many people are travelling. So a coach it may well be then, or worst case get there a day early and do a hotel.
At some time past 11pm I was getting peckish again, so went to leave the house. All the women asked where I was going and I said I was going for a walk as my back was bad, which was pretty true - it has been playing up today. I decided to go to Tan's uncle's bbq place and nearly made it before I heard a loud "hello!" and looked around to see someone I felt I should recognise. Well he recognised me and bade me to sit down with him and a couple of mates, one of whom was clearly plastered.
He grabbed me a beer as he knew I didn't touch the white stuff, and before long we were chatting away and eating cooked oysters as you do. I think they'd been planning to go home soon as they needed to take their pissed mate, but more beer was ordered and we ended up staying till 1.30am, during which time Tan's uncle from the neighbouring bbq place came over for a chat and a smoke too. The bloke opposite had just come back from where he works in Shandong, and was showing us film of the snow over there. The bloke who invited me was saying he'd been invited to work in Guangzhou for more money (he's a cook in the oyster place and can cook over 300 dishes apparently), but he had a wife and kid here, so preferred to stay put. I also mentioned that living here was nicer than living in a big city, and much cleaner air. Jeez, it was a rather banal conversation in many ways, but it made me feel good, and they kept saying my Mandarin was more "standard" than theirs which was clearly untrue but I'll take it as a compliment.
In fact six more beers were brought over at 1.30am but Xiao Nong had got in contact to say they were drinking at a friend's house and to come over with some beer. So I made my excuses and found my way over there a bit later. I picked up a couple of cases of Snowflake beer and joined the four of them in a small apartment quite near the centre of town. And it was an enjoyable couple of hours mostly playing cai ma as you do, before taking Xiao Nong back at some time after 3.30am.
I hadn't had that much sleep and didn't expect to be awake for the City match at 4am, but socialising really seems to pep you up. Probably for evolutionary reasons. But then Sisi called me to eat at a bbq place just outside Yu Jing Hua Ting. Oh well, people before football I suppose. But I couldn't find where they were, despite a video call and a wei zhi. I walked up and down and handed my phone to a couple of people before she walked up, clearly the worse for wear. She mumbled something about having a drink but she clearly needed to get home, and I decided it would be my responsibility.
I considered taking her on the dian dong che but even she didn't seem to think that would work, so I held her up as much as I could and we slowly shuffled to her place where I made sure she got to her front door. The whole process took over half an hour and when I got back to my dian dong che I couldn't find my bloody keys. They weren't in any of my pockets and for once I hadn't left them in the ignition. It was getting on for 5am and I think we have a second set at home anyway but just as I was about to walk back I spied a set of keys on the floor five feet away. Blimey, I really need to be more careful in the future.
Back home, I found a reasonable stream as the second half started and witness the great Phil Foden complete a magical hat trick at Brentford to keep in touch with Liverpool and Arsenal, and hopefully make it an interesting title race. Then somehow I fell asleep after 6am for just an hour. But my 7am wake up didn't last much longer than sending a few messages to mates.
I woke up sad. Sad that mostly everything has been so nice. And not doing something is relatively not nice. Whereas normally in the UK not doing something is neutral. Also, the weather is changing again back to cold. So rather than be down in the dumps I went for a pre-lunch walk to the guangchang。 It was overcast but within a few minutes I had to take my top off as I was sweating, although no-one else was short-sleeved. I walked up to the football stadium and climbed onto a bench to watch some people erecting new floodlights. It was scary to see two blokes in what looked like a mini tipper thing being hauled up 20 metres or so to affix some sort of rope to the recently erected floodlight. I could barely watch so decided to go back home and get a bite to eat.
No way I'd do that
A bit later I remembered my resolution to get back to piano practice after three weeks without. I didn't have my music with me so found it online and downloaded to a USB drive. I knew a place that advertised printing photos so walked there and sure enough for 6 kuai the bloke printed off the 13 pages of the sonata. I got to the music place at 4.30pm and sure enough the lady took me to a different room this time where there were two out-of-tune pianos, but slightly better than the ones last night. Other than last night it was the first time I'd touched a real piano in years, and I suddenly felt very self-conscious and started to sweat profusely. But I persisted, and gradually I felt it coming back, and started to care less if anyone was listening. Oh why didn't I find a place when I first got here? When the hour was up I felt slightly elated. I must make this a regular thing for the last two weeks.
