Monday 29^th July, 2019 1700

On Sunday I did my daily chore of going to the jing jo shop. Nothing unusual in that, I sometimes see a grandma or two out with their grandkid (this time one was feeding hers broth and I jokingly opened my mouth to get fed) and as always I said ni hao to the security guard sitting outside his “Fire Tiny Station”.

Purchases made and with nothing else to buy on the stalls (omelette was on the menu and I couldn't be bothered to walk all the way up to buy spuds), I made my way home. It's a walk of about a minute each way.

As I waited for a break in traffic to cross the road, to my amazement a woman, busily engrossed on her mobile phone, stepped into the road without so much as a glance to see if she might be imminently flattened by a Number 15 bus! What she did walk straight out in front of was a taxi which was about twenty feet away!

I shouted a warning to her.

The taxi stopped about two feet from her. She neither noticed nor cared and she never even registered that I had shouted at her! She just carried on walking, gabbling on her call, not bothering even to check the traffic in the opposite direction.

I have no idea what my facial expression was. Doubtless my mouth wasn't fully closed, I was quite simply dumbfounded by the blind idiocy of the woman, who surely does deserve some day to win a Darwin Ward by getting herself removed from the gene pool when repeating the feat. I looked at the taxi driver, a young man in his late twenties I would guess, he had heard my warning and saw my physog. Were it me driving I would have vented in a very unmistakeable way but he simply beamed at me as if to say, yep, I agree, she's nuts.

In the evening I received a text. It was a copy of one I sent out for Chinese new year but with the addition of a few Chinese characters at the front. It was from Molly, a middle school teacher from Chizhou who some may recall was one of my elves when I did the Santa thing one Christmas Day and took an entourage to the children's ward of No 1 Peoples Hospital.

Seconds later another text arrived, same thing with slightly different Chinese characters. Then a repeat of each of them, totalling four messages. Wondering if it could be a scam to extract money from my phone (PAYG so not a lot of spoils to be had in any event) or a child had picked up her phone, I texted back “What???”

Molly responded asking why I had sent that. She knew nothing of the messages, could I send her copies? A short time later she emailed. Her husband “Little Fatty” (I am guessing perhaps I am Big Fatty) had picked up her phone, seen the English text, didn't understand and thought he was getting it translated but instead sent me four messages. Maybe he is a jealous person but it must be said she IS a teacher of English.

I know they have had problems in the past, not with the marriage but a miscarriage however it was lovely to hear finally they have a five month old daughter. She was desperate to have a child. Not sure she doesn't in some small way regret that now it has become reality after she said how much she envied my “freedom”!

What is freedom? None of us are truly free, there are just some who are freer than others.

Talking of freedom, this afternoon I actually moved my lazy backside and cleared out one of the cardboard boxes I had sent here when I moved. That's created about six more square feet of floorspace. When I went out to the jing jo shop I left it as I always do with cardboard, beside the wheelie bins. By the time I returned three minutes later it was gone! Clearly Christmas came early for one of the scavengers.

Sunday 28^th July, 2019 0900

Bigger is not necessarily better. I made that king prawn curry for Alice. The prawns were like jelly. 50¥ I spent on them and would have been better served by paying twenty for smaller ones. Bloody awful. The Chelsea buns were lovely and fluffy though even if I do say so myself.

Foodwise, of late I have been preparing simple stuff for myself. With the crackdown in preparation for Shanghai I dare not go out for a meal although of course I could have cheap noodles down the road if I actually had any teeth to chop them off! A huge plate of chow mien would set me back 10¥ or about £1.20. I have never managed more than 25%, hence another reason I hardly go there, asking for small portions is pointless.

Yesterday I had the red thing on Chrome so tried to update. I was greeted by an error message. Taking to the internet (Windows own help site in case you are wondering) and it said to uninstal and reinstal Chrome. The uninstal was a piece of cake but when I came to try to get it back again?

