More Taobao stuff, finally fixish bike, and a fun evening at Bar 3000°

Li Kun told me he’d be at his studio just before midday and I woke up 5 minutes later to tell him I’d be around. Not for lunch though as he’d already eaten so I got some baozi and told him I’d be over shortly as Xixi had a few things to order from Taobao like the last couple of times I’ve been here. And indeed he did the order for me and it came to 530 kuai which to be fair was a fraction of price genuine items would have been in the UK.

He then told me to come to watch him perform by the supermarket at the corner of the guangchang later on, so I said I’d go over there later. But there was something important to do at the moment. Since the back of the bike had come off some days after I’d been crashed into, now I didn’t even have a number plate. But back home Tan Shiyun was there and wanted to play with me, and she’d been given literally hundreds of stickers, mostly of some sort of princess character (white of course) with flowers and birds to boot We spent the best part of an hour sticking the said stickers onto paper until there was no space left, at which she started sticking them on me, first on my clothes then on my face. Ok, it was quite fun, at least with a beer it was, but eventually I needed a break so I told her I was going to try to fix the dian dong che and did she want to come? And indeed she did.

Surprisingly, the first two places we came across said they couldn’t fix it.This was disappointing as there is normally some ingenuity regarding solving such issues, and indeed at the third place we came across the bloke took a long look and started drilling holes and patching the pieces together, then came out with some tie tags to fix the main bit that had fallen off. It was about as much as a good job as could be expected and I was glad when accepted 20 kuai after he asked for only 10.

Before fixing the dian dong che

...and after...not too bad

Well that was eventually a successful 45 minutes or so, and Tan Shiyun didn’t seem to mind it as I took her to the shops too. So once home, after tea of the leftover jiaozi from two days ago I went to get ready to go out to see Li Kun’s gig, and noticed in the mirror that I still had a sticker stuck on my forehead. We’d been out for well over an hour, talking to quite a few people, and no-one had batted an eyelid about this. Ha…well…whatever.

Whatever

After a shower I went over much later at 9.45pm to find Li Kun’s gig had already finished. Well I pinged him and he said to come over to Bar 3000 du as you do. Here I found him with his wife and second daughter, along with some members of the band. It ended up being one of those great nights, and for good measure I accidentally pulled down the curtain that covers the entrance to the toilet, which seemed to cause more amusement than it really merited. Then Ma Yong, who had turned up in the meantime, took the said curtains and danced a bit of a jig as you do...ha...silly things that just seem a bit more interesting here...at least acceptable...imagine doing that in an English pub.

Li Kun and family/friends at Bar 3000° as you °

Whoops...curtains

Another Bangxu festival and a breakage

Due to my early night last night I was up in the morning and picked up some jiaozi for breakfast; I may have needed my strength as tonight was to be the Bangxu concert, similar to last year except that it was only one evening and I wouldn't have to be a presenter, just a singer/guitarist. Lin Hong had already sent me the list of performers and I was to be 9th of 22 acts. She pinged me again in the morning to say she'd pick me up around 3pm this afternoon.

I’d already picked up the wireless transmitter and receiver from Li Kun yesterday, so I tuned up after lunch of leftover jiaozi from breakfast, and headed on over to Lin Hong’s place at 3pm. Oh, of course, she wasn’t there but outside the old people’s leisure centre, a place I’ve unforgivably not been to this year. I got there to see an entourage of at least three cars, and Lin Hong and some friends already dressed up in their dancing gear and makeup. Luckily I wasn’t the last one, and I got into the front seat of the 4x4 A Zhong was driving, with a mother and her son, and the son’s female cousin in the back.

The entourage of 3 or 4 or 5 carss

My back seat travelling companions were a bunch of laughs

As we were driving up I realised I shouldn’t be taking this scenery for granted; I’m not going to be here that much longer and should drink it in. But the kids in the back seat were being really funny and cute, full of smiles despite the mother telling them to sleep…only when we were 5 minutes from Bangxu did they finally relent for their micro-siesta.

