Monday 29th September, 2014 1330
Yesterday I met the first of my new students. A class of thirty, three of whom are boys. They are not as yet particularly active although they are quite well behaved and their standard of English seems quite reasonable. Time will tell if there are any real outgoing characters in there.
I finished at noon and after collecting Pepsi Kevin and I went to have a cold one seeing as it was up around thirty degrees. We went to the “business street” where all the new restaurants have opened and sat outside at a table in the shade. Pepsi managed to find a small shrub to cower under whereas were she a normal dog she would have come and laid down by my feet! When he went off in search of a chicken burger I went to office number three to have a couple, whereupon I became so weary I decided once I left I would have to take a nap.
Said nap was ;punctuated by nightmares of all sorts and when the alarm went at 1800 I hadn’t a clue where I was or what day it was. All I did know was that I was hungry. Pepsi was treated to a second outing and I cruised on the bike past all the new restaurants looking for inspiration as to what to eat, I wasn’t keen on cooking for myself and anyway everything was still frozen. I found a little place that sells sushi so bought 30y of that on an assorted platter. A couple of them were disgusting to the taste but the rest were fine and it made a pleasantly alternative meal, especially as again I could sit outside and this time eat.
Needless to say, having had a kip, I couldn’t get to sleep before three this morning, resulting in my sitting here now almost as tired as I was yesterday! I must resist the urge to repeat as I have classes in the morning and need to be up and ready at a reasonable hour for my train on Wednesday. Today I had yesterday’s class again but instead of the meet and greet we had a proper lesson which went well. It seems odd that this year I will meet the majority of my new students a full month after they checked in at school but then that is due to the vagaries of the lunar calendar.
As my class ended at noon I was visited by first Carol and then Anna, who are both competing in the eliminators for the national speaking competition which are to be held in twenty minutes time. They both wanted me to listen to their speeches and Anna also wanted to record me delivering hers, Carol having done so before the cinema the other night. I had mistakenly thought today was Tuesday seeing as I taught Monday’s class yesterday and was convinced I would be teaching but I realised that I was free so very shortly I will go off and show my support for them even though they are Kevin’s students.
It is raining here now, dismal after a few really lovely days, my gammon steak which has been in the freezer for two years is defrosting and I am determined to finally have it with chips, peas, egg and pineapple. I just hope I can eat half a pound of meat!
1830
Well the elimination heat for the competition is over. Yvonne never went through and neither did Anna but Carol was awarded quite high marks and so shall be at the school finals. Professor Fang’s assistant Jane asked me what I thought of the freshmen (who I presume she told to take part) and my answer could only be that I didn’t know which were freshmen and which were Kevin’s students as I have only met one class so far!
Tomorrow I need to make the decision as to whether to put Pepsi in custody or leave it until Wednesday morning. If the weather is fine then she is for early incarceration because it will give me a more leisurely morning before my train to pack and shower, plus I can eat in town before returning.
Right now I have a gammon steak begging to be cooked so I shall resume this tomorrow.
Tuesday 30th 1930
The gammon and trimmings was indeed a rare treat, sadly given its cost I could get nowhere near polishing it off so that task fell to Pepsi who must have thought it was Christmas, having previously been given a meaty bone. Tonight in contrast dinner is baguette, cheese and pickle.
There were substantial numbers of students missing today (surprise surprise) as they sneaked off home early for the holiday. At least this time they told the truth and never invented headaches, fevers etc. It’s only taken them two years to grasp that I prefer honesty and I didn’t come down with the last shower of rain.
My plan to take Pepsi to the vets after class went astray the moment I rode to the morning class when I noticed the bike hadn’t charged overnight. The on/off switch on the extension had somehow gone to off so I charged it at lunchtime and then after my afternoon class put it on charge some more and waited. She is now locked in a cage and I went to RT Mart to buy drinks for the train and the hotel along with the baguette and some gouda. The only cheeses they do are burger slices, gouda and emmental.
The reason for the baguette was not to be tonight’s dinner (however I didn’t want to waste half of it so that’s what it became) but something for the journey. Having tried a revolting and expensive train meal previously, I thought that as I am going to be in transit for eleven hours it would be wise to have something with me. I doubt I will want to go for dinner when I arrive at 2200 tomorrow. Anyway, just as I got back to campus the bike slowed drastically, something it never has before, so I just managed to limp back. I will take the rubbish out later and double check that it is still charging!
So later I will leave myself a list of things to pack in the suitcase in the morning so I don’t forget anything and get a sensibly earlyish night.
Saturday, 27 September 2014
Saturday 27th September, 2014 1300
As so often happens to me here, yesterday turned out to be very different from what I had planned!
My idea was to get up early at eight so as to be at the military closing parade, go for a much-needed haircut, shopping in town and be back in the early afternoon to relax for the rest of the day.
Yes, I got up and arrived at the stadium for the parade slightly late (just late enough to have missed the anthem) and sat in the stand to watch the march past. With between three and four thousand “soldiers” in platoons of 110 or so and with one platoon marching past while the following one marked time, it took quite some time. I couldn’t help but notice there were students out of step and out of line. One boy looked as if he was strolling though the park. They would never have passed muster in a real army but then of course they started training completely raw and it had to be done in just nine days because they lost a day due to rain. Also, they don’t simply march past. They have to chant something whilst marking time and before actually going past the leaders, and when they get there they have to change from a simple march to the Chinese version of the goose-step. All things considered, I think the army personnel don’t make a bad fist of it given the numbers under their tutelage and the limited time they have. I was reminded of my time at HMS “Conway” and the length of time it took us to get it right and the considerably smaller platoons.
It did rather stir my emotions though. Sitting there at my age watching thousands of young, eager students with four years of university life ahead and the rest of their life, hopes and dreams stretching before them certainly made me want to turn the clock back.
Once it finished I went in search of Barry Manilow to get my ears lowered. He wasn’t there and because the barbers shop is now off campus I decided to hell with it, one of the others can do it. My hair is hardly difficult to cut, I just want it really short and with a new lad doing it I decided to replicate the cut I was given in Huainan - short back, sides and top. I don’t thing he could believe his luck as it took him about five minutes with the clippers and he was finished!
Off to town after that, with the usual road rage I get when idiots try to kill me, bit of shopping and then a burger for lunch. As I sat eating my burger, the rest of my planned day was thrown into disarray. Carol sent me a text asking if I wanted to go with her to the cinema. Well there’s no way the bike will do two return trips, one of them two-up, on a single charge so after ascertaining I would get about two hours to plug it in, I agreed. Two hours isn’t enough to fully charge but I hoped it would be sufficient and Carol is quite a petite girl.
So just after two we set off. Regular readers of my blog may recall that after my experience watching Titanic where all the Chinese made such a racket that I couldn’t hear the film I swore “never again”. I was banking on a Friday afternoon not being busy, coupled with the fact this was a Chinese film. Carol assured me there would be English subtitles and told me it was a true story about a child who was taken from two divorced parents and their subsequent search for the kid. After some years they did find him.
Unfortunately when we bought the tickets we found we had eighty minutes to wait before the next screening. Beer time. The nearest place was the barbecue place on the floor below. I knew they wouldn’t have any food available but hoped I could just buy a couple of bottles and pass the time. No problem they said but when I asked how much (it’s all you can eat and drink when you eat there so I had no idea what they charge for pijou) I was told because I go there so often I could have them free. I had intended to take Carol there for dinner anyway after the film so that made me certain. I thought it was a nice gesture.
Anyway the cinema had very few patrons and it was actually quiet by the standards here. The only problem was, the film was two hours long and the subtitles were in Chinese! I did though get the gist of what was happening. Carol seemed to enjoy herself because she scoffed the most enormous tub of popcorn imaginable! Unfortunately on this occasion I was the one doing most of the disturbing, for I still have a residual cough from my recent cold.
Afterwards we went to the barbecue place for dinner. Rather pointless for me, having had lunch I wasn’t hungry but Carol, as have so many other slips of girls here, astounded me with the amount of nosh she can put away. She ate enough for both of us! I on the other hand ate sparsely, envying her appetite whilst trying to get my own money’s worth by taking advantage of more beer. I think that is the longest time I have ever spent in that restaurant, certainly over two hours so it was nearly nine o’clock when we left.
Thankfully (because I only had a shirt on and she a cardigan) it was a perfectly warm night so we had a pleasant ride back. When we got back Carol said she was going to the hot water house so I said I would take her. We got her flasks, went there and when she had her water for the dormitory (they have to pay! I didn’t know that before) I took her back and then came home. The power gauge was the lowest it has ever been so the bike wouldn’t have taken us much further.
As so often happens to me here, yesterday turned out to be very different from what I had planned!
My idea was to get up early at eight so as to be at the military closing parade, go for a much-needed haircut, shopping in town and be back in the early afternoon to relax for the rest of the day.
Yes, I got up and arrived at the stadium for the parade slightly late (just late enough to have missed the anthem) and sat in the stand to watch the march past. With between three and four thousand “soldiers” in platoons of 110 or so and with one platoon marching past while the following one marked time, it took quite some time. I couldn’t help but notice there were students out of step and out of line. One boy looked as if he was strolling though the park. They would never have passed muster in a real army but then of course they started training completely raw and it had to be done in just nine days because they lost a day due to rain. Also, they don’t simply march past. They have to chant something whilst marking time and before actually going past the leaders, and when they get there they have to change from a simple march to the Chinese version of the goose-step. All things considered, I think the army personnel don’t make a bad fist of it given the numbers under their tutelage and the limited time they have. I was reminded of my time at HMS “Conway” and the length of time it took us to get it right and the considerably smaller platoons.
