Well my girl was told she will go to Hefei for the provincial finals merely as an observer, however credit where credit is due, she was told the reason she wouldn’t be competing was to get the experience of watching and next year she will have another year of English under her belt. And more importantly the girl herself seems content with it.
Yesterday I discovered some devastating news on Facebook when I woke up. My friend who manages the Hefei Hilton has the removal men in. I knew this would happen at some point, just not after only two years. There goes my free stays, booze and food whenever I fly from Hefei! I don’t envy him in the slightest, he is being banished to Shenyang which is the most northerly hotel Hilton have in China! Here we have highs of 29C and lows of 15C whilst up there near the Arctic at the moment they have highs of 12 and lows of -2!! He can always go to Harbin to see the ice sculptures though and if he fancies a weekend break he will only be 120 miles from the North Korean border……
On a brighter note (for me at least) our airport has been operational for a little while now and although it is currently impossible to book flights online except to Beijing, I managed to find out there are daily flights now to Shanghai, Guangzhou and somewhere else too. Depending on security, it would be a simple matter of a 20 minute ride on the bike, leave it there and hop on a plane.
Last night I took Vivian and (as most girls here simply HAVE to take a friend) Pudding to the Japanese. This time the chef was chatting up Vivian. I thought he was about 32 but it turns out he is 25 and obviously desperate to get married. I told Vivian to tell him that she was going to marry me and that if he didn’t stop trying to filch my girlfriends in future I would only take ugly ones to the restaurant. Some girls really know how to wound with stultifying intent, for she commented that she looked on me as her kind grandfather!!! Father I can handle, but Grandad???? I did though try a new dish from the new section of the menu (which has pictures but the writing is only in Chinese). It looked like pork or fish balls but on enquiring I was informed they were in fact octopus balls stuffed with cream or mayonnaise (they feature in one of the photos). Quite nice but six of them is too much for one.
This morning I popped to town, stopping first at the little school to discuss lesson changes, then get my months supply of cigars, lunch and go shopping for food. This week because of Kevin’s schedule we are having a Trawlerman’s Tuesday. Two completely untried dishes here - carrot and lentil soup followed by Admiral’s Pie. I used to make the soup in the UK but never a fish pie, so fingers crossed. Yvonne - my best student now I don’t teach Joanna - is hopefully my “date” for that.
2045
Running out of puff now so please enjoy the photos.
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