Saturday 20^th October, 2018 1815

Pizza Hut breakfasts are palling now. Don't get me wrong, I could have my version of a full English every day if there were proper bangers and bread that didn't taste like Madeira cake. If I go again in a fortnight when I am back at work I may just give the ham and cheese pannini another chance. The first and only time I tried it, it was cold and the cheese wasn't melted.

Having mentioned to Brenda that I would like to find out whether white spirit or something else would remove the glue stains on the flooring outside my bathroom after the recent works (and not wanting to attempt to scrape it off in case I damaged the faux woodwork), she said the workmen would call on me sometime.

I work all day Thursday and Friday so I am gone before 0700 and return around 1800 so my guess was that I would get a most unwelcome wake up at the weekend. But at about 1930 on Thursday, just as I had finished eating my sausage roll, there was an insistent knocking on my door. Slightly riled because I had made it plain to the last workman that a simple “rat-a-tat-tat” and wait was the done thing, I rose to answer the door.

Now, when I am home relaxing I am sans culottes, sans clogs, hence the need for a heater. I am not relaxed unless I feel comfortable. The workmen have seen me in such a state of deshabille in the past when they got me out of bed so there was no need to make myself “presentable”.

I opened the door fully prepared to remonstrate regarding the knocking method, only to find two uniformed policemen at my door.

I am unsure whether it was I who was more surprised at this or the two coppers at being confronted by a half-dressed laowei. I suspect the latter to be more true. They refused to arrest me despite my offering my wrists for handcuffing and in the end I had to help them with their “routine” check. They had a clipboard with what I assume were the details of every resident in the block and despite since asking, I have been unable to ascertain the exact purpose of this check. I can only assume it is to ensure Big Brother has the correct details of who lives where. It became comedic when they started flipping sheets on the clipboard, all in Chinese asking me if this was me and in frustration I said “Oh just give it here!”, located my name and number and told them this was me. They asked if I was the only one here and I resisted the temptation to call a fictitious “darling” out from the bedroom.

Odd though, Annie and Eli on campus never had it and previously the only experience I have had was in the cheap Chizhou hotel, at which time I assumed they were looking for whores. The funny thing is, police knocking on my door here holds absolutely no terrors, for unlike the UK, not only do I have nothing to hide, nobody here who may have been murdered or killed in an accident is related to me.

They left and I closed the door, only to have it knocked on the moment I sat down to continue watching Killing Eve again. I shan't type the expletives that were on the tip of my tongue to vent at the police as I reopened the door, they evaporated when it turned out to be a workman who had come to inspect the flooring!

They would return the next day, Friday. I was at pains to make clear that I would not be home until Liu (six) that day, using a sweeping arm gesture to indicate I would be across the river on the east side of the city prior to then. I reckon he understood.

Yesterday, and mindful of what happened last Friday afternoon, I took my books to my office once morning classes were over and after lunch went down to my last class of the week – in fact my last for two weeks. No students to head me off at the pass, so I burst into my classroom only to be confronted by a packed house, this time populated by teachers, about a hundred of them! I retreated hastily and went to the classroom opposite. At least I had my books.

And guess what? Because of that bloody meeting the school bus sat and sat, waiting for others. It was a rainy afternoon and I was not happy. I had done the right thing by telling the workman I would not be home until six and now I wasn't going to be home even then. I won't complain about the bus being late but I CAN about nobody telling me it will be, at least then I can make the decision as to whether I want to take public transport instead of waiting forty minutes before finding out I will be late. We finally set off in the height of the rush hour at 1740.

I was greeted on arrival home at 1840 by the poor sod who had waited in the cold for me to get home. I shouldn't have but I did feel guilty. I wish he had accepted my offer of a coffee, tea or beer but he didn't. Instead he got straight down to work removing the residue. By scraping!!! I could have done that!!

Winter is here now. Today is freezing. I am so glad I bought that new heater because my study is toasty.