It did rather stir my emotions though. Sitting there at my age watching thousands of young, eager students with four years of university life ahead and the rest of their life, hopes and dreams stretching before them certainly made me want to turn the clock back.
Once it finished I went in search of Barry Manilow to get my ears lowered. He wasn’t there and because the barbers shop is now off campus I decided to hell with it, one of the others can do it. My hair is hardly difficult to cut, I just want it really short and with a new lad doing it I decided to replicate the cut I was given in Huainan - short back, sides and top. I don’t thing he could believe his luck as it took him about five minutes with the clippers and he was finished!
Off to town after that, with the usual road rage I get when idiots try to kill me, bit of shopping and then a burger for lunch. As I sat eating my burger, the rest of my planned day was thrown into disarray. Carol sent me a text asking if I wanted to go with her to the cinema. Well there’s no way the bike will do two return trips, one of them two-up, on a single charge so after ascertaining I would get about two hours to plug it in, I agreed. Two hours isn’t enough to fully charge but I hoped it would be sufficient and Carol is quite a petite girl.
So just after two we set off. Regular readers of my blog may recall that after my experience watching Titanic where all the Chinese made such a racket that I couldn’t hear the film I swore “never again”. I was banking on a Friday afternoon not being busy, coupled with the fact this was a Chinese film. Carol assured me there would be English subtitles and told me it was a true story about a child who was taken from two divorced parents and their subsequent search for the kid. After some years they did find him.
Unfortunately when we bought the tickets we found we had eighty minutes to wait before the next screening. Beer time. The nearest place was the barbecue place on the floor below. I knew they wouldn’t have any food available but hoped I could just buy a couple of bottles and pass the time. No problem they said but when I asked how much (it’s all you can eat and drink when you eat there so I had no idea what they charge for pijou) I was told because I go there so often I could have them free. I had intended to take Carol there for dinner anyway after the film so that made me certain. I thought it was a nice gesture.
Anyway the cinema had very few patrons and it was actually quiet by the standards here. The only problem was, the film was two hours long and the subtitles were in Chinese! I did though get the gist of what was happening. Carol seemed to enjoy herself because she scoffed the most enormous tub of popcorn imaginable! Unfortunately on this occasion I was the one doing most of the disturbing, for I still have a residual cough from my recent cold.
Afterwards we went to the barbecue place for dinner. Rather pointless for me, having had lunch I wasn’t hungry but Carol, as have so many other slips of girls here, astounded me with the amount of nosh she can put away. She ate enough for both of us! I on the other hand ate sparsely, envying her appetite whilst trying to get my own money’s worth by taking advantage of more beer. I think that is the longest time I have ever spent in that restaurant, certainly over two hours so it was nearly nine o’clock when we left.
Thankfully (because I only had a shirt on and she a cardigan) it was a perfectly warm night so we had a pleasant ride back. When we got back Carol said she was going to the hot water house so I said I would take her. We got her flasks, went there and when she had her water for the dormitory (they have to pay! I didn’t know that before) I took her back and then came home. The power gauge was the lowest it has ever been so the bike wouldn’t have taken us much further.
Thursday, 25 September 2014
Tuesday 23rd September, 2014 1800
If anything I have felt worse than ever since the last blog. So tired. The weather isn’t helping either, today it has drizzled constantly. All I can say is thank God my workload is light at the moment.
I was told to take a form in Chinese (no idea what it is about) plus teaching content and lesson plans to my classes today. We all had to submit two years worth of the content and lesson plans last year in preparation for the inspection. The first half of this week the teachers in the school “qualified” to assess teachers have been observing classes. Kevin did loads of work preparing for his to be observed yesterday, which was what he had been told, and was spitting tacks by late afternoon. Nobody turned up to sit in on either of his classes and he had spent quite a while the night before preparing.
As for me, I could see no point in them watching today’s classes as both of them will have graduated and left before the Big One. Nor did they turn up, which considering I felt like death, was a bonus. I have been told however that I will be observed after the golden week holiday. I have to get some students to have an extra class. The problem is, by the time that is supposed to happen I will have only seen one of my new classes so I can’t invite people I have never met. When I mentioned this I was told I could invite my ex students. Well, they are really going to want to do that aren’t they?!!
Anyway, exhausted, I hit the hay early last night in the hope of feeling better today. All I did was toss and turn all night and as a consequence felt even more tired. I can’t win.
The freshmen are happy today though. I never knew this before but if it rains they don’t have to do military training! They are given the day off. I wonder if the PLA follow suit as well?
Wednesday 24th 1830
Chalk and cheese. Raining all day yesterday and yet today was a beautiful sunny day again in the high twenties. Not that I did much mind, Lucy was supposed to come and clean at 1030 (accordingly I set my alarm) but her class ended up having a meeting so she was delayed until midday. I had planned to ride to town but that went by the board after that. I will go tomorrow instead because I need to start stockpiling pet food for next week seeing as I won’t be here for most of it.
As we are having seven days off (wed to Tue) there are the inevitable make up weekends before and after the break. I find it amusing that I will meet my first freshman class on Sunday for their Monday lessons and then again on Monday! The Tuesday classes will be caught up on the Saturday after the break.
Thursday 25th 1800
Well any thoughts of adding to yesterday’s ramble disappeared when the internet did. Thank heavens I had plenty of programmes downloaded to see me through. The problem is when it happens you don’t know if it is just you or everyone and I didn’t dare ask others at that time of night in case they were sleeping. So, you go through all the rigmarole of rebooting the router etc and eventually give up. It didn’t return until after eleven this morning.
It has been another glorious day nudging thirty degrees so despite my lethargy I decided that I would go to town as planned. Instead of shopping and then getting an early dinner, because RT Mart (a rare occurrence) actually had baguettes that were crusty outside and soft inside, I decided I would make that with bologna sausage slices my dinner tonight. The last pack was delicious and when I looked online to put it in my shopping list for next time I was disappointed to see they appear to have discontinued it.
I did though find tooth polishing kits online. I have been embarrassed for some time now by my brown teeth and have no idea how to find a hygienist to clean off the tartar from the cigars. Eucryl is good but not THAT good. Anyway, for about 80y (£8) I can get a battery powered thing that may just restore my ability to smile properly for photos! Fingers crossed.
I am seriously considering now whether or not I should just buy food for Pepsi. The damned cats now turn their nose up at almost everything. Liver they pick at, as do they with fish - whoever heard of cats not liking fish??? They don’t even like tinned cat food so I may just give them biscuits only from now on to see if they will once again eat chicken and suchlike.
I am hoping to get up early enough to feel human before 0930 in the morning in order to attend the military passing out parade. Not because it is particularly fun - certainly not when you can’t understand a word - but because my future chicks will be parading and I do like to show an interest in things such as that, sports days, competitions etc whenever I can. I might even go to town again afterwards to buy yet more food in preparation for my holidays because that will give me a free day Saturday and both those days are really my last chance before I leave for Yiwu.
If anything I have felt worse than ever since the last blog. So tired. The weather isn’t helping either, today it has drizzled constantly. All I can say is thank God my workload is light at the moment.
I was told to take a form in Chinese (no idea what it is about) plus teaching content and lesson plans to my classes today. We all had to submit two years worth of the content and lesson plans last year in preparation for the inspection. The first half of this week the teachers in the school “qualified” to assess teachers have been observing classes. Kevin did loads of work preparing for his to be observed yesterday, which was what he had been told, and was spitting tacks by late afternoon. Nobody turned up to sit in on either of his classes and he had spent quite a while the night before preparing.
As for me, I could see no point in them watching today’s classes as both of them will have graduated and left before the Big One. Nor did they turn up, which considering I felt like death, was a bonus. I have been told however that I will be observed after the golden week holiday. I have to get some students to have an extra class. The problem is, by the time that is supposed to happen I will have only seen one of my new classes so I can’t invite people I have never met. When I mentioned this I was told I could invite my ex students. Well, they are really going to want to do that aren’t they?!!
Anyway, exhausted, I hit the hay early last night in the hope of feeling better today. All I did was toss and turn all night and as a consequence felt even more tired. I can’t win.
The freshmen are happy today though. I never knew this before but if it rains they don’t have to do military training! They are given the day off. I wonder if the PLA follow suit as well?
Wednesday 24th 1830
Chalk and cheese. Raining all day yesterday and yet today was a beautiful sunny day again in the high twenties. Not that I did much mind, Lucy was supposed to come and clean at 1030 (accordingly I set my alarm) but her class ended up having a meeting so she was delayed until midday. I had planned to ride to town but that went by the board after that. I will go tomorrow instead because I need to start stockpiling pet food for next week seeing as I won’t be here for most of it.
As we are having seven days off (wed to Tue) there are the inevitable make up weekends before and after the break. I find it amusing that I will meet my first freshman class on Sunday for their Monday lessons and then again on Monday! The Tuesday classes will be caught up on the Saturday after the break.
Thursday 25th 1800
Well any thoughts of adding to yesterday’s ramble disappeared when the internet did. Thank heavens I had plenty of programmes downloaded to see me through. The problem is when it happens you don’t know if it is just you or everyone and I didn’t dare ask others at that time of night in case they were sleeping. So, you go through all the rigmarole of rebooting the router etc and eventually give up. It didn’t return until after eleven this morning.