Finally back to piano practice
Back home it was 6pm and I had no plans for the evening. I pinged a couple of mates but they had already eaten. Fair enough, I have a go at people for making last-minute plans so I shouldn't expect much when I do the same. In the end I was so hungry I thought I'd just go and find somewhere by myself, but it's pretty sad to eat an evening meal alone here, so I thought I'd see if I could get myself something at Beihai Huang's. He wasn't sitting outside as he normally does so I went inside to see him at a table with a few other blokes. He immediately pointed at a chair and made me sit down and grab some food. I have no idea with the occasion was but he said he'd forgotten to call me which may or may not have been true. Either way it was a fine and very welcome meal, despite the dog meat in the centre of the table.
An unexpected meal with some blokes at Beihai Huang's
A Wu pinged me half an hour into the meal to show me a video of where he was eating. If he'd only told me an hour previously I could have gone to the place he was. As it was I told him I'd go over in a bit. That bit ended up being well after 8pm after several more pings to tell me to hurry up. But at 8.30pm I turned up and obviously most of the people had already left, but there was still plenty of wine and beer at the table. There were a couple of women, one dressed in what looked to me like a sort of country club outfit, all in white and light beige. She gave a little squeal when she saw me, and again when she heard me speak Chinese. She said it was the first time she'd spoken to a foreigner, and she ganbeid me with her red wine, only to let a little bit drop from her mouth to her white top. Being the gentleman that I am, I quickly picked up some tissue and started wiping it off before A Wu started laughing and I realised I was wiping her right breast. Gosh I was rather embarrassed, but she didn't seem to be.
The lady in white who would have been a bit more red had I not leapt in
The alcohol shop woman was also there, doing her job of helping the men drink their red wine that the presumably had bought from her earlier. Other people came and went, and of course I had to cai ma until the beer was finished. But then more came of course. I guess we left around 10pm and I took A Wu home. He suggested going for a couple more drinks but he wasn't the best for wear so I said we'd do it another day.
Back home, I got a second wind, and pinged another friend, who just happened to be out with her friends by Xiao Bai de Tian, so at 11.30pm I was out again to drink you cha and a bit more beer. It was actually more fun than the previous meal, and we cooked pig ears and ate them with lettuce leaves. I stayed for about an hour after which the only bloke there paid the bill and we got ready to leave. However, I noticed Li Kun was in Xiao Bai de Tian so I popped in to say hello. Well it's never just "hello", and of course I sat down with him and we had a few more beers as you do. The owner performed some songs and what I assume is his son accompanied him on the drums for one of them, which was nice, and I gave him a high 5 when he got back to his table.
You cha next to Xiao Bai de Tian
At the fourth place of the evening with the owner and his son performing
So what could have been an empty night at 6.30pm turned into a very full one just a few minutes later, with no planning at all. I really should be able to invite people out but if I did that I'd be one person inviting another person, whereas when I'm invited out it's always a number of people I meet. I'm not really sure how to fix that other than to arrange a few people that already know each other to get together, like I often do at the end of a stay at Beihai Huang's place. I guess I'll just have to do that a bit more often.
Up at a leisurely 11ish and faffed about for a bit before deciding to have a quick bite and go for a walk. I probably shouldn't have finished off that V&Lemonade I'd poured last night but hey I'm on holiday. I brought a bit of jing jiu and cola with me to take advantage of what may be the last short-sleeve weather for a while. My mini-goal was to get my black jeans fixed as one of the belt holder things had broken. It was more an excuse for a walk than a goal in itself, and as I walked towards the market I passed by the shoe-cleaners but my Cons were still not ready due to New Year business.
I wish I could fall asleep like this...I think these are people waiting to be picked up to work
At the market I saw some people preparing to inflate some sort of giant green inflatable. I was about to ask when a woman who recognised me shouted at me to come back at 5pm to drink red wine. Ok, I might just do. I found a seamstress, or should it be seamster? No, in fact it seams "seamstress" can refer to either gender who sews or mends clothes. Well she took my trousers and told me to come back in "a while", so I had time to have a gander at the various market wares, and indeed 20 minutes later they were fixed and she wouldn't accept any payment for it. But luckily these days you can't really stop someone scanning your QR code so I managed to send 5 kuai anyway.
Back home I had a few more sips of jing jiu and cola and promptly fell asleep before 4pm. When I woke up it was 5.20pm so I forced a shower and went out to the market again to see what this "red wine" place was up to. Well, not much it appeared. The green inflatable thing was up, and people were busy patching it. It appeared to be not much more than a large, inflatable gazebo, and underneath it was a bloke with a large portable speaker. He motioned to a chair and I sat down with him and chatted for a few minutes. There was definitely no food or drink visible...so much for a 5pm start! Then Li Kun rang me to invite me to eat out and that certainly seemed a better option.
