Tuesday was notable as that was the day Kevin took Daisy to Hefei for her interview at the Hilton. I had seen her CV and suggested emendments and I have to say it was quite impressive - she has received numerous awards from this place and can speak three languages, so I felt certain she would land a job front of house at least.
Imagine my discomfiture when; whilst sitting on my bike outside the sweet pork place in the sun with a beer enjoying the warmth; I received a text from Kevin telling me Daisy had been told they were too busy (THEY had arranged the date and time) and to return another day! Outraged and embarrassed because it was a round trip of 5 hours costing over 400y, I asked if they wanted me to use the Old Pals Act. They did, so I did, and she was indeed interviewed shortly thereafter.
The thought crossed my mind that the people in charge of the process, whilst obeying their boss’ instructions, may go one of two ways - one to go through the motions and not offer a job, two to employ her due to having connections. They went in between the two, sending a girl even younger than Daisy to conduct the interview who took little or no account of her linguistic ability and who ultimately offered her a job. Clearing tables. Understandably Daisy declined the kind offer and although I shouldn’t, I feel a trifle guilty about the whole thing. I am certain my friend knew nothing of this, although I will not be able to simply say nothing about the matter when I see him in 7 weeks.
In the evening I went out for the shrimp hotpot. Arriving at the west gate with still no idea who and what sex I was meeting, I was greeted by a car containing two boys and one girl. The driver was “email” (I gave him the name as that’s what his Chinese name sounded like), the other boy was LJ (who is now tuning in to this blog - hi LJ!) and I never did clock the name of the girl. Dinner was fun, if a little strange. The girl never spoke once in English and hardly anything in Chinese, instead spending a great deal of time intently peering at her mobile phone. Bizarrely, at about half past seven she informed the others that she had to leave as her mother had told her to come home! I did get another stamp on my card though and think I only need one more to qualify for either a free hotpot or a free meal, I’m not quite sure which.
Yesterday was a little hectic with me trying to prepare Bolognese and garlic bread between and after classes. If I say so myself, the food was particularly good and I had invited Anna as my guest. Ninety minutes before we were due to start the meal I got a message from Kiki saying that she was back! Had I known of course, she would have been my “date” and as it was I nevertheless invited her to come as well, thinking there was plenty of food for seven. She instead wanted to dine with her classmates but promised to show up later after we had eaten. Probably just as well because Kevin asked if we had enough for Susan to also stay to eat with us. There was enough for ten seeing as I had used 4lbs of mince.
As usual the three laowei thoroughly enjoyed my food with Kevin and Ollivier both having seconds. Also as usual, there were mixed reactions from the Chinese contingent. Anna declared it “so so”, Daisy loved it and Ollivier’s guest Soleil was somewhere in between. And again as usual Ollivier upstaged me by bringing home made chocolate mousse. It is peculiar that although the Chinese don’t like sweet things, they devour avidly any such dish. I am wondering whether I should demand that we switch roles, with me trying my hand at a baked Alaska and getting Ollie to do coq au vin! Of course, with seven people present and only 6 mousses, I made the ultimate sacrifice so that no-one else missed out but Kevin took a while to cotton on. “Don’t you want one?“ - “No, not my cup of tea”. Of course I wanted one!
Anyway, Kiki turned up at about nine, much to everyone’s surprise bar mine as I had not mentioned it - I was simply delighted to see her again. Sadly she had to leave again this morning but I stayed up later than intended last night as I invited her to my place for a chat. I am suffering as a result and will go to bed for an hour in a little while. She is looking for different employment after the summer but after what happened to Daisy I am loathe to get an interview set up at the hotel, so I have contacted my good friend Capt Orange in Shanghai - currently in London - and with luck one of his company’s offices might have a vacancy she can try for.
That’s it for now, I need to try to refresh myself for a solid afternoon of business classes with students who don’t want to be there!
No comments:
Post a Comment