It has been another glorious day nudging thirty degrees so despite my lethargy I decided that I would go to town as planned. Instead of shopping and then getting an early dinner, because RT Mart (a rare occurrence) actually had baguettes that were crusty outside and soft inside, I decided I would make that with bologna sausage slices my dinner tonight. The last pack was delicious and when I looked online to put it in my shopping list for next time I was disappointed to see they appear to have discontinued it.
I did though find tooth polishing kits online. I have been embarrassed for some time now by my brown teeth and have no idea how to find a hygienist to clean off the tartar from the cigars. Eucryl is good but not THAT good. Anyway, for about 80y (£8) I can get a battery powered thing that may just restore my ability to smile properly for photos! Fingers crossed.
I am seriously considering now whether or not I should just buy food for Pepsi. The damned cats now turn their nose up at almost everything. Liver they pick at, as do they with fish - whoever heard of cats not liking fish??? They don’t even like tinned cat food so I may just give them biscuits only from now on to see if they will once again eat chicken and suchlike.
I am hoping to get up early enough to feel human before 0930 in the morning in order to attend the military passing out parade. Not because it is particularly fun - certainly not when you can’t understand a word - but because my future chicks will be parading and I do like to show an interest in things such as that, sports days, competitions etc whenever I can. I might even go to town again afterwards to buy yet more food in preparation for my holidays because that will give me a free day Saturday and both those days are really my last chance before I leave for Yiwu.
Saturday, 20 September 2014
Saturday 20th September, 2014 1300
The rain has all gone now and we are set for a reasonable week in the mid twenties, long may it continue - at least until my little break.
Further news on the campus shopping centre: The fruit shop is not actually open, the chap must have just been there with the doors open to collect something when I looked, so all we have are the supermarket and post office at present. It would appear the new leasing firm have shot themselves in both feet by (from what I can gather) virtually doubling the rents. Most of the businesses have opened up in new premises just off campus (and by new I mean brand new buildings) for a considerably lower rent than is being proposed on campus. The biggest of the restaurants, MeILe, opened a week ago, unveiling a motorway service station type walk through place and very nice it is too. It’s akin to Ke Bi Wang but with lovely décor and furnishings. Yet the owner also wants to reopen on campus and have two places but he is holding out (as are all the others) so the landlords will be forced to slash their prices or kiss goodbye to their investment. I really hope the little people win. It doesn’t mean much to me because I have my bike so it’s no problem travelling a little further but for the students it is a hike. In fact the only thing that affects me is that office number one is no longer available.
Speaking of offices, I seem to running out of them! The sweet pork place has been closed for the past week and I am now becoming concerned that they have packed up as well. I am down to just office number three near the fish shop, although in the event of total catastrophe I think there could be office number four a bit further up the road. This all means of course that students are denied the chance to have a social chat with any of the foreign teachers in which they can practise their English or French in an informal setting. I am even using the outside supermarket (owned by the same people as the campus one) now because to go out for air I am leaving school anyway. The only thing I use here currently is the cashpoint.
I am not happy at the moment. Yesterday BBC iPlayer tried to access my computer with something and Chrome told me it could be malicious. Accordingly I told Chrome to always refuse it and that has had the effect of preventing me from downloading or streaming anything at all from the BBC. Even Kevin can’t solve it so I am now awaiting a response from the BBC. The last thing I want to have to do is a factory reset!
Oh, nearly forgot. I did have a crack at making chips on Thursday night. I made far too many but had them with a chicken curry pie and very nice they were too. They weren’t perfect but they were certainly the best I have had in China. No doubt with time I will make them even better so that would appear to be 600y well spent. When pineapples become available again I can defrost the gammon steak that’s been in my freezer forever and actually eat it!
That’s it for now, shower time and a trip to town for shopping and an early dinner.
2030
The trip to town was uneventful, however on my return when I took Pepsi out shopping locally I spotted a door to the sweet pork place open. After buying my drinks in the supermarket I went there, only to find the husband and wife leaving with a takeaway. Presumably they had popped in to make their dinner and were now going home. Needless to say I couldn’t get a beer but I did ask (the conversation was entirely in body language of course) whether they had finished for good. It looks like they are so bang goes office number two. The good news is that they are going to open up on campus although quite where I have no idea. Kevin thinks it is probably on the 3rd floor above No. 2 school canteen and if so, whilst good for eating nearby, will be useless as an office. If they are taking one of the vacant shopping centre premises then that will be excellent, especially if they start selling fresh fruit as well. Theirs was always so much better than the guy who was on site. I will find out in due course but until there is somewhere here where I can get a beer and sit and have a chat then it will be the outside supermarket for me because there are no huge queues of students at the various rush hours after lessons and at least at office three she can sniff around.
Apropos the BBC downloads, I had a flash of inspiration. Kevin has come up with a reasonably drastic solution but until Aunty replies I will hold off. Instead what I tried was, because Chrome is blocking iPlayer, using IE (which wasn’t). It worked. A pain in the backside not only because I hate IE but every time you open it it tries to change your settings.
That’s it for now, hopefully some of my favourite programmes (New Tricks - annoyed with Waterman leaving - Hotel India - would love to stay there one day - and others) will finish downloading so I can once again watch some.
The rain has all gone now and we are set for a reasonable week in the mid twenties, long may it continue - at least until my little break.
Further news on the campus shopping centre: The fruit shop is not actually open, the chap must have just been there with the doors open to collect something when I looked, so all we have are the supermarket and post office at present. It would appear the new leasing firm have shot themselves in both feet by (from what I can gather) virtually doubling the rents. Most of the businesses have opened up in new premises just off campus (and by new I mean brand new buildings) for a considerably lower rent than is being proposed on campus. The biggest of the restaurants, MeILe, opened a week ago, unveiling a motorway service station type walk through place and very nice it is too. It’s akin to Ke Bi Wang but with lovely décor and furnishings. Yet the owner also wants to reopen on campus and have two places but he is holding out (as are all the others) so the landlords will be forced to slash their prices or kiss goodbye to their investment. I really hope the little people win. It doesn’t mean much to me because I have my bike so it’s no problem travelling a little further but for the students it is a hike. In fact the only thing that affects me is that office number one is no longer available.
Speaking of offices, I seem to running out of them! The sweet pork place has been closed for the past week and I am now becoming concerned that they have packed up as well. I am down to just office number three near the fish shop, although in the event of total catastrophe I think there could be office number four a bit further up the road. This all means of course that students are denied the chance to have a social chat with any of the foreign teachers in which they can practise their English or French in an informal setting. I am even using the outside supermarket (owned by the same people as the campus one) now because to go out for air I am leaving school anyway. The only thing I use here currently is the cashpoint.
I am not happy at the moment. Yesterday BBC iPlayer tried to access my computer with something and Chrome told me it could be malicious. Accordingly I told Chrome to always refuse it and that has had the effect of preventing me from downloading or streaming anything at all from the BBC. Even Kevin can’t solve it so I am now awaiting a response from the BBC. The last thing I want to have to do is a factory reset!
Oh, nearly forgot. I did have a crack at making chips on Thursday night. I made far too many but had them with a chicken curry pie and very nice they were too. They weren’t perfect but they were certainly the best I have had in China. No doubt with time I will make them even better so that would appear to be 600y well spent. When pineapples become available again I can defrost the gammon steak that’s been in my freezer forever and actually eat it!
That’s it for now, shower time and a trip to town for shopping and an early dinner.
2030
The trip to town was uneventful, however on my return when I took Pepsi out shopping locally I spotted a door to the sweet pork place open. After buying my drinks in the supermarket I went there, only to find the husband and wife leaving with a takeaway. Presumably they had popped in to make their dinner and were now going home. Needless to say I couldn’t get a beer but I did ask (the conversation was entirely in body language of course) whether they had finished for good. It looks like they are so bang goes office number two. The good news is that they are going to open up on campus although quite where I have no idea. Kevin thinks it is probably on the 3rd floor above No. 2 school canteen and if so, whilst good for eating nearby, will be useless as an office. If they are taking one of the vacant shopping centre premises then that will be excellent, especially if they start selling fresh fruit as well. Theirs was always so much better than the guy who was on site. I will find out in due course but until there is somewhere here where I can get a beer and sit and have a chat then it will be the outside supermarket for me because there are no huge queues of students at the various rush hours after lessons and at least at office three she can sniff around.
Apropos the BBC downloads, I had a flash of inspiration. Kevin has come up with a reasonably drastic solution but until Aunty replies I will hold off. Instead what I tried was, because Chrome is blocking iPlayer, using IE (which wasn’t). It worked. A pain in the backside not only because I hate IE but every time you open it it tries to change your settings.
That’s it for now, hopefully some of my favourite programmes (New Tricks - annoyed with Waterman leaving - Hotel India - would love to stay there one day - and others) will finish downloading so I can once again watch some.
Thursday, 18 September 2014
Wednesday 17th September, 2014 1200
What a busy few days it has been! As you know I finished the 18,000 words and was then brought a video of a training advert by Ollivier. They want the speech produced in text. No sooner did I agree to do it but I had a call myself asking me if I could do another 10,000 words by this morning. The video, although only five minutes long, is a pain of a job because it will be play, stop, type, play etc and will take forever. I asked them if I was to do the video first and the documents later because I couldn’t meet the deadline of both for this morning. The video got bumped. I finished the text last night and have until noon tomorrow to do the video. I’ll make a start on it a bit later but I am taking Yvonne for dinner at the new place to have blackfish and on the way in I want to see if there are any train tickets left to enable me to get to Yiwu and back in the golden week.
