We had arranged to meet yesterday evening for dinner but later on Friday afternoon I asked them if they wanted to go for a drink (they had already eaten although besides breakfast I hadn’t). I took them to a western style bar which charges accordingly for imported beers and the like and despite never seeming to have many customers, is still in business.
Andre is on antibiotics for a tooth abscess so wanted to stick to juice but Juliette appears to be partial to a scotch. We stayed an unusually long time for me and it was past midnight when we got back. It meant I didn’t turn in until very late indeed and got out of bed at nearly noon. I had asked Anna to book a table at the place which was full the last time I went with Kevin and had to laugh when she informed me we would be in room 101.
But then after one o’clock I started to feel most unwell. I had a bad stomach ache and it made me nauseous. I contemplated calling dinner off but thought a spell in the bathroom would see me get better by the arranged leaving time. It didn’t. Along with the obvious effect stomach aches have I also found myself trying to throw up but of course for two days I had ingested precious little food so it was a case of “pretend” multi-coloured yawns.
As we were taking the seven bus I decided we could all walk to the west gate, that way the taxi didn’t have to stop and let me out first when we returned. I was really starting to regret not cancelling by the time we joined Anna at the bus stop. As we were waiting I had to disappear behind the shelter to retch and when the bus turned up I felt dreadful.
Once aboard I plonked myself in the seat by the drivers water bucket he uses when mopping out his vehicle on the basis I thought I might need it imminently. We hadn’t gone far when I started again. He won’t read this of course but I am sorry to the driver for depositing liquids in his bucket. That was the last time and left me without nausea but still bellyache.
So yet again I sat in a restaurant simply watching everyone else eat! I didn’t dare, even with the pancakes that looked like keema nan. It took me forever to drink two bottles of pijou but we had a good chat. The two newbies, for the moment, both smoke roll-ups but they won’t for much longer. I have never seen papers or tobacco on sale here or online. I will wager they will gravitate to cheap Chinese cigarettes instead. It was however a good opportunity for me to be able to tell them lots of little things to make their settling in a little easier, and for them to ask any questions they had.
This time we left earlier at about nine but not until we had gone to pay the bill and I discovered my wallet was missing! I knew I had it when we left because I paid the taxi driver and a cold hand gripped my heart in case I had dropped it in the cab. Fearing the worst, I returned to room 101 where the waitresses were cleaning up and to my huge relief it was on my seat, somehow having popped out of my back pocket.
The place itself is in quite a remote location near the end of a road so I asked Anna to get them to phone for a taxi for us. Incredibly they said they couldn’t so Anna went online to see if she could summon one with an app like the one in Shanghai and Shenyang. Except Chizhou doesn’t have any drivers signed up to it.
The chances of anyone arriving for dinner at that hour were zero and there would be no passing taxis outside seeing as it is a dead end. I was still feeling wobbly and didn’t relish the prospect of a long hike to a main road. For the second time last night fortune smiled when a cab arrived to deposit a family outside their nearby home. We were saved.
After a night’s sleep the nausea has all but departed although I am still sore inside. Later I will try to eat something bland and safe such as a boiled egg or some cheese. I have no idea what has caused this but I wish it would clear off.
Shower time now, I won’t be inviting anyone to come for dinner tonight and the furthest I will go is the business street.
Apologies for one of the photos being blurred.
No comments:
Post a Comment