Return 2016

Well I managed just over a couple of hours of sleep, timed by how long I was able to watch uninspirational films for. I ended up rewatching Fargo, which was much more entertaining than the latest tosh. Although we’d left a little late we’d caught up during the fairly unturbulent flight to Frankfurt, and landed 90 minutes before our next flight was due. But we still had to queue for security which caused us to arrive only just in time for the short hop to London.

Fatigue from the journey was taking its toll, but the kids were alright about it, and it made the fact that we arrived at London City that much more worthwhile. However the bloody queues were a pain - I had partly sold the journey to City on the fact that the queues were a breeze, but as one of us was not an EU citizen (maybe all four of us next time) we were told to go to the special queue where it seems we joined just about everyone else from about three flights that had recently landed with non-EU passengers. Finally 45 minutes later the woman said we needn’t have taken this queue as three of us were EU’ers. These people need to talk to each other and be consistent.

But an awkward wait for an Uber XL later in the streets of Woolwich after an easy DLR ride, and the 20 minute ride home later that was it. Nothing had really changed. It was like waking up after a particularly long and vivid recurring dream, and I look forward to bedtime.

Definitely last time in Pingguo 2016

Tan had said that A Heng was coming at 8am to pick us up so I judiciously got up at 7am in order to be prepared. As I got out of the shower at 7.20 I was told that the two cars would be there at 7.30 and we had to have everything ready. Blooming heck, at least tell me to expect 7.30, but that would be asking rather too much. Well I was mostly ready, having spent a good hour sorting stuff out after coming home well before midnight last night.

I let everyone go downstairs and helped take the luggage as they went to Waipo’s to say goodbye. I had the genuine excuse of needing to take the dian dong che there a few minutes later. So I was afforded the time to do a last minute tour of the flat. It’s always sad. I reflected on the 3am storms I’d witnessed, the paper aeroplanes Leilei and I had made and flown, the arguments with the kids for playing on their devices too much, the sumptuous siestas, the Wii Fit, and sweating so much when doing exercise. Simple, non-special activities, that take on a special meaning for me at least when I’m here. Having one’s own place really makes this place. But the kids are growing up quickly now. They had fun this year but I don’t know if that fun that I also share in will continue for them.

I remembered to turn the fridge off and leave the door open, then put my shoes on and left for another final time. I called the lift and as soon as it came I had to run back to the house to pick up a few things I’d left in my study like scales for luggage and rechargeable batteries from the Wii remotes. Maybe they weren’t that important but that last look at the house justified my forgetfulness.

The dian dong che just had enough dian to get to Waipo’s, and I warned them they’d need to charge it to get anywhere. Waipo was not showing it but was effectively in tears and hugged Leilei and Xixi in a way she’d never done before. Before it was words, but today it was feelings, and we knew as we drove away she’d be crying.

The journey to the airport couldn’t be over quickly enough, but it took two hours. Due to regulations now we had to say goodbye where A Heng dropped us off so the chances for photos were diminished. The queues looked quite bad for security but I remembered we had the Priority Pass - not only was there a lounge on “landside” (meaning before security), this lounge had its own security so no queues. Although there were lounges “airside” (after security) I suggested to Tan that we stay here as the ladies told me the wifi wasn’t working in the other lounges.

I was maybe a little naughty but I don’t like flying and had brought a little snifter of the last bottle of gin I’d bought in Guanmart the other day, and dreadfully mixed it with cola. I did try to drink it in the loo but ended up flushing it down as it tasted rough and even the thought of drinking it made me feel like an alcoholic and I knew I was better than that. I did have a little bit of neat G left though which I made useful with a rather sugary 7-up, and made me slightly less worrisome about the impending flight.

But it wasn’t that bad, and we arrived in Shanghai eight hours ahead of our next scheduled flight. Of course this was five hours before we could check our luggage as it was one of those you had to retrieve your luggage between flights in but that was that - apparently there were no seats on the later flights to Shanghai so we’d just have to sort ourselves out without any lounge decadence for a while. Well we bought some snacks and then went for a meal and it made me realise how worthwhile lounge access can be, but when you’re stuck with check-in luggage you just have to wait till you can check it in. I went for a walk with Leilei, then with Xixi. We both noticed a particularly large and splendid preying mantis on the outside of one window. We talked about how they catch their prey, and I realised that at any time, unbeknownst to us, you have an opportunity to educate not only your child but yourself too.

