Yes indeed my trip to town was uneventful, save for my attempt at buying my monthly stock of medicines. When I went into the chemists I have used for four years I was not only suddenly confronted with an entirely different layout but also people I have never seen before. I can only assume the place has changed hands. So I spent a wearisome twenty minutes searching for the five items I needed, succeeding in locating three but coming to the conclusion there were two they never had.
Ok, so buy the three and get the other two elsewhere (one of which was aspirin for Christ’s sake). I got out my social security card to pay and lo and behold, they don’t have a computer and terminal to take the card. By this time I was mightily hacked off so I simply put the medicines on the counter and walked out. I wasn’t going to use my cash when I have oodles on the card.
Since my last post I have been incredibly busy preparing class activities and preparing for our gala performance at the opening ceremony of the foreign language month. This involved ruining a brand new shirt (which did finally arrive in time) in order to be able to use old fashioned epaulettes of the tie on kind for my role.
Last night we had Raclette Monday. A Swiss dish which Ollivier wanted to put on and I was only too happy to sit back and let him. It is the first time I have never had to cook. Sadly, all my students had evening classes starting at 1930 so I told Kevin to invite Anna and Carol (his students) and Ollivier asked Sandy to come. I like Kevin’s two students and they often come to speak with me when I am in the “office”. I have never had a raclette before so I was keen to try it.
If you think parmesan smells like stinky feet, the cheese for that is - on a scale of rankness - twice as bad but like most cheeses, once cooked tastes just fine. We had that plus spuds and assorted cold cuts of meat but sadly no proper ham so I contented myself mainly with just potato and cheese although it was rather pleasant. Expensive too by all accounts, the cheese costs a fortune here. It was a novelty to have to simply buy some wine to take instead of slaving over a hob for hours. It is most odd because Ollivier did the preparation in his place and we all ate in Kevin’s. I can’t have people eat here as I don’t have a table any more (the one in the old place was useless anyway) and of course Coco and Adrian would be in the way had we ate at his. Anyway I took a few photos for your enjoyment.
Today of course was the grand concert. Asked to arrive an hour earlier than the start, I dutifully did so at 1800 while my student (one of the policemen and a leading light in the student union) went over last minute details. Then it was a case of standing around waiting and popping out for a smoke every now and again before the show commenced. However - and you couldn’t dream this up - five minutes before curtain up we had a power cut! The students eventually decided to put on a show of sorts in the dark with volunteers sitting on stage (with a curtain which wouldn’t move as it is powered by electricity stubbornly blocking off most of the stage) using their mobile telephones to illuminate the “acts”. I felt desperately sorry for the students because they invest a lot of time in these things plus they hire the costumes and pay for them. Of course in the west the power company would be obliged to pay compensation but this isn’t the west. When called upon I gave a rendition of Botany Bay but after waiting for an hour for the restoration of the supply, Prof Fang decided to call a halt and postpone it until tomorrow.
Great. I was taking Yvonne for a barbecue meal - which has now in turn been postponed until Thursday. With my having Wednesdays and Thursdays off, naturally sometimes I plan them out and of course my plans are now in disarray. Instead I shall go shopping tomorrow rather than Thursday.
On a more promising note, all the foreign teachers were asked on Sunday if we wanted to renew our contracts for another year. Three of us do although Park the Korean never had any intention of doing more than a year - can’t recall if I mentioned but her husband is a ship’s chief engineer. So fingers crossed that I may at least get another year before having to think of moving.
Look forward to Coco’s photos from tomorrow night if the electricity stays on!
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