Wow, I didn't post very much after June 26. Peggy didn't like me spending so much time on the computer. She wanted my complete attention while I was there.
Her birthday went very well. We spent the day doing what she wanted. We were supposed to have dinner at a special restaurant but the day got away from us and we never made it. I already knew what I wanted to buy her as a gift. When I helped her move from Shenzhen to Shaoguan I noticed she didn't have very much jewelry. She has pierced ears but no earrings. She would also occasionally she would look into the window of a jewelry store and would only say she liked to look. About 8:00pm we were walking through the she old town shopping center, I stopped in front of the jewelry store where I bought the engagement ring for her back in April and asked her if she would like to go in and look. She said no but I insisted. We looked around and I said let's look at earrings. So we sat down and looked. There were 3 different pair she though she liked. I asked her if she could have a pair which ones would she like the most. The pointed and I asked the clerk how much they were and I said let's get them. Then I turned and said happy birthday to Peggy. You should have looked at her face. It was worth a millionRMB.
Later as we were walking back to the house she was holding onto my arm a little extra close and a little extra hard. She told me that in her 48 years I was the only person that had given her earrings. I was amazed.
A couple of days later we went to Yingdu for her sister and brother in-law to investigate a business idea for the US. Yingdu is between Guangzhou and Shaoguan in the mountains and is quite beautiful. Their industry there is landscaping rocks. It almost seems the whole city is in the business. Now we are talking in term of tons here. 2, 3, and up to 20 tons for one rock. It is quite incredible. I took tons of pictures but will only share the best ones later. Needless to say I was impressed and it was worth the day trip to go there.
Then we went to Guangzhou to do some shopping for me and my business. I was like a child in a candy factory. Peggy lived there for 8 years working for a company who made some of the ingredients for Pepsi Cola. Peggy was the official taster and explains to me why she does not like soft drinks. She left the business two years ago. She has many friends there that are now friends of mine. He old boss spent a couple of days with us and told her he would hire her back in a minute. Meeting her friends only confirmed that I really have one phenomenal woman.
One of her friends is dating a man in the US so she grilled me on American men. Then she had a friend who is about to marry an American and had a few concerns she wanted to talk with me about. Then she wanted her fiancé to talk with me so I gave her my phone number. I told Peggy what I did and spent the next hour trying to explain my way out of that one. Our final agreement was that I was never ever to give my American phone number to another woman again, especially a Chinese woman. Dang, they can sure get jealous real fast. I only thought I was being helpful.
Peggy and I had breakfast with the Ambassador one morning before he went to Beijing. Then we went to the American Consulate. What a fiasco. It was a total waste of time.
Peggy, her friends and I went shopping at several wholesale stores. I bought quite a lot and we had a lot of fun. The next day we went to the world largest furniture market in another city near Guangzhou. I think I could have spent a week there and not seen it all. We were in Guangzhou a total of 4 days.
Two things particular to note is that one night her friends got me something special to eat. It was a small bird. I tried it, it tasted OK but it was pigeon and I could not get past the thought and could only eat a little bit. The other is that one evening Peggy and I were on our own and we went to a restaurant called Moon Bay Café. Ted it is worth trying. It is a fusion of American and Japanese food. It has a sushi bar. The couple next to us had a steak. I asked Peggy if she was interested in one. She was not sure so I ordered 2. It was good and Peggy loved it. We had steak and noodles. Well??? It isn’t quite the same without a baked potato but I hit the spot anyway.
From there Peggy and I went to Shenzhen. We met up with her youngest brother and his wife. For the first time we ate hot pot there. WOW. Now I want to open up a hot pot restaurant in the US. Not really. But the food was amazing. The soy milk was terrible but everything else was really good. We were there 2 days.
I tried to ship 2 Mahjong games to myself in American and the China Post would not do it. They told me it was against the law. I asked them to show me the law so Peggy could read it. I tried to explain that you can buy it here trough eBay but they would not show me the written law and would not budge. I was afraid that I would be overweight with my luggage and I was.
From there I said, I need coffee so we stopped at a KFC. They said that they didn’t sell coffee that time of day but I would buy coffee with ice coffee with ice cream in it. So I think this will be something else Peggy will like. Wrong. It is too cold and I end up eating both. About an hour later Peggy said that she had a runny nose and her throat was beginning to hurt. She then told me it was because of the coffee and ice cream.
The next morning we went to Hong Kong. Peggy was feeling a little worse and I could tell she had a head cold. She was still blaming the ice cream and ice coffee, but we were in a nice hotel in Hong Kong overlooking the bay. It was the Royal View Hotel. We were going to go to Disneyland but she was not feeling all that good so we stayed in the room and she slept. Later that day she was feeling better.
This was not only Peggy’s first time out of China but the first time she has been outside of Guangdong province. We walked around town and looked, went back to the hotel and walked the beach at night. We had fun.
The next day I got onto the airplane and came back home. We were both sad but at the same time we made a lot of progress in our relationship. I have found the perfect woman for me. It was well worth the 28 days that passed very fast. One the way home I came down with the same cold. And of course I am very lonely just like Peggy is. I’ve got to get her here soon.
I need to handle some business here and then will edit photos and post them.
