Lunch and sport with A Wu and son, tea with alcohol boss, then meal with Haiwei

Well I had no call in the morning to play sports with A Wu, but this was more than expected. It had meant I'd taken my phone off silent though, so kept receiving calls from people I don't know that I never answer. But I managed to doze on and off (thanks to no drilling this morning) till getting on for lunch, when I thought I'd ping A Wu to see if he'd eaten. In typical style he replied with a video from the place that does duck fen and said to hurry up and come over. Well this wasn't really that unexpected though he could have invited me like a few minutes before or something. I wasn't going to bother with a shower yet so thought "why not?" and drove over there where my portion was waiting at the counter, so I added some spring onion and chilli as you do and sat down with him and his second son, Li Yun, for much more than I could really eat.

Duck leg and breast fen for lunch

I noticed that for once, A Wu left some of his noodles. I've noticed his stomach is a bit more protruding than before, so maybe he's noticed and doing something about it. Li Yun, on the other hand finished every last bit. I maybe managed a third of my noodles but finished the duck breast and leg easily. Ok, so in a bit we were to go to his apartment complex and play badminton and table tennis just as we'd done before. Cool. I'd go home to change and get my bat and take that crap that had been boiling up over the last few minutes.

Of course when I got there half an hour later they were not about so I went to his house to find him cooking. He said to speak English to Li Yun, which wasn't easy as he had a vocabulary consisting of a few colours, a few fruits, and "my name is" and "I'm fine thanks, and you?". But I did what I could for 20 minutes or so before Li Yun and I went outside to play badminton. I had had the foresight to bring sun cream and definitely needed it, except after a few minutes of playing under the sun Li Yun said it was too hot and we then played in a narrow strip under the trees.

Playing badminton with Li Yun in a strip of shade

After a while he said it was too tiring (he was by now sitting on a bench hitting shots back to me) so we went to the children's playing area where they have table tennis tables with metal nets. We played for 15 minutes before A Wu finally came down to take his place. This is sadly only the second time I've played table tennis this time in Pingguo, and it hardly counts. We then moved on to badminton, using the exercise machines as nets, and for the first time in a while I did better than him, doing trick shots behind my back that he tried to copy with little success but with much laughter. But the heat had sapped out most of our energy so after 15 minutes we called it a day. He pointed to a building behind us and said that tonight we'd be drinking there. I said that should be fine and that I'd go over after eating with Haiwei.

So I got back and grabbed a shower after 4pm, after which I got a message from 小娟, the woman who works at the alcohol shop, to come over and drink tea. Haiwei had just pinged me to ask if 7pm would be ok to eat, so as it had just turned 5pm that gave me the time to tell her sure I'd be able to pop over in half an hour (after a quick 3.3% can). So I duly did, and she was there with a couple of friends indeed drinking tea. I thought they were playing mopai so joined in only to find it was a completely different game I didn't know how to play. I duly lost, but my forfeit was to drink a glass of water which was quite fitting as the A/C was putting out a pathetic amount of cool air and everyone was complaining about it and sweating.

It turned out it was the boss's daughter's birthday, and a cake turned up, then food, then more food, then the table was put out as more and more people arrived. Oh no, I mentioned I had another meal to go to but the boss lady said "you are eating here, right?". They'd assumed that I would be, while only inviting me for tea. On another evening I'd have been pleased as punch, but I apologised and I think they understood I'd already been invited out. Not that it stopped them asking me to eat a few more times, and giving me a rose...oh shit, it's Chinese Valentines' day today! At well gone 7pm I left them saying I'd come back later if they were still around, and they said most of them should be.

Preparing for the boss's daughter's birthday meal outside the alcohol shop

Of course I got a call from Haiwei when I was driving to the youcha place by the guangchang where he was eating. Well not just eating but when I arrived he was doing the cooking too. So we ended up waiting 20 minutes for the food to be prepared. I wasn't complaining in the least but I could have spent that time at the other place having a perfunctory bowl of something and maybe a glass of wine. But the meal was great of course, and only his younger son was there who wasn't too interested in speaking with me in English, preferring his phone games of course.

Great meal with Haiwei and son and friends

After one beer Haiwei moved onto the gongwenbao when some other bloke turned up with two bottles of the stuff. The other cook stated he wasn't drinking today, and Haiwei's girlfriend, 李宝丽, and her best friend weren't drinking as they were both on medicine. Well I got some English out of second son, and lots of Mandarin from the others, until at around 10pm I'd literally had enough beer, and said I'd try to pop back later but was honest about meeting up with 小娟 by using the jokey excuse that there were many beautiful ladies there, and it was accepted with a "see you later" goodbye.

Unfortunately 小娟 had left, presumably to take care of her young kids, but I was welcomed by all and had to ganbei quite a few glasses of red wine which at this stage was more welcoming than beer. The bloke to my right had a lit cigarette in his right hand and an unlit one in his left. He slowly bent over while sitting and I could tell he'd fallen asleep, so I took the lit fag from his hand and threw it away thoughtfully. I do like the way it's totally acceptable to fall asleep at table though, a little bit like burping at a Japanese meal (if that's true) to show that you've appreciated what the host has done.

But I only stayed 20 minutes or so as A Wu and his mates were waiting. He had a jokey go at me for being so late but I told him I'd just been with some beautiful women and what would he have done? And to be fair when I got there it was a sausage fest of half naked, drunken men, and might have been more fun had it not been contrasted to the last place I'd been. I managed to leave around midnight and had no inclination to go anywhere else, and got home and fell asleep to S2E2 of Breaking Bad so I'm going to have to watch it again.

The last meal of the day was a bit of a sausage fest