Friday 22nd March, 2013           1830

A busy old day as it turned out. A full morning of classes during which I was partially successful in rescheduling them for two weeks time. We have the Qingming festival coming up on the 4th April but the school; as they invariably do; made a one day into a three day holiday. Actually it is nothing of the kind, it is still a one day holiday but we have the 4th, 5th and 6th off. Considering the 4th is a public holiday, the 5th is a Friday and the 6th is Saturday which we get off anyway and we have to teach Friday’s classes on Sunday, effectively it is still one day off. I thought if the Friday classes could move all their lessons for that day to earlier in the week they could enjoy a 4 day break instead. The first class is happy (it will mean I will have 8 lessons on the Monday though!) and the second class agreed as long as the other teacher they get also agrees.

I took Pepsi for her final set of injections at lunchtime and whilst there grabbed a bite and did some shopping. I still have more to do because with her aboard I am limited to using just the top box for carrying, whereas if I am alone I can use the floor pan. Important things for tomorrow are two big bags, one of flour and the other of dog biscuits. They are still forecasting rain for tomorrow but each time I look the amount of water has gone down. I am hoping it won’t rain at all and they will stick to the all day blackout scheduled, if it rains it will be postponed - doubtless to a day I will be on campus for most of.

I got a surprise call from Rinka an hour ago. She has returned from Shanghai to take the TEM8 exam tomorrow. Instead of giving us notice she wanted to surprise us and treat us to dinner but sadly the surprise is hers. Kevin is teaching tonight and because of the workload tomorrow there is no way I can even contemplate going downtown tonight. We have though made arrangements for her to treat me (and maybe Kevin) to lunch tomorrow before she goes back.

I also had a bit of good news this morning. My second class informed me they have no lessons next week as they are carrying out “community service” which basically consists of weeding and picking up stones from the grassed areas of campus. Not only that, three of my other classes are doing likewise. Great - I will have a week where I teach the same amount as Kevin and if I read my rota correctly I don’t have to get up early on Monday and I have Tuesday off. Whoopee!

Saturday 23rd         1800

I am seriously tired now. Flipping kids take so much more out of you than adult uni students. Rinka came to the school after she finished her exam but she cocked it up because her plan was to take both Kevin and I to “Popo Fish” for lunch. As the name implies, it is a fish hotpot restaurant I have been to before and a stones throw from that school. The problem was, she forgot she had also promised the school owner’s wife she would have lunch with her! Lily (the wife) is heavily pregnant with their first - and probably only - child and made a real effort to cook loads of food in school.

So we ended up with Kevin and me thinking we were going to a restaurant and the owners thinking we were having a “school dinner”. In fairness, I did suggest perhaps we should eat in because of the effort Lily had put in and privately I also thought that with her being late and with only 80 minutes left until my afternoon class, a restaurant lunch may have been a bit rushed for me at least. As it happened, although I know Kevin wasn’t best pleased, the food was very nice - well at least the three dishes I tucked heartily into were, dumplings, prawns and pork!

When I finished it was raining but my prayers had after all been answered. It was dry when I left this morning so the power maintenance went ahead on schedule and they restored the supply at about three so I never even noticed it was off. Thank you chaps!

I may possibly have accrued an inordinately busy month or so ahead. Both Kiki and Qing should be back in a week or two - Kiki just for a couple of days but Qing said she may stay with me (and risk being barren!) for a couple of weeks - and my friend Steve from the Hilton is coming hopefully for the weekend 4/5 May. I am going to need those little holidays coming up.