Fei Fei and I had planned to go out to people's park today, but she gets news that her granda is sick and so she has to book a flight home. We go down to the market for breakfast and then just back to the hostel. She does not feel like doing anything else today before her flight, so we just sit in the hostel and chat, before she has to go and get her flight. I feel bad for her as she was only here one day and didn't see anything. I can tell she is very upset about her granda. I see her off in to a tuk tuk and she is on her way.
-----
The plan for tonight is a wine and cheese party. A 50 year old Belgian, Ghert, has been here a few weeks waiting for his work contract to be finalised. Last night he tells how he got wine as a leaving present and wanted to drink it. I suggest getting the cheese and crackers. Elaine's boyfriend, Nathan, a 24 year old teacher from Brighton, goes to get the cheese. One of their friends, Jason, looks after the crackers. It was outstanding! We had some applewood type cheese, a garlic cheese, some mature cheddar along with crackers, bread fruit and some prosciutto. The wine was pretty good too, 1.5l bottle of French merlot. What a treat. Just felt like being back home. Beautiful. We all sat at a long table and I took care of cheese cutting, Ghert, the bread and Nathan the fruit. Everyone was looking after the wine. Ha. It felt very European, and here we are in south China. After the feast we all play pool, we play a game of lives, rules are you get one shot each, but you have to pot a ball, if you don't, you lose a life, everyone has 5, last person standing wins. An American, Tommy, who knew Elaine also joins us.
-----
A good few beers later and I'm off to bed. Well I tried to, but heckled back down to head out. It hinged on a game of pool. 1 on 1, I lost. Looks like I'm going out then. Elaine finishes work at 12.30, that's when we head out, crazy late. We get a taxi to this place called Soho. I was an experience. The way it works is you get a table, then there are waiters that will bring you whatever you want and the table is yours for the night. It's a standing table and every table has cups and dice on it. This is the game in china. 5 dice and a cup for each player, you shake the dice, then bet on what you think the whole table has. 1s are wild and can be any number, and each bet must be of a higher increment than the last, eg 4x5, 5x3 and so on. If you think the person before you is lying you call them, if you're right they drink, if your wrong, you drink. Simple. In Chinese you can count from 1-10 on one hand, so there is little talking when you play the game. I nip to the toilet, while I'm there a Chinese guy stands at the urinal beside me, after a few seconds he throws up all over himself and collapses in to the urinal. I laugh and leave, on the way out I pass a trough, just for people to throw up in to. I have never seen so many people being sick as I have tonight. Just throwing up then moving on for more drink! Madness! We get a taxi home, it's after 4 I'm felling a little worse for wear.