There was still some bbq left from last night so that was Tan's and my lunch before I forced myself to go to the gym and did the usual 30 mins weights (mostly for my skinny pins) followed by the elliptical just to slightly counter the lifestyle here. If I truly ate like the locals (i.e. eating breakfast and having rice with meals) I dread to think how much weight I would put on.
It's a lot to do with discipline. It's not that simple of course, and the problem seems to be it's easier for some people and harder for others. I think it's partly to do with the prefrontal cortex. I didn't feel like going to the gym. It hurts. But not going to the gym just puts the hurt on hold a little, in the form of being a little fatter, or less fitter. Similarly holding off on the second portion, or holding off on the carbs (including beer unfortunately) maybe a bit painful at the time, but if you consider the future it should be more doable. Considering the prefrontal cortex isn't developed till your mid 20s you can give the kids more of a free pass. But when it's adults then I don't know. I tend to judge adults a lot on how I perceive how they perceive the consequences of their actions. That's how I logicked myself to go to the gym anyway.
Fang Jia pinged me again to drink tea and as I had no plans I said I'd grab a shower and go to the place she'd send me. It happened to be at a tea and wine shop opposite A Wu's office from last year, and it was genuinely for drinking tea. It was a nice innocent hour or two, during which I played with the boss's daughter who was at that charming age of 6 where they see that you are a bit different and are happy to point out those differences with their fingers. She then started pointing at certain characters on a mural on the wall asking me what they were. I got about half, which was probably 75% more than I would have last year thanks to some study, but she knew them all. So my level of Chinese in terms of reading is lower than that of a six year-old? Jeez...so much to learn. But I got my own back when I asked her her name. Well, after that when she asked me mine. She didn't know "彭" so I chalked that up as a mini victory.
As 5pm rolled round we decided to call it an afternoon as we'd need to prepare tea. We hardly ever actually "prepare" tea at our place but actually Tan has cooked a bit some of the last few days. But no she was out this evening and I'd had a bit of fruit while drinking tea so I wasn't very hungry.
Just before 8pm the boss of the oyster place I've eaten a couple of times with Chen pinged me to go there for a drink. Er, ok, why not? I was getting a little peckish by now anyway so at 8.30, three hours earlier than normal, I took the bike down to Jiang Bing Lu to find a load of tables put together inside with at least 20 people sitting down. He greeted me with a hug and proceeded to tell me it was his birthday today. Oh, I pretended to be embarrassed not to have brought a present and he laughed of course and bade me sit down to a bowl of snake soup, together with the flesh of the serpent.
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| At a birthday party as you do |
They tried to make sure I'd at least had the soup before ganbeiing but the bones in the snake make it rather a slow process for me to manage as I'm not a great fan of chewing it all in my mouth and then spitting out the bones. Part of me that may never change and I can deal with that. Then Chen turned up and sat next to me and so the ganbeis started in earnest. One of the women was from Hainan, where they're supposedly the prettiest women in China. If so she was an exception to prove the rule, but could she drink?
In all it was a very fun evening of course. I don't think I left that late but once again I didn't take the straightest route home. But at least I didn't end up 7km away from home this time.
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