Sunday 8th October, 2017                                1500

With arrangements made to have a Japanese lunch with Annie today I was thrown last night when asked if she could bring another volunteer, a boy named Trey who is at Lanzhou university (as opposed to Lanzhou City). I knew my VIP card had enough credit for two but maybe not three diners. Considering if you go over what’s on the card by 1y the system won’t let you pay the credit and give 1y in cash - the computer simply won’t allow it. You can then either pay the bill in cash (and lose the 10% discount) or put more money on the card - minimum being 500y.

I expressed my concerns and she suggested we go somewhere else. Accordingly it was set for my first restaurant here, the one I used when staying at the Home Inn. Annoyingly I neglected to take the camera, basically because it was nowhere new. They decided to meet me at BHG and so I took a taxi. On arrival there were dancers and a band in costume, possibly to herald the opening of a new shop and I could have snapped them. Really colourful they were too.

We ordered my favourites, sweet pork, pancakes and a dry prawn hotpot (the one where I eat the entire prawn, head and all) and some vegetables to keep it balanced for the other two. I really am appalling at eating fruit and veg unless I have cooked it myself. Anyway, I have little appetite at lunchtime.

It was a nice change though but when I asked from curiosity what they were doing after lunch they said they had loads to do. Fine, all I wanted to do was get home, do some laundry and generally laze about on the last holiday day. What did they have to do? Study, said Annie, plus she had a project to complete for the Peace Corps and some “grading” (marking for English people) of student essays - like Jacob, she also teaches reading and writing. I escaped that due to my working on two campuses and having a full workload so Jacob’s two Rs had to be hived off to Chinese teachers.

So basically these volunteers teach a full schedule then spend time marking and then have projects to do for the Peace Corps! AND do office hours to boot! When Annie asked me when my office hours were she was stunned to learn I would never agree to do any. Sitting around on the off chance a student might wander in for a chat? No sir. For all that they receive a stipend of a very generous 1,900y a month. My smokes and bar bill come to double that! Oh - and in their two years they are reimbursed for just one return flight so they are confined to China and even worse, during the spring festival (and possibly summer) holidays they have to go for additional Peace Corps training.

Certainly not an old man’s game.

So anyway, I have taken pity on her and told her any time I am cooking for myself she is welcome to come and share. It won’t cost me a penny because whenever I cook I always end up slinging at least half away. I have though, now that I have students nearer to home, resurrected Western Wednesdays, albeit never on Wednesday as I teach all day.

On Tuesday I have invited Annie and two of my Peili monitors, Pat and Alice to dinner. Spaghetti Bolognese, garlic bread and if I have the time and energy I will bake apple pie, except this time I shall add more sugar when I mash the apples. I will also for the first time have a bash at blind baking to see if I can get a crustier bum to my pie!

If the pie works then I will try my hand at making a beef one another day with what I bought earlier in the week. I miss meat pies and to my shame I have yet to attempt to make one.  

All set for east campus tomorrow with my half a day lunch break. Nobody there to come to the hospital with me for a hip jab (all farmed out to kindergartens now until January) but I am armed with my passport so by hook or by crook I will demand internet access - even if I have to use someone else’s login details. I will also have an egg and salad cream baguette - well we were right by the bakery so it would have been silly not to buy some bread!

Yesterday it was shirtsleeves weather, today my fleece wasn’t keeping me quite warm enough. Ere long it will be tayters.