Tuesday 4^th September, 2018 1500

Yesterday I shopped. As you know I avoid weekends due to the crowds. It is also the start of the new term. I was completely unprepared for the hordes of freshmen that clogged up BHG, all wandering around with large plastic bowls, filling them with laundry soap, toothpaste, tissues and the like. I was of the impression they all had to be in school for the Sunday but even today students continue to arrive.

Having singularly failed to source cigars, I asked Mr Jing Jo if he could search the web and get me some. He found 700 and I said terrific. Half an hour later while I was washing dishes, he came past my window on his bicycle and knocked on the door. The only thing I was sure of was that he had now found 1600 of them, did I want them? Yes!

After he left I wondered A) would I get them before or after payday – very important and B) was it a total of 1600 or was it plus the 700? 2300 yuan is a sizeable amount to fork out immediately after bankrupting myself on holiday. However, given the frequent paucity of supply here, I felt it prudent to accept as many as possible just in case.

As last night was a reunion of the four musketeers (and also UK Merchant Navy Day) I rather pushed the boat out with smoked salmon and melon, sausage rolls and a bottle of bubbly. Annie brought rose cakes for dessert, I've not tried mine yet but I am sceptical as to whether I will like it or not. In between mouthfuls, Stephanie was fretting over her NFL fantasy American football team. Unlike the UK versions wherein you select your players and submit, there were more “rounds” involved than in a WBA world heavyweight title defence, one round for each player position. Apparently her team bombed last season so her pride is at enormous risk this time. I think I'll stick to not getting involved.

This morning Annie and I (she has no classes until next week, having the freshmen this year and they are doing military training) had to go to the police station to lodge passports and paperwork for permit renewals. My situation was the more urgent, for unless submitted by then, at midnight on Thursday I would have become an illegal. The difference here (and between Brenda and Miss Yin in Chizhou) was that instead of being a last minute panic because someone wasn't doing their job, this was planned for and anticipated. It couldn't sensibly have been done before as I needed my passport for the holidays. I am now “safe” and can collect my passport on the 26^th. In the meantime if I want to take a train all I have to do is argue like hell at the ticket office that my work permit/ID card is valid to travel on domestically.

So we came back, had lunch and then I went to the jing jo shop to find 700 cigars on the counter waiting for me! Christ that was quick! It appears there are indeed another 1600 en route and whilst I can pay him tomorrow when I go to the cashpoint for this lot, I have had to try to explain that I can't pay for the second tranche until payday. This falls on Saturday so I am hoping they pay us a day early on Friday rather than leaving it until Monday. Otherwise I am up a creek. I somehow think though that he will be quite happy to let me take them away on trust, after all, he sees me every day.

Oh, and we will have five for dinner on Monday (if I've been paid), the new Peace Corps slave is reportedly so “pumped up” to meet me after Annie and Steph told him all about me. Eli (God they have weird and wonderful names these Septics) is from Baltimore and at 22 is fresh out of the college cardboard box.

It may be that summer has now departed Lanzhou, the highest temperature forecast for the foreseeable is 20C, most days the high is supposed to be 17C. And just to make life a little more difficult, the sweet pork place is curtained off being refurbished yet again and inexplicably my barbers shop has been shuttered up for days. Hopefully the latter is due to a late summer holiday.