Wednesday 3rd April, 2013          1800

For some reason unknown to me today was a struggle. Maybe it was knowing once it was over I have three days off.

At lunchtime Cinny sent me a message to inform me that as from Sunday (when this week we will catch up Friday’s classes) the lunch hour has been extended, rather than as before, after the Mayday holiday. Except this year instead of afternoon classes starting at 1430 instead of 1330 they are starting at 1400. Suits me, I don’t sleep at lunchtime anyway so it will mean I finish half an hour earlier than anticipated.

After I finished blogging yesterday I had even more disappointing news. I had a message from Qing to say that her mother was being kept in hospital on a drip and she had to stay with her (they do that here) and so now her ETA is Saturday. It is a shame because two days off will be wasted when I could have spent them with her.

Surprise, surprise! My afternoon class of 39 pupils shrank to 29! I certainly wasn’t expecting that the day before a holiday now was I? the problem of course for nine of them - one had the decency to inform me beforehand - is that they either forgot my rules or simply don’t care. They have all lost considerable marks at the end of term. I am not stupid, I know some will go home early and all I ask is that they tell me - preferably the truth instead of feigning a head or stomach ache. In fact if the entire class had bunked off I could have started my own holiday early!

I had ideas of popping to town this evening for dinner but as it has been far chillier than forecast and we have had unexpected light rain since about five I changed my mind. Dinner tonight will be jacket potatoes and cheese - hopefully tomorrow will be the 24C they said it would be and I will go shopping and have lunch. I live in hope and the bike is on charge.

Thursday 4th          2000

Qingming festival, which is a national day off for people to honour their ancestors by sweeping their tombs, burning spirit money, leaving food and drink etc. I of course did no such thing, instead I went to town on a lovely pleasant day, had some lunch and bought animal feed. I am getting a bit low on cat biscuits and I am not impressed that for two weeks now Lottemart has only had the dog variety. If they don’t get their act together very shortly then I will have to resort to the internet and if I do that then I may as well do it online forever. Bloody useless - still no bacon after six months, ditto sunflower spread - let alone butter. I can just see them doing that with rice!

Anyway, that’s it. My flight and hotel for the summer are booked, so this year I will actually get back to Blighty for a short break. I had to pay £20 more for my flight  because the weekend I found the cheapest option for my friend the Hilton manager is in Shanghai. I have delayed a week so I can travel up on the Saturday, stay over the weekend and then fly out on Monday evening. I did though save a tenner on the hotel so all is not bad. The timings are quite civilised with both journeys leaving in the evening and arriving mid-morning. The only bugbear is that on the return I will have an overnight stay in Guangzhou (Canton) but a decent hotel near the airport will set me back less than £20 and of course I won’t be knackered when I get to Hefei to face a four hour bus trip to here. Now all I have to do is save some spending money!