Monday 4th March, 2013        2030

No nasty surprises today with class sizes but just before lunch I had a little nice one. One of my freshman girls ran after me once the class had finished and stopped me to give me some “snakes”. She needs to work on her pronunciation of “snacks”. During the holidays her mother had baked some tidbits which are best described as a sort of Rice Krispy cake even though you don’t get that cereal here. They had peanuts in them and although they were really crunchy they were actually very nice. Very sweet of her to do that.

Actually I felt ok today because I went to bed early last night and slept reasonably well. Had I not I would probably have missed my first class. I was dozing on and off and just happened to look at the wall clock because I wondered how long I had left in bed only to notice it was a quarter to seven. Having set my phone to ring fifteen minutes before that I wasn’t best pleased. In fact the alarm would not have gone off until half past eight. Oh yes, I had set it correctly but my phone has developed an annoying habit of constantly beeping whilst on charge and telling me “bad contact at charger”. I got fed up with plugging and unplugging every two minutes last night and so removed the battery and charged it in a universal charger instead. I forgot I would need to reset the clock on the phone afterwards! Hopefully next time I will remember - with such a full schedule I really don’t want to be making up classes, do I?

I was also told I was to split my big class myself, something I rather wanted the school to do because as the main purpose was to separate the six (yes, six!) boys into manageable chunks I didn’t want it to be common knowledge. Thanks to Kevin - and I am ashamed I never thought of it - at his suggestion they are now split by student numbers, odd and even. Here the boys are all the first numbers and the girls follow. Very chauvinistic because if there is only one boy he is number one - but it worked in my favour because three boys are odd and three even. Job done, and if I see that any boys have exchanged with any girls come Thursday there will be hell to pay!  

21C today and the forecasters are predicting it will rise throughout the week to a crescendo of 26C on Friday. I swear they put any old rot on the internet to cheer people up, but if they are right then Friday afternoon is when Pepsi goes to the doctor and hopefully can be given a much needed bath.

Tuesday 5th        2015

Already buckling. No alarm this morning but I still woke up at seven, I thought I had left early morning starts behind when I opted out of the rat race! The problem was I got up simply because I knew if I managed to get back to sleep until late (unlikely) I would have problems tonight. There will be no such trouble this evening, I am buggered!

A gorgeous day at 22C so just maybe Friday will be 26 as promised - I hope so because I want to take Pepsi to the quack. My one class this afternoon was hard to kick-start but eventually they got going. To my disgust they voted against going out for lesson two because it was - get this - too hot! The only one in the room who removed their jacket was me! I had rather hoped to get them on the grass and coming up with skits about snakes seeing as it is the year of the snake but instead found myself having to think on the hoof of MR & Mrs questions. And no, I didn’t in the end prepare that at the weekend.

I did have something to cheer me up at lunchtime before I started work though. I received a text from a number I didn’t recognise, suspected who it was but just in case sent a reply to ask the person to identify themselves. I was right, yesterday Kiki emailed me to say she had lost her phone in Beijing and could she have my number again. This was her new number. For me at least it was great news, she will come back here next month, I assume to sit her exam to see if she can be a teacher and I can’t wait to see her again even if it is only for a day or two. When she was here all the time I only saw her maybe once a week on average apart from when she stayed in the holidays but now I do sorely miss just knowing she is nearby.

An hour ago I was sitting finishing a beer. I had drunk two and was leaving when Linda came and begged me to stay so I bought another. As I finished that one and was getting up Ollivier turned up. Another bottle then. I wondered how long it would take before the subject of western Wednesdays would be broached now that we have been working a full week. Yes I can do them (depending on Kevin’s schedule teaching kids downtown and which day) but regardless they will be starting as early as I can make them and I will be leaving them a lot earlier than previously! Anyway, until I get Joanna to do some internet shopping for me the only things I can make are Bolognese, pizza and lasagne. One day though I may just try to make my own burgers. I have no way of making chips but the roast potatoes the other night were terrific. As for tonight, shortly it will be poached eggs on toast - perfect antidote to the chilli last night!