Sunday 15th June, 2014         1310

Not long after I posted the last entry I took Pepsi out for her walk. It is a little earlier on Thursday nights by virtue of the early start I have on Fridays. When we were approaching our building on the way back I could hear a Godawful commotion coming from within.

On the outside steps leading up to the entrance stood quite a large Chinaman holding a bouquet of flowers but it wasn’t him making the racket. It was cats but it was too loud to have been emanating from my home. Thinking we had been invaded by the feral variety - which Pepsi would have immediately set about chasing - and guessing (probably correctly) that the Chinese fellow was too scared to actually go in so as to present his flowers to the lucky lady, I strode boldly in.

The caterwauling was a veritable cacophony and imagine my astonishment at seeing Tigger and Pooh on the ground floor in separate corners wailing, spitting and hissing like never before. Emboldened by my apparent display of courage, the Chinaman had entered behind me and gabbled something when I spoke to the cats. I picked Tigger up and went upstairs wondering how the hell they had got out. On the second floor it was obvious - the door was open! I never lock it when it’s walkies time at night and my heart sank, thinking I had been burgled. No time to check, just put Tigger in, shut the door and then go and get Pooh who was still creating merry hell downstairs. When I got back up Kevin was coming down, having got out of bed and dressed to investigate the unholy commotion. “Are you killing them?” he enquired. I explained what had transpired and he went back upstairs. I hadn’t been burgled. After thinking for a while about the cause of this security breach I have three possibilities:

1. Someone opened the door out of badness - not likely
2. I didn’t shut the door properly when I left - possible
3. Pooh did his party piece and swung on the handle to open it - highly probable

There has been no recurrence as yet so it may well be that they don’t want to recreate the Great Escape again simply because once out of sight of home they were gripped by blind panic.

On Friday Mulan invited me to go to dinner. I guessed (rightly) it was to get me to reinforce my offer to help her recruit and make the odd guest appearance at the summer school she is going to open. I think I have discussed her before here, both parents abandoned her and her brother, she was a chemistry major but changed after one term to English and ended up as Kevin’s student although she still attends my classes voluntarily.

So after a long day of testing her and her friend (who it turned out was the chap I briefly met when she bought a secondhand e-bike from his shop) and another of Kevin’s students, Sally, came to pick me up in his ageing and rickety minibus. It also turned out that he was paying so although he is forty I suspect an involvement is developing there. I had to pick the restaurant so I suggested the Sichuan place. None of them knew of it but they loved the place and the food. Being Friday night it was busy and noisy and so rather than sit at one of my usual tables the girls asked for somewhere quieter, which ended up being in the raised area at the back.

The restaurant has two covered areas, that one and another at a lower level to one side of the airy central area. Above the central area is a ballustraded second floor which sports rooms for private parties.

About an hour after we arrived and had almost finished dinner, there was an almighty crashing and smashing in the central area. People at the tables concerned leapt to their feet, including one woman who had a newborn in her arms. At first we assumed a chandelier or a glass ceiling panel had fallen from on high but later enquiries by Mulan elicited the fact a fight had erupted in one of the private rooms. Quite what had rained on the diners below I know not  but whatever it was was in a thousand pieces. What I do know though is that had I been on one of the tables there would have very shortly been bodies flying over the railings!

Yesterday I rode to town. Given that this may well be my final year here I am undecided as to whether or not to buy a new bike as usual or just retain the old one. Regardless of what I decide the current one needs new tyres and brakes so I thought I may as well get that done. On arriving at the repair shop I was confused. It was locked up. It’s always open! I went to the showroom some distance away and asked what had happened. They showed me the new place. So I went there. It’s half the size, there were only two people working, neither of whom I recognised and there were loads of people waiting. Sod that, I will go when it’s quieter midweek.

We haven’t signed new contracts yet, although we have been summoned to do so at 0810 tomorrow. As usual the FAO has left everything to the last minute and she has to get everything to the police station tomorrow. Not unexpected but eminently preventable had last Monday’s signing not been cancelled. We could have signed then and as a contract is not binding until both parties sign they could have simply held them until the medical results were in. But no, that would be forward thinking - not an option where the FAO is concerned.

What has now surprised both Kevin and me is to now learn that Ollivier did in fact sign his as scheduled on Monday but singularly failed to tell us. Not that it makes a great deal of difference but that knowledge would have told us that although the medical exam was not a prerequisite, it was that the school were expecting the old farts to fail it. Well we didn’t.

Next week is again solid exams but come Friday night I am on holiday until sometime in September, although it is shaping up to be a busy holiday period for me at least.