Trip to Nanning for A Wu's new huoguo place

What a typical day. To be fair A Wu had given me Boss Zhou's phone number (not Weixin) yesterday and asked me to call him about going to Nanning today. He'd answered and confirmed that we'd be going in the afternoon but no more info. But sure enough soon after midday I got a message from one of his mates to come over to the "Chamber of Commerce" "in a bit". Last year when I heard this I actually thought it was a government department, which is pretty reasonable I think, but found out it was just Boss Zhou's place behind the KTV where we often go for food and drinks. Anyway, I'm used to this now and said I'd grab a bite to eat first, and suggested about an hour, to which he replied "差不多" which is a useful phrase that means "pretty much".

40 minutes later I got a voice message asking why I hadn't arrived. I was in the shower so didn't answer for another 20 minutes, saying I was on my way, which wasn't strictly or unstrictly true, as I needed to put on my moisturising lotion and needed to wait till I stopped sweating first which always takes a few minutes after a shower. Of course I got another call while on my way, which slowed me down after stopping to answer, as no-one else does here, but I was there soon after 1.30pm.

The bloke was the only one there and we got in his car and headed south to Nanning. Except after 5 minutes we turned left and went to his apartment complex to park his car and go outside and wait for someone else. All the time he was on his phone to others, yet it was always the local language and I understood barely anything. But it transpired we were going to take a mate's car to go there. Fair enough. Save petrol and all that. So we waited under a tree in the slightly less scorching shade for 5 minutes until a car turned up and I got in the front as usual and there was already someone else in the back. We drove around for 10 minutes but not in the direction of Nanning, then presently stopped again. Yet another 5 minutes passed until some bloke turned up in shorts and flipflops and got into the back. Ok, so we were a full complement of five people. Let's go.

Well we went, but we headed north beyond the guangchang and I knew this wasn't the way to Nanning. Then we stopped and flipflop man got out and I asked what was happening and apparently he was hungry and was going to eat some zhou. Then we drove another couple of hundred yards and stopped again for no apparent reason. So this time I got out for a wander to wonder when we'd actually be going to Nanning. But hey it was only 2.40pm it wasn't like we were in a rush. Finally, after about 1h15 of driving around and stopping and picking people up we appeared to be on our way. Of course there was no need to have told me to hurry up, and they could well have picked me up at 2.45pm instead of me going to the Chamber of Commerce at 1.30pm but I'm too used to it to be bothered anymore. The only annoying thing was that I didn't really benefit from the time in terms of Chinese as they only speak the local lingo between themselves.

At least during the journey I had a conversation with the Red Bull-toking driver, and it transpired he ran a garage to fix cars. We talked about how there were fewer and fewer jobs as automation set in and I asked about self-driving cars here. Apparently this is a thing in certain cities, which is interesting if true. I told him that at least whether with or without a driver, cars would need maintenance so his job should be safe for a while. Then he started asking me the price of a Rolls Royce Cullinan. I'd not even heard of such a model but after a bit of a search told him it would cost around £300k, and he told me it would be closer to £800k here. Tax.

Once in Nanning the real issue of having a car here arose again. Sure, we might have had a private place for an hour and a half although most of the blokes were sleeping. In fact flipflop bloke snored while he was awake, so it wasn't the quietest of journeys. But now not only were we stuck in traffic, we had to spend a significant amount of time looking for a parking place. But eventually after a few phone calls we were directed to a cheapish place and some bloke came to meet us. We got out of the car and ended up walking 10 minutes through winding little passages till we got to A Wu's new huoguo place and were ushered upstairs to where a meal was well in progress.

It was definitely some sort of occasion but I wasn't sure exactly what. Probably an excuse to celebrate A Wu's new business, but I didn't ask. I was hungry and thirsty and it didn't take long to quench both. Especially the latter as I was requested to do a round of the table, to which I duly obliged. It was a great meal and I met some nice people including a charming young lady who showed me her homework and taught me some Chinese, and pretty much confirmed my reading level is about on par with a six and a half year-old.

A Wu's huoguo meal in full swing

Cock balls are actually quite nice

Young lady who helped me with Chinese

Finally around 10.30pm it was announced we were to go back, at least the two car loads of us who had come from Pingguo, and that was it. Of course we had designated drivers and they won't touch a drop. Had I known we'd be leaving then I might have touched a bit more as I'd been trying to pace myself. But hey, we got back around midnight and Li Kun pinged me to go to Xiao Bai de Tian again so I popped over but Tan called to tell me to come back 15 minutes after I arrived so I had to make my apologies and left after just one or two ganbeis.