Then at 7pm, an hour and 15 minutes before check-in opened, I noticed there was already a queue. I did something sensible. I bought a beer for 8 kuai (actually my second of the afternoon but don’t tell anyone) and took my laptop and myself away and found a quiet corner on the first floor away from most people. In order to get online I used Chuan Chuan’s phone number and asked her on WeChat to send me the code, which she did half a minute later and I just managed to enter it to get online before the minute period ran out.

With that online time I managed to check-in, something that I hadn’t been able to do from Nanning because it was too soon. I was also able to change our seats to similar to what we did coming over here. By the time I got back the queue was enormous and there was still well over half an hour before check-in gates would open. So I told Tan and Xixi that Leilei and I would go and manlyly stand in the queue. We were so far back the queue had doubled back on itself and people coming out of the lift were having trouble getting past it. In fact the queue was becoming a health and safety liability in my opinion. But thankfully, 15 minutes before advertised, they started letting people in. I thought we’d be at least 30 minutes in the queue but it actually moved pretty quickly. Then I found that those who had checked in online were put into a much faster queue, so I called Tan to tell her and Xixi to hurry up and join us. Gosh that 15 minutes with a beer and a laptop had saved us closer to an hour and we dropped off the without a problem and got through security in a breeze a few minutes later.

And the lounge was delightful. Had we known we might have gone hungry for the food was rather good, and Tan had a portion of noodles even though she’d had one an hour previously. The kids were happy as they had a good choice of food and drinks and baba was happy because he had his first genuine tonic (plus gin) in a month and a half. Two plus hours was comfortably spent here, and definitely helped justify the Platinum Amex for a third year.

We even managed to get priority boarding thanks to our “young” kids. Tan managed this on the way over here and I managed it on the way back simply by asking. This has got to be the last time we ever manage to do this. Although it wasn’t an A380, the Boeing 747 took off ok and I can’t make any complaints. After the meal as most were falling asleep I asked for a last glass of rouge and the flight attendant (male) got up and poured me two. The sort of treatment that might make me choose Lufthansa again.

Properly last night in Pingguo

Hmm. I got up earlyish to the sound of my own coughing and pain of abs. It should be good sit up exercise. Oh this was our last day...so although I thought 90% of packing was done it wasn't and Tan was cleaning everything in sight. The washing machine was on non-stop with bedding.

Finally took kids to Waip's and left them after having a yuebing. I wanted some time to myself to do some last minute checks that I can't do with Tan around, but she was still there when I got back around 2pm eating the leftovers from yesterday's bbq. We weren't due to leave till 5pm so there was no massive hurry, so I did my equivalent of packing till she left at 3pm. First I double-checked the hotel I didn't remember booking. Google had been clever it seems, and automatically put an entry in my calendar for the hotel stay. It struck me that it had the name "Capital" in it, and my heart sank as I found the hotel for tonight was the "Beijing Capital Airport Hotel". We were flying to Shanghai. Oh had I mistakenly booked a Beijing hotel because that's where we first hit China nearly six weeks ago?

But then I noticed something worse. It's only because I was on the work VPN that I was able to access the google services, and when I opened up the link to the hotel it brought up the whole itinerary. It was quite cool that Google had put all the flights in the calendar and even made a timeline of the travel arrangements but what was that for tonight's flight? "Cancelled". Shit, really? I had to check but Air China's website was absolutely crap and the only way I had an idea was that I was not able to purchase tickets for tonight's flight. So I tried to ring them but I chose the English option and was kept on hold for over 20 minutes before I gave up...every minute you have to press "1" to continue to hold.

My first thought was to check tomorrow's flights. I had to make some positives out of this and and if there was a cost then at least it could be put against an extra evening in Pingguo. But the cost was looking like well over 3000 kuai for the three of us. I had to get through to Air China, but I checked the tickets and it said you should check flights at least 72 hours before departure and it was only 10 hours - would they rearrange at such short notice? We didn't have much time and I nearly went and bought the tickets for tomorrow as we can't miss tomorrow's late flight to Europe. To be honest I was more concerned about Tan's reaction when I was to tell her. Somehow it would be my fault and in this case it quite probably was.

