Friday 26th February, 2016                 0140

Early morning again but at least I don’t have to work tomorrow.

This afternoon I met two of my new classes. Not a bad bunch and apart from one incident in the first class, I don’t think things went too badly.

The incident?

Well I had just outlined my rules for the classroom. Nothing draconian, well I don’t think so, just no mobile phones, talking when someone else has the floor etc and the last thing I said was that there will probably be times when I come to class when all I want to do is go to sleep (unlikely this term given my classes are all late bar one) but that I would not fall asleep on my desk and I didn’t expect students to do it either.

Unbelievably, not five minutes after I said this, I spotted a boy fast asleep on his desk. I had already cautioned everyone against nudging their neighbour if I had spotted anyone asleep and to be fair nobody did. So I woke the lad by getting close to his ear and bellowing in a stentorian fashion, “Good afternoon!!!”

I confess I have never seen the like before. I am glad my face wasn’t directly above his head for  he shot up, his spectacles fell off and he had a look of abject terror on his face. I don’t think he will ever fall asleep in my class again. Equally, I think he doesn’t like me now. Tough, don’t sit up all night playing computer games when you have my class.

I am pretty sure Richard made it back for his first class, certainly he is here although I haven’t seen him, just heard his door closing. It seems a bit of a shame he came back for one class, seeing as he is now off again until Tuesday and can travel back to Changsha to be with his girlfriend.


As for inviting important persons to dinner, I have as yet done nothing because I find myself unaccustomedly reluctant. I think I know I will be unsuccessful but also I have to find an evening when all are free together. If I leave it won’t be for the lack of having all turrets firing when I am sunk but it must happen next week to give me a good chance of bagging a decent job now some universities are advertising for September starts.

I had a trawl through earlier online. Still nothing decent in Nanning but I live in hope. I even - yes really - looked at a job in Inner Mongolia! I know, I know. Hideously cold in the winter but at least they build their homes to stave off the chill. If I applied it would be pure devilment on my part for the hell of saying I am there and I really do want somewhere further south but with the age thing I really need to pay heed to what I can realistically get and also the package. After six years I have no intention of taking a job offering less (one I looked at was offering 3,500y or £350 a month for God’s sake) and it is now time to be a little more materialistic as I inevitably approach retirement age.

During the break with the second class Alice sent me a text to tell me that John from the little school had offered her the job - she had earlier texted to say she wouldn’t get it. I was delighted for her and it means after a year she can go to Guangzhou to find a job and she will be a slightly seasoned and experienced teacher. It is always lovely to know your students start to make something of their lives.

Well soon after we reconvened after the break my phone rang in class. I had not long told them my rules and that they would not see me answering my phone in class unless it was the school calling, not for students, my mother, anybody and I expected them to do likewise. Well I looked and it was Anthony, my assistant teacher. Well that’s the school so I needed to answer it.

Except I couldn’t. Every time I did there was nothing there. There ensued a pantomime where I was cancelling the calls whilst trying to send a text saying I had a problem, couldn’t answer and please send me a message instead. It was incessant. Within seconds of cancelling the calls it rang again. The students thought it highly amusing, I found it hugely annoying. In the end I had a brainwave, I would call him.

He answered and I think he had read my message. I asked him what the problem was that he had to be so insistent as to speak to me. He hadn’t called me. What? I had 18 missed calls in the space of five minutes!

Having established there was no earthquake on the way or a police raid, the only way I could stop the calls was to switch my phone off and hope later when I turned it back on it would be gone. It was. Very reminiscent of the night my phone sent 88 identical texts to Mulan. Very odd.

My office has now increased the price of a beer to me from three to four yuan which didn’t please me so now I may shop around. If it is available for three elsewhere then I may well move my custom. Take me for granted at your peril. I’m not going to eradicate all your flies every day and pay top whack.

So tonight I ate some of last night’s frittata and put the remains out for Mum. I will go shopping tomorrow and if it is warm enough I may ride the bike. Not because I want to but because I discovered I can’t indicate left for some reason. Right, yes, left no. Is it important? In China definitely not but to me, yes. I doubt they understand hand signals.

So that’s it, I am gainfully employed once more and will try to be as professional as I can regardless of my future. It’s not fair on the students for me be a Tuna fish and simply give up once my head is out of the water. I feel much happier now that there is life on campus and later today I will send some texts to try to arrange the all-important dinner. The sooner I do it the sooner I will know what I need to do.