The end of a heavy weekend of examining and now the start of the three day dragon boat holiday. My plans? Relax! I want to pop to town tomorrow to shop but other than cooking on Tuesday I just want to do as little or as much as I feel like. Apparently our passports, replete with new permits, are at the police station but Kevin is making the trip to collect them seeing as he will be staying downtown tonight.
Sadly I have little else to say today other than the fact I have a jam jar in my bathroom with red liquid in it. The woman from 305 knocked on my door to give it to me this morning. Very occasionally I bake her a loaf of bread so sometimes she brings me strange offerings, this being less odd than most. Apparently it is Chinese wine but not perhaps as we know it. It has some sort of fruit in it and she informed me if I drank it all I would be drunk. I do rather hope that not only is she right but also that it is palatable and indeed later tonight I will try it and report back - provided I survive the ordeal!
Monday 10th 1830
As feared, it was raining when I got up. Not a great deal but enough to make me question the wisdom of riding to town at all. Late morning though it dried up and got warmer so after noon I decided to chance it. I got halfway before I had to stop and get the cape out. Still, it’s done now and I don’t need to go in until Wednesday when it is forecast to be nice - I even had nuggets and chips in KFC for lunch.
We got to the bottom of all the decorating and knocking down of walls on the 1st and 2nd floor below us. They are moving all the medical facilities/consultation rooms to here from the shopping centre. Actually, “medical facilities” is too grand a term, when I went to see a doctor all he had was a thermometer and a stethoscope.
Tuesday 11th 1530
Toad in the hole day. It occurred to me last night that not only have I not made it with limited resources in China but in fact I have only ever made it once before! Admittedly it was fine that time but I am also trying something different - onions. There will be onions in the toad and I am also attempting to concoct homemade onion gravy. Kevin meanwhile has been appointed officer i/c peas and carrots seeing as I can’t be running between the two flats tending to two different hotplates. It will be hard enough trying to time the mash and the gravy seeing as they can’t both cook at the same time. It’s a shame the bangers aren’t great shakes.
Dragon boat day 1900
I had better post this before the regulars start thinking I am dead.
It’s not often I have a complete disaster in the culinary department and to be fair last night wasn’t one of them. Disappointing (preceded by extremely) would be nearer the mark. Take ten allegedly British butchers sausages that had the consistency of sawdust, an oven which is hit and miss on temperature and batter which steadfastly refused to rise or even set properly and you can imagine! The result was bangers that were black on top and batter that wasn’t crispy and golden. The mash was fine as was the onion gravy - my first ever attempt. Ollivier’s chocolate mousses were, I have to confess, really good - if a little on the sweet side. I think that may well be the last time I ever try to buy authentic sausages in China. You may see the result in the photo.
After two days of holiday rain today was gorgeous. I rode to town in the full knowledge (as we expected) that payday would be late this month and bought some chicken breasts for the brood. For lunch I went to the newly refurbished place in the Lottemart mall. I had a burger type thing with chicken mince & chilli that was fine but the noodles were a different matter. In the photo the dish looked great but in reality not so. I think (and hope) the meat was chopped chicken livers but it tasted so awful I left the vast majority of it. If I ever go there again I will just order two of the burger dooberries.
Back on campus Coco returned from home equipped with four zongs for me that her mother made. Very sweet of her and her mum but I can’t see me eating them tonight so they are in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.
That’s it for now. Three days off haven’t done me the slightest good but at least I have just seven more working days until the long holiday!
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