I had both my three year classes yesterday so that’s me otherwise idle as far as the school is concerned until next Tuesday when I have them again. My freshmen started their military training today so the earliest I will teach them will be next weekend if that weekend is designated for catching up missed lessons in golden week. We have a slew of inspections this term apropos the upgrade to full uni status. One will be fellow teachers observing each other and commenting, another will be whatever lesson we will be doing in week 11 but earlier and with volunteer students (poor buggers will have the lesson twice), an inspection by provincial authorities and finally the main government one in week 11 in November. The best of it is, the main inspections are all Mon. Tue, Wed and by the time the biggie comes I will only have one class on the Monday (my 3 year students will graduate) with Tuesday and Wednesday off so the chances of me being picked are minimal to say the least.
Ok I’m going to look at train times now in case I can actually get tickets, then shower and make a start on that damned video. I hope to resume this tomorrow.
Thursday 18th 1300
Buying train tickets in China can be complicated if you don’t use the internet and don’t know the rules. I am learning them!
We went to the station ticket office and although I knew you could buy tickets a maximum of twenty days in advance, having been reading in the Chinese news of record ticket sales, I fully expected to be told there were no seats. We never got as far as that. Incredibly, at the station you can only buy them up to six days in advance - at the STATION??
Well there’s no way I would attempt to buy them online so from there we went to the little ticket office where I bought the Huainan ones. You can buy them 20 days before there. And to my surprise every train and time I had specified had a seat so I now have four tickets. It’s a bit of a disjointed trip as I am going from here to Wuhu then change for Yiwu. On the way back I will go from Yiwu to Hangzhou and then back here. The reason for the return leg being different is because I will get back at 2300 instead of 0300. Makes sense to me.
I shall only stop for three nights and the first of those will be wasted as the train gets me there at 2200. I have splashed out a little for a good hotel in the city centre which has a WalMart opposite so I may even be able to find some western ingredients to bring back with me.
I took Yvonne to the hotpot place where we had blackfish, spuds, cabbage, spring rolls etc (far too much for two of us) and on the way out she pointed out another of the new restaurants in the development. It is the same chain as the one we were going to go to in Anqing before the semester started but she cancelled in order to accompany her little sister to a new school. I will have to pay it a visit now I know which dishes are best.
The video transcription ultimately took me fifty minutes last night, less than I thought so it wasn’t too onerous. Still, I wouldn’t relish the thought of any more like that though.
It’s a wet old day here and supposed to remain so until the weekend. I have no need to venture very far as I bought enough meat previously precisely because the damp was expected. I may just motivate myself later to actually have a bash at making chips in my new machine.
What a busy few days it has been! As you know I finished the 18,000 words and was then brought a video of a training advert by Ollivier. They want the speech produced in text. No sooner did I agree to do it but I had a call myself asking me if I could do another 10,000 words by this morning. The video, although only five minutes long, is a pain of a job because it will be play, stop, type, play etc and will take forever. I asked them if I was to do the video first and the documents later because I couldn’t meet the deadline of both for this morning. The video got bumped. I finished the text last night and have until noon tomorrow to do the video. I’ll make a start on it a bit later but I am taking Yvonne for dinner at the new place to have blackfish and on the way in I want to see if there are any train tickets left to enable me to get to Yiwu and back in the golden week.
I had both my three year classes yesterday so that’s me otherwise idle as far as the school is concerned until next Tuesday when I have them again. My freshmen started their military training today so the earliest I will teach them will be next weekend if that weekend is designated for catching up missed lessons in golden week. We have a slew of inspections this term apropos the upgrade to full uni status. One will be fellow teachers observing each other and commenting, another will be whatever lesson we will be doing in week 11 but earlier and with volunteer students (poor buggers will have the lesson twice), an inspection by provincial authorities and finally the main government one in week 11 in November. The best of it is, the main inspections are all Mon. Tue, Wed and by the time the biggie comes I will only have one class on the Monday (my 3 year students will graduate) with Tuesday and Wednesday off so the chances of me being picked are minimal to say the least.
Ok I’m going to look at train times now in case I can actually get tickets, then shower and make a start on that damned video. I hope to resume this tomorrow.
Thursday 18th 1300
Buying train tickets in China can be complicated if you don’t use the internet and don’t know the rules. I am learning them!
We went to the station ticket office and although I knew you could buy tickets a maximum of twenty days in advance, having been reading in the Chinese news of record ticket sales, I fully expected to be told there were no seats. We never got as far as that. Incredibly, at the station you can only buy them up to six days in advance - at the STATION??
Well there’s no way I would attempt to buy them online so from there we went to the little ticket office where I bought the Huainan ones. You can buy them 20 days before there. And to my surprise every train and time I had specified had a seat so I now have four tickets. It’s a bit of a disjointed trip as I am going from here to Wuhu then change for Yiwu. On the way back I will go from Yiwu to Hangzhou and then back here. The reason for the return leg being different is because I will get back at 2300 instead of 0300. Makes sense to me.
I shall only stop for three nights and the first of those will be wasted as the train gets me there at 2200. I have splashed out a little for a good hotel in the city centre which has a WalMart opposite so I may even be able to find some western ingredients to bring back with me.
I took Yvonne to the hotpot place where we had blackfish, spuds, cabbage, spring rolls etc (far too much for two of us) and on the way out she pointed out another of the new restaurants in the development. It is the same chain as the one we were going to go to in Anqing before the semester started but she cancelled in order to accompany her little sister to a new school. I will have to pay it a visit now I know which dishes are best.
The video transcription ultimately took me fifty minutes last night, less than I thought so it wasn’t too onerous. Still, I wouldn’t relish the thought of any more like that though.
It’s a wet old day here and supposed to remain so until the weekend. I have no need to venture very far as I bought enough meat previously precisely because the damp was expected. I may just motivate myself later to actually have a bash at making chips in my new machine.
Sunday, 14 September 2014
Sunday 14th September, 2014 1230
The cold is slowly leaving me I am glad to say. Yesterday I went and collected my delivery of ground cloves (one of the ingredients needed to turn pork into ham) and then onwards to town and shopping. Of course, this weekend sees the thousands of freshmen stream through the south gate, many with their parents in the family car. This, in a land where people drive in the same manner as they walk, means that at times it is impossible to get even an e-bike through. There is never any consideration given to others as they simply abandon, not park, their vehicles.
I did escape though and bought some food. I even bought a small (well, they’re ALL small!) chicken for myself but annoyingly Lottemart never had any bones for the dog. Certainly afterwards I was going to pass RT Mart but going in there, even if you don’t buy anything, takes fifteen minutes by the time you have gone up the escalators, down them again and then gone to look at the goods. I may go there tomorrow.
I was too late to have lunch at Ke Bi Wang so McDonald’s it had to be. As I entered I looked to see if the little signs about lettuce had been removed. They had. That didn’t necessarily mean they had lettuce so I asked. They had! Great, a big Mac meal please. Since the “shortage” it has been cheeseburgers only for me because at least they still had gherkins. While I was tucking into my burger a waitress with zero English rather foolishly came over in an attempt to get me to complete a survey form written entirely in Chinese. I have no idea whether someone in the shop was winding her up but her tenacity is to be admired. She found someone who spoke English and enlisted her help and by coincidence she is also a teacher here but in a different department. For completing said questionnaire I was rewarded with a voucher for a free ice cream cornet, which ten minutes later I donated to a small girl with a balloon and who probably enjoyed it more than I would have.
Then it was back home to get Pepsi and battle my way out again to go shopping for liquids. Incredibly the sweet pork place has been closed for two days now and I say incredibly because they know full well armies of newcomers and their folks are rolling in so they could have done a brisk trade in meals. Instead, as yesterday, I had to go to office three near the fish shop. I think Pepsi prefers it there as she does wander a little when she isn’t hiding in the undergrowth. Sitting on my bike with a bottle under an overcast sky, my mind was wandering over many things. I was trying to figure out which of the campus shops would return. We finally got to the bottom of the fiasco. What happened was that the company that had a five year lease on the entire bottom floor never lodged their paperwork to renew until it was too late so the school put it out to tender. The highest bidder offered 1.2m yuan for the coming five years and now (as of yesterday evening) the supermarket, post office and fruit shop are back in business.
My thoughts were interrupted by movement in the dry grass in front of my bike. What on earth was it? Curiosity piqued, I dismounted and went to investigate. It was an escapee from the very restaurant whose beer I was drinking, one of the little lobsters that the Chinese so enjoy. It was a long way from the illusory safety of the lake so I decided to give it a hand. These things have eyes in the back of their heads and their arms go back further than you might expect. The owner of the restaurant and his friend who were sitting chatting seemed amused by my tentative efforts at picking the creature up. Now the claws were hardly big and probably wouldn’t have hurt me at all but I didn’t want to find out. Eventually though I did manage to grasp it in the right place and deposit it in the right place, at least until it gets caught again.
When I returned home I had an email waiting from the translation company. Aside from one tiddly little job I got in the hotel in Huainan I have had nothing for about seven weeks from them but apparently that is normal as Ollivier hasn’t had much either. Talk about getting you back in the swing gently - 18,000 words to be done by Monday morning! Bearing in mind the 10,000 word one took me about 4.5 hours I thought it would take 8 hours of solid work to get it done. To my relief it wasn’t in PDF format this time so I started on it and never stopped until it was finished and sent back two and a half hours later. One of those a week would be very nice thank you!
Later this afternoon I know I need to collect at least my lasagne and the oil free chip maker although the pickling spices may also arrive this afternoon. If they do I may well have pop to town again regardless and buy a lump of pork so I can have a dabble. The first time is going to be annoying as I won’t know for a week if it is successful.
