Saturday evening was fun with the girls, for those who like to put names to faces in photos Dumpling wore a cream top, Caroline a jeans jacket and Joan a light blue affair. I thought I had over-ordered, which indeed I did but not by much, for the girls really relished the food. I made it a meal to remember with the sweet and sour crispy fish, battered prawns and sweet corn, Peking duck, pickled cucumber and radish balls. All that went into doggy bags was part of the fish and most of the sweet corn. It was great to see the radish balls disappear completely because although I love them I can usually only eat a couple and there are often quite a few left.
The evening did start off rather badly though, when we arrived at the restaurant one of my “brothers” indicated they were full and that there were no tables. They are always busy on Saturday nights but normally there are a few tables free and it‘s a big place. I was mildly embarrassed at not having booked a table beforehand but then it hasn’t been necessary in the past. I said we could wait (Chinese diners don’t generally linger once the food disappears) but a brother led us to a table for six which was occupied by a man and a woman who were studying menus. My embarrassment heightened when they were promptly evicted in favour of us! I am not a Hollywood A-lister or Xi Jinping so I felt terrible at having received such preferential treatment and indicated that as there would still be two places at the table the couple were more than welcome to stay. They refused graciously and went to wait for a smaller table to vacate, albeit only for a few minutes. My companions thought this was a completely ordinary occurrence.
Sunday started with a McBreakfast which was followed by the shop for tomorrow’s western Wednesday. I also bought three bottles of cheap but quaffable plonk (12.5y a bottle) and rued not having ensured I had a one yuan coin in my pocket with which to liberate a trolley. The basket became very heavy as I proceeded around RT Mart. Once back I lugged the two carrier bags upstairs, set them down outside the door so as to unlock it and then spotted the large red puddle growing outwards from one of the bags. Somehow the neck of one of the bottles had snapped and I now had a load of potatoes marinating in red wine. Slinging the other bag and the spuds inside, I shut the door and headed downstairs with the bag, noticing the trail of wine leading up - and now - downstairs. Not happy at such profligate waste, I grabbed the brush from outside Ollivier’s neighbour’s door and swept the worst of the spillage away but as Pepsi needed to go out I left the rest of it and scarpered. A little later Kevin sent me a text asking if I was ok seeing as there was a trail of blood leading to my door. Assuring him it was nothing sinister and that the new cat was still alive, I said I would mop it up in the morning. I didn’t, for later Ollivier came in to say he had done it which was very kind of him, so by way of a reward I made him some baguette with luncheon meat so he could recover his energy after his trip to the torture cham…..gym.
Just a morning class yesterday and two visits to my new office punctuated by a short siesta. I don’t know why I take the occasional nap because they do absolutely nothing to stop me being knackered the next day, as indeed I am now. The trouble is, I have another graduation dinner this evening and plenty of gambays will be expected. Still, today I just have some exams to do and then no more work until next Monday. There will be no photos of the dinner because my camera is currently en route to Beijing with Lucy. Tomorrow sees the start of the three day sports festival and as I suggested a week ago, the forecast is for three solid days of rain!
Since Sunday (and I believe for five days) the city has been holding an international wushu competition. Having only heard of this because Carol and Anna are volunteers there, I had to Google to find out that wushu is a martial art, although disappointingly this is the exhibition rather than the full contact version. Forty-five different countries are represented there, giving the girls ample chance to make new foreign friends and practise their English at the same time. They are getting up at 0400 each morning, leaving at five and not returning until the evening so they will be exhausted once it is over. They both came here to take a shower last night and were quite keen to tell me of all their new acquaintances. A Sri Lankan lad appears to have taken a shine to Anna, while Carol would seem to be enamoured of a “handsome” Russian boy. Oh to be young again. For anyone interested, this is today’s article on the contest in our local news:
http://www.chiznews.com/news/jrywNews/2014/1027/1410278228G84G11804DFFHDDKIA82.html
Zorro has calmed down a touch but not completely. Two nights ago I paid my final visit to the toilet before getting into bed. As I stood there evacuating my bladder, the little sod leapt up onto the toilet bowl rim and set about killing the snake he could see, almost destroying completely what little chance I have left of starting a family. It reminded me to exact revenge with a visit to the vet for the chop for that young man once the rain disappears.
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