Chapter 248

I woke up at 8 and soon got on my way. The boss of the kickboxing gym where we do our grappling practice has opened a new gym and invited the eccentric Ukrainian and I to go have a look. I rode the bicycle there, holding the dog’s leash. We must make quite a sight, a heavily tattooed foreign resident with a bushy pubic hair beard riding a bike with a goofy triangle-faced small dog running along, his tongue flopping out of his mouth. He can run pretty fast, but at some point he braked to take a poop and that must have skinned his paws because he didn’t want to continue. So I put him in the basket. I’ll avoid dragging him for long distances like that in the future, it’s not very nice. He’s got small squares of skin peeling from his front paws and has been sitting on the couch licking them since.

Along the way I listened to Iron Maiden’s new album, which of course made a bit of noise in the metal world. I can’t say it did anything for me, and don’t see myself listening to it ever again. Not that it was disgustingly bad, just that there are only 168 hours in the week, thousands of albums calling me from every direction, and that modern Maiden and its proggy sound isn’t something I’m into.

I got to the new gym, they had told me it’s near the bus station, but what I didn’t know is it is in the bus station. I could see the big yellow and blue sign on the wall of the long distance transportation hub I’d been to dozens of times, and after climbing two flights of stairs I was there, in a former office space turned into a practice ground for unarmed murder simulation, with a big ring, matted floors, heavy bags and all sorts of exercise equipment. It was weird that one of the rooms has a big bay windows with plunging views over the bus station’s waiting room and passengers walking around with their suitcases.

We sat in the office drinking tea, the boss, the eccentric Ukrainian and some old rich Chinese man who’s friends with the boss. He’s running some kind of RV company, from what I understood. The eccentric Ukrainian is hustling hard, doing all sorts of businesses like import-export and consultancy of sorts, and sometimes gets in trouble with the authorities on his shaky visa status, so he got the man’s contact info and discussed imported burgundy wines with him a bit.

Then the two of us walked about ten minutes to the pizzeria, because why not, it’s been a while. The girlfriend was already there, sipping some kind of iced coffee. The eccentric Ukrainian is passionate about coffee so they started talking about their favorite ways to consume those roasted beans, and I sat there nodding and shrugging, as a non-coffee consumer. I had a beer instead, a delicious Paulaner Munich-style lager.

We wolfed down our neapolitan pizzas and then went home to rest for an hour. I started watching the OneFC card from last weekend, the Singaporean combat sports conglomerate put on an all-female card and the first three fights delivered. Unlike the UFC and all the other MMA orgs, they also put on muay thai and kickboxing fights, which is a welcome addition.

Then I went to the gym and the eccentric Ukrainian and I taught some grappling moves to a group of kids. We showed them takedowns and escapes on the ground and made them drill one-on-one, and then had a little play-fighting session. The boys varied in size and age quite a bit and I made sure they were safe, and it seems like they were having a good time. One of the smaller ones, a little pint-sized boy, was crying on his mother’s lap afterwards. He wasn’t hurt, he was just mad he got outwrestled by the other tiny guy, who was quite a natural. Ah well. He’ll learn.

The boss then invited us to dinner. I went home, showered and hopped on my bike again. There was a big round table with about a dozen guests, aside from myself, the big Kazakh and the eccentric Ukrainian, there were a bunch of rough-looking Chinese men tangentially associated with the kickboxing gym, they were quite friendly but a bit annoying too, asking the same tedious questions I answered thousands of times. Our big wine glasses got filled with baijiu, and the way Chinese group dinners are done, there’s not just one toast, but everyone is always toasting one another or calling group toasts. So you can’t converse with your neighbor for more than three seconds at a time, it gets old fast. The food was bomb, though. I drank my sips of chemical liquid when prompted, and sneakily poured half of it in my tea cup. I have to wake up at 6 the next day, no need to get drunk and have a terrible dreaded baijiu hangover.

I thanked the boss and rode home. I chilled a bit, watching some YouTube and reading in bed.