It was barely 4pm by the time we arrived and the concert wouldn’t start till 7.30pm, and I was the ninth act out of 22. I wasn’t too nervous yet though, and then we were all asked to go into some room that had a sheet of paper at every seat and it looked like we were to be briefed. But instead of being briefed they ended up bringing a vat of warm sweet soup with sweet rice balls or something inside. Even had I been hungry I wouldn’t have cared much for this sweetness. And a few minutes later we all shuffled out. It was one of those foreign times for “waiting around” which is what I did for a while until I came across some young blokes who were asking me if I was foreign. I made them guess which country but they got the UK straightaway. Soon after I heard my name called and we walked 5 minutes to someone’s house where food was served with some other dancers. I managed to eat a bit as it would be the last chance before the performance.

Chatting with some local lads

Ah...the raised toilet seats...I almost got one but would be a bit embarrassed traipsing round with one whenever I went for a meal. Reminded me of getting one in 2003 when I couldn't poo for a week!

Back at the stage we did a sound test and it seemed ok, so I carefully laid down my guitar and put the transmitter in my pocket, then as there was still time to go went behind the building behind the stage to watch the kids play with bangers as dusk settled in. I really wanted a go but didn’t want to stop them having fun, so instead just watched with them until I could hear the performance was about to start.

Now the nerves were coming in a bit, so I appropriated a doctored bottle of cola and had a couple of sips. Nothing dreadful. The first few acts were done in about 3 minutes each, so I reasoned I’d be on in under half an hour. The problem was I’d lost count and didn’t know who was on the list. Finally, the main bloke told me I was on next. But I said the act before me should be a dance, not a song, and the one that was finishing was a song (I can at least tell the difference between the two in Chinese). So we checked with the sound engineer and indeed there was one more act before me. Phew!

So 3 minutes later I plugged in the transmitter and asked for a dengzi (stool) to sit on as a microphone was adjusted to the level of my mouth. It’s not the hardest song to sing, but I started too high and had to go down an octave after the first line…oh well…anyway I made it through and got polite applause…not quite as hearty as last time in Pingguo though I thought. As I put my hand down it banged straight into the transmitter and sheared it straight off, leaving the 7mm plug or whatever it is stuck inside the guitar. At least I saw it, and managed to pick it up before plodding off the stage.

Probably the last time this year

Shit, I would have to replace that, and I knew Li Kun had said he needed it for tomorrow. I wasn’t really in the mood for watching the rest of the show, so went for a walk until I found a small shop where I bought a beer and sat outside on the floor with it, and had a chat with Awl. Well I ended up buying one more beers “why not?” before being called to go back as the performance had ended.

Luckily we didn’t have to spend much time sorting stuff out, and before long we were in the car back to Pingguo. The first thing I did in the car was message Li Kun to tell him I’d broken his transmitter and that I’d sort a new one asap. Only a bit later did I realise I’d also forgotten to take the receiver from the sound engineer. Bugger. But Lin Hong said he’d bring it back to Pingguo the next day or so.

Li Kun didn’t get back to me but when back in Pingguo I went over to his studio to find him there jamming with friends of course. He said not to worry two hoots about the transmitter/receiver pair and that they weren’t expensive. I’d managed to withdraw the plug bit stuck inside my guitar and he took both parts and gave them to someone who said they could fix it…hmm…really?

Li Kun and friends jamming as you do

It seemed his band members had been trying out these earphone type things that enables you to hear each other’s music without extra noise you might get at a concert. I’d tried a pair the other day but didn’t like hearing the sound of my own voice, especially with my bloody cough. Anyway, one or two of them stayed, but the others eventually went, and beers were cracked open of course.

