Pull up a chair, this is a long one!
Today I woke up late and of course Sunny had sent me a couple of messages in qq offline calling me her lazy boy and to wrap up with extra clothes as its colder in Guangzhou than in Dublin right now!!!
She has a personal qq website with a photo section, she added a new section today which she labelled "My happiness" with pictures of us, she wanted me to send her all the pictures i had taken of her and me to put on there to. So sweet.
I wanted to get some more presents for family and of course Sunny and I remembered a pedestrian street from the last time in Guangzhou that had loads of small shops but off the tourist trail and couldnt remember the name. So I asked Sunny if she knew it, she rang Yamaha who rang me and suggested she and a colleague from work bring me there this afternoon. These women are incredible, i would have been perfectly happy to go there my self once i got directions but no, they wanted to give me the guided tour..
So it would be impolite to refuse so I agreed to met Yamaha and a work colleague that spoke really good English (he went to University for three years in America) and Changshou Lu Station (thats the name of the shopping street too). They arrived fifteen minutes early and i arrive 10 minutes late (sunny and I were chatting on qq and i lost track of time!!) They called me a couple of times on route for updates but they waited patiently and I arrived and apologised profusely. I had texted Sunny while on the train to let her know i was running late to meet Yamaha and did she think she wuld be annoyed, Sunny said dont worry about it, have a nice afternoon. She of course than rang Yamaha and apologised for delaying me to her so Yamaha was all smiles when I arrived and started apologising, saying that Sunny had already called her and it was fine
I got a cashmere scarf for Sunny for 59 RMB (no idea what the starting price was, that what the finishing price was though, it was very nice with a very smooth quality feel to it, Sunny of course loved it when I gave it to her later).
We walked about and went into a Buddhist temple and Yamaha encouraged me to take pictures quickly as photography wasnt really allowed there, it was an incredible place with golden statues everywhere and people praying and burning incense. I noticed that Yamaha made a point of making a money donation to one of the Buddha's to pay her respect, her colleague joked to me that she was praying for 10 babies!!
After that Yamaha asked me if I wanted to get something for Sunny's birthday next month. I did of course and had mentioned it to Yamaha before. Now here where the afternoon turned really interesting...
The area near this shopping street has a wholesale Jade market..ie its whole sale to jewellers etc. of course Yamaha being Yamaha got us into a building which sold basically Jade jewellery to Jewellers.
Her colleague apparently knew a lot about the business and could tell good quality from poor, and Yamaha has never ever let me down so if she says its so its so. Ordinarily "modern" Chinese ladies consider jade to be for the old people, but Sunny is a "traditional" girl (Yamaha's description) from a rural background and Yamaha says she would love a jade gift. She is right, I mentioned jade to Sunny the other day and was surprised to hear her say its really nice.
Eventually we ended up at one sellers stall, they had a really beautiful pendant there. A little green Buddha, surrounded by a white gold surround and with a couple of tiny diamonds , Yamaha's friend assured me this was top quality and it would increase in value in the future and the price here is far below what would be in any jewellers on the high street, more on that later.
Yamaha asked to try it on so I could see what it looked like, she put it on a silver necklace and it looked really nice. After much haggling they got the price down to 2740RMB with the silver necklace.
It sounded steep to me but they assured me this was almost cost price and they would prove to me later just how good a bargain this is. I trust Yamaha implicitly and €274 for a fiancée's birthday present is not excessive by any means, though I know Sunny will realise its value and give out to me about spending so much, she will be secretly pleased and her friend jealous which is always a good thing!
Yamaha said she wished her man was there to buy her something like this. I didn't have that amount of cash with me and since my wallet got stolen I leave my credit card in the hotel in case i loose my latest wallet or worse so the same nightmare doesn't reoccur.
On the way out they reassured me that this is a exceptional price. We headed back to Changshou Lu and the first Jewellery store we saw we went into, they were not kidding about value... A smaller piece with just a similar Buddha, almost no metal and no diamonds or necklace...12,250 RMB!!! You could have bowled me over with a feather. They reassured me that the one i was going to buy will come with official documentation to prove that its real Jade, real white gold and real diamonds. They both seemed very pleased with themselves though Yamaha kept saying she wanted one too much to her friends amusement !!
