A Little Bounce In Our Steps

Last night both kids slept all night, in their own beds and didn't get up until 6:30.  Not too bad.  It meant everyone was in a relatively good mood so I decided that today we would finally go in search of a new blower for the bouncy house.  I had no idea where to go and was pretty sure that Tian Ye didn't either.  I had asked him if he could check with some of the other drivers hoping that perhaps one of them might know, but I guess not.  So, I decided the first stop should be Wu'ai Market and/or the side streets around it.  I figured that if they didn't have them, someone there would likely be able to tell us where we could go to find one.

Ayi came this morning, as she does every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning.  Two times last week we were gone by the time she got here and didn't get home until after she was done.  It was like a little fairy had been here and left a clean apartment under my pillow.  I know she wonders what we are up to and sometimes will ask but it's still difficult for us to communicate.  I am learning but not quickly enough.  She is doing a good job though and it's nice to come home to a clean house.

The kids and I went out to the gate early hoping that the excavator that has been there the last few times would be doing some work.  Alas, all that was there were a couple of guys working, if you could call it that, with cement and bricks.  Nick and Ryan had to go and check things out but there wasn't much to see.  One guy would fill a bucket with a couple scoops of cement and hand it to the other one who I think poured it into something, then they would stand and talk or smoke for a few minutes.  Finally the second guy would hand the bucket back and they would repeat the process.  I was getting sleepy just watching them.  I have realized that a lot of jobs here, whether they are construction, retail, or security, involve a great deal of time spent standing around.  It has been described to me that in China it's never 'how many people do you need to complete a job?', it's 'I have this many people, give them all some part in this job'.  I think I would go crazy with boredom if I had to work like that.

When Tian Ye arrived he knew right away what I wanted to do since I was carrying the old blower with me.  He said that Wu'ai wouldn't have tt but we could try SanHao Jie (Street).  As we were driving along waiting at lights he was sighing and resting his head on the window and I asked him if he was okay.  He said he was just tired because he didn't go to bed until one in the morning, most likely because he was playing video games.  Poor baby!  I suppose he was hoping I wouldn't call him to go anywhere today and he could just sleep in the van all day.  Guess I ruined that.  Anyway, he stopped at some place, I'm not sure what it was, and I guess he asked the people who worked there where on SanHao he should go because when we did get to the street he stopped almost right away.  He left the van running, parked us in the right lane of a three lane street and went into a 'store' taking the old blower with him.  While he was gone some people from a car we had blocked into a parking space came out.  The driver looked at me through the window and, looking annoyed, gestured that he wanted us to move so he could get out.  Tian Ye was still inside so I did the only thing I could.  I jumped into the front seat, slipped the van into first and moved it ahead.  It was only about ten feet but boy, did it feel good to drive!  It's been over three months and part of me wanted to just take off and go for a spin around.  Nicholas was really concerned that Tian Ye would find out that I was driving but I told him not to worry, he wouldn't mind.

After about five minutes Tian came back out with a card and some specs written on it.  He said they had a blower in the market and he had the wattage, voltage and price written down.  I told him I would like to go in and see it so he parked the van and we all went in.  This was quite an interesting market with booth after booth of power tools, generators, motors and every other kind of equipment you could imagine.  It's kind of confusing and it took a few minutes for Tian Ye got us back to the right place and when we did it wasn't much bigger than a closet.  The only had one fan that resembled ours but the wattage was lower, 360W (or so) compared to our 437W.  I told him that it was too low, did they have anything else.  There was a lot of discussion that went on between Tian Ye and the three people that were in the closet as they looked over my blower.  He asked me if we wanted to use it when we went back to Canada. I said that no, the voltage didn't matter and the plug on the ended was fine, but I needed something with a higher wattage or it wouldn't keep the bouncy house up.  They kept trying to convince me that since it was 220V that the wattage would be fine. I knew I was right but just to be sure I called Tim and asked him.  He agreed with me that the 300+ wouldn't be any good since the 437W that we had already wasn't really adequate.  When I got off the phone I told Tian Ye that we should go look around but then they said that they did have a blower that was 550W but it wasn't in the shop, that it would be a bit of a walk.  I said fine, much to the she-grin of Tian Ye.  It was a hot day and he really didn't want to be there anyway.  But, we followed the lady out of the building and up the street and it soon started to feel eerily like the Great iPod Search with Mr. You.  Eventually we turned into a little apartment complex that had garages and inside one were hundreds of boxes, one of them containing a 550W blower.  Luckily there was one of those adult playgrounds for the kids to amuse themselves while the lady looked for it.  Eventually I went over and peeked inside a box and found it.  We got the blower out and had a look but the thing was dented terribly and the prongs on the plug were bent.  I asked how much and she said 750yuan!  The first one she showed me was only 260 so I suppose she was charging us for making her walk to the garage.  I said thanks but forget it so she left and went back to the market while we stayed a bit longer so the kids could play.

