Junior Junk Mail

Thursday 4th July, 2013               2130

Not a good day. My aircon unit has been raining inside my home for a couple of days but last night it simply wasn’t up to the task. I spent a restless night with nothing on atop the bed feeling uncomfortable and so have requested a technician (I use the word loosely) to call. He can’t make it until five or six tomorrow afternoon. Great, tomorrow afternoon I had arranged to take Joanna to the bank to get my sterling and take her for dinner afterwards.

Bless her, she agreed to bring it forward even though I know she was looking forward to just relaxing for the rest of the day after her last exam this morning. Going on the bike was out - fine for me but she would have got sunburnt - so I collected her at one-thirty to go and get the 29 bus. I was dubious because I knew the exodus of students with suitcases leaving for the summer holidays would have started already and indeed it had.

We were extremely fortunate because there were two buses at the south gate, one full and with people standing, the other empty with closed doors and the driver smoking a cigarette. I suggested we go to the one which would be later as there would be more of a chance of both of us getting a seat and as it turned out we were the first to think of it. We had to wait five minutes in the baking heat but I ensured we were the first to board by standing in close proximity to the doors to deter any eager beavers from even thinking about pushing in. We were the first two through the door.

With Kevin’s tale of languishing in the bank for two hours to get his cash I anticipated the same but in fact when the counters opened at two-thirty we only had to wait ten minutes before a teller called over to Joanna and asked in Chinese “how much does he want?” She told him and he beckoned us over without pressing the button which heralds the next ticket number. Result #1. It did though take half an hour for him to complete the paperwork marathon required to actually exchange currencies. I had checked online for the exchange rate before I left and so I had a rough idea of how much I would have to pay but I was extremely surprised to have to pay just a few yuan above the published rates, in fact near enough 300y than I had guessed. I have since seen on the news that the pound fell sharply so thanks Mr Cameron!

While we were waiting to be served Joanna became the victim of Chinese promises (so it’s not just foreigners it happens to!) because the summer job she had lined up fell through as we were sitting there. This caused me anxiety on two fronts: firstly I care about what happens to her and I know she wanted to be independent this summer and secondly I thought she may decide to go home after all and leave me with no cat sitter. Within minutes though she had arranged an interview for another job at a purposely set up summer school in town run by another student so I agreed to accompany her to the interview.

The big initiative test was actually locating the place in room 404 in a veritable rabbit warren of blocks. Eventually and after much walking we found it. The job is terrible in my opinion as it is 6 hours teaching a day, 7 days a week for four weeks and the pay quoted (after I did a quick calculation) is 15y or £1.50 per hour. The minimum for a student in my book should be 25y. Not only that but she can either start at 0730 each day and finish at 1630 - there’s a long lunch break - or start 0930 and finish at 1830. I honestly thought she would turn it down but she took it. Her justification was that they will provide lunch and dinner daily and her classes will have a maximum of six pupils.

I applaud her desire to earn some money of her own but question the sagacity of the decision. It’s her choice but I do feel for her as she is starting tomorrow morning. She really wanted to go home for a few days on Sunday but now she can’t. Still, it’s all experience.

When we left there I told her to choose where we went for dinner, somewhere she really wanted to go instead of me picking my favourite places. “You don’t eat what I like - hot and spicy”. I told her it didn’t matter, she had done me a big favour so I would eat hot and spicy, so what restaurant did she want to go to? She thought for a minute before finally saying she really wanted to go to the Japanese restaurant. What Japanese restaurant? Where? I had never heard of it. She didn’t know the name or location because she had only heard about it and as I was parched I said we should find somewhere we could get a drink and she could find out where it was.

She did and we duly went. Kevin and I have passed it dozens of times and had no idea it existed. But what a find! Really clean and modern and the service is as sharp as a razor - so much so that as we approached the doors I saw someone clap his hands twice loudly and two waitresses sprang up from their seats and instantly manned the doors. We were not allowed to sit at a more intimate table. Oh no, we had to be right beside the main chef at the huge island complete with enormous hotplate where he did his thing. The doors were instantly closed and the aircon switched on.

Most people reading this won’t appreciate what it’s like being somewhere that only pretty basic fare is on offer mostly and that anything special you see on a menu is invariably neither special nor remotely as it should be. I looked at the menu - printed with photographs and captions in Chinese, Japanese and English - and was surprised to see oysters, scallops, mackerel and such on it. In the end, between us we ordered salmon sashimi (smoked salmon without the smoke), pork strip curry, t-bone steak, mackerel and what was advertised as Japanese something or other but which turned out to be fried jowza. Yes the portions weren’t generous (the steak came from the world’s smallest cow) but it was really enjoyable. Pricey I have to say because with two bottles of ale the bill was 175y but I will certainly be going again. Next time though I have a fair idea of what to order to fill up with so as to save ordering so many dishes. But of course the oysters, scallops, huge tiger prawns and the rib-eye will at some point have to be tried!