Talk about sweat! IE here puts you through to Baidu, the Chinese search engine. Well naturally I didn't want to download from anything with a .cn suffix and tried softonic. No idea who they are but I have used them in the UK for things. Six times it failed. With visions of not having Chrome again unless I left the country I delayed my shower and spent an hour retrying. To my relief I eventually got it back with the help of my Great Firewall buddy. If it happens again I will download and overwrite without uninstalling!

Alice sent me a short video taken in Bryan Bay in Australia earlier. I've never heard of it and I am reasonably au fait with the Aussie coast. I asked her did she mean Byron Bay?

No, Bryan Bay is the most easterly point of Australia, she replied. I rest my case on that one!

She also sent a photo of her meal which was lasagne. With chips! What???? I couldn't help but point out the only things you should have with lasagne are salad and garlic bread. I said whoever ordered it was a farmer, something most will not understand but in Anhui it denotes an uncultured person with no class. Unfair on farmers but then..... Does that make me a snob?

She seems to be having a great time though and I pointed out that she is now a globetrotter, this being her fourth country in twelve months. And the British Consular official wrote that he “was not convinced she would return to her home country” after she applied for a visa for our proposed UK trip last summer. I cannot/will not print here my opinion of that particular official, or indeed of the myopic way the UK treats applications from people who actually don't want to cross the Channel in a dinghy but do want to spend their cash and bolster the treasury.

It would not surprise me though if Alice comes back after the holiday with an engagement ring.

Oh and now I have a logistical problem. Capt Roland found a Shanghai vendor (who infuriatingly only delivers locally) that sells British bangers and back bacon – AND lorne sausage! God, I want them! Problem is, how to get them back here in good nick?

I am sure I can get our hotel to bung them in the freezer and when we return the airport hotel here to do likewise but what about the two or three hours in Pudong after my bag is checked in and before we take off? Funnily enough, this second I just had an idea! Bloody hell, we are flying up front. If I buy enough ice gel packs and take my coolbag I can take them on the plane! We are VIPs, we can take a Mini Cooper as hand baggage! Well, probably get Alice to carry them, after all, I am an old man and anyway I paid for the tickets! I think the problem just disappeared. If only I could get genuine Scottish morning rolls I would be almost in heaven. Melton Mowbray pork pies still elude me though.......

Steve

Tuesday 23^rd July, 2019 1930

Many were the times in Chizhou that English major girls would come to me with boyfriend problems, looking for sage advice. Being a lifelong bachelor it seemed odd but I suppose having loved and lost more times than I can remember, perhaps there was some sense in it. After all, they are reluctant to speak to family, friends or Chinese teachers about such matters. The foreigner is viewed as open-minded, in many cases I am sure deservedly although there will surely be a few bad eggs among us.

But Marjorie Proops I am not. Imagine my surprise when an ex-student of mine (no names for obvious reasons but I will be meeting her again shortly) sent a text this morning.

If your husband forgets your first wedding anniversary is he still in love with you?

Maybe, maybe not but what he IS in is a lot of trouble! If it's today then give him chance, he may have a surprise planned for later.

Turns out it was yesterday. He is focussed on making money, a common Chinese trait, and the anniversary was yesterday. He worked until midnight so with a wife and baby to support I felt some leeway was in order.

Then she told me she forgot it as well! She only remembered this morning!

So, being reasonable and knowing the Chinese have two weddings, the one where they actually legally get married and another one later where they celebrate it with friends and family, I suggested that perhaps dates weren't that important to the Chinese.

Then the gates opened. She can't talk to him because he is always on his smartphone. Ok, so ask him which is more important – you and the baby or his bloody phone? I don't like to say anything, she replied.

Then ask him what is the point of the marriage? Did he marry you from duty because he got you up the duff or because he loves you? Apparently he said the same to her, what is the point of marriage?

I have no idea how it will play out but I did point out that a life of misery is no life at all and that they really need to have a long talk. When someone finds their phone more interesting than you, well, then it's time to tell them to marry the Samsung!