I had formed a plan for what to say. I called her and asked if she'd like to stay one more night in Pingguo. I knew she would but her response of course was "why?", so I mentioned the cancellation and to my relief it didn't appear to be my fault for not checking three days earlier. To be fair I'd tried to check-in online last night but the website didn't understand the e-ticket. So not being my fault, Tan set about calling Air China as really they should rearrange things for us. It ended up being a round of several phone calls to different departments until one said to call Lufthansa as the second and third flights back were with them. Finally someone gave us an email address team.shaxr@dlh.de where we had to send proof of the cancellation. The Google message wouldn't suffice, but this time on the Air China website I managed to find the status of tonight's non-flight of "cancel" and took a screenshot and circled it in red.

It took some time but a subsequent phone call to them meant they had the confirmation they needed (as if they couldn't find it themselves) and after a nervous few minutes they said they could get us on the midday flight tomorrow. Ok, lucky I didn't purchase unnecessarily. Things were looking pretty good; we had an extra evening in Pingguo and no hotel to arrive at with knackered kids at 2am and being turfed out at midday with 12 hours till the flight. Yes, I'd have preferred the 5.30pm flight, but six hours in Shanghai airport after a decent night's sleep was very very good. Tan mentioned that we could spend the time in the lounge but I saw that there was a two-hour time limit. But I also saw there appeared to be three lounges so if necessary we may be able to lounge-hop. As an extra bonus I told Tan I'd cancelled the Shanghai hotel (she didn't know it was actually Beijing - and never will), but really it just meant not booking one for tonight at great expense. Hurray!

Back at home again after having sorted out the travel arrangements with Tan at Waip's I went to cancel the Beijing hotel as I would have had to do anyway. But try as I might I couldn't find any confirmation email. After a long time it finally dawned on me that Google had made a false positive - it must be that. The link from the Calendar item Google had created went to the travel itinerary, which only had flights. Somehow Google must have inferred a hotel booking. Moreover it wasn't for tonight but tomorrow. Ah and I thought I'd tipsily mis-booked - I should trust myself more.

Even though we had two cars prepared to leave soon, changing to tomorrow morning was no problem, and I even found the flight was 12.55, not midday, giving us an extra hour in bed. I let A Wu know the news and he said we'd meet up later. Waipo had told us they'd cooked a chicken so I went to hers to eat and pick up the kids. With an unplanned evening ahead I called Zhang Yangwen as I'd promised to a couple of nights ago and not been as good as my word. He picked the phone up before I heard it ring and said yes we'd meet up for a beer. He said he'd pick me up from our house after I'd dropped off the kids but when I called him he didn't turn up. 15 minutes later I asked where he was and he was waiting outside A Wu's old office. 13 years and I still make the same mistakes on phone conversations.

I followed him on his motorbike and we went to a place close to Beihai Haixian. He put the menu in front of me and told me to choose what I wanted to eat. Man I'd just called him and managed to misunderstand where to meet up and he thought I could read a menu in blurred Chinese characters? But actually I understood more than I thought; I ordered fried sweetcorn with pork mince, fried (rather than bbq'd) duck tongues, and horse meat.

He called a mate who couldn't make it, which is rather unlike here. I thought about calling a mate but I didn't know anyone who'd really fit in with Yangwen - he's not a local and is rather a professional it seems, as he's worked in engineering in some Arab states and Pakistan. But anyway sometimes you don't need many people and the two of us enjoyed the excellent food washed down with a couple beers at a much slower rate than I'm used to here.

Then he said he needed to make a phone call and spent a whole half hour on the phone. At first it seemed quite heated but then it turned more jovial and laughs emanated. Strangely, I could understand nearly everything he said, though still couldn't get the context. I suppose he speaks a more standard Mandarin than most people here, well he actually speaks Mandarin on the phone which is fairly strange in its own right. While he was speaking I watched a documentary on the tv about onions. The presenter was a Russian woman who spoke brilliant Mandarin, and it made me jealous, though I suppose it's not my job to interview people in China. Not that I wouldn't mind though - at least she was getting clear answers from people.

When he finished his call he apologised and said it was a work matter. I knew what he meant...sometimes we carry our work stuff with us and as inconvenient as it might appear to be it can actually enable us to have freedom we otherwise would only have dreamed of 20 years ago as we were stuck in an office.