A bit later some bloke came back saying he'd fixed the transmitter...wow that was quick

I had earlier called China Southern about possibly extending my stay, and they’d said it would be possible for a fee, but I’d had to go so was interrupted. So I called them back from Li Kun’s studio and boringly chose the English option again. It transpired it would cost £150 to add on eight days. I didn’t think about it for too long and asked how I could pay. Well I could have done a bank card but I didn’t have the details on me. Weixin pay was out of the question but Ali Pay (支付宝) was an option. I asked the operator if he spoke Mandarin and of course he did, so put him on speakerphone and said I’d ask my Chinese mate if he could sort it. It took no more than a minute before the bloke confirmed the 1360 kuai had gone through and I’d wangled over a week more here. Yes! Of course I paid Li Kun 1500 to cover expenses.

It was getting on for 2am by the time I got back to Waipo’s, but managed a quick chat with Mat and Awl for an hour before enjoying slumbertime.

 

Brunch with Xiao Nong, tea with Lu zong, ye xiao with Haiwei and young people

Xiao Nong pinged me at 8am to eat something but it was a bit early for me so I said to meet a bit later for brunch and we ended up eating jiaozi at my place because why not? 

Lu zong had pinged me yesterday to go to his house to eat tea this evening as his daughter and niece wanted to practise English with me. Of course I couldn't refuse but despite brunch I somehow didn't manage to get a siesta despite having had a couple of beers. I did stop the beers but it doesn't half make you tired. But when I might have got an hour's shut-eye Lu zong sent me a voice message at 4.40pm to tell me to come over now. I sent one back to say I'd be 15 minutes or so, stupidly thinking I could get a micro-sleep but of course it didn't materialise.

Then I remembered that I had to perform at the Bangxu concert tomorrow and pinged Li Kun to see if I could use the wireless transmitter I'd used to good effect the other week. Of course I could, and I could pick it up later.

To be fair it was a lovely family meal, with not too much beer at all, and although his daughter couldn't make it, Lu zong's niece's English wasn't terrible at all, so I think I justified being there.

I made sure I bought a box of cherries to bring to the meal

Lu zong's house with a couple of uncles getting ready for the meal

But of course Haiwei had also invited me to a meal at 8.30pm to meet his elder son's girlfriend. I couldn't leave quite so early but compromised at 8.45pm and wasn't held back too much other than a couple more ganbeis.

I was really tiring by now. I so could have done with a siesta but I was too polite meeting Xiao Nong earlier. Andge even texted me saying he didn't know how I did it. But I knew I only had to hold out a couple of hours and bed would be my reward. As it was Haiwei had booked a place in Jiangbin Lu that I'd not been to before. It was really cool with a lot of young people...well young in the sense that they had boy/girlfriends that would likely become spouses in the coming months. Haiwei's eldest was there but his girlfriend wouldn't be for a good hour or so as she was coming back to Pingguo from another town.

Lovely meal with the young people at Jiangbin Lu

I tried to keep awake but drinking beer and it somewhat worked. I got up and ganbei‘d every one around the table, but doing couples as one made it easier. Eventually Haiwei's eldest's girlfriend turned up, so I managed one with her (a ganbei) even though she said she didn't drink. She's a rather pretty young lady by all accounts. By 11am I was really flagging so made my excuses and drove back home to Waipo's. Back home I managed a single zoom with the lads but was pretty much asleep by 12.30am for a change.

Haiwei's eldest's girlfriend turned up (yes in the middle)

Dongbei jiaozi and late night fish with an argument about kissing

Well I didn't make it a hat-trick of breakfasts, but I did ping Li Kun to go for lunch at Liang ge's Dongbei jiaozi place, and said to be there at 12.30pm. At 12.13pm he pinged me to say he'd already arrived. This is not even surprising anymore. I said I'd be 5 minutes and was nearly as good as my word.