Bloody phones. I know it is pandemic but in China it is even more rife. Doesn't matter where I am with someone, if there's a bleep they simply have to check it! Mine will go and whoever I am with will ask if I am going to look at it? They are dumbfounded when I tell them it can wait, I am in company. I have said many times here that I have a dumbphone that texts and calls and nothing else. These sodding appendages people favour nowadays need charging once or twice a day, mine can go a fortnight because I turn the blessed thing off when I go to bed. I am going to prove a point to Alice when we go away for nine days. I am not packing a charging cable, just so she can see I am telling the truth and it will last the entire time.

It brings to mind a documentary I watched on the BBC last night about Extinction Rebellion hypocrites. Organising their protests in plush homes with huge flat-screen TVs on computers powered by, yes, electricity! Staging die-ins in the warm weather, let's see if they do so midwinter eh? Oh, and gridlocking London so thousands of vehicles idling belch out the very thing they are so against, before getting into one to go home afterwards.

Apologies, I normally studiously avoid politics here and strictly speaking it's not politics. It is though laughable that they are only active in countries that allow them to do it. I haven't heard of any such demos in China, India or Russia to name but three countries which between them boast half the world population! Great, get little old UK to come to heel. See what happens if you want to try it in Shanghai or New Delhi or Moscow!

Ok rant over.

Back to climate change. I know I have only been in this city for three years but suddenly someone up above has turned on the taps. More rain this month than I have seen the entire time and a positive deluge forecast for tomorrow – half an inch. I don't care, I did the shop today so I can stay in and to be honest, a desert-locked city can use all the rain it can get.

Today was lovely at 29C but I checked Shanghai. They had 37C. The magic figure is of course 38C which is 100F. Three years ago it would not have phased me in the slightest. Now after being here with low humidity and temperatures I wonder if I will melt faster than I can ingest Magners!

Monday 22^nd July, 2019 1310

About two hours ago Annie left Lanzhou for the last time, bound for Chengdu to spend a few days before jetting off to Taiwan and ultimately home to Los Angeles.

Last night she and Alice came here. I had said I wouldn't be cooking but on Saturday I had batch cooked chilli con carne puff slices and frozen a load, so it was simplicity itself to simply bung them in the oven. With two lemons in danger of going to waste I decided I would bake a cake as well. So it turned into the Last Supper.

Alice had given her a scrapbook with messages from her, Eli and me, I never bought anything but did give her a memento of the university which will probably end up on her mum's mantelpiece. She in turn had bought me a piggy bank! It's a most odd-looking thing, sort of a cross between Baloo the bear and a reindeer! It was actually quite a thoughtful present because she knows I keep the coins I get in change in empty plastic medicine bottles, reserving them for bus fares in the city.

All too soon it was time for her to depart in order to clear out the foreign teachers' office on Peili campus (now the Foreign Language Dept has relocated it will become something else) and finish her packing. She proudly told me she had been “boogy” and for her last trip to the train station had booked a car.

“What do you mean, boogy?”

“Spending money!”

“You mean 'bourgeois'?”

“What does that mean?”

“Splashing the cash!”

And so life reverts to quietude, interspersed with the odd couple of hours when Alice comes to graze, next time being Thursday for that king prawn curry I promised her. I suppose I really should take the opportunity to finally empty the two huge cardboard boxes I had sent here three years ago but have been too lazy to sort out!

Still, fifteen days before the holiday hat comes out........

Wednesday 17^th July, 2019 1640

It would seem life living in a dormitory on the main campus is not all beer and cake, as one might reasonably expect, given it is the flagship of three campuses.

I lured Alice here last night on the promise of chilli cottage pie, not enough on its own but coupled with lemon cake it proved irresistible, especially as she knew she would be taking loads back for her mates!

She wanted to take a shower but only after dinner. She occasionally did it when she stayed on Peili campus but normally because there were huge queues. This time it was because the showers where she is are “disgustingly filthy”.

