hijacked

Well, it’s a good thing I recovered so quickly from Friday’s illness. Actually, it wasn’t too bad: Just needed to get the poison out of my system then rest up.

It’s a good thing, because my weekend got hijacked.

I was going to use this weekend to catch up on paperwork, but it just ain’t happening.

Well, yesterday morning I managed to get some catching up done.

Yesterday afternoon I helped with a test. All I had to do was interview people and do a couple of roleplays with them and make sure all of that was recorded. Didn’t need to grade or assess them in any way, so it was easy money.

Today? Well, we had to go out to deliver wedding candy and alcohol to some good friends who live out near Gaobeidian. No big deal, really. Well, it shouldn’t’ve been. Should’ve managed to make the delivery, invite them to the wedding, hang around for a bit, then get out by lunch time. I should’ve been able to get home in time to get lunch then get stuck in to this paperwork while lzh went off to meet some of her old classmates.

But no.

Bloody Hebeiren. Just as bad as Dongbeiren. You set foot within a radius of one kilometre of their home and you can’t leave until you’ve been stuffed full with enough food to feed half of Africa for a week and you’ve had your fill of drink and a little more for luck.

Which is good, of course, because that’s what hospitality is. And this particular family are good friends because they’re great people. But it’s not good for me catching up with this paperwork.

Anyway, there’s still this evening. No need to panic.

And at lunch Gege decided we’d drink a bottle of red wine from Grace Vineyards in Shanxi. 2001 cabernet merlot is what I remember seeing printed on the label. I was impressed. It didn’t taste like any other Chinese wine I’ve ever had. It didn’t have that thick, heavy texture that leaves you thinking there’s far too much of something less-than-desireable backing up the rather mediocre flavour. I’m no wine lover- fermented grape juice is fermented grape juice- but this particular bottle of fermented grape juice ranked pretty high on the drinkability scale (the only scale on which wine can truly be rated- all that nonsense about flavour and “nose” and terroir is only so much pretentious wankery).

And we took two bottles of Guizhou Chun (which is actually quite a nice baijiu- very drinkable, and the flavour lives up to the “chun” (mellow) label) and two bags of wedding candy, but we were sent back with half of that and a bag full of candy, coconut juice coffee (some kind of two-in-one instant coffee) tea, fruit, a particular kind of chilli sauce that only Hainan produces, and who knows what else, and a bag full of clothes for lzh. What did I say about Hebeiren and their hospitality?

Not complaining, though. Even though today has turned out to be far less productive than I was planning, it was great hanging out with Gege, Saozi, their daughter, and Nainai. Actually, it was the first time I’d met Nainai, and I was really impressed: That woman is smart, really sharp. And I could tell from just one look at her that she’s tough as nails, too. And she totally loves lzh: half of what she said was very high praise of lzh. I was told very clearly that I am incredibly fortunate to have met and married lzh (and she’s right, of course).

So a good day.

And Doctor Huang reminded me, as I was leaving the market, that if any part of my body hurts, I should come look for her. And she made it very clear, in both words and gestures: Legs; waste; stomach; teeth; head; earlobes; little toenail; anything. If it hurts, go see her. I think she realised that the blood vessels in my brain are fine, though. She didn’t try to get me to buy any haws.

Now, if I could find out why it seems all the Chinese characters on this blog have gotten all messed up and how to fix them, I’d be happy. Any advice, anyone?