The cold is slowly leaving me I am glad to say. Yesterday I went and collected my delivery of ground cloves (one of the ingredients needed to turn pork into ham) and then onwards to town and shopping. Of course, this weekend sees the thousands of freshmen stream through the south gate, many with their parents in the family car. This, in a land where people drive in the same manner as they walk, means that at times it is impossible to get even an e-bike through. There is never any consideration given to others as they simply abandon, not park, their vehicles.
I did escape though and bought some food. I even bought a small (well, they’re ALL small!) chicken for myself but annoyingly Lottemart never had any bones for the dog. Certainly afterwards I was going to pass RT Mart but going in there, even if you don’t buy anything, takes fifteen minutes by the time you have gone up the escalators, down them again and then gone to look at the goods. I may go there tomorrow.
I was too late to have lunch at Ke Bi Wang so McDonald’s it had to be. As I entered I looked to see if the little signs about lettuce had been removed. They had. That didn’t necessarily mean they had lettuce so I asked. They had! Great, a big Mac meal please. Since the “shortage” it has been cheeseburgers only for me because at least they still had gherkins. While I was tucking into my burger a waitress with zero English rather foolishly came over in an attempt to get me to complete a survey form written entirely in Chinese. I have no idea whether someone in the shop was winding her up but her tenacity is to be admired. She found someone who spoke English and enlisted her help and by coincidence she is also a teacher here but in a different department. For completing said questionnaire I was rewarded with a voucher for a free ice cream cornet, which ten minutes later I donated to a small girl with a balloon and who probably enjoyed it more than I would have.
Then it was back home to get Pepsi and battle my way out again to go shopping for liquids. Incredibly the sweet pork place has been closed for two days now and I say incredibly because they know full well armies of newcomers and their folks are rolling in so they could have done a brisk trade in meals. Instead, as yesterday, I had to go to office three near the fish shop. I think Pepsi prefers it there as she does wander a little when she isn’t hiding in the undergrowth. Sitting on my bike with a bottle under an overcast sky, my mind was wandering over many things. I was trying to figure out which of the campus shops would return. We finally got to the bottom of the fiasco. What happened was that the company that had a five year lease on the entire bottom floor never lodged their paperwork to renew until it was too late so the school put it out to tender. The highest bidder offered 1.2m yuan for the coming five years and now (as of yesterday evening) the supermarket, post office and fruit shop are back in business.
My thoughts were interrupted by movement in the dry grass in front of my bike. What on earth was it? Curiosity piqued, I dismounted and went to investigate. It was an escapee from the very restaurant whose beer I was drinking, one of the little lobsters that the Chinese so enjoy. It was a long way from the illusory safety of the lake so I decided to give it a hand. These things have eyes in the back of their heads and their arms go back further than you might expect. The owner of the restaurant and his friend who were sitting chatting seemed amused by my tentative efforts at picking the creature up. Now the claws were hardly big and probably wouldn’t have hurt me at all but I didn’t want to find out. Eventually though I did manage to grasp it in the right place and deposit it in the right place, at least until it gets caught again.
When I returned home I had an email waiting from the translation company. Aside from one tiddly little job I got in the hotel in Huainan I have had nothing for about seven weeks from them but apparently that is normal as Ollivier hasn’t had much either. Talk about getting you back in the swing gently - 18,000 words to be done by Monday morning! Bearing in mind the 10,000 word one took me about 4.5 hours I thought it would take 8 hours of solid work to get it done. To my relief it wasn’t in PDF format this time so I started on it and never stopped until it was finished and sent back two and a half hours later. One of those a week would be very nice thank you!
Later this afternoon I know I need to collect at least my lasagne and the oil free chip maker although the pickling spices may also arrive this afternoon. If they do I may well have pop to town again regardless and buy a lump of pork so I can have a dabble. The first time is going to be annoying as I won’t know for a week if it is successful.
Friday, 12 September 2014
Friday 12th September, 2014 1110
Having laboured under a stinking cold since I last posted (with the resultant even poorer sleep than normal due to coughing fits) I really didn’t want to teach my first class of the year at 1020 today.
However I have always refused to let a cold stand in the way of work and so I dragged myself down to the appointed classroom. I was deliberately early in order to have a smoke before the bell and about five minutes before start time I peered through the door and was greeted by the sum total of five students, four used to be mine and a boy I have never seen. Something was clearly wrong here because they were doing private study. As it wouldn’t have been the first time I have made a mistake (and having only brought my timetable in Chinese I keep on the bike) I decided to go to the corresponding room number on the south side of the building. Full class there but none of them my students.
By now I was getting annoyed and so went back to my bike, called one of my old students over to read my timetable and she confirmed I had gone to the right classroom in the first place. Ok so it wasn’t me. I sent a text to Cinny saying I had lost my class but as she was teaching herself she didn’t reply for ages. A few minutes later, just as I was thinking to hell with it and go home, a boy from my other three year class happened by. He very kindly informed me that the schedule had been changed! Bloody marvellous - they already changed it once and then in the last week or so did it again but of course nobody tells you.
In high dudgeon I returned home and put my laptop on. The spreadsheets on the university websites don’t work with Chrome so I had to go through the rigmarole of “do you want to make Internet Explorer your home page” and “your browser settings were changed” etc to take a look, praying it hadn’t been moved to 1600 today (or any day for that matter). I hate IE. They’ve changed it to Tuesday after lunch, meaning I have back to back deadheads that day. It does though give me a four hour lunch break on Fridays now!
I haven’t done much since Tuesday for obvious reasons. On Wednesday I never had the energy to cook and so went and had a sweet dish in the upstairs restaurant outside south gate and yesterday I had no choice but to go shopping for pet food in town. I didn’t even have the will to go to McDonald’s for a lettuceless burger so I bought a baguette and in the evening slapped some cheese and pickle in it. It filled a hole and as there is plenty left tonight I shall probably us it and bung some sausages and HP sauce in it. At least I now have three and a half days in which I hope my malaise will abate.
Last night when I took Pepsi out we drew the attention of the denizens of Block 2. Normally that doesn’t happen until we have almost completed our circuit. Before I knew it I was walking five dogs - previously it was just Mum and Scamp but it appears two males have now taken up residence. Stay tuned for updates on new litters. Anyway, I prayed the pack wouldn’t come across Pooh and thankfully they didn’t. I wasn’t worried about him being able to handle the situation, rather the racket the mutts would have made. Curtains would have been pulled, they would have seen that fat laowei teacher and complained about all my dogs!
Before I go, I had to laugh at an article in China Daily today. The Dalai Lama has apparently said he will probably be the last Dalai to be reincarnated and the government has got the hump, saying he should respect reincarnation. Yet reincarnation is illegal here unless you obtain prior approval from the government! Some things are hard to fathom.
Having laboured under a stinking cold since I last posted (with the resultant even poorer sleep than normal due to coughing fits) I really didn’t want to teach my first class of the year at 1020 today.
However I have always refused to let a cold stand in the way of work and so I dragged myself down to the appointed classroom. I was deliberately early in order to have a smoke before the bell and about five minutes before start time I peered through the door and was greeted by the sum total of five students, four used to be mine and a boy I have never seen. Something was clearly wrong here because they were doing private study. As it wouldn’t have been the first time I have made a mistake (and having only brought my timetable in Chinese I keep on the bike) I decided to go to the corresponding room number on the south side of the building. Full class there but none of them my students.
By now I was getting annoyed and so went back to my bike, called one of my old students over to read my timetable and she confirmed I had gone to the right classroom in the first place. Ok so it wasn’t me. I sent a text to Cinny saying I had lost my class but as she was teaching herself she didn’t reply for ages. A few minutes later, just as I was thinking to hell with it and go home, a boy from my other three year class happened by. He very kindly informed me that the schedule had been changed! Bloody marvellous - they already changed it once and then in the last week or so did it again but of course nobody tells you.
In high dudgeon I returned home and put my laptop on. The spreadsheets on the university websites don’t work with Chrome so I had to go through the rigmarole of “do you want to make Internet Explorer your home page” and “your browser settings were changed” etc to take a look, praying it hadn’t been moved to 1600 today (or any day for that matter). I hate IE. They’ve changed it to Tuesday after lunch, meaning I have back to back deadheads that day. It does though give me a four hour lunch break on Fridays now!
I haven’t done much since Tuesday for obvious reasons. On Wednesday I never had the energy to cook and so went and had a sweet dish in the upstairs restaurant outside south gate and yesterday I had no choice but to go shopping for pet food in town. I didn’t even have the will to go to McDonald’s for a lettuceless burger so I bought a baguette and in the evening slapped some cheese and pickle in it. It filled a hole and as there is plenty left tonight I shall probably us it and bung some sausages and HP sauce in it. At least I now have three and a half days in which I hope my malaise will abate.
Last night when I took Pepsi out we drew the attention of the denizens of Block 2. Normally that doesn’t happen until we have almost completed our circuit. Before I knew it I was walking five dogs - previously it was just Mum and Scamp but it appears two males have now taken up residence. Stay tuned for updates on new litters. Anyway, I prayed the pack wouldn’t come across Pooh and thankfully they didn’t. I wasn’t worried about him being able to handle the situation, rather the racket the mutts would have made. Curtains would have been pulled, they would have seen that fat laowei teacher and complained about all my dogs!
Before I go, I had to laugh at an article in China Daily today. The Dalai Lama has apparently said he will probably be the last Dalai to be reincarnated and the government has got the hump, saying he should respect reincarnation. Yet reincarnation is illegal here unless you obtain prior approval from the government! Some things are hard to fathom.