She tucked into what I felt was a pretty spicy cottage pie (enough for me to almost break sweat) and immediately added Linghams chilli sauce to her plate! Now here's where it gets interesting. While she was demolishing a pretty large portion, twice what I managed, she said “Oh, your food is so real!” I asked what she meant and she told me the food in the main campus canteen which is still open is shit and much of it is too spicy – if she says that then there's no hope for me if I am staying there next term over my lunch break unless the other cafeterias are kinder! Being summer holiday only one canteen is open and she said every time she eats there it costs her thirty yuan (or about £3.50). That may seem cheap to the readers but on the odd occasion I have dared to sample school food I have never paid more than a third of that. I can only assume the canteen that is open is the “gourmet” one that volunteered in order to rake in the money while the others were closed. Maybe it's a teachers canteen.

She knows she can come every night for some real food but of course it involves half an hour each way on the bus and incredibly, just like in Chizhou, the dormitories close at 2200. Equally, a teacher conducts a “lights-out” patrol to check they are all tucked up in bed! She is loath to go AWOL in case they rescind her residency for the holidays, her reluctance is understandable but bloody hell, legally ALL the students are adults!

I think I said this before but they also try it on the teachers. I accept it if it doesn't bother me but when Brenda sent me a “travel request” form to complete I took issue. Now I do understand that out of courtesy the school should know if I am on my travels in case a hospital (or God forbid police station!) in another city calls them about me. I have always kept them informed of my travel arrangements. However, Brenda also asked me to correct any mistakes on her form. I did. I have no idea whether she sends my version to the other foreign teachers but mine is headed “Travel Advice”. I am not a minor or a prisoner. If I am on holiday from teaching I do not need their permission.

Kevin has swallowed the chalk. After being discarded by Huangshan he has decided a decade in China is enough and he will be in the Philippines by the end of the month. He has two years until his pension kicks in and so will need part-time work to tide him over and he is hoping to obtain online tutoring. Rather him than me, it's bad enough face to face but on Skype?

Oh, and the rush to get my passport to Brenda to submit it for a new residence permit last week? She still hasn't asked Alice to bring it to her. I hate to panic but......

Sunday 14^th July, 2019 1730

Having now ensured I have enough medicines to last until the next payday in September I decided to order a top-up for my cigar stash to do likewise. Those readers not addicted to anything will not understand that being somewhere where something you like, indeed need, is not freely available means opportunities must be taken as they present.

In Anhui province my brand is abundant, that's where they are produced, but it is well documented here that in Lanzhou it is scarce and others which are less desirable are thrice the price for half the size.

With just one box of a hundred from that gigantic stash of 3,000 I posted a photograph of some time ago left plus 600 purchased last month, I figured I needed 300 more to see me through. Last month I had actually asked for 500 but Mr Jing Jo found someone with 600 so bought that amount. I cannot complain, he's the most reliable source here and we are friends. He really wants to help - as well as take a profit.

So two days ago I asked for 500 rather than 300 to make it worth his while sourcing and collecting them and prayed he wouldn't get 600 again. Not because I won't smoke them but because I am doing my damnedest to conserve money for my holiday.

He didn't get 600. He got 800!!! I currently have 1,500 of them.

I now have enough smokes to last until October's payday!

That's put paid to any eating out before we leave. No great hardship other than the fact I will need to cook more when I was rather looking forward to taking it very easy indeed. Batch cooking of cottage pies, prawn and mushroom curries and the like loom large now. The trouble is, with Alice now living on the main campus I am cooking for one. I have no incentive. I understand why the single elderly in Britain rely on Farm Foods and meals on wheels!

In fact I think tomorrow I will make a load of cottage pies and a lemon drizzle cake, I have space in my freezer again.

I was reading on both the UK and Chinese news sites recently that nineteen people were arrested in (I think) Jiangsu province (next to Anhui) for drug offences. Four were British. Doing what I do. Reading between the lines, whatever their drug of choice is/was, I reckon they were doing it with their students.

Really? In a country where smuggling gets you a high-velocity piece of lead through the back of the skull and your students grass you up for the slightest thing you say in class – such as that Hong Kong used to be British? I should reach for Roget's to find a superlative for “stupid”. I am guessing when their “adminstrative detention” (15 days in the slammer) is up, they are out of a job and out of the country on the next plane. If ever anyone reads about me in the same situation, do not believe it!