It was good to see Liang ge in his own place as opposed to at Li Kun's studio, and we were served salad while the fuwuyuan prepared our jiaozi, of which I could only manage half and had the rest put in a takeaway tub. Of course Liang ge wouldn't let us pay and felt bad not so much because of the money but that we were the only people eating there (at least at first), and 13 kuai is very good for such a big helping plus a salad and a soup (not to mention a load of tea with the owner before eating).

Enjoying some tea with Liang ge at his Dongbei jiaozi place before the said jiaozi were ready

Following up from yesterday's failure to send the signed contracts, Li Kun went with me to the post office again, where it was confirmed they wouldn't get there any time soon, so Li Kun told me to follow him as we drove a fair way away, nearly half way to the aluminium place, where we found another delivery place. After some faff inputting the English address (why a separate field for post code but the rest of the address goes on a single line?), it transpired that even the fast-track, for nearly £50 would still take 10 days. Really not worth it even if I change my ticket till the 20th. Well, the final date should in theory be the 28th February, so hopefully that will be enough time for me to do it all in the UK.

By now it was gone 3pm, and I was concerned that Li Kun should be back at work but he said it was no problem and I didn't ask any further. I do intend to find out exactly what he does for a living though. Back home, Jiuma and Shiyun were there with the former cooking, and she said to eat tea here with them in a bit. In a bit indeed...I don't think it was even 4.30pm when it was ready, but it was nice to have a family meal for a change. It also meant not being able to finish off my second half of the jiaozi so I left them in the fridge for another time.

Later that evening I turned up at Li Kun's studio again where his wife also was. Tonight fish was on the menu but of course it wasn't the only thing to eat. I pinged Nong to come share with us and before long the beer was being poured slightly quicker than it normally is...maybe because it's a Saturday...maybe because we still celebrating New Year. Li Kun helped me order three crates of the stuff from WeiXin on my phone. It didn't work at first and he reckoned I should turn off the VPN to do it, which I didn't want to do as you never know when you'll be able to connect again. But I didn't want to let anyone down, so turned off the VPN. But it still didn't work, so he decided to change Weixin into Chinese which seemed a bit pointless as the app (酒小儿, which Google translates as "Alcoholic" and Baidu translates as "Alcohol children", neither of which I'm convinced about), doesn't even have an English version. And this time it worked, but I find it hard to believe it was due to changing Weixin to English. And as it was my first time using the app it gave me a special discount so it was only 62 kuai for the three crates of 12 beers. You are even given a slider to choose what proportion you want to be cold and which room temperature. Even better, it's guaranteed to arrive within 15 minutes.

Eating more than just fish at Li Kun's studio: clockwise from left are Li Kun, his wife, Huang Song, the bloke who prepared the food, and Li Kun's son A Duo

Within one minute though I had a phone call which I ignored as I didn't know the number. But when they called again Li Kun said to answer as it would be 酒小儿 and indeed it was, confirming how many cold (2/3) and the address. And 10 minutes later the bloke arrived with the three crates, and as is apparently normal here, two packs of playing cards. Imagine such a convenient and cheap service in the UK....

The two packs of playing cards that came with the beer...the cheap stuff that money can't buy is in some ways more valuable than the beer you can

A closer look at some of the wares on the menu tonight

The beer was flowing and somehow we got into a conversation/argument about whether you should ask somebody before you (attempt) to (romantically) kiss them. I can't remember who it was that said you should ask first, but I disagreed and said it should be spontaneous. The lads in the UK had been pinging for a chat but I said I was at Li Kun's and explained the argument. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to film us at Li Kun's discussing this point. Then Nong, as if to make her point, ask Mat (in English) to give her a kiss. I realised up till then that I was thinking from the man's (to woman) perspective. Anyway, it was all good-natured, cross-continental banter-fun, something that doesn't happen all that often.

Well...not really an argument but I think someone wants to kiss Mat...maybe she should have seen him first!

