Thursday 8th November, 2012         1630

I rose early at six thirty to be showered and dressed ready for the odd job man to come and take a look at the bathroom door handle I removed, I had been using pliers to open the door for two days. He duly fixed that so I went to the sports field to watch two of my students compete in the 200m. Whilst there I got chatting to a history freshman by the name of Selina and found she was running the 800m at two. She is quite a nice girl so I said I would try to get back from shopping downtown to watch her.

I took the bus because it is a gloomy day with spits of rain and went to Lottemart primarily to buy animal meat. by chance when I was looking at the pasta shelf for macaroni (I never found any but did buy some small penne which will serve) I spotted - wait for it - cornflakes!!!! I am not a great fan, preferring bran flakes, but when you see something you haven’t in over two years you simply have to buy some! Bloody expensive at 23y a box but I now have one in my cupboard.

I met up with Kevin by arrangement in KFC. I had contacted him to ask about the new curry they are doing so he drove down. I wasn’t impressed with the breaded pork cutlet (whole) with rice and curry sauce, and even less impressed with his Italian style chicken which had a most peculiar sauce so next time I go there I will stick to the nuggets and fries as usual. Very kindly he drove me back to campus and I cajoled him into coming to watch Selina race. Just before two she sent me a message to say she had misinformed me and she was running at three. Ok, so we watched other races and the shot put for an hour and then observed three 800m races but I never spotted or recognised her in any of them! Granted, I have only met her for ten minutes but either I am going blind or she didn’t run.
Update: she did run but wasn’t placed.

One good thing that happened though was that Joanna surprised me by almost jumping on my back. She has had a change of heart and has also entered the 800m but for tomorrow so I hope she will let me know when her race is so I can make a point of being there. I don’t know and neither does she if she will win because her optimum distance is 1500m but I am sure she will give them a run for it.

Friday 9th      1045

The cornflakes taste more like crisps in milk than cornflakes! They are firmly off my shopping list now.

I got up early again because one of my students (Alice) texted me to say she was in the 4x100m relay at 0920. Today is really gloomy although so far there has been little rain and I arrived in time to see her race and even took a photo, although until I download it with what I will take this afternoon’s I won’t know how it turned out. She was runner three but sadly her team were disqualified as runner two broke the rules somehow. I hung around chatting with a group of my pupils and eventually saw my hero of today so far. He was competing in the 5,000m and was instantly recognisable by the pink t-shirt he wore. In looks he resembled a Chinese version of Tamwar in Eastenders complete with glasses and oversized rictus grin. As a runner he was dreadful, he was last from the outset. When the ultimate winner received the bell to signal his last lap I remarked jokingly to the girls that probably the lad still had to do three more laps, and I was right! Long after everyone else had finished, he approached the finishing line thinking he was home, only to get the bell for yet one more lap. You could almost FEEL that he was thinking “oh my God!” But  another lap he did and on the home straight it brought a lump to my throat to witness thunderous roars and cheers from the spectators - myself included. He had won hearts for his dogged perseverance when I suspect most people would have simply given up.

My girls commented that they hadn’t seen many teachers attending the sports and I told them they won’t until the end of the day when the teachers race takes place - the Chinese teachers treat it as a holiday, I don’t - I feel I should go and watch as many of my lot competing as possible. I will be back there at two this afternoon as I have one girl doing the high jump and of course Joanna is running at three.

Tomorrow is the tai chi competition which starts at 0940 and is being held in the new stadium - the one I watched the basketball match in. Kevin is also going but from downtown so I will have to bike there. Knowing my luck it will rain but at least we don’t have to pay to get in.

1800

It did rain this afternoon but only came down heavily just before I left. At the start I watched a couple of my lot attempting the high jump but I don’t know why they entered because they would have been quicker just barging through the crossbar - same result! Joanna wasn’t after all in the 800m because unbeknown to me she had run previously in the initial heats, came third in her race but it wasn’t enough for her to run in the final. She admitted she never tried her best because she thought she would get through. Instead, this afternoon she was in the 4x400m relay and the team came third. She confessed she now regrets her decision not to enter her forte event, the 1500m, especially as this year they were giving out gold, silver and bronze medals instead of just certificates.

Afterwards when I gave her a lift to the bus stop I asked her how much longer she was going to carry on doing the job at the club and she said next month she will quit. I hope so because seven nights a week can’t be doing her or her studies any good at all and it gives her no social life whatever. It’s ages since she came to a western Wednesday or out somewhere for dinner with me. Selfish of me I know, but I do enjoy her company.

Sadly my posting of the day’s photographs is delayed because for some reason either the camera won’t upload to the laptop or the laptop won’t download from the camera. Something for Kevin to take a look at when he is next here.