Thursday 25th February, 2016                       0020

A little late admittedly but first day back at work later today and I don’t start until 1330 so I can stay up a bit because my Mother’s not looking over my shoulder. Well knowing her, she probably is………..

Well Tuesday night Alice and Hayley came. I defrosted some Bolognese and fed them and even introduced them to Sangria by donating some wine for their orange juice (I don’t keep soft drinks, if students want them they have to buy their own but they are welcome to beer).

And so they watched Season 6 Episode 1 of Downton Abbey, not a programme I have ever watched but between that and Sherlock (again I don’t watch) they are very popular in China. Not so popular it would seem without Chinese subtitles! Alice and Hayley would have been fine with English subtitles but there were none,. They lost interest.

So I showed them Evan Almighty which they loved and then they said they wanted to come back and watch the prostitute film - Pretty Woman. Fine said I, let’s do it tomorrow (a few hours ago). Alice also said she was looking for a job as a teacher before she graduates in June so I sent the little school owner a text asking if he needed anyone. He needs two so I connected Alice and John and she has an interview and demonstration lesson this morning. It’s not an easy place to find so I arranged to go yesterday morning to show her so she won’t be late.

Late this morning I picked her up and now we are fully back to cheat mode for the bus, it is mental. We went to town and I knew I would suffer. For New Concept school you need the number 7 bus but I was going shopping and my bike was at south, not west gate. And boy, did I suffer.

She does now know exactly where to go, we had a light lunch and I shopped at RT. She indicated that she, Hayley and Fiona would like to watch the film (Pretty Woman) last night and I asked if they would like dinner. No, no, we don’t want to trouble you. Well that’s fine but if I don’t have anyone to cook for, generally I don’t bother to make anything special. It was only going to be frittata anyway, I had two dozen eggs in danger of going off. I said I would cook for myself and it was just as easy for four, only the washing up changes.

Back on campus the secretary was in her office so I took the opportunity to make some classroom changes so that all of my classes are in the same room (leave my bag there all term) and all of Richard’s were likewise, albeit the floor above me. He is less than half my age so the fifth floor is a breeze for him and I hope he doesn’t mind. As for me, I need to take a rest at least once just to get to the 4th floor. Juliette? If I could I would have tried to make her classrooms more convivial but for some unknown reason they have her shuttling between buildings and I really didn’t know how to ask on her behalf or I would have tried to get all her classes in the same room so I am sorry Juliette (she will read this) switching classrooms in the same block can be done but when you don’t speak Chinese and two blocks are involved it is not something I could do. I am happy and somehow I have a feeling Richard will be unhappy. He has strange values and may just think my intervention was uncalled for. No matter, I am happy and anyway he is not here. I have an odd feeling that he will either come back this morning (his first class is 1330) or he will completely miss start of term. I wish I could be so cavalier.

On the bus I convinced Alice that dinner was not a problem and she agreed. She is like Anna and Joan in that she wants to try different cuisines and as I had to eat myself I thought what the hell, a frittata for one or a frittata for ten? The only difference is the number of  eggs and I needed to get rid of some, in fact I bought 15 new ones in case the others had gone off. Thankfully they hadn’t so now I have loads of eggs but they are new.

Hayley never came (and she was the one that wanted a romantic story!)  but Alice and Fiona did and loved both the film and food. Well I do make my frittatas a bit interesting with some chilli oil.

Joan came as the film ended and Alice excused herself. I have really missed Joan, much more than anyone else in my time here. I didn’t miss her however when she told me my internet shopping was 560y when the only things for me were a kilogramme of cheddar and a dental hygiene kit! All the rest is cat food and litter!

The dental thing? Well I am pissed off with brown teeth and for sure I could go to the dentist for scaling. I use Eucryl which helps a bit but I thought I would try a bit of DIY. My front teeth are crumbling and I am led to believe it is from years (30 now) of prescription drugs and I have no reason to disbelieve. I will try this kit (no, not whiteners, I am not stupid) and I will scrape and “erase” and if it works then all well and good. If it doesn’t then I will make a dentist do it. My smile was never pearly white but it really hacks me off that nowadays when I hear “may I make a photo with you?” I have to just smile with my mouth closed.