Day 5: After all the rampant, reckless overspending of the previous day, day 5 stood in stark contrast.
We eventually emerged from the bedroom to experience one of Changsha’s many coffee shops. We found a nice little private booth and had a bit of breakfast, including some decent coffee and some very fruity teas. Message to Willy the Londoner – Coffee shops are not necessarily the venue for relationship break-ups, ha ha. We rehabilitated that reputation by having some lovely times in these places.
I needed to find out whether I could use my original ticket to fly from Changsha to Beijing, as I hadn’t taken that leg of the flight coming. But Air China weren’t helpful, so I was none the wiser.
Today, I had planned to buy my lady a computer. No, my wallet is not bottomless, but I didn’t like the idea of my lady walking home late from the internet café, plus it is not the most private place to have a webcam meeting. We went to one of the large buildings containing 30 or 40 little computer franchises, which I had been advised by my lady’s brother as being a better place to buy a computer. We went for Acer – there were four or five little shops within the building.
I quite enjoy bartering. There was a nice new laptop with a built-in webcam and 8 hours of battery life. The specs were quite standard. I could have gone for a netbook, but I liked the idea of something with decent storage and memory. I’m not an expert and I probably went for something that was well over-priced to begin with, but the experience was fun.
My lady knows very little about computers, but she knows a lot about quiet determination when shopping. The price of the computer was 6000 yuan. I would ask certain technical questions, write them on my Besta translator and my lady would translate to the sales assistant. Unbeknownst to me she had plucked a figure from the air of 4800. She asked me what I wanted to pay, I said 500 yuan less than the asking price. So after a couple of hours of me stalling and rejecting certain worthless extras and the shop assistant seemingly refusing to lower the price one bit, suddenly he offers me 5250. I thought, where did that figure come from? I was just about to pay it when my lady said, walk away if he doesn’t offer 5000. So I did. I went to the next shop a few feet away, told them to better the offer, which they did, at 5000. The first shopkeeper had followed us to the second shop, everyone was looking over our shoulders at our messages, but it just made them more exasperated. I was about to buy it, but my credit was rejected, probably after withdrawing so much the day before. My lady said, don’t worry. Let’s eat. We had been with a couple of my lady’s friends, who were seriously impressed by our combined bargaining skills. So, we bought precisely nothing, but we made a good team.
We ate at a local restaurant. As in all of our meals, my lady picks out the spicy Changsha food, washes it in hot tea and puts it on my plate or bowl. She seems to be making me fat.
Back in the hotel, we had another lovely intimate night together. If you are having such a sexy time for four days in a row, two or three times a night, your thoughts inevitably turn to giving Willy the Londoner a call! Luckily, I didn’t need those supplies, but it was a close-run thing. My lady became a bit sombre in the early hours. Over the months, it took me a long time to convince her that I was happy to bring her and her two children to England to be part of our family, but she found it hard to believe that I would accept another man’s child. I have 5 sisters, 1 brother, all with families, all of whom would love to get to know these children. Plus, I love children . I teach young children and am happy for them to be part of our family. But she was now worried that my family would pity her. By the end of our conversation, both of us were using the phrase, ‘Our three children’ (referring also to the baby we want to have together). But it has been a really big issue for her. She is not used to the idea that anyone would want her as a thirty-five year old divorced woman with children.
So, today I spent a bit of money for coffee and meals, and a big fat nothing not buying a computer. But, most importantly, we found out some interesting and important things about each other.
p.s. - here is a picture of my lady in the coffee shop
