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!
Sunday 8th 0041
Miraculously and equally as mysteriously as my phone started speaking to me on the hour yesterday, after being switched off when I went to bed it has not done so since. Kevin would have a field day - he always said I must have done something, pressed something whenever my laptop went wrong when I knew full well I hadn’t. Oh no, these things don’t suddenly do stuff on their own without someone pushing a button. Yes they bloody well do!
Today was indeed dismal and I was glad I decided to do little. Considering I was sweating yesterday in shirt sleeves, when I made my customary visit to the office I actually needed a jacket.
I had promised Dumpling her first ever roast potatoes and of course she got them. It is childish I know but I get immense pleasure here when I cook something that someone has never even heard of, let alone tasted. I knew she would like them because she now has a liking for chips. The pork chops were too thickly cut because even after two hours although they were cooked they were still a bit tough. However the roasties were great, as were the carrots and beans. I think they were string beans, must check.
What amazed me was how bloody easy it is to make apple sauce! God I wish I had thought of it sooner! In the UK is is so easy just to buy a flaming jar of it for maybe £2 when for the price of two apples, a bit of work, some sugar and cinnamon and you have something better! I swear people in the west are getting bone idle and if nothing else, China has taught me to do so many things from scratch. The apple sauce, pizzas, bread, ham and many other things our forebears did but we now simply pluck from a shelf in a supermarket.
Anyway Dumpling liked our “traditional” roast whilst watching “Alien” but I have yet to get her to eat the food in a western manner, that is, a bit of everything on the fork. She still persists in eating just potato or veg or meat solus. Joan on the other hand is a convert and for that I love her. I hate it when the Chinese tell me our food doesn’t taste of anything. Of course it doesn’t when eaten in isolation. She also has the unfortunate knack of asking me what is going to happen next in any film I show her. Whatever I show her I have now seen countless times but it is hard to get her to understand that if I tell her the alien will leap out at John Hurt’s face or later the baby will burst out of his chest it will ruin the film for her. I don’t mind explaining what has just happened in a film but not what is about to. Satisfyingly, she leapt back in her seat at the appropriate moments.
I thought I had done with English corners (not to be confused with speaking contests) but tonight I was asked to provide games this coming Friday. That surely has to be the last one of the year!
Oh yes, just before I left for the office this afternoon I thought I heard rain and it was pretty damned heavy. I got up to find said rain was actually entering my balcony, which is highly unusual unless there is a strong wind. Bloody foreigners! Andrei and Juliette above me were hanging out a quilt or something they had washed and not put through a spin and it was swinging on the bars above so the water raining down from it was coming in my place! In fairness they did stop when I threw some choice words upwards.
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