Wednesday 28th October, 2015                                1400

After we finished Monday’s unit in Joan’s class I got them to sing Happy Birthday, much to her surprise. She told me later that she was confused and wondered who the song was for at first. She had forgotten it was her birthday. It sounds odd I know but of course the Chinese have both a Gregorian birthday and a lunar one. It would suggest she tends to celebrate the latter.

Anyway, the cake was big enough to give 32 students a slice apiece and I had bought enough juice and Coke to wash it down with.

Yesterday I felt awful. Hideous pain from my teeth and a general feeling of not being well which I put down to the cocktail of tablets I have been taking of late. Plus of course it has been impossible to sleep for more than three hours at a time because once the painkillers wore off I woke up. I was determined to go to the dentist this morning and asked Joan if she could come and translate for me.

Just before I was going to take my nap yesterday afternoon Kevin contacted me to say he had been asked to a Hallowe’en party last night in Chizhou. Obviously he couldn’t go and he wondered if either of the new foreigners would be interested. Considering I am the only foreigner on campus currently, the others having departed for Changsha and Huangshan, I didn’t want to disappoint the children and so agreed to go. So did Joan but a student union meeting was called at the last minute and she had to pull out. Anna stepped into the breach.

There was certainly a party in full flow when we got there but we were put into an empty classroom for an hour. We guessed we were being detained for a particular point in the party. Instead, eventually we heard all the kids leaving and then a girl (Lisa) came in and by then I had figured what this was all about - could I possibly go and teach there at weekends?

The answer was an emphatic “no”.

My evening had been wasted, an evening I could better have used by taking to  my bed.

This morning Joan and I went to the dentist. Obviously one molar has to come out, possibly two, but I have never in my life had such a palaver. Firstly they wanted my full medical report (I don’t get that, the school does) and then they asked what medicines I had taken. Exasperated, I said to Joan all I wanted was a tooth extraction but oh no, they were worried it might kill me. They even took my blood pressure, which at 136/90 was a shade high but I had a fair walk from the bus stop. It’s hardly the first I will have pulled but all they did was clean the stump/hole up, apply some vile-tasting concoction on it (which I can still taste) and then suggested I return tomorrow having refrained from drinking and smoking for 24 hours. I was also told not to take any more painkillers so I can only hope whatever muck they stuck in my mouth will keep me pain-free until then.

That’s not going to happen anyway but what I will do is stop both drinking and smoking  when I go to bed tonight, no more analgesia as of now and have nothing when I get up in the morning, I will even use snuff so I won’t be craving nicotine when I get there. And they will DECIDE whether or not they will take the gamble of whipping out the tooth. I will not be pleased if it is a waste of time because I had planned to take the bike in to have the batteries checked tomorrow.

Of course what has been a side effect of all the drugs is that I have become a bit bunged up and so far the pills I have for that have been effective only insofar as producing enormous volumes of flatulence. And so it was that at two this morning I was throwing up bile (I have eaten hardly anything for three days) and then again halfway through typing this blog. Life is not too bright at the moment!

It doesn’t appear as if I will enjoy the sports meetings or the holiday.