By 10pm I thanked Zhang Yangwen for the food and company and made my way to meet A Wu at the boss’s place behind the KTV where I’ve been a couple of times with the kids this year. I’d been warned not to stay up late gallivanting and had no intention of doing so. When I got there I saw a ping pong table set out and boss Zhou in sporting attire. I Jokingly asked him for a match but he said yes. So there was me in long trousers and an admittedly short sleeved shirt, but a cotton shirt nonetheless facing my adversary. Well actually I did the UK proud mostly. I hadn’t had too much beer with Zhang Yangwen and was able to smash the ball around from left to right enough to really impress boss Zhou. People even helped us collect the balls. I was enjoying this more than I should be but realised I was holding up proceedings. Proceedings being eating and drinking.

We finally laid down our racquets (yes apparently table tennis bats are officially racquets, but lord knows how I’d explain that in Chinese) and sat down to eat a meal that I had no appetite to eat and beer I had no interest in drinking. But that’s not an excuse here, and while the air con plastered my soaking shirt to my back giving me goose pimples I endured a few gan beis not sad because I knew I shouldn’t be, but a little sad because I knew this would definitely be the last time this year. I made my excuses and left before 11pm for the first time this year.

I remembered to take a quick pic of the clothes I'm leaving behind in case I get to come back

More clothes that quite frankly could be chucked but who knows?

Last full day in Pingguo

Oh woe this is our last full day in Pingguo this time. Despite the packing I thought I'd done yesterday there still seemed to be a load to do. But I also had to sort out the sending of the swegways. So late morning I went to Waip's with the kids and realised how big and heavy they were. Thankfully Waipo had kept the boxes and polystyrene so I put Xixi's pink one in and realised there wouldn't be room for more than one on the dian dong che. That actually didn't matter that much as there would not be room for more than one kid either. So I got Leilei to accompany me to the post office near Lao Ma's salon.

There wasn't that much dian left in the dian dong che so we took it easy under the midday sun and thankfully when we got there there wasn't much in terms of a queue. I enquired as to whether it would be possible to send this to the UK or not and they answered by saying I was "Bangxu guye", yes I was husband of Bangxu woman but that wasn't the point. I dumped Leilei there with the swegway and said I'd be back in 5 minutes with the next.

15 minutes later I was back with Xixi and Leilei's swegway. Then I was told we couldn't send them as one parcel. My Chinese was good enough to disagree but my experience was good enough to realise that after questioning this I should let it lie. I nearly enforced binding the two boxes together but even though it would cost me just accepted it, mainly because I wanted to have an afternoon lie-down.

But bloody hell. I had to write down our UK address twice, for each package, among other details, and it took me a good ten minutes. Then they weighed the packages and after an almighty time faffing were ready to take 760 kuai. Actually not as much as I was expecting. I just checked with the woman that this was insured and she said "no". What? I had clearly written the value for insurance as 300 US dollars each and she'd ignored it. She then said "it should be ok" but I was having none of it. Oh it bloody meant we had to restart the whole process and write out the addresses four times again but I didn't get angry. I could have but I've been in this situation too many times and I had kids to witness me now. So I moaned a logical moan so they would understand, and apologised to the kids that their drink would now had to wait more. It was only 25 kuai each for insurance too, but a good half an hour in time.

Waiting at the post office

It seemed quite random that as well as the moon cakes the post office was also selling about 11 cans of beer

Finally we got home well after 1pm, after picking up some jiaozi at our local place. I was looking forward to a kip but Tan called me to say she couldn't get cash out using the HSBC bank card. As I still had 1200 kuai on me I told her I had 800 and I could give it to her so told the kids to behave on their own as I went to Waipo's to pass on the money. As luck would have it as I was half-way through the five-minute walk (as the dian dong che was charging), I got a call from A Wu asking me to "sing song". Normally such a call occurs at well after 10pm.

He was actually being true to his yesterday's word, by inviting me to "sing song". But it was just gone 3pm and I was in no mood. But I thought about it for a bit. I didn't have much time left here at all so I might as well go for it. I made an about-turn and went back to our house to get the kids. As it was our last day I slipped a slight portion of vodka into a bottle of apple-flavoured soda water, and had a little Awl-sized lug.

I would normally have walked to Waipo's but with the kids and the knowledge I had to go singing (even slightly tipsy) I decided to get a san lun che. This was actually the first time I'd done this with the kids for a couple of years so we took a couple of pics. It's queerly one of the things I'll miss the most from here.

