Christmas Day 2020 2300

Well it's late for some readers and still early for others. Some have been celebrating with gay abandon, others not so. My poor sister was going to spend the day with baby sis, hubby and nephew and yesterday was notified on her phone she has to self isolate for 6 days because she has been in contact with a carrier. Her day and my baby sister's day ruined and I feel for them – particularly as the apparent “contact” took place on a day she never even left her home. The continuing ineptitude of the so called developed countries never ceases to astound me.

But I sincerely hope you either enjoyed your home-cooked traditional dinner, M&S food or whatever. I mean really, it is in fact just another day and were I to count, over half of my working life I have worked Christmas days. And one day when I wasn't working I went to hospital as Santa to bring the kids some cheer! Brenda sent me an email saying how sorry she was I never had a holiday for Christmas. She never checked my rota, I was off today anyway but I said what the hell, this is China! And let's face it, both Chinese and foreign teachers get an awful lot of holidays each year! I did promise myself once I would count the number of days I actually worked but I lost count, maybe for my last year I will do that. I am sure they will number less than 180.

Anyway, tonight I went to collect Melody to take her for our dinner. The traffic was dire but then it was Friday night. First of all when we got to campus the driver panicked because he couldn't understand the body language for “wait” when I exited the cab (as if a foreigner in China could get away with doing a runner!) to let Melody in and subsequently bump his fare from 15 to 76¥ - so I did him a favour unless he had an urgent appointment instead.

Melody paid for the fare. Much against my wishes. That was not part of the plan. But ok, we went into the restaurant late due to traffic although we did ring to warn them.

If I am completely honest the meal was dreadful. The inclusive Oz wine was reminiscent of the Melbourne Muddies of the 70s (meaning I was forced to order Tanqueray and tonic -which they forgot to charge for!) and our table was near the door. There are a lot of things I like about the Chinese but there are things I loath. One is their seeming inability to close a bloody door after they enter or leave. Where we were sat, every time the door opened (and it was indeed freezing outside) we were treated to Siberia and I really wanted to kill dozens of inconsiderate people tonight. Thankfully eventually staff would shut the damned door and I could rewarm a bit.

The meal itself was not good. Mushroom soup with black truffles and sous vied egg sounds great when John Torrode or Greg Wallace say it but basically we had it the way they do on the show – stone cold. It was like a gazpacho. One quadrant of my soup was tepid, the rest bloody frozen. I am sure the egg provided the heat.

Then we had the foie gras and scallop, I had one scallop and got Melody to eat everything else. Next came the king prawn linguini which was two prawns but they were big, next was the beef wellington which was, I have to say, an enormous disappointment given that it was the reason I went for the set Christmas menu. The beef wasn't tender and if had been it could have been good. I have made better.

Dessert was one crème brulee. So you think I ate half? Hahah! As much as I wanted to, I implored Melody to eat it – it wasn't that big. And she loved it. She had bought me gifts of biscuits, sponge cakes and a lighter I can never fly with in China! I had to let her have it.

So yes, it was not good but Melody is sweet and she being Chinese is used to cold food and guess what? Her parents came to collect us and drop me back home! Saved me another taxi fare. And the bill was only 400¥.

Charlie's Burger? They should stick to what they are good at, burgers! And they are good at those!