Sunday 22nd September, 2013                   1930

My sole activity yesterday was a trip to town for veg for Wednesday. I just went to RT Mart and never bothered about lunch. I got my shopping and queued to pay. The bag of duck gizzards I had bought for the animals wouldn’t scan. You could be forgiven for thinking that the cashier would simply key the barcode number in manually but no - I wasn’t allowed to have the bag! Incredible and there was no way I was going all the way to the back of the shop to get another bag, have it weighed and a price sticker slapped on it so instead I simply expressed my displeasure rather loudly. Had it not been for the three bottles of cheap plonk in my carrier I would have simply refused to pay, left the goods and told them I was going to Lottemart. Next time anything like that happens that’s exactly what I will do because cancelling off items already scanned for some reason cause huge problems here and other customers will be inconvenienced. In fact if it weren’t for the cheap wine, gin, tonic, baguettes and my special flour I would happily boycott the place forever. Useless.

For dinner last night I heated two of the scotch eggs I got online and served them with mashed potatoes and warm ketchup. I was convinced that the sausagemeat would be the same sawdust as in the bangers and sausage rolls but I was pleasantly surprised to find them edible.

I wanted an early night seeing as I needed to be up at 0630 for a full day of teaching but of course when you only have one morning a week where that happens, Sod’s law states you won’t be tired until well after midnight. I am certainly tired now.

While I was sitting in my “office” having my usual couple and being available for anyone to practise their English on, a girl suddenly plonked herself down beside me. Her English name is Joanna so as I already have one of those I shall henceforth refer to her as Sad Jo. She is a music major and plays the guitar and piano. However the reason I have named her Sad Jo is precisely because she was so maudlin. She’s a freshman and when asked how long she has been here she knew it was exactly 21 days! She is homesick.

Needless to say I worked on cheering her up, Kevin and Ollivier both chanced by later for a chat as well and now she not only has my phone and ICQ numbers but also a new “friend” she can talk to when she is down. The funny thing is, her hometown is Anqing, just an hour away on the bus so in theory she could go home every weekend - money permitting. I hope though that I managed to lift her spirits a little this evening.

Tonight’s gastronomic delights will be jacket potato, baked beans and one of the beef pies I also got online. They look the part, whether the promise is fulfilled remains to be seen. I have left my bike out in the open tonight and I am wondering if that was wise. Typhoon Usagi (meaning “rabbit”) is heading to Hong Kong and whilst we are far enough inland for it to have little effect and the forecast says Wednesday is the day for us to get a drenching I wonder if I will get a wet bum tomorrow!