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
Tuesday 9the September, 2014 2030
The longer you live the more “interesting” life becomes.
I really wanted to have an early night last night but because I felt dreadful I stayed up late again. I could feel something coming on and it certainly did by the time I woke up. Yet another cold and the disease-ridden freshmen don’t even arrive until tomorrow.
Last night we encountered Pooh on our midnight walk, Pepsi having flushed him out, immediately prompted him to take refuge in a tree. No amount of coaxing by me would get him down and my tree climbing days are long gone. I suppose I shall just have to be thankful he seems to be fending for himself quite well regardless.
This afternoon we had the training session in how to use a classroom. Of course it was anything but. What it was, was a representative from a software firm sent to show us how to use it. The software in question allows the user to take a memory stick from a student with a speech by them previously set as homework and play it back, adding written comments by the teacher. There was however one major problem in that the presentation; if it can be termed thus; was given entirely in Chinese! I would have been lost even if it were in English.
The crux of the matter is that the school wants us to set homework each week for students to give a speech and record for critique later. So two hundred plus students each week need speeches listening to and comments logged? It’s not going to happen. The rep was also asked if we could have the software on our own laptops but we were told no, it’s only on the computer in the particular classroom we were in. The school seems oblivious to two things here:
1. When they hell are the entire faculty of the Foreign Language Dept going to be able to do this using one computer between all?
2. When there is no class scheduled for these classrooms the doors are locked and teachers have no key!
That was forty minutes of my life I will never get back again.
One little snippet that I have to include is about the retirement at sixty policy that was recently dreamed up to get rid of Kevin and I. Kevin’s assistant teacher informed him that the foreign affairs officer has said that if he wants to stay on teaching after this year he has to find someone to guarantee his health!!
I did offer to forge a letter from God for him. In fact I think he should give them one anyway simply to demonstrate how imbecilic they are.
After dropping Pepsi off home earlier I went back out exploring the shops and restaurants outside the south gate. Couldn’t be bothered cooking (I wasn’t actually that hungry either) so found one with photos of the food on the wall. I went in and ordered beef, mushroom and peppers with rice. I was surprised to note the owners and family are Moslems because I haven’t seen any in Chizhou ever. It is unlikely I will ever see them again either because they charged me 20y and yet on one wall the Chinese menu showed almost every dish as costing half that. You only get one chance to rip me off.
Tomorrow is a new year and floods of bright eyed and bushy tailed freshers will pour onto campus (just short of 4,000 of them) and classes begin for teachers and older students. I have a reprieve until Friday so all I need to do is wait here for the gas man, go and give Yvonne 1,011y and then ride to town to do some shopping. The reason I am giving Yvonne so much is because she is going to order me a fat free deep fat fryer plus a load of ingredients with which to make my own ham. I can only hope I am not wasting my money.
The longer you live the more “interesting” life becomes.
I really wanted to have an early night last night but because I felt dreadful I stayed up late again. I could feel something coming on and it certainly did by the time I woke up. Yet another cold and the disease-ridden freshmen don’t even arrive until tomorrow.
Last night we encountered Pooh on our midnight walk, Pepsi having flushed him out, immediately prompted him to take refuge in a tree. No amount of coaxing by me would get him down and my tree climbing days are long gone. I suppose I shall just have to be thankful he seems to be fending for himself quite well regardless.
This afternoon we had the training session in how to use a classroom. Of course it was anything but. What it was, was a representative from a software firm sent to show us how to use it. The software in question allows the user to take a memory stick from a student with a speech by them previously set as homework and play it back, adding written comments by the teacher. There was however one major problem in that the presentation; if it can be termed thus; was given entirely in Chinese! I would have been lost even if it were in English.
The crux of the matter is that the school wants us to set homework each week for students to give a speech and record for critique later. So two hundred plus students each week need speeches listening to and comments logged? It’s not going to happen. The rep was also asked if we could have the software on our own laptops but we were told no, it’s only on the computer in the particular classroom we were in. The school seems oblivious to two things here:
1. When they hell are the entire faculty of the Foreign Language Dept going to be able to do this using one computer between all?
2. When there is no class scheduled for these classrooms the doors are locked and teachers have no key!
That was forty minutes of my life I will never get back again.
One little snippet that I have to include is about the retirement at sixty policy that was recently dreamed up to get rid of Kevin and I. Kevin’s assistant teacher informed him that the foreign affairs officer has said that if he wants to stay on teaching after this year he has to find someone to guarantee his health!!
I did offer to forge a letter from God for him. In fact I think he should give them one anyway simply to demonstrate how imbecilic they are.
After dropping Pepsi off home earlier I went back out exploring the shops and restaurants outside the south gate. Couldn’t be bothered cooking (I wasn’t actually that hungry either) so found one with photos of the food on the wall. I went in and ordered beef, mushroom and peppers with rice. I was surprised to note the owners and family are Moslems because I haven’t seen any in Chizhou ever. It is unlikely I will ever see them again either because they charged me 20y and yet on one wall the Chinese menu showed almost every dish as costing half that. You only get one chance to rip me off.
Tomorrow is a new year and floods of bright eyed and bushy tailed freshers will pour onto campus (just short of 4,000 of them) and classes begin for teachers and older students. I have a reprieve until Friday so all I need to do is wait here for the gas man, go and give Yvonne 1,011y and then ride to town to do some shopping. The reason I am giving Yvonne so much is because she is going to order me a fat free deep fat fryer plus a load of ingredients with which to make my own ham. I can only hope I am not wasting my money.
Monday, 8 September 2014
Monday 8th September, 2014 0330
I know, crazy time to be still up and I really must get back into kilter but I do have until Friday to do so. Today is moon cake day and sadly there is not one within my reach although I read in the news that sales of said cakes have plummeted since Beijing imposed a ban on officials using expenses to entertain lavishly at the people’s expense. Everything has consequences!
Yvonne is now back although I have yet to see her and Lucy is back tomorrow. I need Lucy to get this place clean again! In fairness to me, I will pay her double for the first session seeing as it might take her a little longer. My house guests weren’t particularly good at housework, in fact I think that as lazy as I am I was still better.
Kevin and Ollivier have both been commenting on the mould spots on the paint in the main room, something they don’t have as they can leave their windows open whereas I can’t for obvious reasons. Ollivier has given me some bags containing what I assume is silica gel that have reservoirs for the water they suck out of the air. I think most of the damp has been occasioned by having girls showering and washing their clothes in the bathroom, rather than from me though.
Tonight on my walk with Pepsi I did discover that Pooh is alive and inhabiting the top northeast corner of the school. I spotted a cat crouching motionless in the car park which looked as if it could be him. I called his name (he was the only one who actually knew his name) and he never moved as I approached. Unfortunately Pepsi arrived having completed her sniffing other dog’s scents elsewhere and Pooh upped and ran behind what passes for a hedge between the car park and the reinforcements to prevent landslip. Pooh did emerge from the bushes, leapt up onto an electrical box and at that time I could tell for certain by the “dirty” mark under his chin it was him. His fur is a bit spiky now (having been an indoor cat it was always silky) but there was no doubt. What shocked me was that when he was here he was the one who would always come to me for attention and yet tonight it was as if he didn’t know me. As I went to try and coax him and get hold of him he hissed and legged it. Ok Pepsi was by then jumping up but even so I did think he would have let me pick him up, I was wrong. I had a feeling that was where he was living because twice before Pepsi has shot off and disappeared behind the bushes - whether she remembers Pooh or simply regards him as an outside cat is anyone’s guess. I will from now on take the long way around on my bike without Pepsi in the hope that he may let me bring him home but at least I know he is not the cat with the bad leg Kevin saw outside the west gate a fortnight ago.
I am still chewing over the trip to Yiwu in the golden week. Everyone is telling me not to do it. Not that I listen to others that often but it does give pause for thought, especially considering the logistics. I will take Yvonne to the bus station to see if there is, as Vivi says, a bus to there. The problem with that is that bus tickets can only be bought five days in advance and if they have sold out when I go then so will the train tickets be. Nothing is ever simple.
1530
The sun was rising before I got under the sheet for just over five hours sleep. I wonder if that will mean I can be comatose at a sensible time tonight? I have to be fresh for the intensive training course on using a classroom tomorrow!
I don’t think I have mentioned this previously but while I was away in July I took my student marks with me so I could enter them on the system. I entered five classes without a problem but when I came to the sixth and final one (Amy’s class) I found I had left half of their scores here. I entered the half I had and saved them but never submitted them, with the intention of inputting the rest on my return. When I got back I found that I couldn’t and so contacted Cinny. She said the system had been closed to new entries a couple of days before so I would have to wait until term started. A few days ago Kevin came to my flat. Someone had asked him to see what I was doing wrong. He discovered the marks had in fact been submitted and I vehemently denied having done so. I don’t think he believed me.
On Thursday Cinny told me the system had been opened up and I could now enter the missing scores. As I was about to leave for dinner at the time I said I would do it when I got back. Upon my return from getting lost on the bike, I tried to but couldn’t and to date still haven’t been able to. However, it transpires that what happened is that the chap in charge saw that only a handful of teachers had put their marks in and assumed I had finished and made a mistake in not submitting the errant class so he kindly did it for me. So I hadn’t done anything wrong at all! The problem we have now is term starts on Wednesday so they need to sort it out pretty soon.
I know, crazy time to be still up and I really must get back into kilter but I do have until Friday to do so. Today is moon cake day and sadly there is not one within my reach although I read in the news that sales of said cakes have plummeted since Beijing imposed a ban on officials using expenses to entertain lavishly at the people’s expense. Everything has consequences!
