Tuesday 15th January, 2013          1530

Nobody has commented on my recent error where I reverted to 2012! I think it usually takes me three months to automatically remember the correct year.

Christ I am tired today. I am definitely going to have a sleep after I take Pepsi to the shops. Why am I tired? I persuaded Anita (Chinese name Qing, pronounced “Ching”) to stay last night and go home today. We had leftover Bolognese last night and I made her some cinnamon and raisin bread which she loved - so much so that she took the rest of the loaf back to Tongling.

At a little after midnight we were going to call it a day but I received a Skype video call which delayed me until nearer one. No problem, no need to get up too early was there? Factor in text messages to her phone under the pillow at six this morning from a classmate informing her they were on the bus home and giving today’s weather forecast and you have one wide awake author. Doubly bad, it precipitated the Serengetti “wildebeest that look like cats” migration with the bed cropping up multiple times as an obstacle along the way. I did try to drop off again but not before we cuddled so she could get nice and warm from my heat. I am sure I am not the only person in the world who loves to have a girl close by using their arm for a pillow. The trouble is, eventually the arm goes dead and you have such an urge to change position that you can neither get back to sleep nor move because you don’t want to wake the girl. Couple that with a hacking cough I have picked up in the last 24 hours which saw me trying to muffle it in the pillow and you will understand why I am so weary.

Kevin came to campus to get his travel money so he kindly took Ching to the station and me downtown. Hopefully she will return Thursday or Friday. I needed the cash point to pay him back, collect my cigars and buy some meat for the brood. I treated him to a slap up lunch at Ke Bi Wang which without my beer would have been all of 36y. No way was I walking home from a bus with heavy shopping so I took a cab and unusually he went on the meter. Normally they want 30y off it but this time it only cost 25y. So before I fall asleep at my desk I will take Pepsi out, buy some Werthers facsimiles for my cough and then grab a couple of hours. Under no circumstances (barring fire or an earthquake) will I be stirring early in the morning. Living with someone is hard on the sleep patterns at first.

Today is also tinged with sadness. Not only am I alone now but my best friend Kiki left for Beijing - maybe for good - yesterday afternoon. She has left immense holes in both my life and my heart and I can only hope she fulfils her promise to stay in touch.

Wednesday 16th        1130

I never took a nap after all. Whilst out I started to feel even worse so decided if I was going to feel awful after waking up, I preferred only to do it once in a day! I called it a day at eleven and “died” for the next nine hours. Although still rough, I feel measurably better.

Hopefully by now Qing has ordered a wifi router on the internet - Kevin suggested it as a solution to both of us being able to use our computers at once in here. The price of a decent one was pleasantly surprising - 53y (or just over a fiver) including free delivery. I of course have no idea how to set it up but of course Kevin can do it for me provided it arrives before he leaves on the 25th. The only possible problem I foresee is that maybe the students who collect the parcels from downtown may have disappeared off home before it comes, which will mean having to identify which depot it has been sent to in the city and then collecting it.

Soon Kevin is going to move back to campus. He has decided he needs to save money on electricity downtown (it is free for us here) and now Daisy has left for her hometown Fuyan he is all alone, much as I would be now Kiki has gone were it not for Qing. I had thought perhaps that the students would all leave during next week but I may have assumed wrongly - the exodus is starting today and they may be gone by Monday. That means all the shops and cafes will close shortly after, leaving me to either cook every day or go downtown. At least the buses will be empty then.

Right, time to wrap this up and hope 305 is home. She borrowed my plunger a week ago and hasn’t returned it and now my own loo is blocked - easy to do seeing as all I flushed were some tissues I used to blow my nose because the pipe gauges in China are ridiculously small.

Oh great! Just been up there and she left it outside my door later the same day. That’s where we leave our rubbish for the building supervisor to collect! Arrgghh!