Wednesday 10^th July, 2019 1805

My life is never complete without problems but why, oh why, do they always have to have monetary implications?

My contract stipulates that I get a certain amount of travelling money to see the country during spring festival (pretty standard with public universities) and also reimbursement for a round-trip flight to my home country each year, normally in summer and also standard.

This place is something else. The spring festival payment is made in February when the holiday is coming to an end and is therefore of no use when it counts. That I have handled.

Now, if you do not fly to your home country at any time during the year or cannot provide a receipt, they do in fairness pay you the same amount as in the spring festival anyway so at least if I went to Barbados or Vietnam I would receive a payment.

Since I have been here I have not returned to the UK so have only qualified for the minimum payment and Brenda has secured payment for the past two years with my July salary – bear in mind this uni does not pay you for August.

An hour before my pay went into my bank two days ago Brenda called me to tell me accounts would not give me the travel money until September, eight days after I start work again! Holiday pay is now after holidays pay. And if you fly to your home country you have to submit receipts AND boarding passes once you return! Therefore if you do go home, don't expect reimbursement until it is too late to spend it on holiday. If I do decide to go home and fly business class (getting too used to not being in cattle class!) then not only will I not get my full fare but I will have to wait for the economy portion as well.

I did pose the question as to what would happen were I to leave the school never to return and move to another country, would they pay me in September when I had no way of getting the money out? Oh no, they would pay you in July! So because I am staying I have to wait for money that will be paid when I need no receipt or proof of flying? No answer. Logic here is often absent.

I will not be caught with my pants down next year, I will expect it but it has given me serious cause for concern over my upcoming sojourn in Shanghai. It's an expensive place to be, less expensive than Paris but more so than London. It now means that for most of this vacation I will be doing SFA in order to conserve money (already going to have to – admittedly expectedly – utilise my UK account at the Visa exchange rate and then get stung for 2.75% foreign transaction fee plus 2% cash fee on top!) so not unnaturally I am none too happy.

I at least have a safety net (a sister who I can repay within 4 weeks) which I will endeavour not to use but short of hibernating in Shanghai a few nights out out of seven I cannot see any way my money will last, it costs in excess of 1,000¥ a day – but thankfully it does mean a bumper pay in September so I should be able to repay a debt from last year. By mid-October I intend to be completely debt-free!

Oh, and then just to piss me off further, Brenda, despite my protests, has demanded my passport and work permit. She is submitting them for renewal for another year. The residence permit was valid until 5^th September so I will lose two months – two months I basically paid for because I had to go to Hong Kong three years ago at my expense, remember? And that cost a month's salary.

Now, ONE: The passport had better be back before 7^th August or I cannot travel and TWO: I have sent her an email to make sure that when the accounts (very tempting to omit the “U”) dept shut down for summer on Friday they give her the money to pay for me to retrieve my passport because I do not intend to pay for it and wait until September to get it back. It's only 400¥ but as they have already withheld 3,500¥ it really would be salt in the open sore.

Situation normal. And there are some people who think I love China unconditionally........

Sunday 7^th July, 2019 1920

The “relief from the heat” which we never had is by my reckoning coming tonight. I think it will belt it down later. It has indeed been pleasant to be able to go out clad in just a shirt but not once have I broken sweat. In fact it has been most pleasant.

Knowing as I did that rain was on the way, I was concerned about the China Mobile junction box on the building opposite. A couple of kids were working on it yesterday and failed to close it properly so it flapped in the wind. I have no idea whether it serves my internet or not, hence my concern. It would seem someone else, perhaps from that building, shared the concern for I now see the door is now firmly closed.

I am not sure how I feel about the impending rainstorm. That bastard bird won't be chirping away all night but I will get the incessant sound of raindrops hitting my window prison bars. I love the sound of rain outside normally, it's a constant noise and science tells us constant noise is better for sleep than utter silence. But “pling, pling, pling” on aluminium is not. I need earplugs.

