Last Saturday night we went to Ah Ting and Bo Bo's wedding reception. They were married on Dec 27 but as it was a work day for us in Zhaoqing and their families live in the small town of Luo Ding a few hours from here we could not go. They put on a second reception for friends in Zhaoqing - very unusual but a lovely gesture.

The night was great, nearly all the Kindy staff went and a lot brought their husband's and children. Quite unusual again.

Having never met Bo Bo (the groom) before, it was nice to put a face to him. Their relationship has been a whirlwind romance having only met on Mid-Autumn night 3 months earlier.

When we all went out to Xing Xin together fruit picking we visited a temple, Ah Ting asked the fortune teller when she would marry and he said "this year" meaning 2004. So time flew and they married.

At the reception some of Bo Bo's friends took likings to the single Kindy teachers. One particular man from here on in to be known as Mr Hat took a real liking to Annie. Annie was moved to the head table to sit opposite him at a huge round table. Needless to say conversation was impossible and any opportunity given Annie would run back to our table to take refuge from the spot light. Mr Hat was so called as he was wearing a baseball cap and would not take it off.

As the meal was coming to an end, Miss Zhu (the Kindy headmistress) starts a proactive approach to having the night continue at a KTV bar. She tells Rachel to translate to me that we had been invited to a KTV bar. I get a little excited and say "Great let's go!!" And the other girls start speaking in Chinese as I tell them we have been invited to a KTV bar. In fact we had not been invited anywhere but as the crazy laowei had shown interest we must now go. She's a sneaky devil Miss Zhu.

At the KTV bar the girls are sitting on one side of the room, the boys on the other. Reminiscent to a bad school disco, I went downstairs to buy beer for everyone and was told I was not allowed as the men had already ordered. I get back upstairs to the private room to finally see beer being poured. There was still a cool atmosphere then Trev and I approach one of the Chinese men and ganbei him. This was the start of a huge night.

The men tried to do rounds of drinking, some of the girls were ganbeing beers even though I'd never seen them drink a drop before. And the laughter and mixing began. Ivy however was terrible at drinking and ran off for a quick spew after less than a mouthful.

Hat man was still eagerly pursuing Annie, who unfortunately is also a non handler and had fallen asleep after one vegemite size glass of beer. Trev was singing. And Liam and Aron had been telephoned and were on their way.

The night continued and several cases of beer were drunk.

Finally Miss Zhu decided it was time to call it a night, we said our farewells and then invited the more adventurous guys to kick on. Aron took us to a bar he used to hang out at last year when he worked here, but the Chinese men decided a meal was needed. Abbie and I went with them. I realised I was drunk at this stage and speaking Chinese was really difficult, let alone speaking English. So to make sure I stayed focused I stared at Mr Hat's hat. Problem was he was sitting next to me at a round table so I was ignoring the other 5 guests.

More beers, some food and Abbie suggested we go back to the bar where Trev, Liam and Aron were. On arrival it looked as though it was only Aron and Trev and the bar man. Liam was fast asleep head on the bar. The big fella had crashed and died. Snoozing soundly on the bar.