Tuesday 30th July, 2013                                  2030

Well the odyssey ended just as shittily as it had been right from the off.

This morning I left the Hilton at about ten, fully expecting to be home by two. It was flipping roasting and the taxi dropped me off at the bus station. I struggled in with my baggage, queued sweating for a ticket and was then told there were no buses to here. Nobody spoke English so I went to the information desk (where they weren’t much better) and elicited the little nugget that I needed a different station. They did at least give me the address in Chinese to show to the second taxi driver.

Eventually I took my seat on a bus which when it left was promptly halted by hideous traffic. I was really, really regretting ever deciding to travel. Half way into the journey my friend phoned me with the wonderful revelation that I had left all my trousers bar the pair I had on, in his wardrobe! The laundry had brought his and my clothes mixed up and in separating them I had hung mine in the wardrobe and forgotten all about them. Joanna will email him her temporary work address in Chinese later so his secretary can send them tomorrow. We arrived in Chizhou at three and there I encountered the only piece of good luck since I said goodbye to the cats. I walked straight out to a taxi driven by a woman and instead of demanding 30y off the meter as all the men do, she put the meter on. The price was 13y but for her honesty I gave her twenty.

As I was parched I polished off a cold can, fended off Pooh who seemed genuinely to have missed me and then went off on the bike. I had an “urgent” meeting with the kids school owner over a “big” contract he was trying to get. I predicted it would be teaching adults at a company on the outskirts and I was correct. Half an hour there and I was off to get an early dinner and food for the animals tonight. Then it was time to go and liberate Pepsi, who in contrast to Pooh affected not to recognise me and instead went into a scared sulk.

After her inoculation and my putting her on the bike it obviously dawned on her that I was taking her home so she perked up a bit. Halfway through the journey I thought she needed to evacuate her bowels and so I stopped but nothing doing. A mile further on and it was a different story. She crapped on the bike while we were moving and just to round off my thoroughly dismal fortnight’s travelling, wiped her backside on the only pair of trousers I currently have that fit - which are white. Now I have to wash those before I go to bed and hope they are dry in the morning. Things cannot possibly get any worse.

Wednesday 31st         2030

The body clock is still out of kilter, from being dog tired at ten last night I ultimately hit the hay at three this morning. I had every intention of going shopping for food today but by 1130 that was abandoned in favour of a couple of further hours shuteye.

I have managed to leave one heat wave warning behind only to fly into another. We hit the ton today and it looks as if it will climb higher. It wouldn’t be so bad if my aircon - which was “fixed” and pronounced working perfectly before I left - was man enough but it isn’t. Kevin’s room is a lot cooler than mine but I have no chance of getting anything done about it until September now. It does work, just doesn’t have a high enough output but to be fair it’s still cooler than the Wycombe Travelodge was.

I met Joanna off the bus from work to go for dinner at the sweet pork place which to my utter disgust was closed. I don’t recall them ever shutting in the summer holidays - I used to go there just for a couple of cold bottles when I was off. She was starving so we explored the options. There’s a hotel nearby but on only one of three occasions I have eaten there was the food decent, and that was when the school treated me after the infamous “ditch the dogs and pay the excess on the hospital bill” meeting. There’s the little place near the fish shop where I have drunk but never eaten. Instead we went to see if any of the new restaurants were still open and three were so we plumped for one that had the doors closed because that meant they had aircon. The food was passable but the bill was outrageous at 200y for 3 dishes and two each of beers and Fantas. I don’t think I will go there again in a hurry. In fact I wish I’d gone to the spit and sawdust place by the fish shop seeing as it is popular with students.

I am back in harness at the kid’s school tomorrow but at my request it is late afternoon, with Friday I hope being morning classes. It suits me because every second night Joanna doesn’t get back until 2130 and as such eats after work in the school she teaches at. I will eat downtown tomorrow and then on Friday make us and Balance a cottage pie. If I have time on Friday I also want to make a couple of loaves of bread to take to the mountain school on Saturday. Holiday? What holiday??