Tuesday 30th December, 2014            2000

Kevin and I now find ourselves with a mad scramble to complete our end of term exams before next Saturday. Ollivier doesn’t because he has hardly any classes but the school only just advised completion dates. It is not possible to examine thirty students one by one in ninety minutes, it takes double that. I had been asking my own students when their other exams started for a couple of weeks prior to this but they didn’t know so I was unable to plan ahead, now I find I have a very busy week next week because I can do nothing this week with the new year holiday. Damned annoying.

For the past fortnight Joan, bless her soul, has been coming almost every night to my home. Sure, I feed her supper and soft drinks but that is in return for her inflicting unimaginable pain on me. No, no - not what you are thinking! She has been moving my left arm to positions last achieved before the Eiffel tower was embedded in my shoulder. God it hurts but if I regain mobility ultimately it will have been worth it. The trouble is, it’s not something I can do for myself. I did try once sticking my hand against the wall and moving my body lower down and only succeeded in making myself feel nauseous from the agony so I stopped! I do sometimes wonder if part of the problem is the plate hitting the socket bone. If that were the case the remedy would be to have the ironmongery removed, another operation. No thanks.

New Year’s Eve 0100

Yes it is past my bedtime but seeing as I have been invited by a student who is graduating very soon and who I have known all the time I have been here to a new year party in a bar late tonight I would like to sleep late and have an evening nap before going out. The party will comprise  people nearly four decades my junior and no doubt it will be well after two before I eventually get a taxi back with Ollivier who is coming too.

Joan came earlier and did her damage. She is determined to continue doing this for as long as it takes and given that she is donating her free time in the evening when one would think she would want to be with people her own age socialising, I am both humbled and flattered. She can torture me as much as she wants, I just hope it has the desired effect for both our sakes. We measured a starting point tonight so over the coming two weeks before everyone leaves for the spring festival it will be interesting to see how much, if any, improvement results.

She has indicated she may return to campus a week early though, not for my benefit I don’t think but she asked me an odd question - would I teach her how to make the pancakes I did the other day. That perplexed me because Ollivier is the man for crepes, not me. After interrogation it transpired she was referring to the chapattis I served up with the Balti at the Indian meal I did. Astonished, I looked her in the eye and told her that entire meal was a cheat, everything had been bought and all I did was throw it together. The chapattis came frozen from RT Mart. She looked so crestfallen that I confessed when at sea I would often go to the galley on the morning of a curry night to make dough and then return when dinner was being served to roll out and cook them to order. I have now had to promise to show her how to do it when she returns. I suppose that means I will have to conjure up a home made curry too…….

She also commented that she liked the “sauce” I put on the cheese baguette I fed her for supper. It was Branston pickle.

1140

The shower beckons as I promised to be in my “office” for one o’clock when Linda (the student who invited me to the bar tonight) is returning to campus. She is a local girl and tonight is her way of thanking me for lending her my university “one card” after she lost hers. These cards are vital for students and they are a sort of pay as you go card they use to pay for cafeteria food, showers etc and also to access the library. She was only interested in the latter so I let her have it for a couple of months. The only things I have ever used it for are sticking it in the slot in hotel rooms to keep the aircon going when  I leave the room and showing taxi drivers where I want to go.

She told me yesterday that Phebe bar (no typo) has ramped up their prices for the party (no surprise there) and considering a table normally entails a minimum spend of 300y I shudder to think what it is costing. I hope her compatriots are sharing the cost. Apparently it ends at 0100 and the youngsters have booked hotel rooms and intend to decamp to the hotel to carry on carousing. Were it not for Pepsi I would have booked a room at the Chizhou hotel (standard room is currently 155y a night) which is nearby. If I thought I could be be back by nine tomorrow morning I would do so but I have to be fair on the dog. Ollivier and I can get a taxi (I hope) and even if it’s four in the morning I can take her out and then sleep to my heart’s content.

So that’s it for now, goodbye to 2014 and see you in 2015! I hope everyone enjoys the bells in whatever time zone they are and that your hangovers were worth every mouthful!