Me and Jen met Ruth and went to the hairdressers in town.When we arrived at the salon, the women working in there were very excited but not very efficient.We were sat down and given water to drink and shown various hairstyle magazines and booklets.Each of us picked something we wanted done.Jen wanted her hair darker and shorter and straightened. Ruth wanted her hair shorter and straightened.I wanted my fringe cut back in to one side and just the ends trimmed off and straightened.We used the hairstyle pictures and the Mandarin phrase book to communicate these things to the hairdresser and I actually had to pick up a pair of straighteners and wave it at them for them to understand straight.Most of the styles in the books were of curly hair that seems to be in fashion at the moment. We had to sit and wait for ages before anything happened.

Jen was first, so she had her hair washed and then went to sit in the chair.Next Ruth was taken to wash her hair.I noticed the hairdresser pick up a box of perming solution and take it over to Jen, who had curlers in her hair.I ran across the salon shouting 'stop stop!!' and when I got to Jen I told her they were about to perm her hair!!She said it was ok and to let them do their thing.Ruth came back from having her hair washed and they didn't even wrap her wet hair in a towel!Jen was put under a very hi-tech looking lamp to set the perm.Then it was my turn to have my hair washed. It was so nice having it washed in hot water rather than the luke-warm bucket wash I'm now used to.

The hairdresser did my hair differently than I have at home.After washing it, she then dried and straightened it with steam straighteners which were amazing.By this time Ruth's hair was finished and she asked if I was actually going to get any hair cut off.I wasn't sure myself!Jen was still under the lamps as the perm wasn't taking.Then the hairdresser brought over a pair of scissors and I showed her again in the book- just trim it.She did exactly as I asked and afterwards my hair felt amazing and soft and healthy again.Jen was still under the lamps so I went to find Ruth and we did some shopping.There was a woman in the shopping centre with an old fashioned sewing machine and she took up the new jeans that Ruth had bought.We went back to see how Jen was getting on.They had given up on the perm and were now applying colour to her hair, so we went off to some more shops.Finally we had a call from Jen to say she was finished.The perm had not taken properly but her hair was kind of wavy and very dry, but the colour was good.Tip for the day- never get a perm at a hairdressers in China unless you have about half a day to spare and don't mind slightly fried hair!

In the evening we headed to Lilly Coffee.Mohamed had bought lots of bottles of alcohol and mixers.We sat in the upstairs of the café drinking and eating and talking.It was a great evening. One of the Chinese girls was celebrating her birthday so she cut us all huge slices of fluffy pink cake.It was lovely but a little too sickly and made me feel a bit unwell on top of all the alcohol.I had a long discussion with Mohamed which began with his businesses across China and Egypt, he was telling me about some of the companies he owns and also how he took over Lilly Coffee because Liaocheng is a very fast developing city.We then moved onto talk about religious and moral issues, such as vegetarianism and the Muslim religion.It was so nice to have a bit of a debate with someone as neither of us agreed with the other but sometimes that makes for the most interesting conversations!I then asked Mohamed why there is a Christmas tree in the corner of the room, and he disappeared for a while.When he came back he was wearing a Santa hat and beard!We took turns to sit on his knee and take silly pictures and then he put some music on and we were all dancing and Jen even sang a drunken version of 'I wish it could be Christmas every day' .It was very bizarre for a random night in September!