Monday 27th January, 2014                1730

Well the weekend simply flew by! In fact this entire holiday is going much too fast, only three weeks of it left.

I had dinner downtown Saturday and Sunday - if you can call a big Mac meal dinner that is, although I did have a pizza in the Lotus Branch. Typically, following the lovely warmish day we had and my charging the bike the next day it was chilly again.

Qing called - she is in Beijing at the moment and only afterwards did I think that possibly she was offered the job by the British Council. Anyway, she now only has seven days holiday so whether she will come here at all (it is obligatory to visit family at this time of year) or not neither of us know but one thing’s for sure, if she does it won’t be for very long.

Tuesday 28th          1845

I didn’t think I would have anything to write today but I am extremely happy to say that now I have.

This morning Amy (the monitor of the class in the video) contacted me to invite me to her family home to see in the Chinese new year with them. Considering the other previous invitation I was given proved to be a “Chinese promise” this took me by surprise. Better still, the forecast from Thursday to Sunday is for 20C so I should be able to take Pepsi to the vets for safekeeping on the bike without getting frozen In the process.

Amy only lives in Tongling - the same as Qing - so I know which hotel to stay in. The vet of course, in light of the time of year, has temporarily doubled dog sitting prices to 50 yuan a day and I will need to make an early start to try to make sure I get a bus before they stop running. I am leaving on Thursday morning hopefully, which is new years eve and will come back on Saturday. The cats won’t be impressed but I will leave plenty of food out for them.

I definitely won’t be letting off my ordnance to see in the year of the horse - no way can I lug that to Tongling or even on the bike for that matter with my bag and a dog to transport. I am still hoping Qing and I can let it off during golden week, fingers crossed.

I was going to go to town tomorrow but I have decided instead in favour of getting everything ready and giving this place a bit of a clean and tidy. I have sufficient food in for human and animal consumption, speaking of which, I mistakenly took what I thought were chicken breasts out of the freezer for the furry ones earlier only to find when it defrosted it was the other pigs lung. As Pepsi did eventually eat the last one it looks as though the cats won’t eat anything other than biscuits tonight although I will make it up to them tomorrow.  

Amy is a really sweet girl, one I never really noticed for much of her first year here but I have warmed to her now especially as her English has improved dramatically this last term. Plus she has given me something to really look forward to - my previous three new years I have been marooned with no buses and temperatures to prevent any bike riding and have only been able to see the fireworks in the far distance 12 miles away.

It’s going to be an expensive date though!