Yvonne is now back although I have yet to see her and Lucy is back tomorrow. I need Lucy to get this place clean again! In fairness to me, I will pay her double for the first session seeing as it might take her a little longer. My house guests weren’t particularly good at housework, in fact I think that as lazy as I am I was still better.
Kevin and Ollivier have both been commenting on the mould spots on the paint in the main room, something they don’t have as they can leave their windows open whereas I can’t for obvious reasons. Ollivier has given me some bags containing what I assume is silica gel that have reservoirs for the water they suck out of the air. I think most of the damp has been occasioned by having girls showering and washing their clothes in the bathroom, rather than from me though.
Tonight on my walk with Pepsi I did discover that Pooh is alive and inhabiting the top northeast corner of the school. I spotted a cat crouching motionless in the car park which looked as if it could be him. I called his name (he was the only one who actually knew his name) and he never moved as I approached. Unfortunately Pepsi arrived having completed her sniffing other dog’s scents elsewhere and Pooh upped and ran behind what passes for a hedge between the car park and the reinforcements to prevent landslip. Pooh did emerge from the bushes, leapt up onto an electrical box and at that time I could tell for certain by the “dirty” mark under his chin it was him. His fur is a bit spiky now (having been an indoor cat it was always silky) but there was no doubt. What shocked me was that when he was here he was the one who would always come to me for attention and yet tonight it was as if he didn’t know me. As I went to try and coax him and get hold of him he hissed and legged it. Ok Pepsi was by then jumping up but even so I did think he would have let me pick him up, I was wrong. I had a feeling that was where he was living because twice before Pepsi has shot off and disappeared behind the bushes - whether she remembers Pooh or simply regards him as an outside cat is anyone’s guess. I will from now on take the long way around on my bike without Pepsi in the hope that he may let me bring him home but at least I know he is not the cat with the bad leg Kevin saw outside the west gate a fortnight ago.
I am still chewing over the trip to Yiwu in the golden week. Everyone is telling me not to do it. Not that I listen to others that often but it does give pause for thought, especially considering the logistics. I will take Yvonne to the bus station to see if there is, as Vivi says, a bus to there. The problem with that is that bus tickets can only be bought five days in advance and if they have sold out when I go then so will the train tickets be. Nothing is ever simple.
1530
The sun was rising before I got under the sheet for just over five hours sleep. I wonder if that will mean I can be comatose at a sensible time tonight? I have to be fresh for the intensive training course on using a classroom tomorrow!
I don’t think I have mentioned this previously but while I was away in July I took my student marks with me so I could enter them on the system. I entered five classes without a problem but when I came to the sixth and final one (Amy’s class) I found I had left half of their scores here. I entered the half I had and saved them but never submitted them, with the intention of inputting the rest on my return. When I got back I found that I couldn’t and so contacted Cinny. She said the system had been closed to new entries a couple of days before so I would have to wait until term started. A few days ago Kevin came to my flat. Someone had asked him to see what I was doing wrong. He discovered the marks had in fact been submitted and I vehemently denied having done so. I don’t think he believed me.
On Thursday Cinny told me the system had been opened up and I could now enter the missing scores. As I was about to leave for dinner at the time I said I would do it when I got back. Upon my return from getting lost on the bike, I tried to but couldn’t and to date still haven’t been able to. However, it transpires that what happened is that the chap in charge saw that only a handful of teachers had put their marks in and assumed I had finished and made a mistake in not submitting the errant class so he kindly did it for me. So I hadn’t done anything wrong at all! The problem we have now is term starts on Wednesday so they need to sort it out pretty soon.
Friday, 5 September 2014
Friday 5th September, 2014 2200
Where to start? At the beginning I suppose.
As I mentioned previously, I still had the urge to have one last piece of travelling before term starts and contacted some current and ex students to see where they were. Vivian came up trumps, now being a teacher in Yiwu, so I suggested that I might pay a visit. She was over the moon, as apparently were two of her classmates who now also work in that city. She told me the bus took about four hours from here.
Never believe anyone in China when they tell you times because usually they err drastically on the favourable side and sometimes, as in this case, tell complete porkies. There probably is no bus (although Kevin’s student says she found one which takes about a month to get there) and the trains don’t run to there from here. Determined I was going to go, I did my homework and found the best way to go was by train via Wuhu and it would take me about twelve hours. Not impressed but now I know I can smoke, not an obstacle.
Anyway, I wrote down the trains I wanted to take and decided it had to be a three night visit seeing as the earliest I could get there was ten at night. One of my current students has returned - I have been looking after her plant during the holiday - and she mentioned she was going to Wuhu on Sunday, could she help? Certainly she could but I couldn’t go on Sunday due to the return trip getting to our train station at 0220 on Thursday so I asked if she could go on Saturday so I could be back on Wednesday. Very kindly she agreed.
I duly booked a hotel and five minutes before I went to collect her to go and buy the train tickets I received a message to say that I had to attend a meeting on Tuesday for training in how to use a classroom. You may think this odd, I personally think it is barmy. After all, I was using said classrooms last term and what is there to learn about using a classroom?? Ok, fine.
As I was riding to her dormitory it suddenly dawned - hold on, I won’t be back until the early hours of Wednesday! Phone call time. But the term doesn’t start until Wednesday and my first class is Friday. But all the teachers were told they had to be on campus from the 1st because of the inspection. All the teachers except the foreigners as usual! Sorry you will need to ask for leave. Well I am not going to do that given the precariousness of the foreign teachers’ job situation so I thought it would be a simple matter of moving everything forward by a day. Off we went to the station. We got there and my student asked for my ID. I had forgotten you need it for trains but not buses. Shit. I left her there and came back to get the book. When I returned we went to buy my tickets. So far so good.
Thereafter the wheels came off. The train I wanted to take on the return from Wuhu had no seats available so there was much talking in Mandarin and eventually my student asked me for about 200y. I had spotted on the cashier’s computer screen that it appeared I would have a five hour wait in Wuhu on the way back and get back here at seven in the morning. There was absolutely no way I was going to agree to that and so eventually I had to simply say forget it. I have cancelled my trip. This has all been occasioned by the utter lack of communication between the school and the foreign teachers, precisely as it has been since the day I arrived. Had we been informed not only of the meeting but also the requirement to be here ten days too early, I would never have even thought of arranging a trip. I am less than delighted and can’t wait to see what exciting new things we will be “taught” about our classrooms. Perhaps they will have a revolutionary new way of avoiding the floor panels caving in when I walk on them (which has happened on more than one occasion).
If I can secure tickets my new plan is to still go there (Yiwu is famous for having China’s biggest open air market) during the Golden Week and on coming back go to Anqing to visit Yvonne for a night seeing as the train to there gets in at a more Godly hour.
Tonight I was invited to dinner at a newly opened restaurant by the owner of the little school. The food was ok and the owner brought along two very young daughters of a friend plus his 18 month old son. The girls were cute and his son couldn’t stop staring at me, whether because of my obesity or strangeness is unknown.
When I left I could have done the Chinese thing and ridden the wrong way along the road to get to the turning I needed but I decided as there had been five attempts at wiping me out on the way in, I would stick to the rules even though nobody else does. The problem was, I took an unknown road assuming it would lead me to familiar territory. I found myself catastrophically lost. It was dark and there were no landmarks to help me and the longer I rode the more concerned I became. It’s one thing getting disorientated when you have a tank of petrol, quite another when you are running on batteries.
Eventually and for the first time in months, I spied the temple near college at night. Tonight it was lit. At least I had a reference point. Eventually (and I have no idea where I rode) I found a slightly familiar route and made it back. Had I run out of power it would have been pointless calling for help as I couldn’t tell them where I was. The annoying thing is, had I taken the next turning a half a mile further on I would never have got lost. Lesson learnt.
Where to start? At the beginning I suppose.
As I mentioned previously, I still had the urge to have one last piece of travelling before term starts and contacted some current and ex students to see where they were. Vivian came up trumps, now being a teacher in Yiwu, so I suggested that I might pay a visit. She was over the moon, as apparently were two of her classmates who now also work in that city. She told me the bus took about four hours from here.
Never believe anyone in China when they tell you times because usually they err drastically on the favourable side and sometimes, as in this case, tell complete porkies. There probably is no bus (although Kevin’s student says she found one which takes about a month to get there) and the trains don’t run to there from here. Determined I was going to go, I did my homework and found the best way to go was by train via Wuhu and it would take me about twelve hours. Not impressed but now I know I can smoke, not an obstacle.
Anyway, I wrote down the trains I wanted to take and decided it had to be a three night visit seeing as the earliest I could get there was ten at night. One of my current students has returned - I have been looking after her plant during the holiday - and she mentioned she was going to Wuhu on Sunday, could she help? Certainly she could but I couldn’t go on Sunday due to the return trip getting to our train station at 0220 on Thursday so I asked if she could go on Saturday so I could be back on Wednesday. Very kindly she agreed.
I duly booked a hotel and five minutes before I went to collect her to go and buy the train tickets I received a message to say that I had to attend a meeting on Tuesday for training in how to use a classroom. You may think this odd, I personally think it is barmy. After all, I was using said classrooms last term and what is there to learn about using a classroom?? Ok, fine.