The big green inflatable
He said he'd be at the place we ate with his and my families last year, so I slowly made my way there weaving through various streets as I knew he'd be a fair few minutes. But half an hour later I was having my doubts about whether he had really invited me tonight, so called him to see he'd just pinged me to say he'd arrived. So I got to table 12A and for once his eldest, Eva, was there at the table. Of course it was a fine meal, and another one with no beer for another nice change.
Dry meal while being entertained with some live music
Li Kun asked me how I got here and I said on foot as the weather was fine...not too hot and not too cold. He agreed, and for probably the first time in years he and I actually walked back to his office leaving his wife and kids to take a taxi. I was explaining how nice walking actually is, and that it's a form of exercise too. He agreed, but said not to walk more than 10,000 steps a day as it's not good for your knees. I started to argue that running would be much worse but thought better than to continue. On the way to his office he bumped into a mate he hadn't seen for 10 years who had just opened a new bbq shop, so said he'd be back to eat there soon. And then another mate he hadn't seen in a while. These two chance encounters alone justified the walk in my opinion.
Also, on the way back we passed the music shop where I'd bought my new guitar strings the other week. I asked Li Kun if they had pianos there but he said not but he asked anyway and in fact they did. We were led upstairs to a room with five very out-of-tune uprights and a baby grand. Well I was now sober but couldn't resist a rendition of Maple Leaf Rag, and then a bit of Mozart's Sonata kv304 that I've been learning recently in an attempt to accompany Tan on the violin. It's by far the most complicated piece I've attempted and I've probably bitten off more than I can chew but I relish the challenge, and even if I never master it it will have made me a better pianist. I think it was the first time Li Kun had seen me tickle the ivories and maybe he was a little impressed. We left understanding that I could come back to practise for 15 kuai an hour. I resolved to do so tomorrow.
At the office, the small bloke was there drinking tea alone. I need to ask more about him. His name for a start, and whether he's simply a mate or does he look after the place while Li Kun is away? Anyway we drank tea for half an hour before the small bloke brought out a pack of beers and poured himself one. I rather expected him to pour us one too but 5 minutes later I said I wouldn't sleep if I drank more tea (it was getting on for 10pm) and please to have two glasses. Li Kun thought I meant I wanted to drink two glasses of beer and laughed and said "no!" 20 glasses at least. I tried to explain I wanted two beer glasses so we could both have a drink but he clung on to his interpretation and found it funnier than I did....
Half an hour later or so Li Kun said some people were expecting us at Xiao Bai de Tian. Ok why not? It's sort of become the nearest thing to a local since early November last year. We walked up to our house where I picked up my red hoody lest it get colder, and we took my dian dong che for the 2-4 minute ride depending on the state of the traffic lights. There were more people there than usual, and a table of them invited me over to...yes cai ma of course. And of course one of them was from Bangxu and probably knew Tan's Erjie. So after 15 minutes of cai ma'ing every bloke except one who apparently couldn't, I joined Li Kun at his table where we were joined by the owner and another bloke for some peanuts and spicy edamame beans.
Within half an hour Nong pinged me to say they were in Miss You KTV with a foreigner. Oh no! I know I'm not the only one but I haven't seen another for ages. Well I couldn't really leave Xiao Bai de Tian so soon after arriving but I did tell Li Kun I'd go over there in a bit. During that musical meal that Nong had invited me to, Li Kun was also there, but I'd not introduced them (although I did introduce her to Huang Lei). Li Kun said he wouldn't go with me and I didn't try to hard to persuade him. Nong kept telling to me to hurry up, so eventually at getting on for half past midnight I left with Li Kun as he had changed his mind and wanted to go to (maybe a couple of beers helped change his mind).
There were still about 7-8 people there when we got there and indeed there was the foreigner. He was from Afghanistan and a really decent bloke. It was slightly surreal to be speaking in Mandarin with him, but I was quite glad he was happy to knock back a couple of beers with me. Apparently his girlfriend is just opening a shop in Pingguo which is why he is here, but he's based in Nanning. Phew.
Of course I had to perform, so Pengyou was put on for me. Then for old times‘ sake I did "No Matter What" for the first time in years. Li Kun joined in with the fun and sang a couple of songs too, and a merry time was had by all till we left at getting on for 2.30am. Nong pinged me a bit later to check I'd got back ok, and to say she liked my friend Li Kun. So all in all a rather successful evening.
