Saturday 7th September, 2013            2200

Another cold day although the rain stayed away for the most part. I had no option but to go to town, even though I could have fed the animals there was the small matter of my being down to just three cigars.

Operation Cheroot was I am happy to report, a success, with my obtaining 200 without having to do too much searching. I may if I have the energy go again tomorrow so I can buy some food for myself instead of just the pets - I am not Chinese and therefore don’t like to pile three tonnes of shopping on an e-bike and a stew or Bolognese would be nice. I also had the replacement dashboard fitted to the bike so I now know when the batteries are getting low. I shouldn’t have been but I was disappointed with the speedometer. The old one showed 53kph flat out on the level but this one I think is considerably more accurate and shows top end at 45kph. Silly  of me really because the bike is still doing the same speed as before!

My online shopping is now ordered and indeed I did go mad - it cost nearly 800y even though I left a few things off until next month’s pay is in but at least I will be able to have some “luxury” food and make real soup for the other two lads, plus show some Chinese that soup is more than just flavoured water with bits of egg and a few strands of seaweed floating in it.

On the way home I came as usual via Pyngtian Lake and the route is that just past the “ship” I turn right. As I approached the turn a silver car was approaching from behind at speed but which was unable to pull out to overtake due to oncoming traffic. I got the usual car horn - presumably ordering me to ride into the trees to let them pass - and as per, ignored it. I did though put my indicators on (a rarity for e-bike riders or cars for that matter) and started to brake. This had the effect of making the sounding of the horn even more strident and imperious, so as I actually turned I bellowed “**** off!!!” In my mirror I noticed the car had stopped at the junction so turned to look behind and saw the passenger, a young male in his early 20s, glaring malevolently at me. I offered a one-finger salute, and presumably having seen I probably outweighed both he and the driver combined, they continued on their way.

When I got back the campus was utter chaos. I think the security guys were raking in the overtime trying to control the parents in their cars. In typical fashion they think nothing of completely blocking a road for other users while they offload their little darlings at the greatest of leisure. Or for that matter, of deciding to simply drive straight at me on the wrong side. My time out with Pepsi was sprinkled with exclamations of “laowei!” as newcomers alerted their friends to, shock, horror, a foreigner. I refuse to believe that they cannot have known before arriving that there would be at least a token roundeye here. Kevin had the right idea - he is staying resolutely downtown until at least Monday or possibly Tuesday seeing as he is free on  Mondays until the freshmen do their army stint.

The worst thing is trying to shop on campus. The supermarket is crammed because they are all buying essentials, toiletries, washing bowls, clothes pegs etc.  

Sunday 8th         1900

No trip to town today, in fact I was extremely lazy and did bugger all.

Back to being pleasantly warm again at 28C and no rain.

Aside from the campus still being cluttered with stalls for mobile phones, special offers on bottled water, noodles etc plus billions of students, two things did happen this afternoon when I went out.

This is not one of them but outside the sweet pork place there has for the past four days been an odd looking contraption drilling into the ground at an angle of about twenty degrees from horizontal. I have absolutely no idea what they are doing other than it uses a lot of water and each part of the drill is about six feet long. I am really curious but haven’t seen one of my students down there to ask them for me. Yesterday they had abandoned the drill they had been on and were in a different place, today they were extracting the drill pieces from the second hole - a time consuming process regardless of whether they are going in or out. Quite frustrating for me really, not knowing.

Of the two things that happened though I received a text from (I assume) a young man who graduated from here and is now in the business of constructing fire systems. He wants to attend my classes to improve his English and if I understand correctly will meet me tomorrow evening and treat me to dinner.

The second is far more beneficial. An 18 year old girl (Lucy) who is now a sophomore and therefore must have started here very young because normally they are 19, very occasionally 18 when they are freshmen, came and sat to chat about improving her English - she is studying maths. To cut the story short, methinks I just engaged my new cleaner for my flat. She seemed pleased, she currently works in a clothes shop three days a week and earns 5y (50p) an hour so jumped at the opportunity to earn six times that for between one and two hours a week, working virtually when she wants to. In fact she was over the moon when I mentioned that if she came to clean we could chat and naturally her English would get better far more rapidly than sitting in a classroom. Nice kid and I hope she can actually clean. I have promised her very good money for the first fortnight (100y each week) while she gets the place really clean, it does need a good going over I admit and then after that she should probably be able to be done in an hour a week. Fingers crossed!