Half a duck for returning family and "Land sheep" at Li Kun's with Feng ge

After continuing my habit of a tiny pao mian for lunch I pinged Xixi around 2pm to check they were on the train back from Guangzhou, which they duly were and had been for 20 minutes, so I knew they'd be back some time after 6.30pm, which gave me a little over four and a half hours of freedom. But it was daytime freedom which isn't so fun, so I ended up doing household chores, clothes washing etc. and getting some shopping in, before deciding to go for piano practice at the usual place. I'd like to go to the woman's place I went to last week but without A/C it's just too hot to do physical activity, which certain pieces certainly are.

So I got to the music centre and put on the A/C before going to the place a couple of doors down to order a watermelon juice with reduced sugar. That done, I went next door to Guanmart for more provisions and dumped them home before going to find something to eat as Tan said she was too tired to go out to eat. The duck leg woman wasn't there, so I found a shop that sold roast duck and got a half one that weighed nearly 2 jin so a bit under a kilo for 61 kuai, and got him to cut it up. He tried to sell me the head and neck to make it up to 2 jin but I told him no-one at home would eat it. But we all had some of the succulent breast and there was plenty left over despite Tan saying it wasn't enough and there should be rice to make it a meal.

At 8.18pm Feng ge sent me a message to go to Li Kun's studio for a drink. Well I had no plans so was about to answer in the affirmative when he called me to say that Li Kun wouldn't be back till 9pm so to meet then. Well that was time enough for a beer and I also popped to Guanmart again as Tan said we needed more washing liquid and conditioner. I didn't mention the discussion I had with Li Kun and Ma Yong the other day when they said Chinese people don't buy fabric conditioner separately as it's included in the washing liquid.

So I was running a little late when I stopped off en-route to pick up 12 1998 cans even though just two days ago Li Kun had said not to bring beer when seeing friends. I got a missed call from Feng ge of course and arrived a couple of minutes later after having to change the beer the bloke in the shop got for me as it wasn't the Li Quan I'd asked for. And it was a good thing I did bring some beer as there wasn't any there, at least it wasn't visible.

Feng ge had brought a load of lamb, and other than Li Kun and little man (got to find out his name too) there was another bloke who apparently I'd met before but if he knew me he'd forgotten that I don't smoke. I was quite peckish as I'd only had four slices of duck breast three hours earlier and tried that very foreign thing of looking for a piece of meat that was just that...meat...and not a massive hunk of skin or fat or bone, of which there was plenty. At least I had a bowl of sauce with coriander and lajiao to dip it into. But yeah it was a bit like one of those grabber games where instead of coming back empty-handed my chopsticks generally brought back some rubbery skin, which would have been a result had I been a local.

Feng ge referred to the lamb as 地羊, so "land sheep", as opposed to 山羊 which is "mountain sheep", or goat. I'd not heard this term before so asked why. To which he laughed and said 地羊 is the term they use when they don't want to say 狗! Oh, I'd just been eating dog. Every time I've had dog for the last five years I've said it would be the last time, and maybe last time it would have been had I known "land sheep". Luckily I'm not sensitive about it but imagine Awl or some dog lover coming over and I tell them it's sheep and they go and stuff themselves only to find out later....

"Land sheep", otherwise known as "dog"

Oh well, whatever. Feng ge then ordered some of the local speciality raw fish and although it was nice they'd cut it much thicker than I'm used to and it was rather tough compared to the thin slices we normally get. Then I remembered I'd promised Xixi to get her some bbq. Sweetcorn and beef as per usual, so I asked if they'd still be there in 20+ minutes. I didn't need to ask that but it was my excuse to pop out to get some.

I realised when there that I ought to bring some back to Li Kun's, so ordered 20 beef, 20 pork, and 20 sweetcorn. I asked if they had them all in stock and the lady told me they did. I started to wait outside, considering popping to a table to be invited to a beer, when she said something about the sweetcorn. I asked again if they had some, and she paused before saying they did. I didn't know if this was one of those fear-of-losing-face moments so I said it would be no problem to get it next door, and she affirmed. So I popped next door to Tan's "uncle's" place and felt a bit embarrassed that I'd not ordered there in the first place.

But I didn't want to sit about waiting for 20 minutes, so I thought I'd go back to Li Kun's to wait. I got all of 50 yards before I heard someone shout at me. I stopped and looked back and realised I should recognise this person. But he beckoned me over so over I went and he ordered a couple of bottles of beer as they were drinking baijiu. The new term I've heard for the Guangxi version of this is 公文包, or "briefcase". It's generally "only" about 22% but I don't yet understand the briefcase nature of the name. I also still won't drink it. But it was a pleasant enough 15 minutes or so where I only had the one bottle of beer. The bloke said he'd stopped drinking beer at the age of 32 as it made his tummy "zhang le", yet another word I need to learn. I'd have understood if he'd said "pang le", which simply means "fat". Apparently he'd known Feng ge for years so I took a photo and said I'd show him. And of course that I'd come back another day for longer.

Having a beer with Feng ge's mate while waiting for bbq

The 40 chuan of meat was only 140 kuai, and another 20 kuai for the 20 chuan of sweetcorn, so I brought them home only for Tan to chastise me for keeping on coming in and out of the house so she couldn't sleep. Blimey I'd left over two hours ago and that was all. Apparently it was Xixi who'd been moving about. But the bbq shut her up and I left them noshing while I took the 20 pork back with me to Li Kun's. 

It was very well received, as the raw fish had gone, and it seemed I wasn't the only one not really into dog as there was so much left. Handsome singer had turned up, as had some other bloke who was playing the guitar and singing something. Handsome singer said the bbq was definitely beef and not the pork I thought it was, so I'd left the wrong thing at home. But I pinged Xixi without telling her my mistake and she said the bbq was fine so good.

I wasn't even tempted to play the guitar. I'd not drunk that much and now we were on a different kind of beer that I guess they keep round the back anyway. It was yet another night of most of the others chatting in the local lingo so I didn't get too much of it...something about Putin, something about Ukraine. And by 12.45am I knew better than to try my luck and said I'd better go back. It was just a couple of beers back home as I used the sleeping tablets again and was asleep around 3am for the second time this visit.