Wednesday 27th November, 2013                                 1845

Good God, I never realised the last blog was on Friday!

So let me think - what’s been happening?

Well Saturday Lucy cleaned up the new place a bit and as a treat I took her to the sweet pork place for lunch afterwards. I eschewed my usual pork and prawn dishes so she ordered some weird chopped meat and veg thing, we shared a cabbage hotpot (very healthy and actually rather tasty - I just wish the “meat” they put in it had a bit of fat on it instead of it being fat with a bit of meat!) and I had a dozen fried dumplings. I never even knew they did them until recently, when I saw one of the women making them. Very nice they were and different to others I’ve had because they put some powdered spice on the them when they fry them. I will definitely have their jen-jowZA again.

Sunday was brutal. I had to get up at dawn in order to take Pepsi to the vets for the duration. The only good thing about the day was that the rain didn’t really start until I arrived at the little school and it finally stopped just before I finished there in the early evening. I did get a bit damp though when I went for lunch and to shop. I know I did it as a favour in an emergency but I said I wouldn’t want to do it again - 0830 start, three lessons until noon and then two more between 1450 and 1620. Three hours and twenty minutes work but a workday spanning nine and a half hours. Sod that.

Monday and Tuesday I laboured over yet another load of historical lesson plans for the business book but at least on Monday night I got to take Joanna for a Japanese dinner. It was too cold to bike it so we took the bus there and a taxi back. She surprised me by saying in response to my asking what she wanted to drink, “The warm drink”. She meant saki and to give her credit she drank two of the little jugs you get. Not only that but after the food she opened a pack of skinny menthol cigarettes. I did however discover she won’t actually leave campus until March which was welcome news. Then that will be it except for her return in June to collect her final paperwork.

Kevin bought a flatpack computer station for 250y which he assembled - rather him than me - and invited me to view it. For £25 it’s not bad so I have given him the money to buy me one and put it together as well! I do NOT want the three tonne thing I am using at present.

Qing called me last night (she does that a lot lately when she is down because apparently I always make her feel happier!) and her last words to me were to tell me to let her know when I have moved in to the new place so she can organise some time off to come and visit. I had best get cracking, and seeing as I am free tomorrow I will start moving bits and bobs over. The heavy stuff (books, appliances etc) I will ask my Friday afternoon class to shift for me on Sunday. They are my liveliest lot and as a bribe, tomorrow I am going to bake two malted fruit loaves for them to try in class. I would spring for a restaurant meal for the lot of them but that would cost me a week’s wages and I still have to order a couple of chairs, not to mention save up for a dining suite and other things. The college porters will be called for to shift the fridge-freezer though.

The weather here has gone truly potty. A fortnight ago I was in shirtsleeves, now it is a jumper, thick coat and gloves - and that’s during the day! At night it is sometimes dipping below zero (late outings for Pepsi are now a pain) yet the forecast is showing next week it will get up as high as 17C. I will believe it if it happens. That’s another good reason to move very soon - with smaller rooms it will be simple to keep them warmer. I fled indoors before five today because I felt so cold outside.

That’s all for now folks, be warned it may be a while until the next one while I root around in drawers and find things I have forgotten I had!