Wednesday 26th August, 2015                            1900

Life has become somewhat mundane now and sees just 12 days to go until I start work again. Amazingly, given all that I have done this holiday, I could still fund another night away but more than likely won’t. I need some serious online shopping so I can start to cook western food again plus a good supply of cat food and litter - with five it disappears somewhat rapidly.

And the pong I blamed on the cats recently? Last night I went to get a glass from the kitchen  and the smell in there had become rather pungent. For the life of me I couldn’t work out what it was, the rubbish bag on the wall hook was new so I opened cupboards. I found it. I think when Mulan was looking after the cats while I was away one of them knocked a carton of eggs off the counter and she cleaned up but put the carton in the cupboard under the sink. When I opened it there was no doubt where the pong was coming - the eggshells were heaving with maggots! It’s not somewhere I have cause to go into often, being used merely to house the rice cooker and cleaning materials.

Lately I have been taking the bus to town every day shopping for wine and being incredibly lazy re cooking. When you are alone it really is true that it doesn’t seem worth bothering. The trouble is I have confined myself to McDonald’s, KFC and Ke Bi Wang. KFC here is revolting but it’s been two years since I went and I had forgotten just how awful it is. I really must make an effort tomorrow to make the eggy bread!

This morning I was sitting (late morning following a late night) at my computer and I thought I heard a puppy outside on the landing. The cats were certainly vocal so I went out. There, halfway up the stairs between the 2nd and 3rd floors, was a tiny greyish puppy. It didn’t look old enough to have climbed the stairs unaided and I wondered A) if it belonged to someone or B) someone had planted it there knowing I am a soft touch.

Well it was assuredly able to go up and down the stairs and at a surprising lick because it came down to me. I picked it up and noted it was a little girl. I think everyone reading this will know what went through my mind at first but I resisted and carried the little mite downstairs and outside. I also noticed it had indeed come in under its own steam, for it had piddled on the bottom stair. Stone me if it didn’t chase me back upstairs and plead with me with its eyes! I felt utterly heartless when I escaped rapidly into my home. Oh I wanted to but the risk of heartache and the cost and effort are simply too much. Anyway by the time winter arrives she will be well able to fend for herself, we still get temperatures up to thirty now.

Thursday 27th              1330

There will be no eggy bread tonight.

Shortly after typing the above I received a text from the little school. The owner is having a “gathering dinner” (basically treating his staff before the start of the new academic year) and would I like to come? There have been a couple of occasions wherein I have already had plans recently and had to refuse. This time I am free so will go.

That has meant no shopping trip today, not that I need it, I have simply been building up my wine lake and buying passable frozen pizzas. Joan is returning next Tuesday morning and she will be starving when she arrives, plus she will need somewhere to lay her head as her dormitory will still be closed. Mulan is moving out, this year she wants to rent a place of her own so my spare room will be free.

I have agreed to collect her from the station. At 0315.

There are no buses at that hour and with recent cases of students being raped by taxi drivers late at night elsewhere in China I think even risking her life on the back of my bike will be safer. She can have a shower, make up her bed and by the time she has done that I can have a pizza ready for her. It’ll skew my body clock though, lately it has been late finishes and late starts for me.

Annoyingly the teaching schedules are still to appear on the website and still no sign of another foreigner arriving.

It was interesting reading of the rain problems in Shanghai (on British news sites, not Chinese surprisingly) and seeing Hongqiao airport closed due to flooding, with Pudong cancelling flights. Having not long ago used both airports I am glad it didn’t happen when I was travelling.

I cannot recall whether this has been posted here before but Dave Donaldson’s niece Anna has started blogging again. She is rather entertaining and has what I would describe as a somewhat zany outlook on life. Well worth a read if you have the time, especially as it seems there may well be some maritime tales involved:

https://deeperthanyouraveragepuddle.wordpress.com/