Alice and Lillith came earlier. Having for the past two years taken the Mickey out of my pinching hotel freebies such as bars of soap, containers of shampoo and body lotion and slippers, she is now about to appreciate it. Shanghai, with its new draconian rubbish laws has seen to it that hotels no longer offer free stuff. We will take my stash with us.

Even better, they came tonight to “borrow” a couple of hotel toothbrushes because soon they move dormitories to the new campus!

If I had 100¥ for every time a Chinese had ridiculed my actions and they turned out to be useful I would not be worrying about the expense of the Shanghai trip.

Anyway, I have the feeling tomorrow night is the last time we will see Annie. I haven't had time to fulfil all I wanted to do but she will get her smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels and, I hope, banana cake and cream if I get it right.

After years at sea I should be used to goodbyes but still I am not.

Saturday 6^th July, 2019 2045

I have now had communication from the Chinese teaching college (emails mostly, for some reason my flat appears to be less than perfect for mobile calls) and to my astonishment they asked me for teaching plans!

I don't do them.

Especially when they said there will be no course book!

Ok, I've been there before and I can make my own lessons but no way was I providing detailed teaching plans, I don't even do that for English majors, waste of everyone's time when you are teaching oral English or any language for that matter. Five minutes in and the plan goes out of the nearest window.

Oh no, just an idea of the topics would be fine. Thirty minutes later they had it, straight from the book I wanted them to buy but they won't. In addition I stamped my ownership and told them I do not teach the full two lessons, we have part of a film or an activity after the unit is done, I trust this is acceptable? You can guess the rest.

I teach my way, the way I wish my teachers had taught. There were a couple I could mention in my learning years, Woollie and Hawkeye at Conway for instance but in the main the others ranged between oh and oh no.

Andy my cleaner came today. Last time this academic year. He finishes his exams on Wednesday and then at the weekend he, along with the rest of the foreign language department students, move to the main campus.

I guessed correctly that as he has found a summer job in Baiyin or the environs that today was the last time until next academic year. He wants to become a teacher. A baptism of fire is what awaits. Private summer school, kids aged ten to twelve. Been there, done that. I never dismembered any but I felt like it. He gets 100¥ a day for working all morning and a bed to sleep on. No food but he assured me he and his roommates will be given money to prepare or buy their own meals. Slave labour but common for students and to be honest, damned good experience and a chance to see whether they can cut it in the real world later.

I gave him all the tips I could from my time teaching the little brats in Chizhou and I hope they come in handy.

I have been reading the news lately and headlines in various places have been saying north China should get relief from the heat soon. What bloody heat? A stone's throw from the Gobi desert and only a few days ago I stopped using my heater entirely. Yes, lately it has been rather pleasant outside at 25-27C but unlike Chizhou or Shanghai, here the humidity is non-existent. I don't even have air-conditioning in my place and so far thankfully I have not needed it.

I do have one problem though.

Somebody above me now keeps a bird.

I have a problem with birds in cages anyway but I have a bigger problem when it seems they are put outside at night so I can't sleep! Normally birds sleep after dark and wake at dawn. That I can understand. This sodding thing makes a noise all night – two, three in the morning as well – and it's bleeding loud.

I haven't had the impetus yet to walk all the way around to try and see whose it is yet but I will. Can't see it by looking out of my bedroom window.

Thursday 4^th July, 2019 1430

I had a call from Delia (dean of the foreign language dept) this morning. She has now been informed I will be in her charge, so to speak, and she actually asked if I would agree to do certain tasks.

Somewhat disappointingly they want Eli to teach oral English to the freshmen next term, would I consent to teaching pronunciation? Well I haven't the faintest idea of how to construct a course on that - yet. I have requested the course text book so as to prepare and with enough time, to modify it to my own standards. I will have five classes per week (ten lessons) and I thought “Well that's not so bad, I have gotten used to only four classes on east campus!”

