Saturday 12th December. 2015                 1300

That was a rude awakening.

As I blogged immediately prior to this, today was anticipated to be a day of simply doing nothing. Accordingly, I had a late one. As Joan wasn’t coming for my breakfast dinner I invited Anna, who also wanted to watch a film. After she left I stayed up - until 0400 in fact. What the hell, I didn’t have to get up, did I?

At eleven this morning I was dragged from sleep by persistent knocking on my door. I threw on some clothes and answered it. There stood Nancy, phone in hand and looking very “urgent” indeed.

Blearily I asked her what the problem was. “You are supposed to be meeting some leaders and your phone is powered off!” Well yes, it is always off when I go to sleep. Through the numbness of just having been hauled from a deep sleep I wracked my brain. I hadn’t arranged anything for today, I was certain! My memory isn’t THAT terrible these days.

So I asked who it was I was supposed to be meeting (all the time wondering whether I was already late and that if so, I would be later still because I don’t leave home without taking a shower first) and was shown a phone number which was alien to me. It turned out to belong to Kid, one of Kevin’s old students who graduated two years ago. He had been president of the student union and now works in the local government, someone with high ambitions who I suspect will thrive in the CPC.

I haven’t seen him in months, let alone made any arrangements with him. I asked Nancy to call him and find out. As she did so, two texts arrived on my phone (I had just switched it on) and they were from Molly. Was I up? Yes, I replied. There is a meeting about the Christmas day hospital visit, will I be free at 1430? Relief! Plenty of time to wake up and shower. It transpired Kid was also calling regarding the same thing. This being China, naturally it had been left to the last minute to approach ME about the meeting to discuss the matter and I will take the opportunity to apprise them of the fact that although I am in China, I am still a westerner and we do things differently! Anyway, I have no idea where they are taking me but it could be the TV station or to meet the businessmen who are hopefully stumping up the gifts or there again it could be McDonald’s. Either way, the hospital thing is a definite goer. I hope this cold disappears before a week Friday…..

No sooner had Nancy left than I got a call from John at the little school inviting me to dinner at a new restaurant near his school. It would just be with him and his wife. The odds are that he has caught wind of my other Sunday activity and his nose is out of joint. I couldn’t give him a yes or a no because I have no idea what is happening after 1430 but if I am not bought dinner then I will join them, I owe him an explanation, that’s for sure and I would have told him in time anyway but by Christ the grapevine here is pretty damned rapid!

That’ll do for now, shower time and try to be chirpy in an hour when the car arrives.  

1445

So far they are fifteen minutes late. Mind you, I was only ready five minutes early and the Chinese are notorious for always being early. Another thing I have to tell them about English people is that we like to be punctual. At least I have had the chance to pop my laundry in the washing machine.

I made my form for the upcoming exams, no easy feat for me what with being computer illiterate but I failed spectacularly in endeavouring to put it on a memory stick to take and have printed off.

2100

So much for a lazy day eh?

Eight people turned up for the conflab about Christmas day. It’s definitely on and no they never took me anywhere so I had to take them to my classroom for the meeting. We now have six elves and their costumes will be ordered tomorrow. The “business angel” is a female manager of a local advertising and marketing company who are generously paying for the clothes and also the presents for the children and I doff my hat to her. Sally from the foreign affairs bureau is co-ordinating everything. All I have to do is look fat and have a red face. Hang on, I do that every day!

Halfway through our meeting I received two texts. The death threats have started again.

Now I am getting seriously hacked off  with this prat. My assistant Anthony as always counselled caution, personally I want to find the guy and beat him senseless but I have given him one last chance to sort things out. After that the police will be notified. I couldn’t care less if the school finds out, unless giving someone the opportunity to earn 200y a month for at most 4 hours work is wrong then I have absolutely nothing to hide. He on the other hand is in theory committing a crime by potentially putting me in fear of my life. Sadly for him I am not in the least scared, simply angry and frustrated that I can’t get at him. I will have the last laugh, that’s for sure, one way or another.

On a lighter note, a rough plan for Christmas day has been decided, everyone knows what they have to do and I was sure to reinforce that Chizhou TV must call Prof Fang beforehand - if they don’t I won’t carry the can.

And so it was that I was able to make the dinner invitation from John. A brand new restaurant which opened a couple of days ago and to which I may take some students. A Chinese hotpot with a very Japanese gimmick. Instead of going and helping yourself to the food to cook at the table there is one very, very long table going the entire length of the restaurant, around which people sit with their own individual hotplates and pans. The food comes by on a conveyor belt a la Japanese sushi bars. Different and really cheap, 104y for three of us and the price is calculated by the number of empty skewers and bottles of drink you leave. I may well take some students there sometime.

All the while I was waiting for John to bring up the $64,000 question but he didn’t. In fact he never knew about it, the dinner was simply in advance of my playing his Santa next Sunday at his speaking competition. He knows now. We have been friends too long for me to be deceitful but at least he knows the full story from the horse’s mouth now.

He has other, more important things on his mind now, such as dialysis three times a week. He started this week (I did think he had a reprieve until next year) and now alcohol - he liked the odd beer but not to excess - and red meat are now off the menu forever. It is sad to see someone almost reduced to being a teetotal vegetarian. Were I in his shoes I think (no I KNOW!) I would rebel and suffer the consequences but then I don’t have a wife and very young child depending on me.

Joan was here a few minutes ago and I showed her the death texts. She implored me to make sure I locked my door. Cowards don’t frighten me.