As I was riding to her dormitory it suddenly dawned - hold on, I won’t be back until the early hours of Wednesday! Phone call time. But the term doesn’t start until Wednesday and my first class is Friday. But all the teachers were told they had to be on campus from the 1st because of the inspection. All the teachers except the foreigners as usual! Sorry you will need to ask for leave. Well I am not going to do that given the precariousness of the foreign teachers’ job situation so I thought it would be a simple matter of moving everything forward by a day. Off we went to the station. We got there and my student asked for my ID. I had forgotten you need it for trains but not buses. Shit. I left her there and came back to get the book. When I returned we went to buy my tickets. So far so good.
Thereafter the wheels came off. The train I wanted to take on the return from Wuhu had no seats available so there was much talking in Mandarin and eventually my student asked me for about 200y. I had spotted on the cashier’s computer screen that it appeared I would have a five hour wait in Wuhu on the way back and get back here at seven in the morning. There was absolutely no way I was going to agree to that and so eventually I had to simply say forget it. I have cancelled my trip. This has all been occasioned by the utter lack of communication between the school and the foreign teachers, precisely as it has been since the day I arrived. Had we been informed not only of the meeting but also the requirement to be here ten days too early, I would never have even thought of arranging a trip. I am less than delighted and can’t wait to see what exciting new things we will be “taught” about our classrooms. Perhaps they will have a revolutionary new way of avoiding the floor panels caving in when I walk on them (which has happened on more than one occasion).
If I can secure tickets my new plan is to still go there (Yiwu is famous for having China’s biggest open air market) during the Golden Week and on coming back go to Anqing to visit Yvonne for a night seeing as the train to there gets in at a more Godly hour.
Tonight I was invited to dinner at a newly opened restaurant by the owner of the little school. The food was ok and the owner brought along two very young daughters of a friend plus his 18 month old son. The girls were cute and his son couldn’t stop staring at me, whether because of my obesity or strangeness is unknown.
When I left I could have done the Chinese thing and ridden the wrong way along the road to get to the turning I needed but I decided as there had been five attempts at wiping me out on the way in, I would stick to the rules even though nobody else does. The problem was, I took an unknown road assuming it would lead me to familiar territory. I found myself catastrophically lost. It was dark and there were no landmarks to help me and the longer I rode the more concerned I became. It’s one thing getting disorientated when you have a tank of petrol, quite another when you are running on batteries.
Eventually and for the first time in months, I spied the temple near college at night. Tonight it was lit. At least I had a reference point. Eventually (and I have no idea where I rode) I found a slightly familiar route and made it back. Had I run out of power it would have been pointless calling for help as I couldn’t tell them where I was. The annoying thing is, had I taken the next turning a half a mile further on I would never have got lost. Lesson learnt.
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Monday 1st September, 2014 2130
Kevin is a jinx. Last night he sent me a message to let me know there was fantastic lightning outside (I hadn’t noticed as I was watching a film) and wondering if we would have a power cut.
Then the storm hit, bringing a deluge with it. Sure enough, at about 2030 the entire area once again was plunged into darkness. Nothing for it but to get out my rechargeable desk lamp, open a book and wait for it to come back. Three long hours later it finally did. Maybe one day they will make permanent improvements to prevent it from happening every time there’s a storm. There’s no reason I can think of as to why they can’t, after all the city never gets blackouts.
This morning, aside from a few last remaining things, Ellen moved back to her dormitory, leaving me with just the animals for company once more. I stayed in bed until noon (must get out of that habit soon!) and in the early evening took Pepsi out for a couple of hours. That and putting my laundry on sums up my entire day! Dinner was leftover chilli mince from last night, four of us ate it but I had made far too much. Maybe I will get to test those stay fresh boxers soon!
Olivier, Coco and who knows which child arrived back this evening and he hasn’t been here yet to demand his plates and knives back so I shall take them tomorrow. Kevin now has an appointment to lodge his application for a new passport and will be going on Thursday in his car. He asked me if I wanted to go with him and provided we (or at least me) stay overnight in an hotel then I may well do so. However depending on his funds he may drive there and back the same day. He has been informed that if that is the case then the answer is a resounding no. It must be all of a six hour drive each way and it’s bad enough if you are the driver but being a passenger for half a day is not my idea of anything other than torture. No doubt I will find out tomorrow and I can make my own decision.
Tuesday 2nd 1800
I won’t be going to Shanghai. Kevin is going to do the round trip in one day and there is no way on earth I intend to sit as a passenger in a car for at least twelve hours driving for a couple of hours there. No thanks.
My schedule has been changed. I still have the same number of classes but now only Wednesdays off. They have moved a freshman class from Tuesday afternoon to Monday morning. Am I upset? No because as it stood the class that has been shifted would have meant a six o’clock finish on Tuesdays. Not only that, after ten weeks the remaining Tuesday class will graduate, leaving me with two weekends a week as I will then have Tuesday and Wednesday off. I am very happy with it!
Earlier I went out with the dog for our usual outing and first met with Kevin at the campus supermarket to collect my new rota. The sky was lowering and I didn’t tarry long. I left to go off campus - I can always park the bike under the overhanging roof and keep it dry if it rains - and made my way towards south gate. Seconds after I left it started spitting with rain but I thought if it stayed that way there was no need to break out the cape. As it started to get heavier (and there were people walking without umbrellas!) I decided to stop and put the cape on. Sheltering under some roadside trees I fitted it to the bike and sat back on, pulling it over my head. Then the thunder and the torrent came. The capes don’t give much protection to your legs either when you are moving or there is a wind, which there was, so I rode through the stair rods only as far as the Foreign Language Department building. There I sheltered with Pepsi underneath until the rain abated.
It wasn’t for long and I continued on my way where we spent an hour in the nicely cool air. The rain still hasn’t stopped and probably won’t for hours yet but at least it is not heavy which means hopefully no power cut tonight even if I have to take an umbrella for Pepsi’s midnight walk.
For some reason I have itchy feet again and because I am not going to Anqing again I have the urge to go somewhere for one or two nights before term starts. It would be nice if it didn’t involve a really long train or bus trip and nicer still if one of my students could show me around. I’m not sure if I will get to do it, only a week left now and students are already trickling back but I just have that urge. We have a week off in October (known as the Golden Week) but travelling at that time would be virtually impossible even in a car.
Kevin is a jinx. Last night he sent me a message to let me know there was fantastic lightning outside (I hadn’t noticed as I was watching a film) and wondering if we would have a power cut.
Then the storm hit, bringing a deluge with it. Sure enough, at about 2030 the entire area once again was plunged into darkness. Nothing for it but to get out my rechargeable desk lamp, open a book and wait for it to come back. Three long hours later it finally did. Maybe one day they will make permanent improvements to prevent it from happening every time there’s a storm. There’s no reason I can think of as to why they can’t, after all the city never gets blackouts.
This morning, aside from a few last remaining things, Ellen moved back to her dormitory, leaving me with just the animals for company once more. I stayed in bed until noon (must get out of that habit soon!) and in the early evening took Pepsi out for a couple of hours. That and putting my laundry on sums up my entire day! Dinner was leftover chilli mince from last night, four of us ate it but I had made far too much. Maybe I will get to test those stay fresh boxers soon!
Olivier, Coco and who knows which child arrived back this evening and he hasn’t been here yet to demand his plates and knives back so I shall take them tomorrow. Kevin now has an appointment to lodge his application for a new passport and will be going on Thursday in his car. He asked me if I wanted to go with him and provided we (or at least me) stay overnight in an hotel then I may well do so. However depending on his funds he may drive there and back the same day. He has been informed that if that is the case then the answer is a resounding no. It must be all of a six hour drive each way and it’s bad enough if you are the driver but being a passenger for half a day is not my idea of anything other than torture. No doubt I will find out tomorrow and I can make my own decision.
Tuesday 2nd 1800
I won’t be going to Shanghai. Kevin is going to do the round trip in one day and there is no way on earth I intend to sit as a passenger in a car for at least twelve hours driving for a couple of hours there. No thanks.
My schedule has been changed. I still have the same number of classes but now only Wednesdays off. They have moved a freshman class from Tuesday afternoon to Monday morning. Am I upset? No because as it stood the class that has been shifted would have meant a six o’clock finish on Tuesdays. Not only that, after ten weeks the remaining Tuesday class will graduate, leaving me with two weekends a week as I will then have Tuesday and Wednesday off. I am very happy with it!
Earlier I went out with the dog for our usual outing and first met with Kevin at the campus supermarket to collect my new rota. The sky was lowering and I didn’t tarry long. I left to go off campus - I can always park the bike under the overhanging roof and keep it dry if it rains - and made my way towards south gate. Seconds after I left it started spitting with rain but I thought if it stayed that way there was no need to break out the cape. As it started to get heavier (and there were people walking without umbrellas!) I decided to stop and put the cape on. Sheltering under some roadside trees I fitted it to the bike and sat back on, pulling it over my head. Then the thunder and the torrent came. The capes don’t give much protection to your legs either when you are moving or there is a wind, which there was, so I rode through the stair rods only as far as the Foreign Language Department building. There I sheltered with Pepsi underneath until the rain abated.
It wasn’t for long and I continued on my way where we spent an hour in the nicely cool air. The rain still hasn’t stopped and probably won’t for hours yet but at least it is not heavy which means hopefully no power cut tonight even if I have to take an umbrella for Pepsi’s midnight walk.
For some reason I have itchy feet again and because I am not going to Anqing again I have the urge to go somewhere for one or two nights before term starts. It would be nice if it didn’t involve a really long train or bus trip and nicer still if one of my students could show me around. I’m not sure if I will get to do it, only a week left now and students are already trickling back but I just have that urge. We have a week off in October (known as the Golden Week) but travelling at that time would be virtually impossible even in a car.