Then she hit me with “Can you also teach two classes per week to non-English majors?” My heart sank and I replied that I had just served three years doing precisely that and had made my feelings known on the matter. It transpires that those two classes will be either sophomores or juniors studying to teach Chinese to westerners. She swore blind that their level of English is far superior to what I have been used to here and, given that they will need a competent level to teach westerners (the total immersion method certainly hasn't worked for me in reverse, I still can't string a conversation in Chinese together!), I have taken her word for it and will take them for oral classes. Whether I will be under the wing of the dean for the translation department or not I have no clue.

But that takes me up to 75% more classes than I have been accustomed to lately so it will be a wrench. I also thankfully remembered to ask that she ensured my timetable included either Tuesday or Thursday afternoon off. I am guessing I will now be back to one weekday off instead of three. As the only foreign teacher not billeted within the confines of Peili campus, where the foreign accommodation has unlimited supplies of electricity and gas, I have to physically organise my own. Gas I can buy any day of the week but Mama Electric only works those afternoons and now I have her trained to give me decent amounts I at least only have to visit her every couple of months. But it has to be Tuesday or Thursday.

So although nothing is set in stone I am guessing that's the next year sorted. After the call I did have to chuckle though. They are giving freshmen to Eli, an American who will teach them oral American and then I will spend all my time trying to undo the damage he has inflicted and convert them to English pronunciation!

And all this on the day the USA celebrates booting us out.

Tuesday, 2^nd July, 2019 1740

It's not often in China that you encounter “odd”people but during the past week I have managed it twice.

On my way on the bus to my last day on east campus there was someone who kept breaking into song – in Chinese of course. He was behind me somewhere but I couldn't see who it was, it was a rush hour morning bus, the sort in China where people are jamming their handbags or their buttocks into you when you are fortunate (or smart) enough to have a seat.

Not a soul batted an eyelid even though he would have been immediately eliminated from China's Got Talent. Just my luck, he was travelling all the way to the end, same as me.

As the passengers thinned out near the end of the journey, he took to pacing the bus, giving involuntary movements and occasionally clutching his shaven head that was adorned with sores. I have absolutely no idea what was wrong with him (except maybe Tourette's) but of one thing I am certain - I doubt very much he was receiving any care.

Am I any better than everyone else who simply ignored him? Maybe not, for when he started pacing up and down the vehicle he was looking everyone squarely in the eye. The Chinese feigned not noticing, I stared back, daring him to even think about doing anything. I admit that like most people, I have limited knowledge of what to do with mad people, even less when they are bonkers in a different language! The fists clench even if the temper is held in check.

And yesterday I went to the jing-jo shop. The customer who entered before me struck me as somewhat odd. A man aged somewhere between fifty and my age, clad in slippers and pyjamas! Male. Pink pyjamas.

In Chizhou female students would often go to get a takeaway on campus in their nightwear but never the boys and I have never seen a student here regardless of sex doing it. He spoke to Mrs Jing Jo, bought nothing and walked out. Using body language I expressed the opinion that during mid-afternoon it was somewhat strange for a middle-aged man to be out and about in pyjamas. Her body language in response was pretty clear!

So Monday will be Annie's last meal with us. She is not leaving China until 2^nd August (from Chengdu after she does yet more Peace Corps shit) but she leaves this university next Tuesday to go and do even more Peace Corps crap at another university for thirteen hours a day and for ten days – unpaid.

So I had asked her and Alice to come with me tomorrow lunchtime for a Whopper and shopping at Metro. Tonight Annie cancelled, citing that she had been summoned by the director and Brenda. Clearly they are taking her for a last lunch and best of luck to her but it reinforced my hatred of the Chinese “snap our fingers and you drop everything” mentality. As any regular readers know, I never renege on arrangements made from a subsequent invitee regardless of who it is. I don't like it being done to me and I don't do it to others.

As I was taken by surprise at her earlier than expected leaving I have planned next Monday as being a none-to-little cooking day type of meal. For over a year I have promised that one day I would give her smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels and so I will. Despite my own preference for plain, I have ordered (at her suggestion) “everything” bagels as well. Tomorrow I hope to buy the salmon and cheese, if it is a problem we have time to order online.

If she has to cancel following another invitation from the school then I will never forgive her.