Sunday 12th May, 2013             1945

No I am not dead or in hospital, just been incredibly busy and extremely tired - something which a weekend off failed to rectify.

This will be a quick catch-up but at least there are photos for you!

Thursday was my “Heinz” birthday and to be honest the one I had two years ago in hospital was more enjoyable. Ok, maybe some of it was my fault for keeping it quiet (only my mother and Qing wished me happy birthday by voice - phone and Skype respectively) but Thursday as you know is a bad day for me and I didn’t have the energy when I finished to even think of doing something special. Never mind, it’s just another day anyway!

Friday night some of my students staged a party cum concert which I am glad to say was conducted mostly in English as it should have been. I attach the photos of that. I didn’t feel so hot going to it despite grabbing forty winks beforehand.

Yesterday I again took a nap, which again didn’t help, and in the evening rode into town to meet up with Sonya from the bank, her cousin and a friend. She wanted to treat me to dinner and we went to a new prawn hotpot place not far from the one we normally use. They must have a special offer on as they are new because it was mobbed, with people queueing with tickets for the next available tables. I suggested we try my restaurant but being a Saturday night there was also a wait there so I suggested perhaps we go to the barbecue restaurant opposite, which is where we ended up eating. Sadly I didn’t feel that hungry but it was a very pleasant evening nonetheless. Again the pictures are attached, Sonya is wearing black and white hoops.

Today was lovely, about 30C which was just as well as I needed to go shopping, having no pet food at home. I also decided to get the squeaky suspension on the bike oiled (haven’t seen an oilcan since I’ve been here and still haven‘t, he used a paintbrush) and a new button for the horn which is essential on campus where students straddle the entire width of the roads. I was quite miffed when I had to pay for the horn - 2y! Then off shopping where I also bought a summer quilt (the winter one is far too hot now) and two more pairs of boxers with no holes in. Again I wasn’t pleased because here for L sized it was 28y but for XXXXL it was 52y - that’s fattist! Unfortunately my request as to whether they had any jumbo summer shirts elicited the usual “mayo!”.

On the return journey I had a collision. Not with a car but an e-bike. I was overtaking a chap and was abreast of him to his left when without warning he turned left. I had no time to do anything and so my right arm connected with his mirror and as the combined weight of my bike and I far exceeded his I had rather hoped he would come off but he didn’t. Had I been hurt other than a light skin scrape or any damage been caused to my bike I would have stopped and had a few words because regardless of whether his mirrors were adjusted so as to actually be able to use them for anything other than preening yourself, his peripheral vision should have picked me out when I was barely a yard away. What really made me angry was that where he jinked left there isn’t a turning anyway! Had it been a car he would have been in real trouble, as it was all he was treated to were some good old anglo-saxon expletives over my shoulder. They have absolutely no idea.

Anyway, short and sweet I’m afraid, early night on the cards but at least now I have had a nice short haircut - I wasn’t even bothered about the price increase from ten to twelve yuan, it just feels so much better in this weather!