Oh no! We've run out of the Coffee-Mate I brought over. This meant a trip to Guanmart in the morning to pick some up where I also stocked up on 雪花啤酒 as you do. Plus four more dragon fruit for Tan to take to Chongqing the day after tomorrow with the kids. I did suggest she might be able to pick them up there but she said she didn't want to waste time there. I daresay you wouldn't waste any time finding a street vendor selling them in Chongqing instead of lugging 2kg's worth of fruit for eight hours. Except I didn't dare say that.
For the ninth time out of the last 10 days I went out to get fen for Tan, now she's on a streak of about five days, of 猪杂老友粉,微辣, which literally translates as pig offal rice noodles, slightly spicy. 微辣 is a useful term I've strangely only learnt this summer, and is often used to apply to bbq too especially if kids will be having some. I picked up a couple of portions of xiaolongbao too hoping that the kids would partake, and managed a whole portion to myself hoping it would incentivise me to go to the gym. I shouldn't need such an incentive; the copious beers from the previous day should be enough. And I probably would have gone had Tan made the effort but her bum was hurting from yesterday's session (in the gym), and I found I still needed to be quite close to the toilet for other bum-related issues. So sadly in the end I ended up not going either. It must be two weeks since the last time now.
To make up for it I did manage a session of dumbbells at least for half an hour or so before a shower and a thirst-quenching Snowflake beer. My appetite was back, but the kids had still barely stirred so I had the second portion of xiaolongbao for tea and Tan ordered pizza and chips for the kids as it would get them out.
I thought of going to see Zhang Hua but ended up first pinging Li Kun to see what he was up to as I'd not seen him in four days. "Drinking tea" of course, so I suggested I bring over a few beers and he said to come over. I bought a box of 12 beers and the old shopkeeper asked me if they were for myself and I said no of course, I was going to meet some friends. So he advised me to buy another box. I think he genuinely meant that as advice rather than trying to sell more wares, and he was right. I didn't know how many people would be there and turning up with 12 is not the way we do it here. If I'm going to identify in any way as being Chinese then I have to get these sorts of things right. And blimey it was only 120 kuai after all.
I turned up to find only Li Kun, little man, and another bloke there. Only little man was drinking beer as usual, but he opened one of my boxes and poured me and Li Kun a beer. Li Kun was busy playing a fighting game on his phone as usual, and although it's mostly Chinese you often hear "enemy slain!", so I made sure he understood such phrases. Then, after a while at getting on for 11.30pm he said he had a message from Xiao Bai de Tian's husband who said he was a little bored as there weren't many people in the bar and to come over for a drink. So Li Kun and I took our bikes there and indeed there was only one table with guests, so we sat with him and Xiao Bai for a couple of drinks and to play a card game called 九宫格 (nine-grid).
This time, finally, the rules were really straightforward; Xiao Bai dealt nine cards in a 3x3 oblong. She explained that Ace was low and King was high except black and white joker was higher and colour joker was higher than that, with the extra card you sometimes get being the absolute highest. The idea was simple: the player whose turn it is points at any of the cards and say "big" or "small", or rather it would be "higher" or "lower", and the dealer lays a card from the rest of the pack on top. If you are right you have the option of having another go, or passing to the next player. If you are wrong you pick the pile of cards. The exception is that if you are right but the card is a 7 or 8 you are obliged to guess again. There is an order to the suits and I know trumps are highest but can't remember the rest of the order.
The end of the game is when the last pile has been picked up. Now come the forfeits: for every 10 cards in your hand you have to drink a glass of beer, but you have to round up, so 5 to 9 becomes 10, 15-19 becomes 20 etc. Secondly, those damn jokers and the special card count for an extra glass each, so you want to be careful about choosing piles you know have these cards. It's an incredibly fun drinking game that I was incredibly unlucky at, much to the mirth of the others, and I'll definitely bring it back to the UK.
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| Xiao Bai's husband was obliged to do a couple of songs by the one table that had guests, so we had more live entertainment |
Xiao Bai bought us lots of bbq including beef ribs that I've not seen on a skewer before. By 1am Li Kun pinged Tan to tell her not to lock the door as I was with him, but I left at 1.30am anyway and he said if there was any issue I could stay with him. But I pinged Leilei and Xixi came to unlock the door 5 minutes later so no real problem.
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