One of the few san lun ches we've taken together this year

As I dumped them off at Waipo's I saw Tan, and told her I'd take her to A Xia's, but she said A Xia was on her way to pick her up and would take me too. So I had to embarrassingly explain to the san lun che driver that I didn't need him any more, but I still gave him 4 kuai which is more than he should have expected for the short ride to Waip's. A Xia came a couple of minutes later and despite the heat I lowered the window lest the wife smell any hint of the apple juice-laced drink I'd participated in 20 minutes ago. I think I got away with it. I said goodbye to Tan and A Xia promising I'd be back in time for tea at Waipo's.

I found the KTV place relatively easily but went on a little walk first. It seems Pingguo has a proper mall with loads of tea shops where Chuan Chuan takes the kids out while she plays cards with her friends. I don't particularly like it as it seems Westernised but that's just what people want. I do sometimes find it odd that there is so much jingoism here, just like most countries, yet the desire seems to be to have what other countries have.

The Pingguo Mall

Once in the KTV place I gave A Wu a call but there was no response. Not unexpected as he was probably in a loud room. After another unsuccessful try I asked the girls at the counter if they knew where Li Junwu (his proper name) was but they didn't. Normally he's quite well known so I was a little surprised. As it was, the doors to the KTV rooms had windows so I walked along a little way and it was only the third door before I saw him there.

He seemed genuinely amazed that I was able to find him and I was beckoned to sit down with a couple of blokes and a woman I'd seen last year. It wasn't like a big party or anything but they were pouring beers anyway. I noticed the cigarette smoke was particularly annoying so we opened the door to let some escape. As it wasn't particularly comfortable but I knew I'd be here at least 90 minutes I allowed a couple of gan beis to flow to make it easier.

I had enough to sing Ni Shi Wo De Meigui Hua and Pengyou, but it didn't really feel right while it was still light outside. At 6pm I finally got a response from Tan to say that they were eating now and I used that as a very genuine excuse to go back to Waipo's. No argument from anyone there.

Tea at Waip's was pretty quick so the kids and I were at a bit of a loose end. I decided I'd take them on a magical mystery tour, which really means getting on the dian dong che with no particular place to go and going there. We first went to my favourite watermelon juice place and although I got watermelon the kids wanted pearl tea. Next we moved on about 30 seconds to a place that looked like it fixed dian dong ches, and got our seat fixed so it no longer falls off when you lift it up to put something in the tiny storage space underneath it (or take something out of it). I felt a little guilty when they wouldn't accept any money for it, so insisted on getting a numberplate that Leilei chose, plus removed the front one which was really only an advertisement for LiMa, the brand of bike.

Then Huang called and I said I'd come around later. But first on our travels we found a bloke teaching people how to paint characters properly. Obviously I couldn’t resist but go in and within seconds the kids were given brushes and shown how to write 中, with the brush perpendicular to the table. It was an enjoyable 10 minutes and we left with our paper of characters and the promise that next time we were in the town we’d come back for more.

Practising calligraphy

The next half hour was taken up by random driving around until we came upon the new stadium area where we played for a little time and found the ant tree that we’d eaten lunch by two years ago. It’s good that the kids also now have memories of Pingguo dating back a few years. But now they wanted to go to the guangchang, and I couldn’t argue as it was the last night. They both went on the bungee trampolines but within a minute Leilei was complaining that the strap was hurting his balls and despite attempts at adjustment had to get off - I guess he’s growing up and out. Then Xixi complained she was uncomfortable too and she had to get off. A waste of 20 kuai that the stall-holder gave no impression she’d reimburse a penny of.

By the ant tree we'd picnicked by a couple of years ago - strange but fond memories

So it was time to pay a last visit to Huang the seafood boss. He was there with some mates and there was food but the kids weren’t too interested. As it turned out, Tan was at Tianyang Po’s bbq place a couple of minutes’ away so I took them there after a bit and came back where I could engage in a bit more adult-like conversation as Huang served more and more food and turned what I expected would be a couple of beers into a feast. But I had other commitments - the advertising shop people had invited me for a beer and said they wouldn’t be out too long, plus Zhuang Hua was ringing me to ask when I’d be coming around

We popped in to see A Wu before we went to Huang's seafood place

Huang's wife sorted the kids out with tea and served us a beer

Within minutes there were friends at the table

Making my excuses I first went to the guanggao (advertising) place where the boss’s work partner gave me a lovely bottle of sweetcorn alcohol that had little chance of fitting into my suitcase. We had a nice time and this is one of the places I will miss the most for no obvious reason, but more because it feels so normal and almost relaxing. It was now gone midnight so I apologised for keeping them up and they didn’t appear to understand why I was apologising and I realised I was just being English.

