Now that was a weekend I shall remember and for all the right reasons.
Lunchtime Saturday I took Pepsi to the vets and then rode back towards the station. Qing didn’t finish working at KFC until three and I had decided to arrive a little later than that so she could meet me from the bus rather than making my own way to the hotel. Ergo, I was half an hour too early even having made a fruitless search for cigars after dropping the dog off. In 39C I decided to try to find an airconditioned restaurant I could have a beer or two rather than hang about the station, which is a bit warm at this time of year.
I found a place right opposite and went in, causing huge interest on the part of the clientele and owners and immediately became the focus of attention. One spoke about as much English as I do Chinese but we all “chatted” successfully for forty minutes until it was time to leave. Sod’s Law states that you buy your ticket just as the bus is leaving and it didn’t desert me on this occasion so I was left to wait over 20 minutes for the next one. It did occur to me to speculate as to why the ticket to Tongling, an hour and a half journey, only cost 20y when to Hefei it costs 80y for 3 hours. The answer was apparent as we progressed en route - no toll roads.
Even though I never arrived until three-thirty I still had to wait awhile for Qing and was therefore subjected to a constant stream or rip off “taxi” drivers who probably would have only charged me a million yuan for a 10y journey, along with the beggars who haunt such places looking for a soft touch. I was glad when she arrived, more so than I thought I would be, and we duly took a legitimate cab to the hotel where I was allocated the same room as last time.
Then it was out of the hotel to wait for Qing’s friend Lee Li Na (no relation to the tennis player) and off to the KFC they both work at. Qing wanted three boys who work there and have been pestering her to see her with her foreign, large, “boyfriend”! Sadly both Saturday and Sunday they were nowhere to be seen bar one (see later) but I have no doubt her other colleagues will gossip and ensure the news gets to them. We never bought anything but Li Na did disappear and return with a bag of cold beers.
Sadly dad the policeman had been detained in Wuhu so never joined us at all over the weekend. Shame, I like him a lot. After the beers I suggested we do some urgent searching for cigars as I had just enough to last until this morning. They took me to an underground mall in which there is a Tescos. I hadn’t brought my Clubcard but it didn’t matter, the only similarity I spotted between the Anglo and Sino versions was HP sauce, which I already have. But outside we did find cigars and I promptly cleaned them out of cheroots and in addition bought fifty full coronas at 16y for ten. The panic is over for a while.
The restaurant mum works at (remember the deal was that I got THAT fish again - see photo) was packed and noisy. With just the three of us we didn’t merit a private room but I didn’t care, I had my fish. Along with an awful lot of other dishes - ten in total I think - that Qing ordered. I had a fabulous time with the girls even though Li Na can speak next to none of my language. At the end Li Na excused herself to go and meet other friends, at KTV (Karaoke club) I discovered this morning and Qing and I went to my hotel for a Marjorie Proops session. She did thank me for my words this morning so I must have done something right. And apparently the “spare tyres” on the fish are indeed natural and not caused by the chef cutting the flesh.
I think I had a good night’s sleep, at least until the yappy little dog in the next room disturbed me followed rapidly by the human occupants engaging in a full volume conversation. At least the aircon was so good that I kept having to turn the temperature up - unlike my room here. For 128y a night with TV and computer I thought it was most reasonable.
Qing came to meet me at 1030 and we went once again to show our faces at KFC, again with no joy other than one of them who is a delivery boy who came in but apparently never noticed us. Qing went and got some cold bottles and we waited for Li Na who had obviously stayed in KTV until the small hours as it was past noon before she showed. Then it was off to Old Grandmother restaurant for lunch. This time Qing showed restraint by only ordering five dishes. I liked four, in particular the sweet potatoes in an even sweeter sauce (incredibly the first time I have eaten sweet spuds) and the one I disliked was the duck leg hotpot. Now I like duck but this was like no duck leg I had ever eaten - it had sinews and things that didn’t belong so I probed further. It wasn’t duck legs at all, it was duck feet including the webs!!!!
Sadly after the meal it was time for the girls to get me to the station. Qing was most melancholy and to be honest I could happily have stayed another night but I had to think of the cats. Pepsi would have been looked after but the felines would have exacted revenge.
I will be going back for another visit, possibly next weekend or during the following week.
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