They helped me buy some other touristy stuff to give to my folks..think dragons and Chinese writing and hard haggling and you get the picture!
I then brought them for drinks in a nice cafe which was pricey but good quality and the least i could do for their help. I was going to be late meeting Sunny but it would have been very rude not to show my appreciation to Yamaha and her friend (Sunny agreed when I told her this later and said she knew I would be late after spending an afternoon with Yamaha haha).
Yamaha and I got the metro back to Tiyu Xilu together and her friend went the other direction. I headed back to the hotel and called Sunny to let her know I'd be about an hour late and not to wait for me.
I got back to the hotel and dropped off all the stuff I bought. Yamaha will bring me back tomorrow afternoon to the wholesale place to buy the pendant once i have the cash which is nice of her and she will hold on to it until Sunny's birthday next month and give it to her as a surprise
I'll buy a birthday card tomorrow and write some romantic mush on there for Yamaha to give to her too.
I got the metro to Panyu Station after freshening up at the hotel. OMG!, if the train was packed at the normal 17:30 time, its packed x10 at 18:45. I got the fifth train I think, not because i was pussy footing around, just that there was massive queues to get on the trains and people literally shoulder charged their way on, then the doors tried to close several times, before they managed it. Its something that has to be be experienced to be believed, i honestly don't know how the heck swine flu isn't raging though the country with people packed so tight together breathing the same air.
Eventually i got to the front of the queue and it was my turn to barge and elbow my way in whilst being firmly pushed from behind to keep going.
When I arrived at the station I tried finding my way to Sunny's apartment but of course in the dark i got totally lost and after walking for about 15 minutes in the wrong direction Sunny rang me and asked where I was. I told here where i had gone and she didnt even know the place, it was quite some distance from her apartment! I decided to retrace my steps and get back to the station, where she would guide me. It turned out her apartment was about 3 minutes from the station in a straight line haha, but it took me about 20 minutes walking as fast i could to get there haha!
She had already bought the food and prepared it for cooking but was waiting for me to arrive to do so. I gave her the scarf i bought her earlier by way of apology and she sid it was fine her colleagues had just arrived home 10 minutes earlier so not to worry.
So i arrived into the apartment to the screams of delight and welcome by several lovely Chinese girls. They were dressed in full winter gear and wearing jackets as the apartment doesn't have heating and its silly cold for Guangzhou outside, even so the windows were open and the door to the balcony wide open..i guess it didnt occur to them to ever close these as its too warm 99% of the time. Sunny bought me into the microscopic kitchen and i helped her as well i could by washing lettuce and passing her dishes as she cooked on a wok and basically worked magic. With one wok she made five delicious dishes and a rice maker machine amde the rice. While she was cooking her colleagues danced to the music and took coy pictures of each other. It was quite a sight, Sunny told me they dance to loose weight and every girl likes to take pictures whats so strange about that!! I think heaven must be a little like this, maybe just a bit warmer!
Once the five separate dishes that Sunny had concocted were done we sat down to dinner and the girls giggled and as several of them are translators (only one didnt speak english) they spoke to me in English. Apparently I'm handsome and not fat. Then later they told Sunny that the more they saw of me the more handsome I got..yeah right!! The dinner was fabbo, as good as any restaurant meal and knowing who cooked it..even better to my mind! I had brought Pringles type crisps with me and we had those and some kind of sweet grapefruit for dessert. The girls of course wanted pictures and i got some ice ones too.
After dinner one of the girls (that doesnt speak English) who is engaged to an English guy showed me an Sunny her wedding photos (the staged ones) they were utterly stunning..i told Sunny we are getting the same guy to do ours!
While While Sunny and I looked a the pictures the other girls couldn't resist checking out my fancy camera which of course led to them taking loads of sweet pictures of themselves and me and sunny looking at the photos. I just loved how fun loving and carefree these girls are. No airs or graces, just girls having good honest fun and it was great.
Eventually it was time for me to head back to the hotel so Sunny walked me to the metro and we parted with kisses and lingering looks and smiles on our faces :heart:
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