Tuesday 1st July, 2014            1330

I have recently started watching some of the world cup matches - at least, the early ones which kick off at midnight my time! The result has been that my getting up has now retarded until about midday! Thank the Lord, Pepsi (who sleeps under my bed) can last 12 hours without going for a pee.

Yesterday I went out at about 1630 and took the dog for her daily dose of daytime fresh air. At about six I returned to campus to do my shopping. I could have done with riding downtown but the forecast has been saying rain all this week but so far it has only appeared as spits on occasion. Having decided to defrost a steak and kidney pie for my dinner, I was just about to leave for home after my second bottle when Kevin turned up. Thus it entailed another pijou and going home at 2030.

I cursed him mentally after my laptop had booted and I saw an email from the translation company. They had sent it at 1700 with another proof-reading job for the Guangzhou (Canton) government which was needed for noon today! Well there was no chance of me getting up this morning to do it as I wanted to watch the France game so I had to do it simultaneously with cooking for the pets and myself but an hour and a half later it was finished. I think that the reason I am given so little time to complete the jobs is because they get the work then have to get a Chinese person to translate the Chinese to Chinglish before sending it to me.

Late last night the businessman (who I last saw when we went to a restaurant with a Korean teacher from another university) called me to invite me to dinner this evening. I asked if the attractive divorcee would be there and was most pleased to be told we would be going to her newly-opened restaurant. Sadly the invitation was cancelled by text this morning. It will happen another day and indeed this has happened before. He is in business and anyone who has ever been in business knows that when you own the company it takes precedence when something crops up. Pity though, I really like that girl.

In order to let a little fresh air in for the cats cooped up in the living room I have been leaving the sliding frosted window which looks out onto the communal stairs and corridor open a couple of inches. Enough for air and not enough for the cats to get out. A strip of metal I found has been bent and placed in a strategic position so as to prevent them sliding it open further.

Now our section is going to have more residents I now have to consider closing it again so nobody can see in because when I got up this morning and was having my early morning pee in the buff, Kevin peered through the opening. My bathroom is directly opposite! He had brought my renewed foreign expert certificate. Asking him to wait, I went into the bedroom, pulled on some clothes and went outside to let Pepsi take a leak. Kevin told me the school wants him to have another medical examination as they noticed something which concerned them. When I asked what, he said his pulse was too slow. It was 49 when we were at the hospital whereas mine was 103. So he is bradycardic as opposed to me being tachycardic! In addition, my blood pressure is nicely low whilst his is a bit high so I told him to tell the school to just combine the two of us and we would be normal! Now of course he has all sorts of thoughts running around in his head, including the possibility of having a pacemaker fitted. I can’t help but sympathise with him but at the same time his pulse has always been slow, as is his father’s - and he’s 97 and still very active. The paranoia in this school about foreign teachers pegging out in harness is palpable and yet they think nothing of asking me to take part in a tug-o-war or scheduling all my classes on the top floor!

Anyway, after our little chat Pepsi finally got to evacuate her bladder. I stood just outside the front of the building in my slipper/sandals, boxers and shirt and noticed I had left a loop of the wire belonging to my bike charger outside the closed saddle. Going to investigate, I was startled by movement in the grass about a foot away from my (bare) legs. Thankfully the thirty inch snake was more alarmed than I was and it slithered away post-haste, although my heart leapt into my mouth when Pepsi came bounding back right where the serpent had headed.

Faced with an overcast day outside I am now contemplating showering and going out with pooch but am undecided whether to take the bus to town this evening to eat there and perhaps get some pet food. The problem is, the foreign languages dept is the last one to finish end of term exams so students from other majors have already started leaving on their holidays so seats on the bus may be hard to come by even for a teacher. I could always go to the place nearby with pictures of the food though I suppose.