Another suitcase, some more clothes, and a last supper yet again

Another latish morning turned into lunch of Xiaolongbao for me and Zhu za noodles for Tan. She wanted me to take a load of stuff back but I had to put my foot down a bit, as this time I have more clothing to take back. She actually said to take back all my clothing to the UK as they are thinking of selling the house soon. There's no way I'd be able to do that though.

Predictably, Xixi said she didn't have enough space for her stuff. I told her in the UK we should take a large suitcase each but she said it was too embarrassing for each of us to take a large one. I absolutely knew this would happen so I said she could get one with her own money. We drove down to the centre and found a place selling them by the Zhongxin supermarket. We decided that a hard hand luggage one should be sufficient, which makes sense as we have enough large suitcases between us anyway, but not enough hard hand ones. So we ended up getting a silver one for 169 kuai, and of course I had to send 50 kuai to Xixi so she could actually pay for it.

Xixi got her nails done a couple of days ago

Luckily it was big enough, so next I wanted to go back to the Pingguo Haliao shop and pick up a top for Awl and maybe some more for myself. And this time Xixi accompanied me as I said I'd appreciate her opinion. Unfortunately the dark blue top wasn't available in XXL, so I ended up getting another black one for him, the same as mine. In the 50% off section there wasn't a great deal in XXL/XXXL in colours I wanted but I got a blue track suit top and a black and grey running top that met with Xixi's approval. And when I went to pay I had to pick up a mini fan that when spinning displayed lights to say something like "Fight, Guangxi team", but unfortunately is not picked up on the camera.

Awl's top on the left, my track suit top and running top in the middle and right, and three tickets to the next game they gave us that I won't be able to go to

On the way back Xixi and I stopped off at the place Lu Hai and Lao Ma used to live at, and where Tan and I spent our first days in Pingguo back in 2003/2004. Not that it really matters but I have taken photos in 10 year intervals since then (so three in all), and this time it's not changed so much since 10 years ago.

2004

2014

2024

Next, for the first time in over a year, I posted on Weixin to show the tickets I had for the match that I wouldn't be able to see, and to offer them to whoever wanted them. I instantly got a few replies, mostly asking if I was still in Pingguo (yes, obviously), and to go for a drink later. I got quite an lovely message in English from the bloke whose family I'd shared bbq with a few weeks ago. I'll definitely arrange to meet up with him again if I can.

Nice message from the bloke I met the other week

So that was pretty much everything done that we needed to do, at least in terms of buying stuff. At 5pm Tan said we were going to eat bbq but the rest of us reasoned that that was rather early and we'd go in half an hour at least. That gave me time to grab a shower and a beer, and we walked the 150 yards to a relatively new place where you choose your raw food and cook it yourself at the table. It proved to be a fun and tasty experience, and Tan and I shared a single bottle of beer only. We thought it would be 300 kuai for the three of us but it only came to 178 and we were all stuffed by the end. I'll definitely come back here given the chance, but they don't open till 4pm and we need to leave at 3pm tomorrow.

Last family meal together in Pingguo this year

I decided I'd do another last supper at Zhang Hua's so pinged my friends and without exception each of them said they'd make it over. I knew A Wu was in Nanning again so didn't bother about him. I did ask him where I could get snooker gloves though as I'd checked a handful of shops and not come up with anything. After a somewhat lengthy exchange he told me to go to the place we'd played pool last summer, so I got there to find the boss wasn't there, and there was just some kid who found me a single glove. Oh well, better than nothing and anyway I'm sure I'll be able to find some on Amazon. Then Tan asked me to get some fabric conditioner, as you do, but it was already getting on for 9pm so I stopped off en route to the supermarket by the guangchang but couldn't find any after 5 minutes, but bought a little V for the journey tomorrow.

Then up to Zhang Hua's and luckily I was the first one, followed a few minutes later by Lu zong. One by one they turned up, some with friends, and we filled the table until we needed to add another. Nong helped me order more bbq, and at some later stage more non-bbq food came too. Chen had been pinging me since 8pm and I said I'd try to make it down to the oyster place. I would have invited him up but I know he doesn't get on with Huang Lei, and the latter is a better friend, and was with me tonight. I talked to Haiwei's girlfriend, Li Baoli, and got her to agree to come too so Nong wouldn't be the only lady.

My last Guangxi bbq for a while...

A few mates for the last supper of summer 2024

And the view from the first floor where I had a couple of beers with some other friends

It was a great evening and we didn't disband till well gone 1am, when I asked Zhang Hua for the bill. He only wanted 500+ kuai but I insisted on paying 700; there had been a good 10 of us eating and drinking for up to four hours after all. Li Kun and Nong went to Xiao Bai de Tian, and I said I'd try to join them in 20 minutes after meeting up with Chen, but thought it was unlikely. At least I did meet up with Chen at getting on for 2am, and managed nearly an hour there but was getting really tired so left before 3am after saying goodbye to the owner too. I did check with Nong but they had already left for the night, and I was secretly glad, so navigated the way home safely this time and remembered to but the dian dong che on charge as I would be leaving it with Li Kun tomorrow. It didn't take too long to get to sleep after that, and I knew there would be no rush tomorrow as we were pretty much packed.

Finally managed to take the dian dong che to 6000km after nine years