Monday 1^st October, 2018 1330

China's 69^th birthday. Also the 35^th anniversary of my Old Man departing.

No I am not maudlin, no the reason for my silence of late is not because I was in hospital or being lazy. The opposite is true.

On Friday morning during the break some students came to my office. Their class was requesting the afternoon off and wanted me to take their lesson in the third and fourth period on Saturday.

Confused, I asked if they were wishing me to come to school on a Saturday because they wanted Friday afternoon off. It was their turn to be confused. “But you will be here anyway?” they responded.

The penny dropped. National holiday (golden week) was upon us. Sure, with Chinese school holidays there is always a catch and there will be a Saturday or Sunday set aside for catching up classes in order to afford the students a longer stretch of time off by sacrificing normal leisure time. And of course I have yet again been well and truly stiffed inasmuch as my working only Thursdays and Fridays means I actually derive no benefit from long weekend holidays or even as it transpires, golden week.

It was also a case of the school not informing me and my finding out by accident from the students. But rather than, as has been the case in the past, doing one weekend day before the break and another after it, this time Thursday and Friday classes had to be taken on Saturday and Sunday! That meant I had four straight days of work and had just found out immediately before my expected weekend!

I shan't complain too much, I did after all get to go home at noon on Friday and they slotted in their missed class into the long break I would have had on Saturday morning but by hell it was a shock to the system to have to get up at five four mornings on the bounce and not get home until six!

Actually yesterday it was nearer seven because the school bus was late arriving to collect me (his only customer) because of heavy holiday traffic (or maybe he forgot about me) and to be fair I was for once glad he drove like Toad because by then I was terminally fatigued.

Since the chap came to complete the bathroom work (and I did at the time point out the bowl didn't appear to be seated correctly) it had been flushing away very slowly. He poo-poohed (no pun intended) the suggestion and so I thought it could have been one of the periodic fatbergs from the flats above which normally clear after a couple of days. It didn't and on Friday night it clogged completely.

Today is a big holiday and I never held out much hope of getting anyone out to fix it before then. I tried the plunger, which to be equitable was an inheritance from when I came here and it was not effective. I was convinced it was something the workmen had done wrong.

All credit to Brenda, no sooner had I gotten home, kicked off my shoes and sat down with a beer than there was a knock at my door. The Man With The Son was there, armed with a brand new plunger. Thinking (and indicating) that he would need more than that, I nonetheless let him in to see my loo which was not for the fainthearted. We filled it using a bucket and to my intense discomfort, he cleared the blockage!

God, did I feel a fool! I could have gone and bought a new plunger myself and done it! Ok, he gave me the new one for free and the old one is now in landfill but he must think I am totally clueless. I was however convinced it was a case of shoddy workmanship. Wrong.

Ah well, on the bright side, despite having had a hard four days, I now have no work until a week Thursday and this Wednesday I am off with Annie and Stephanie to Xining. Alice almost came but her loyalty to her roommate who isn't going home triumphed and she is staying on campus for the duration, her sister having cancelled the planned trip to Wuwei. I have already planned a nice trip for her in January, easier said than done because I want her first flight to be sitting up front and she has seen most of the cities that are affordably close and can be accessed in less than six hours by train one way and finished off with the “big adventure above the clouds”.

But I have a plan. No sightseeing involved, just wallowing in unadulterated luxury. There has to be some reward after all for being there to do my shopping online, let alone for helping me when I was injured.