Failing to sent signed contracts to the UK

Another breakfast of some biscuits, which made it the first time since December last year I've actually had breakfast two days in a row in China. With no plans for the day I boringly had a bowl of pao mian as I didn't really feel like going out. This blasted cough is not going away and every few days or so it gets so bad I vomit. I was worried that that might happen outside.

Annoyingly, the solicitors have emailed me three documents that need to be signed by me as I'm LPA for my dad now and effectively selling his house. Given that it's 2025 you'd think an electronic signature would suffice but no, this is house-selling and they need wet ones. I'd already gone and printed them out but, reckoned it would be a good idea to get them sent back asap. So, when Jiuma and my "grand daughter" Tan Shiyun unexpectedly turned up I asked the latter if she wanted to go out with me to find a post office. Yeah, she wanted to go out with "foreign" gong gong, and I told her I wasn't foreign so we argued about it till we got on the dian dong che.

I drove to the place we sent the hover boards back from at great expense all those years ago, and filled in a big EMS envelope with Chinese and English address that took a good 15 minutes to write. Only when getting to the counter did I think to ask how long it would take. "Up to two weeks". Oh, I'm due back on the 12th, but I'm secretly thinking of adding another week. Even if I can push it back till 20th there would be no point in wasting 300+ kuai on something that might arrive after me. The woman understood, and advised me to contact another company on WeiXin that may be able to sort something out quicker. I thanked her for her honesty and found Shiyun who was now playing outside in preparation to get back. Outside, two men were vehemently arguing, as it appeared one had driven his dian dong che into the other's van and damaged the wing mirror, and the latter wanted recompense. This had actually been going on since we arrived over 20 minutes ago. I literally can't remember the last time I heard an argument in public Pingguo (except maybe Tan and me).

Tan Shiyun making attempting to send contracts abroad a more interesting experience

Back home, I contacted the other company, and after a slow conversation, realised this one wouldn't be any quicker. I resolved to talk to Li Kun about it as he would know the coup.

Indeed, he pinged me at tea time to go to his later that evening for a drink. I wasn't sure I'd be up to it but said I should be able to. I still didn't fancy going out though so ended up eating a few mini brown boiled eggs, wondering if they were actually quail eggs, which used to be my go-to snack in previous months.

Feeling "ok", I got to Li Kun's at 9.30pm and he'd ordered bbq and I realised despite having three meals today, they were all pretty small and I was now pretty hungry, so happily help him and some friends get through them. Among the friends was the owner of Bar 3000, where we'd been a week ago. I guess she was closed today, or business was slow. Likely the former as we're still well into Chinese New Year here and many people are out of town. I ended up managing a few beers and not being sick, until we called it a night at an earlyish 1.30am considering he wasn't working tomorrow. Back home had another chat with the lads for another hour as you do.

Bar 3000° boss or owner or manager on the left, someone else, Li Kun for what has become my default evening hang-out place

Market and evening meal with A Wu and bosses at his office

I managed a breakfast of some biscuits and lunch of jiaozi. A Wu had called me at 9am to invite me for a meal at his office this evening. And as luck would have it I happened upon his black Camry around midday while out. So it was that I would accompany him to the market to pick up food for the meal this evening. It's always a sensory-overload experience in the market, but in a good way. In fact so many experiences are sensory-overload here in a good way. We spent the best part of an hour buying fish, lamb, loads of vegetables I don't even know the words for in English, before driving to near my place to pick up some raw fish at the same place we did last year. Then he dropped me back to Waipo's to attempt a siesta, which I can't remember if I was successful in doing.

A fairly rare left-handed chopper sorting out some lamb ribs for us tonight

Cute kids playing fake Lego while the boss was cutting up the raw fish. I pretended that I was a local person and they somehow saw through it

Later, ss I was having a pre-evening-meal beer, V sent a link to an English quiz from 112 years ago that many English teachers fail today. I'm almost proud to say I "only" got b) and d) wrong. Missed the wrong tense for d) but thought it should be "anyone" instead of "any one". I wonder what the equivalent in Chinese would be.

