A field, a wok, and a bus full of games

Sunday 29 April 2018. Meet at Grand Theatre station, eight in the morning, then a bus out of the city to cook lunch over a wood fire in a field.

Louis Liu, who describes himself as a middle-aged man, arrived an hour early and bought breakfast, water, fruit and snacks for everybody. The write-up put it plainly:

But Louis, the early bird, came an hour before the meeting time. He bought everyone breakfast and snacks for us. What a punctual and responsible man!

Which was useful, because the rest of the club arrived in the usual scattered fashion, and the people who had skipped breakfast ate his. Stefan, a German member, turned up by taxi looking apologetic: he had left in such a hurry that he had forgotten his wallet and could not pay the fare.

On the bus, Roy Fu hosted. Everyone had to introduce themselves and then say, in the dialect of wherever they were from, that Roy was a handsome young man. Then they played Find the Spy. One round turned on the difference between metro and car; the player who had drawn metro described it by mentioning he was thinking of buying one, and was voted out immediately.

Members brought friends, partners and children. Two of the party spoke no Chinese at all.