I’m getting more frequent!
Positive things to talk about are the fact that Kevin and I haven’t been told we are staying another year but equally we haven’t been told we’re not either. Our feeling is that we would have been notified by now if we needed to find other jobs.
Another good thing that has just happened in the last 24 hours is some work now seems to be coming my way. A couple of months ago Ollivier asked me if I could do some Chinglish to English translation for the company he does English to French for. The money for effort ratio was respectable and I was looking forward to more of it. Weeks went by and nothing happened, then when Coco asked them why no more was forthcoming, she was told they had found someone else who understood Chinese as well. I assumed that was the end of that.
Yesterday I received a direct email asking me for details of my bank account and my CV, I answered and within a couple of hours another translation/editing job was emailed to me early in the evening. In typical Chinese fashion the deadline was this morning. Being busy for the evening (I will come to that later) I sent a reply stating as such and that I would endeavour to complete it by noon today. In return I was telephoned and informed the latest had to be 1159hrs. At this point I had no idea how many words there were but in the event there were only about 1,500 - an hour’s work. It was completed just after ten this morning. Now this, I sincerely hope, will continue. Discussing it with Kevin last night I think we both agreed it was most likely because the “person who understands Chinese” screwed it up - I hope so. Ollie makes a fortune, sometimes doubling his teaching salary for the month and for me at least, this sort of thing is easy.
The reason I was busy last night was because it was Western Wednesday on a Tuesday (due to Kevin’s commitments) and with an afternoon class in the way it makes it so much harder to juggle the cooking. I had prepared the rudiments of a cream of tomato soup on Monday - no cream available but I added potato and milk yesterday.
As usual there were three western teachers with a student apiece. I had invited Yvonne but (I would say unbelievably but this is China) at lunchtime yesterday, after agreeing she would come, she received notification of an extra class last night. It is just plain wrong but there’s nothing I can do about it. Instead I invited Chris, Kevin brought Gabby and Ollivier invited a nice girl whose name for the life of me I can’t remember.
After class I sweated buckets in the kitchen. My air-conditioner is in the master bedroom and of course because I have cats who are banned from it, the door is always closed, meaning the rest of the place is warm. Midway through cooking the gas bottle emptied. I am now on my third bottle since moving in whilst Kevin and Ollivier are still on their first! For main course I prepared lasagne. Well actually two lasagna, since my lovely big Pyrex dish was smashed I am left with two smaller metal ones and I didn’t think one would be enough. It was and as a result the second now sits in my chest freezer.
Kevin brought one of my Danish camemberts plus some edam, Ollivier provided emmental and baked two desserts. Now, I hate Ollivier at our western meals because the students much prefer his chocolate mousses, cakes and tarts to my food. Last night however was sweet. He buggered it up completely! Whilst anyone who cooks knows occasionally disasters occur (Lord knows I’ve had enough to know) but this was not only satisfying but very amusing to boot.
I had given him the tin of peaches Yvonne gave me on my birthday for him to make a peach tart with in the knowledge that she would be there to eat it. Instead of cooking the base and then adding the peaches he baked them, resulting in green peaches tasting no different to apples! And then there was his piece de resistance, his mothers secret recipe for surprise cake.
Well that was a surprise all right - I think it was supposed to be like a souffle but a more disastrous result is impossible to imagine. As soon as he presented it, I immediately thought it was an Aunt Bessies Yorkshire pudding! (See photo). Good things sometimes come from bad though and this is one of them. My last effort at toad in the hole was a complete failure but in the future Ollivier can attempt his surprise cake and I will provide sausages and make onion gravy - together we can make it work!
Gabby was the only student to eat all her lasagne, not surprising given the lack of cheese in the Chinese diet whilst all present pronounced my soup “so-so” - including me. Next time I think I will ditch the potato and use a lot more tomatoes. Regardless, it was a nice evening and I think possibly half a case of wine was consumed, mainly by Ollivier and me. In fact for once I did get a little tipsy and afterwards when I was walking the dog I found myself weaving a bit. I was concerned about oversleeping and not meeting the translation deadline (and as a result losing any chance of future jobs) so unusually I set an alarm on a day off. I need not have worried.
Lucy is now here after nearly two weeks of not cleaning. I am proud to say I have actually swept up a few times in her absence so despite Pepsi having bowel malfunctions yesterday the place is not as bad as she feared.
Tomorrow I am hoping Ollivier will go shopping in the car so I can bulk buy cheap plonk and lunch on a big Mac meal, not because they are haute cuisine but because at present they are giving away free tumblers with each one. On Friday I have been invited to dinner, as have two of my “wives” - Amy and Chris. Who invited me? The boy who disrupts my class! He is desperate to redeem himself and when I got his text I immediately sent back that this was bribery. I felt compelled to accept the invitation when he responded with “yes it is”!!
It’s a glorious day with 29C outside so once Lucy has finished I shall shower and take the dog out. Having bought far too much mince for the lasagne I will also try to find local produce to use it for my dinner tonight.
And I will need a siesta this afternoon………
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