Finally a day where almost nothing notable happened. I got up a bit later than normal, if normal is anything here. As I got a lift back last night I decided that after heating up the last xiang chang from yesterday and having that and a yoghurt for lunch, I'd walk to the train station to pick up the dian dong che. Well after the 29 degrees hit of yesterday in Tiandong's afternoon it was slightly cooler today but definitely short-sleeve weather, and even so I started to sweat so moved my walking pace to much more of a Pingguo one. It took just over 40 minutes but was some well-needed exercise.
Chuan Chuan had pinged me to say that Tan had ordered something and I was to pick it up at 兔喜超市. Right, I had this. Rabbit Happy Supermarket. Ok, let's find it. Hmm...the VPN wasn't working so I couldn't use Google Maps. Going to Baidu maps online made me install a maps app, so 145MB later I had it installed and searched for 兔喜超市 - hmm...there were two it seemed, so I plumped for the first one north of the guangchang. But once there I found nothing, so walked into a convenience store to ask the lady where it was. She took a look at my phone and told me it was at Yu Jing Hua Ting. What? Literally where I'm living. I thanked her and she asked if she could take a photo with me and of course she could, and ended up thanking me for some reason. Back home I looked around and found one of the places that takes parcels was called 兔喜生活..ah I should have known...but it's certainly not a bloody supermarket!
兔喜生活 is not 兔喜超市 the supermarket
With nothing to do I pinged Ma Laoban to see if he was about but he said he was going home to cook as it was 小年. I had to look this up but it seems to be like some sort of pre-New Year celebration where families eat together. Indeed, after finding my favourite place to get a refreshing mango juice and drink it in the park, Jiuma sent a message at gone 3pm to say we'd be eating together at 5pm at home. So I got home at 5pm on the dot only for her to say that they were out of gas and expecting a delivery. So I went for another walk and she said I could be up to an hour.
Mango juice in the warm February sun...nice
That gave me time to visit Beihai Huang, but he was talking to what looked like a mad man. Unfortunately the mad man then turned his attentions to me as Huang walked away. I put up with him for 5 minutes before making my excuses to go and eat. So I got back as Jiuma was calling me to come back at 5.40pm. It was a really nice meal and no beer for once. Except I paid a visit to the supermarket later to get some provisions and ended up having a chat with Mat on one of those rare evenings I didn't go out.
Deary me, I awoke at 6.45am fully-clothed under the duvet, with the 12-pack of beer on the chair at the end of the bed. I must have fallen straight to sleep as I got in last night. A combination of still being a bit ill, a lack of sleep, and too much red wine last night. Half an hour later I managed to doze of for a couple of hours though, until Yangwen sent me a message reminding me to bring my guitar to Tiandong later today. Oh what? Yes, I'd said I'd make it up there today a couple of days ago. Since then he'd heard I'd used my guitar and he wanted me to bring it there. So half an hour later I asked what time it started. 6.30pm. So sod it, I booked the 3.14pm train which gave me 2h30 to find a bite to eat and grab a shower.
On my walk I noticed that firstly it was positively warm again, and had to roll up my thin jumper sleeves. Annoyingly the yumi tang place had a sign on the closed door saying they had gone back to their home town for the New Year. So I walked in the direction of the jiaozi place instead. On my way I saw quite a few police on the road, pulling people over. I thought it may be to do with lack of helmets but there were loads of other people without helmets too who weren't getting pulled over. So I walked over to one of the police and asked him if it was illegal not to wear a helmet on a dian dong che, and he said indeed it was, and the same for a motorbike, and then he told me to get off the road as it wasn't safe!
Gone home for the New Year holidays...
So when I nearly got to the jiaozi place I popped into the place that fixed our dian dong che a few years ago to enquire about helmets. Yes of course they had some and he sold me a nice blue one for 45 kuai to replace the one that got nicked last week. He said it was particularly good quality and as if to prove it hit it repeatedly with his hand. Yes I'm sure that's the same as asphalt. But at least it was a conversation. Annoying, for the second time in 20 minutes I saw the sign on the jiaozi place saying they were gone for the New Year. So I went next door and picked up three sausages to take home instead. Then, as a sort of backup for any worrying moments to come, I picked up a 258ml bottle of jing jiu, which I mixed with the leftover cola when I got back.
