Friday 18th December, 2015                        1530

Hats off to John, I have no idea what he did but I am his Santa on Sunday. Prof Fang gave the ok and this time also informed Prof Wang so there should be comeback at all. She did make one stipulation though - John has to collect me and bring me back which suits me fine. His drinking days are over what with the dialysis so all it will cost him is a bit of time and some petrol and he is happy.

Final clearance has also been given for the filming at the hospital. A local bakery which also donated some of the gifts for the children wanted me to go to their shop and pose with customers in my costume, however the school wasn’t asked and ultimately it was decided to tell them we didn’t have permission (true), instead their logo will be displayed when the footage is screened and it will also appear in the local papers. They do deserve at least some credit for making the donations, after all.

That leaves me in a quandary over the other school’s boxing day party and the possible kindergarten appearance.

I went shopping at lunchtime but I left getting the bus until after the first rush of students when they finish class at midday. I thought I may simply be able to get a bus from the actual university for once but I thought wrong. On the way to town I noticed the buses going in the opposite direction were also packed.

I did a quick shop, new black gloves for Santa seeing as the old ones are split and a bag of frozen prawns. It sounds ridiculous but I haven’t eaten anything of note for four days and I decided I needed something appetising tonight. It’s the middle of winter and I am having a prawn salad! Well at least the potatoes and boiled egg will be warm!

So then I did my little cheat with the bus, except this time in view of the large numbers of people out and about, I decided to go two stops past the commercial centre instead of one. When we got there the stop on the other side of the road was obscured by huge panels - they are doing roadworks! Bloody marvellous. Ok, try the next stop, which turned out to be the one where Andrei, Juliette and I were turfed off when we went for a meal. I got off, wondering why people still remained on the bus. The damned thing is once again going to the old terminus so I could have stayed on myself. Now I was faced with hoardings and more roadworks on the other side and no bus stop. I suspected I may have a long hike with two bags of shopping and stood there, uncertain as to what to do.

A minute later a woman of my age appeared and stood near me. I couldn’t imagine she was going to the terminus so I waited. After a while a school-bound bus hove into view over the bridge and she crossed the road to wait by the boards. I took that as my cue and thankfully it stopped for us. It was standing room only before we even got to the commercial centre, let alone Lotte and RT Marts. Plus, a very large percentage of people were elderly.

When I got back, the reason the outbound buses from school are so busy all the time became apparent. As I rode towards south gate it seemed there wasn’t anyone waiting for the bus, until that is I got closer. Even better than the other day, students were queuing in the special set of railings erected for (but hitherto never used) that purpose. Either the nurses college is breaking up early for spring festival (very early!) or loads of them have graduated.

I think tomorrow will be a day spent doing nothing other than coming up with exam questions seeing as I lost the ones I prepared two years ago when my hard drive blew up. I do hope no spanners are thrown in the works, I have really had enough grief of late.