Well I didn't wake early enough to see off Tan and the kids but at 9am I did check to make sure they'd actually made it out of the house, as I had a big doubt they wouldn't have. But I was up now, and rather than go back to bed I decided I'd take another walk here while I can as it was rather overcast and not massively boiling.
I ate the remainders of the birthday cakes for energy and walked up Deng Xiaoping hill until I realised my thick shorts and cotton tee-shirt were really not the right attire as the former was chafing and the latter, by the time I got back down, was soaking. So I decided to walk home for a change of clothes. It was such a good idea to put on light shorts and top, and put some water in a bag to take with me. I walked up through the guangchang and followed the route I'd walked with Zhang Liangwen a few weeks ago. I decided I would make it 10km this time, so calculated I would have to walk 2.5km north of the guangchang before heading back.
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| View of the city from the top of the pagoda on Deng Xiaoping hill |
Bloody annoyingly as I was nearly at the most northern point, I glanced up and saw a western person on a dian dong che. Damn, I've gone so long without this. He was mostly bald and had a beard, and I really hope he is one of the several new Brazilian coaches we've recently employed. And I saw him again when I headed south and then turned right, as he had started jogging, which gave me more hope he was involved in the sport.
But I now had a more pressing problem, down below, and I wondered how many minutes I could hold out as I was pretty much as far from the house as I've ever been on foot. So I sped up my walking...worst case I could probably use the loo of a shop so I wasn't overly worried except there were very few shops in this neck of the woods as the houses were still being built. But I just made it, and even dared get some jiaozi to take home. At the jiaozi place I bumped into Lu zong who said we were to go for a drink at his bar on Jiang Bing Lu tomorrow at 9pm, cool.
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| Our ant tree, but sadly the main "ant" bit has now been removed |
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| They actually have a form of pinyin for the local language |
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| The angry cat near the jiaozi place is getting bigger |
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| My 11.36km route to the north of Pingguo |
I only just managed to get my shoes and socks off before relieving myself on the squatter. Annoyingly the proper toilet is blocked again and it's not unblocking as easily as the last few times. Ahh, such relief.... I'd noticed Xiao Nong had sent me a message earlier at 11.45am but not had time to check. She asked if I was up and I answered that I was. Then she said how about going to KTV? When? 1-2 o'clock. What? Yep, she was going to go with her bestie she known since childhood. Well I'd had only 5+ hours' sleep and had just cracked open a beer to go with my jiaozi and a siesta and now had to make a decision. I decided to drink some cola and go for it. I thought seriously about grabbing 30 minutes of rest but I said I'd pick up food and drink and I know myself and that I wouldn't be that quick. I also ate all my jiaozi as I'd managed 11.36km in the end with only that tiny bit of cake as sustenance.
She said it was just one friend and her kids, but you never know how many people will turn up, so at Guanmart I bought some extra beer and more food than last time. And like last time I bought a box of cold yellow Li Quan 4.1%ers from the local shop while she was asking where I was. So I turned up fashionably late and she was the only one there with her youngest son, and it was like that for another half an hour till her bestie turned up. After an hour or so of beers I finally got round to singing a couple of songs, much to Xiao Nong's appreciation, and we stayed till getting on for 6pm when it was decided we'd go to eat.
So to the underground mall it was to the place we ate last year, for won ton, which Xiao Nong's son threw up under the table of course. I picked up some tea for me and the kids, and after that it was goodbye to her friend and kids, and over to the hospital for Xiao Nong's son's drip after dropping off the rest of the food and beer at her place. I let him watch cartoons on my phone as Xiao Nong slept for 45 minutes or so, then we were off again to another place when the drip was done. Some friend or another I guess, and we sat down to restart on the beer. This went on till about midnight when I heard that we were going to another KTV.
And indeed we did, for at least another hour. Then around 2am I went to take her home but she'd forgotten her keys. We thought they were at the previous place but no, nothing there, so went back the the KTV where fortunately we found them, but then we were taken to another room for more beers and I ended up playing the dice game with one of the women there. I think I finally got her home at well gone 2.30am.
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