The trickle of returning students has turned into a steady stream which no doubt tomorrow and Sunday will be an almighty flood. The only shop which isn’t open now is the gift shop. That place is normally first to close and last to reopen and sells mostly girlie things, although they do stock watches for both sexes which at about 27y are ideal - when the battery runs out simply buy another watch!
I popped downtown today and it is apparent that cigars are becoming very scarce indeed. I just have enough to last until my day off on Thursday so if I don’t find any this weekend I will have to devote the day to a trawl of all the cigarette shops and stands. It is utterly incomprehensible when the blessed things are manufactured in this very province.
I did go to RT Mart to get some more cheap plonk and a baguette, the latter softens up quite nicely when I microwave it with cheese and bacon inside - not a cheap meal at approximately 15y (especially as I can only eat half the loaf and have to throw the rest away) but it does make a pleasant change from dan chow fan or egg and tomato. I find myself keenly anticipating our western meal on Sunday. When I came to leave the supermarket I was surprised to find it was raining quite heavily. There had been absolutely no indication of impending wetness when I went in half an hour before, but by the time I had smoked a cigar under shelter it stopped and the worst thing about it was a wet backside because I hadn’t naturally covered the saddle to keep it dry.
Saturday 31st 2100
Late afternoon I received a call from the kids school asking Kevin and me to the summer dinner party this evening. We both accepted, I got myself ready and went to the campus shops with the mutt for a run out before Kevin came to collect me at 1730.
At 1705 I got a call from Cinny telling me that the foreign affairs officer (that bastion of competence) was inviting all the foreign teachers out for dinner. In half an hour.
Needless to say the invitation was declined due to prior arrangements, but I am now convinced that woman deliberately asks us at the eleventh hour so we CAN’T go, thus putting us in a bad light with senior management. I am fast approaching the point at which I will be past caring.
Anyway, we attended the dinner we had accepted and had a thoroughly enjoyable - if lopsided - meal. the four males were all sat together and the girls likewise despite my exhortations for Kerry (the one in the photo of us together) to sit next to me. The dishes themselves were plentiful and varied and as always I liked some but not others. One I particularly liked consisted of triangle-shaped meat stuffed “pastry” which was like a Chinese version of sliced calzone without the cheese. A really nice evening.
The students are returning with a vengeance and all day today parents cars were causing chaos by the usual inconsiderate parking, not that it affects me on the bike but it did Kevin in the car.
Talking of four wheeled vehicles, yesterday before RT Mart I went to the kiosk I have been getting my cigars from to see if they had any more. They are situated up a side road at the side of the Chizhou Hotel and a car was parked opposite. The road is too narrow for two vehicles to pass, yet as I was sitting on my bike showing my cigar packet to the woman to indicate what I was after, from behind me came a very loud and very sustained blast on a horn. Establishing there were no smokes to be had, I turned around and shouted at the minivan driver “WHAT????” before moving off to a wider area to turn in. A motorbike rider had witnessed my outburst and as he passed he gave me a huge grin. When I went back to exit the van had moved up so close to the parked car I couldn’t get out, so I sounded my own horn, looked him straight in the eye and rather imperiously waved him to get back. This produced much merriment from the women manning the kiosk, more so when he complied and I - as I rode past - shouted cheerily “Si Sie!”
On the way back tonight I mentioned to Kevin that the new mountaintop temple was lit up for the first time last night so we detoured to get a picture of it. It is quite beautiful at night but sadly the dirt track up there stops well below the temple, hence the fact the huge gantry crane is still there. To go further you would need to be related to Sherpa Tensing so we had to satisfy ourselves with shots further afield which don’t really do it justice.
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