My lunch on black stones (he still heated them up in the microwave)
So eaten and showered, I checked with Yangwen if I really needed to take the guitar, but he said I did. I took the dian dong che to the train station not realising how late I was running, as if having a guitar on my back would explain it. I parked up with 18 minutes to go before the departure and I still hadn't done security. Luckily there were no queues or issues with my passport so in order to expedite things I took out my portable charger to show the security person but she said to leave it in my bag and the people doing the x-rays or whatever it is would check it. But they didn't seem to see it, or the doctored cola, and the guitar got through fine too. So what could have been a close call ended up being fine, as was the 20 minute journey to Tiandong Bei.
Yangwen said he'd pick me up as the station was some way away from the guangchang, but I said I could make my own way and he advised getting the bus. This I did although it was packed, and I feared for the safety of my guitar. But at 3 kuai it made sense, although it took nearly half an hour to get to the centre of town, 10 minutes longer than the bloody train ride from Pingguo. But anyway, there he was waiting for me at the final bus stop, looking rather eccentric in his all-white outfit and cap. I sat on the back of his dian dong che and we drove to a local market where he bought some tofu and I walked around speaking to the locals until he called me to ask where I was. We then drove to some place that gave me a bloody fright.
Yangwen meeting me at the bus stop
It was a pretty huge place that looked like it could seat 200+ people, and had a huge stage. Earlier on I had asked Yangwen where we would be going and how many people there would be to sing for. I'm pretty sure he said there would only be 6-7 people at the table and I was mightily relieved after last night, but now I was confused. Anyway, I dumped my guitar and bag to one side, and we proceeded to lay nine tables with the appropriate bowls and chopsticks and stools, before bringing the food from where it was being cooked nearby. I helped one of the woman workers there download a load of photos and films from her Weixin on a PC to a local drive, so they could then put them on the huge screen behind the stage.
Err...nope...not going on that stage...
Laying out the spread for the meal later
Getting the food ready for later
I had to check with Yangwen. Were we to eat here tonight with up to 100 people? Yes. So much for 6-7 people, and I was back on full nervousness alert and reached for my emergency doctored cola. I was honest and said I'd be too nervous to sing in front of so many people, but he just said I didn't have to if I didn't want to (although he'd insisted on my bringing the guitar).
This cat didn't look too impressed
Soon after 6pm people started arriving and milling around, and by 6.30pm I started talking to some of them. It would have been nice to be told what exactly was going on, but I've gone beyond that stage of expectation. It transpired that the photos I'd downloaded previously were from a running club, and it was mainly the members of the said club that were coming tonight. And indeed, several people in yellow and white garb turned up and we started a photo session that lasted an age. It seemed that 15 out of the 18 or so running group were ladies, dressed in rather fetching shortish skirts, but I tried not to notice. There was a sort of madam-like women who seemed to be sort of in control.
Nice photo of the running club plus a few others (including a dodgy Englishman)
After the copious pics we settled down to eat, and of course the drink came 15 minutes later. It was a really comfortable meal although the madam ensured I caima'd with most of the people on the other tables. After half an hour or so a couple of the runners got on the stage to perform the handing out of the hong baos. But not before the MC called me by my name to come on stage to help them. Jeez I knew something like this would happen but I'd had a couple of beers to top up my cola so confidently made my way up and received my handful of red envelopes, and as the music started people came up to near the stage and we started handing them out. It was a lot more fun than I'd expected, and I realised I was well and truly equally in the centre of the evening.
Handing out hong baos with a couple of the runners...I was made to come on the stage...honest!
More food was taken and then the runners performed a dance routine that was...well not exactly perfectly choreographed, but energetic and fun anyway. Then a young girl performed a song though I had forgotten that I might have to do so. Then the female runners changed into qipaos and performed...well...walking in a ladylike manner it seemed. Hey it's part of the culture and I'm not going to judge.
The lady runners in their qipaos on the equivalent of a catwalk I suppose...and an idiot...there's always one
The evening went on like that...it was very fun and again unexpected. Yangwen then said his wife would drive us home instead of staying the night. Well, thanks that was fine but blimey let me know in advance next time please! I'd spent time bringing all my toiletries and clothes for tomorrow I needn't have. 1st world problems though.
In the end, despite me being pretty much up for it, there was no really appropriate time for Sound of Silence, as much as it might have been appreciated. Most of the people had gone and a core of about 20 of us put two tables together to continue eating and drinking till around 11pm. I like to think I gave a good account of myself despite not singing.
Yangwen's wife drove safely but slowly back to Pingguo, and I got back around 12.30am. I did manage a beer but got to sleep soon after that after another very full Guangxi day.
