Sunday 27th January, 2013 2100
She did come back yesterday lunchtime, not in the happiest of moods though because she had wasted her time in going to see schools/teachers who offer Arabic. Said mood improved a couple of hours later when she located a private tutor on the net, who although on holiday elsewhere is normally based in Hefei. He speaks Arabic, French, English and Chinese so she is hoping that after the spring festival she can meet him and that he is as good as she hopes.
I did make pizzas and it was the first test of the newly purchased pizza trays. What a difference they make! No more soggy middle and perfectly cooked all over. And she did eat two! We stayed in all day apart from an hour when we took Pepsi out and visited the wild puppies that hang around the sweet pork place. I had to be up at 0630 today and intended to get an early night but it was past midnight when I did clock off.
I had the pronunciation testing at the little school from 0900-1100 and I suggested Qing come with me. I had been told that due to a family birthday party they would be unable to take me to lunch afterwards so I said I would take her for a prawn hotpot. The forecast, even when I woke up, was for a high of 11C and sunny. Accordingly I never donned long johns or took my gauntlets. It was foggy and remained so and it was bloody freezing! Aside from being conducted outside in a public square in the cold my work was as always pleasant with Helen’s students. I was glad to see she has 46 of them because she seems to do a good job.
To my surprise, at the end we were indeed invited for lunch. Fine by me as it was better than paying myself, and I asked about the party. They would go after lunch. We went to a renowned dumpling restaurant (there are three in the chain here but I don’t know if they are national) Wan Qing if I have the spelling correct. I must admit they do lovely fried jowza and today for the first time in China I was given a soup I liked! It was tomato and pork and - sheer bliss - there were no bones in the pork. She took me there once before and I think she must be a regular as both times they had a private room free for us. A big bonus was the heating. I warmed up enough to take off my coat. Unfortunately because of the party they decamped early but left Qing and me to continue eating.
She had said she was going home to Tongling afterwards anyway and the plan had been to take her to the station. The location of the restaurant was a huge plus considering the cold, for it was 300 yards from the bus route and all I had to do was drop her off there and it was also on my way home. Timing doesn’t get much better though. With one bus every 40 minutes no sooner had we stopped than the bus arrived and she jumped off the bike and hopped straight on the bus. No time for anything other than a quick goodbye and a wave from the window.
It is doubtful she will be back before Friday and I have promised her lasagne that day. A good amount of my day will be spent cooking because I will need to prepare three days of animal food as well - we will go to Hefei together Saturday morning and I need to make sure they don’t get hungry. That’s when they wreck the place. In fact I am getting the evil eye right now because I had a kip earlier and their dinner is late.
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