Wednesday 13th August, 2014                  2245

Life continues for now at a dead slow ahead, full ahead, dead slow pace for now. Yesterday I cooked a good old fashioned English beef stew, originally for me, Vivi, Anna and Fallrain but it ended up being for five as Anna brought along her roommate Forest because she was under the impression Vivi wasn’t coming. Actually she wasn’t as it turns out, she had a queasy stomach but I persuaded her to at least try it. After all, the beef was melt in your mouth as it had simmered for hours!

This afternoon after the rain had stopped I decided to go and find the airport. Not that I couldn’t find it, it’s just that the way I know is longer than Kevin’s shortcut. I duly set out with his directions in my head, which started with “turn right out of the west gate and about a mile on turn right up the new road“.

Well after travelling far in excess of a mile there was a turning. I should point out that I can count on one hand the number of times I have turned right out of the west gate - it’s not my preferred route for going to town. I almost ignored the turning as it didn’t look promising. It did however have brand new tarmac and, mindful of his injunction that there weren’t many landmarks on the way, it appeared promising. The next instruction was to turn left at the first major crossroads about 4.5 miles later. There certainly wasn’t much traffic but it did start to rain a little. Sure enough, I came to a large junction and turned left, being careful to note the appearance of the corners for the return journey. He had also said that after turning right initially all I had to do was follow the signs to the airport. I had yet to see one sign.

A good distance up this new road I finally saw a sign for Jiuhuashan Airport (well, at least it had a silhouette of a plane!) and turned left. On and on I rode, by this time wearing my cape to keep dry, and all the while thinking I must have done something wrong.  I persevered even though I was wondering whether the airport I was heading for was Anqing instead of ours. Finally another sign which actually said Jiuhuashan airport - 5km. On I rode until the road became extremely potholed and the only traffic was ballast trucks. By now I had been on the move at full tilt for 45 minutes. I was in the middle of nowhere. I know my bike. I reckon an hour and a half at full speed is about all I can expect from a full battery and still there was no sign of an airport. The light was fading, I had just enough juice to get back and the last thing I wanted was to have to ride back with lights on. I bottled it and turned back.

Just as well. It would seem that the “mile up the road” is probably closer to three miles! I think the way I went was one of Google maps routes which is 35km rather than the 17 Kevin says his is. I will try again on Friday if it isn’t raining.

A trip to town this evening of necessity involved the bus but with no oven I had nothing I could make for dinner at home so a small shop and a pork chop curry at KFC for my dinner was the order of the day. The absence of customers in KFC was noticeable but whether it was due to the meat scandal or not I don’t know. At least I had no problem obtaining a table.

Tomorrow I will ride and go shopping to stock up on pet food for my upcoming 9 day absence commencing Monday, get my monthly supply of cigars and more medicines. I will probably also check to see if McDonalds has got any lettuce for their burgers yet. They haven’t had any since the scandal broke and despite my sending McDonald’s China an email about it I have not received a reply.

Kevin returns on Saturday. The trip to Heavenly Village is now leaving from near the little school at 0730 on Monday so I can actually get the bus (before it was to be leaving at 0630) to meet it. The bonus is, all that is expected of me is to “perhaps” play some games with the kids on the bus because all their activities are taken care of by the tour staff. I may however “wish” to play the odd game with them after dinner. The owner is just “trying to give me a free holiday”. Nothing to do with trying to change my mind about not teaching at his school any more then, eh? I shall not budge. I don’t enjoy it, it robs me of weekends and I have told him if he organises day trips I am happy to attend, I will be a judge at his speaking competitions etc but I will not “teach” - not that I ever did. All I ever did really was play games with them and the same kids seem to reappear every term so they know the games anyway. And no, I’m not joining a competitor either. I have my little school three times a year for tests and the charity school (which the uni knows about seeing as they put me in the frame) in summer and that’s it. After four years I am tired of not getting weekends free.