Ooph yeah I wasn't up that early and it was another rather warm one. Although I decided against the gym as it was the weekend, I at least managed to get a bit of piano practice in. Haiwai had called me to meet at the International Hotel with his sons to speak English at 4.30pm so I managed to get to the music place by 3.40pm but my normal room was being used. I found a room but the A/C unit was on the other side and despite setting it to 20 degrees it never made the room comfortable. Within minutes I was sweating bullets and despite the camera overlooking me I undid all my shirt buttons to no real effect. I soldiered on until 4.30pm but for once didn't get a massive kick out of doing it. Li Kun's mate had showed me a new place the other day and I think I'll try to check that out next.
So at 4.30pm I left and got to the Pingguo International Hotel (or at least one of them) and met Haiwei on the 2nd floor where he was with his girlfriend in her office. I didn't realise she worked there but it seems indeed that she is a general manager with her own office. It was of course time for tea and fruit and a few minutes later Haiwei's second son arrived, so I did my bit talking to him in English. Bit by bit more people came and then we were told we were to go for a meal next door.
What followed was a typical sumptuous meal and Haiwei's elder son also turned up, along with another lady and her 18 year-old son. All in all it was a really enjoyable meal and after a while Haiwei and I cracked open a couple of beers to make it more so. I spoke as much English to Haiwei's second son as I could until 6pm when his mum came to pick him up, and spoke a bit more to the elder son. I also managed a few words with the shy 18 year-old to his mother's delight as he clearly had no intention to speak English despite doing five hours of it per week.
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| Some of Haiwei's son's homework |
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| Yet another sumptuous meal |
There was a wedding meal going on next door but I wasn't tempted to join in as I might have been in the past. We just spent a very pleasant couple of hours eating and chatting until about 8.30pm when we decided to leave. When I got home I wanted to take the kids out but it wasn't happening until Xixi opined that she wanted to learn to drive the dian dong che again. She'd managed a few seconds last year and I knew she'd be able to do it, so I drove her to the hotel car park (or parking lot as they now say). Damn, every time there was a person walking past she'd stop and get out her phone as she didn't want anyone seeing her. It took an age but finally she had a bit of confidence to ride it for more than 30 yards.
Then Leilei turned up and she wasn't in the mood any more so we went to Guanmart to pick up some beer and chocolate as you do. Back home the kids went to chill and then at 10.45pm Li Kun pinged me to say he was at Xiao Bai de Tian. I would have come over straightaway but I was watching the GB Grand Prix and it was one of the best I've seen, thanks 100% to it being a great track and there being rain. Jeez please get rid of Monaco\!
But I didn't want to be rude and turn up too late so got there around 11.15pm and managed to follow the last few laps on the tv anyway. Congrats Hamilton on his 9th British GP and first in ages. We played a few rounds of mopai and I lost every one, before a couple of mates turned up on another table so I went to ganbei with them and chat a while. Apparently someone was about to deliver some special raw fish so I had to wait at the table until they did. Leilei also duly arrived to eat bbq and we found ourselves in the midst of another photoshoot with a prettyish girl on another table plus Xiao Bai, the owner's wife.
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| Leilei enjoying being the focus of attention (not his baba of course) |
Apparently it is her birthday next Friday so I promised to learn a Chinese song and sing it then. It's so easy to make such promises after a few beers but I'd better stick to it. Li Kun left at 1.30am soon after Leilei, but somehow I didn't leave till well gone 4am.
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