Friday 17th August, 2012          2200

And another gloriously lazy day, interrupted only by a quick trip to buy fish, the cooking of two animal dinners (tomorrow’s is in the fridge for Sky to give them), a visit by Kevin and of course dinner downtown.

It is always good when Kevin returns, not just because he brings things I ordered but also because we are good friends and of course I can have a mature conversation in English. I now have my latest toy, a nice half hunter (well I had to use the Amazon vouchers before they expired!), three Telegraph crossword books, a spaghetti fork and a non-stick fish slice. In addition I have a box of sage and onion stuffing and enough packet cheese sauces to enable me to cook lasagne once a month for a year! I had a glance at the crosswords earlier and I have to say that two years without doing a cryptic is going to leave me struggling to start with at the very least. I will find out how badly on the bus tomorrow.

I left at 1730 to go and collect Sonya for dinner and I noticed some evil looking clouds in the distance. Halfway there spectacular lightning bolts and deafening thunderclaps spiced up the trip, as did my phone ringing when I was but five minutes away from the bank. It was Sonya, wondering if I should cancel due to my safety? Er, no, I will be there very shortly. Indeed it did rain a few times - twice as we rode the mile from the bank to the prawn place but I knew they would be rapid violent downpours so simply stopped both times so her umbrella was effective at keeping us both dry.

She lives in Chizhou yet amazingly she has never been to either of the three restaurants on the 5th floor and I think she was quite taken aback when the door staff at the prawn and hotpot places vied with each other to convince me to use their establishments. It was of course all in good fun and I think they realise that if I am choosing the venue I will alternate between them - tonight was the prawn’s turn. The love bite girl (remember I embarrassed her a while back?) is now a firm friend. It transpires she is a chemistry major at our place yet I have never seen her on campus. Her English name is, believe it or not, Bunny, and tonight she said she really wanted to be friends with me so as is the norm in China we exchanged numbers. She is jolly attractive as well as being bubbly and outgoing and I rather like her.

We had a lovely meal - as usual there was too much food - and Sonya put me to shame for she is very slim and ate twice as much as me. The bill was a pleasant surprise, with my discount voucher we ate our fill and had 4 beers and an orange juice for 73y. I did ask if they had made a mistake but apparently not. It is most definitely my favourite eatery but oddly it is better if there are four of you. Whilst my highlight is the prawny bit, the Chinese love their vegetables, which come later. With just two you struggle to finish the first chapter. And when you think about it, dinner for four there including drinks works out at about £3.50 a head or a pint of Stella Artois in the UK. My only regret this evening was forgetting to take my camera.

So, I have packed my bag ready for our little jaunt in the morning. I only need a change of clothes, some liquid sustenance for the bus ride, camera etc but I have nothing resembling an overnight bag. Well, I have my leather executive bag I use for school which was a very new, very smart and very expensive purchase in the UK before I left. Due to feline attentions and a case of mistaken identity in that they thought it was a scratching post, instead of being a nice black affair it now resembles Greybeard’s chin.

So, my “luggage” for the weekend is a rope-handled cardboard Great Wall wine bag. It will not surprise me if K is so embarrassed she sits away from me on the bus.