I found my way to A Wu's office no problem and of course there was some waiting around while they were finishing the cooking. There was clearly far too much for the 10 or so bosses along with some of their wives and children. But of course it was a cracking meal, but so many leftovers that we agreed to come back tomorrow to continue. I was going to make my way back home when it finally tapered off around 10.30pm, and was planning to pop to Li Kun's when A Wu asked me to clean the floor. Fair enough, there had been 20+ people and it was quite grubby. So I spent the next 45 minutes or so sweeping then mopping up while he sorted the excess food into what could and could not be used tomorrow.

Getting ready to eat at the bosses' table (women and children were at their own table in the other room)

Finally it was time to go, but we had to take the extra stuff to his place so spent two trips going down the lift to put it in his Camry before driving over there. Of course one of the bags split as soon as we got out of the car in the basement parking, so I kept the lift door open as he slowly put the contents inside it as we didn't have another bag. Another this would have been an annoying waste of a few minutes but here these sort of things just sort of add to the moment in a positive way...at least mainly because I wasn't in a hurry to do anything else. Finally we got the stuff upstairs and into his apartment. I think I said I'd walk back to pick up my dian dong che as I wanted the exercise, and I don't think he argued too much as it was around midnight.

Which meant in the end it was a bit late to go to Li Kun's, not that I'd told him I'd be popping round. So instead once home caught up with the lads back in the UK (and Reunion) for nearly two hours.

Breakfast with Xiao Nong and evening game feet with Li Kun and family

Got another early message from Xiao Nong to say she was hungry and fancied eating jiaozi. I wasn't really in the mood to get up but social intercourse is better than no intercourse, and I'd be able to sleep in the afternoon. So a few minutes later I drove to the place I like near my flat, and met her there after picking up some gorgeous sweetcorn jiaozi. Of course I'd missed her message to get the boss to give me some vinegar and soy sauce and only saw it as I dismounted from the dian dong che outside my xiao qu (area of block of flats I need to scan my face to get in). So I popped into the local 24h store and picked up a bottle of each as it's unlikely to be the only time we'll breakfast together.

Sweetcorn jiaozi for breakfast as you do

We ate at my flat and as is quite normal among Chinese friends, we proceeded to peruse our phones without talking to each other for a while. While this is massively frowned upon in Europe (as far as I know), it's considered to be completely normal here. And I have come to like it. Why not be comfortable browsing Douyin or Reddit if you feel like it, whether or not in the company of others? As long as it's not considered rude by any party.

In fact I ended up doing a character test on Pleco. Chinese characters, not a test of my own character. She noticed and then started helping me out as I'd chosen categories HSK 3/4/5 and I probably only know half of them. It was great as she would give examples or example situations of where you would want to know the word, and I'd often be able to work out how to say the characters so then I was starting to put them together with what they look like. This went on for the best part of an hour before my poor little brain started to get tired so I'd need to get some rest.

I don't recall what time I roused/rose/arose, but it wasn't early. I finished off the uneaten sweetcorn jiaozi and went back to Waipo's for a bit before deciding I'd pop to Li Kun's for a bit. I wanted to turn up unannounced but thought I'd pick up some roast duck first of all. But as it had gone 10pm that place was closed and the closest place I could find was selling chicken and duck feet, both boned (40 kuai/jin) and unboned (50 kuai/jin). I got a jin of both, a mix of spicy and unspicy.

And it was a good thing I did as when I got there his kids were there too as well as a few others, and his daughter loves chicken and duck feet. Within a few minutes Li laoshi put a guitar into my arms and asked me to sing an English song, so (as I have had a beer or two at Waipo's) I obliged with a couple of Simon and Garfunkel numbers as per usual. It turned into another memorable and fun evening and I got back home (to Waipo's) by 1am for an early change.

Li Kun's wife and second daughter tucking in to chicken and duck feet as you do