Saturday 7th May, 2016            0120

Life just gets better.

First I have a cat stuck in the ceiling then a stray puppy in the bedroom. Then I have recruitment agencies telling me I am too old for another job and who I have to explain Chinese law to. It is unbelievable the rot I have had spouted at me from nationals here, who when confronted with the facts (Oh yes, I check their own government websites) then back off. They are always either looking for a soft way out of saying something unpleasant or alternatively simply stringing you along when all you want is the truth. If an agency can’t help me then they should bloody well say so and I can contact others!

I am not one for playing several parties off against each other. That works in the main in the west but here it seems to be the norm, as I am discovering now. I am really getting annoyed and anxious about my prospects even though I know deep down I will find a job. As time goes by and positions remain vacant, schools will get more desperate than me. To be fair, one of the agencies (the one I mentioned in the last entry) did say that the schools were impressed by my experience but worried about getting me residency due to age.

Anyway, all that worry aside, last night outside the concert my phone fell out of my shirt pocket, dislodging the back cover and battery. Not a problem, I simply reassembled it and it worked fine. Later I noticed the time and date were off and so reset them without problem. Turned it off in the small hours to kip with my overnight little black lodger and then at noon switched the phone back on. I never leave it on when I sleep, as I have said many times before.

Now the damned thing is driving me crazy.

On the hour, every hour, it is I assume telling me in Chinese what time it is! All day I have been looking at the settings and whatever and I cannot find anything that says it is going to be a vocal Big Ben. I mean, who the hell wants something in their pocket (especially as I wear a watch - rare in China) that announces to the world it is 1400 hours?

I am not the most technologically able person on the planet but I can find no function on the phone that activates it and all humanoid voices are in the off position. One more reason for me to switch it off when I sleep - unless I want to be woken every hour!

I will feel better when I have agreed terms with a new school. The problem is, the longer this goes on, the more I will start to open up to what they call language mills (international - or so called - that pay heaps more but own you for at least 40 solid hours a week) and I really don’t want that. If  I want to do office hours (when you aren’t teaching you have to sit in a bloody office) then I will take an office job. Half the pay and reasonable autonomy suits me fine. And plenty of time off.

So today is supposed to see heavy rain. None in sight yet but I did cover the bike up. My only plan today is to cook the perfect pork chop dinner for Dumpling and at some point prior, go to the office to kill a load of flies.

I just wish the authorities would stop cracking down on VPNs - they are really making it difficult to catch up on Peaky Blinders now that series 3 has started and it had passed me by!