Thursday 13th February, 2014                 1330

Yesterday it was a bucket of water I had heated on the hob with which I had to clean myself. At my age I can really do without sitting on a closed toilet seat chucking containers of water over myself. To make matters worse, when I went to withdraw cash from the hole in the wall I couldn’t because once again I hadn’t been paid.

That discovery was not well received and as it was four in the afternoon I sent Cinny a message  registering my anger at not only having no hot water but also no money. This time though it is not just the foreign teachers, it’s everyone. She never saw my message until 1930.

By that time I was nearing the end of the Japanese meal with Avril, who declared the food the most delicious she had ever tasted. She was like a puppy on a polished toilet seat, taking photos of the mushrooms, cream puffballs, curry, steak, prawns etc and of course the fire ice cream and banana. Trouble was, when I nodded to the chef to give her the surprise they had neither bananas nor ice cream! In fairness, someone rushed out to try to get some but came back merely with bananas. He fried them and tried to serve them up but I was having none of that - I wanted the flames!

Avril lost no time in posting an entry with the pictures on QQ (China’s Facebook/Twitter substitute) because she “wanted to show off and make her friends envious”. It’s always nice when someone else appreciates your choice of restaurant. Towards the end I had a text from Cinny apologising for not seeing the message earlier but that now the repair man was on his way. Not much good when I am downtown though. It was arranged that he would come at eleven this morning.

He and his sidekick arrived at eleven-thirty - punctual here - and accordingly pronounced the water heater as deceased. There will be no hot water again today for now Cinny has to contact the shop which sold it to them for a replacement under warranty and who knows when that will arrive. I had toyed with the idea of threatening to go to an hotel at the school’s expense but considering they are being seen to actually do something about it I will suffer - plus I always have the (admittedly inconvenient) option of crossing the road and using the old place although with no heating on I think sitting on the loo with a bucket is a better option, even if my gas bottle is getting depleted!

It was snowing whilst we were eating so all thoughts of walking to the bus stop a mile away vanished so with half of my remaining monies Avril negotiated for a private car that had stopped to tout for business to take her home and then me for 35y. She again wanted to pay but this time I put my foot down.

Once again today I awoke to a couple of inches of white stuff everywhere and once again last night I had to let mummy dog in to see her pups. The roads look rideable so I shall go out soon to see if I have been paid and if not use the last of my cash to buy a bottle of wine. I can take some from my UK account but I don’t like doing it as you know, because I have no way of replacing it.

And finally, more on my strange little dog. She is perfectly happy to go out in rain any time of day or snow at night but not in daylight. Both mornings that we have had no snow but everywhere was blanketed from the night before she has refused to go out for her morning pee, instead holding her bladder until absolutely necessary. The thing is, she only takes a few steps on the landing, looks down through the window on the ground floor, sees what it’s like and will not go any further. Strange she may be, stupid she is not!