I went to back to Huang’s seafood place only to be called by Zhang Hua and I once again made my apologies that I had to leave again. We had a couple of beers, just the two of us, then he bade me take him to where his father-in-law was. Well he got on my dian dong che and we drove down to the river, nearly as far as the train station, and I was glad I’d topped up the battery during the afternoon. We finally arrived at some eating place where there were not many people left as it was getting on for 1am. His father-in-law was suitably oiled, as was his mate with whom he was drinking white alcohol. We sat down with them to their intense enjoyment and ended up gan bei’ing with them and the owners for a while until Tan called to ask where I was at 1.30am when we were leaving tomorrow. I thought about giving the obvious answer but decided I probably should be heading back.

Back home I made a concerted effort to check-in for tomorrow’s late flight, but Air China was having none of it and didn’t like my passport or ticket number. Why is it even these days there are so many numbers that could be used to identify a flight and it always seems so hard to determine the correct one? Or maybe I shouldn’t be doing it at 2am on the same day.

Last Supper 2016

I've still got this bloody cough but I think I slept more than the previous two nights combined. Even so, I still managed a short afternoon nap, so obviously still under the weather. I'd pretty much made up my mind to do my annual mates meal tomorrow as it was already getting on and I had doubts about the meal we'd been invited to tomorrow anyway. And even if it was on we could do our thing later. But at half past five it dawned on me that Yang Haiwei would be leaving for Tian Yang tomorrow so needed to sort something fast.

I called him to see if he could go for a bite at 6pm and he could. That was one down. Then I called Uncle Yellow and he could make it too. Li Kun was also available so there was definitely a meal on. Boss Zhou, who came last time but didn't make it to A Wu's when I realised I'd double-dated was in the middle of cooking for friends, but would be over later, and A Wu said he'd been invited out but would also make it later. We managed to arrange 6.30 as a more suitable time but I got there for six just before Haiwei turned up.

I considered inviting Baksec Zhai but I thought it may be rather below what he was used to. Boss Hu I also considered, but I'd rung him twice this year and the second time he said he'd call me the next day to invite me for a meal but never did. It's likely he forgot, but I didn't feel it appropriate to ring him a third time.

I was happy to eat outside but Haiwei wanted a room, so we got the one we nearly ate at last time and waited there for a bit. I needed some help ordering food but I ensured we got a couple of portions of fried octopus and squid but we told the cook to hold off cooking until more people had turned up. That didn't take too long and soon we were tucking into some nifty grub. I'd saved eight packs of Marlboro fags for this occasion and gave each bloke a pack each. Boss Zhou joined, and A Wu, A Ni, and their young son a tad later, making it a full table. The guys didn't want Li Quan, as it now has a reputation for being fake, so as there was no Snowflake beer we decided on the 2.8% Yanjing bottles. This was a good thing as the meal included several gan beis as it was effectively my last supper with my old friends. A Wu promised we'd sing song tomorrow, but we'll see what that means.

From left to right, Yang Haiwei, Boss Zhou, A Wu, A Wu's second son, A Ni, Lu Wen, Uncle Yellow, and Li Kun

It was good to start early though, as I managed to negotiate a reasonably early finish at 10.30, by which time most of the blokes were pissed enough anyway. The bill was 1100 - very reasonable for four hours drinking and eating, but I didn't have enough and had to go to the bank first. Back home I managed to find a good stream for the City - West Ham match and mostly enjoyed it, except for some worrying wobbles in the second half. I have found that you can get a lot of Premier League matches streamed officially now in China via PPTV and CCTV5 and even QQ. So far I've been lucky with PPTV but I know you pay for some. It's not the 10 kuai that I'd care about, more setting up the account.

By means of a celebration I went for a quick ride down to the river area at Jiang Bing Lu. I heard a shout and it was the bloke I was watching police stop motorcyclists with the other day. He gave me some bbq sweetcorn and opened a couple of beers, but right on cue Tan called to see what I was up to and ask why I wasn't home. So we finished the beers and I went home.

Sweetcorn and beer with the bloke I met the other day