I told Tian Ye, who had his jeans rolled up like pedal pushers, that I wanted to go back to the market and look for another seller.  If there was one then logically, since this is China, there had to be at least twenty more.  The kids were getting hungry so I suggested that perhaps they and Tian Ye could wait in the van and have snacks while I went back to look for another blower.  Everyone agreed so I got them settled and in I went.  It didn't take long for me to find another seller of fans but he didn't have what I wanted, neither did the next.  A third guy had one but it was 750W and he didn't seem to want to sell it to me.  I really didn't want it anyway, I was worried it would blow the seams on the house.  I moved on and was almost ready to leave when I found another seller.  I walked in and there it sat, a 550W blower.  I asked her how much, 320yuan.  Perfect.  I got her to plug it in to make sure it worked and it did.  Hooray!  Now the only problem was that I only had about 50yuan on me.  I knew I didn't have enough money when I left but I wasn't sure how much I was going to need so I figured I would wait until I found the blower, then get the cash.  Unfortunately what I didn't know was that Tim had the bank card for our Chinese account so I was going to have to find a Bank of China ATM.  Crap!  I told the lady I would be back for the blower and went out to the van, being careful to remember where her booth was located.  As a second-to-the-last resort I asked Tian Ye if he hadn't any cash on him.  Conveniently enough, he had exactly 300yuan and very kindly said I could borrow it.  I ran back inside the market and without too much trouble found the lady again and bought my blower.  Success!

From here we found a Bank of China ATM so I could give Tian Ye his money back then stopped at Ole on the way home.  I got some beef strips and frozen t-bones to try for supper.  I also got Tian Ye some pizza and pop since he missed his lunch at Michelin then we headed home to try out the bouncy house.

It didn't take long to get the thing set up and soon it was time for some bouncing.  As I had hoped, the 550W blower was perfect.  It kept the house inflated much better than the old one and gave the kids more bang for their bounce.  After a few minutes they came to the kitchen for water and after they left I noticed blood droplets all over the floor.  I checked my feet which were fine then went to inspect the kids.  The first suspect was Nick's nose since he has had a few nosebleeds lately but there was nothing.  Finally I found the culprit.  Nicholas had somehow managed to cut his foot.  I cleaned it up and put a bandage on it and he was ready to roll again.  A few minutes later Ryan let out a cry and when he climbed out of the bouncy house he was limping.  Apparently Nick had pushed him and he must have twisted his leg when he fell because for the rest of the afternoon and evening he had trouble walking on it.  Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

We had a nice supper of t-bones, rice, veggies and asparagus then I got Ryan ready for bed.  As I was doing that I heard a smack then Tim saying to Nick, "Ooh, that must have hurt".  I came out and he was thinking about starting to cry until Tim said, "Oh shoot, he's bleeding" then the waterworks really opened up.  He did have a fair bit of blood coming down his head onto his shirt and until we wiped his hand clean he continued to freak out at us.  We turned on the television and that settled him down so I could clean up the wound.  Now he's having trouble getting to sleep because when he lays on that side it feels like he's laying on a log.  His words, not mine.  I think he will live though.

So it turned out to be a pretty busy day.  In the middle of all the injuries we had the gas man show up to read our meter.  The bill appears to be 170yuan (about $25) which, if that is for three months, isn't too bad at all, considering that that includes our hot water and all the cooking we do.

I don't know what will come of tomorrow.  I never do.  I'm sure though that it will be another fabulous day in Shenyang!