Sunday 30th November, 2014         0020

Quite why I am starting this entry at this time given my plan is to be up early enough to have a Mcbreakfast in the morning is beyond me, but here goes.

As you know, against my better judgement I agreed ultimately to do both the morning and afternoon sessions of judging the singing today. Given that from my sneaky peeks it appeared the other three judges all consistently scored the acts far higher than I did, perhaps I am more like Simon Cowell than I would like to be. However I don’t believe it makes a blind bit of difference to the end result as long as you are consistent and honest. The fact is, I hate judging because I hate to disappoint but at least when there are four of you, the blame is not really apportionable to an individual.

The ride in was a bit parky even with a fleece under my coat but I arrived in good time - knackered as seems to always be the case these days. The first contestant was a boy and I have no idea what he was thinking when he entered this competition. It was as excruciating to listen to as it would be to hear the result of a tomcat and a zither being microwaved. Great start.

It did however on occasion get better - many performers should never have entered but some were genuinely good, in fact out of a total of 45 (I think) my scores suggested at the end of the day that there were six I really liked.

The 4th contestant was a little cutie of perhaps ten years of age who sang a song I had never heard but found myself liking the catchiness. I awarded her the highest score up to that point. After we had done the first half it was time for lunch but I had to ride back because of Pepsi. I looked up the song the little girl sang (and she is absolutely adorable, if a little timid) and for anyone interested, she sang this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MLDkBDqo4E

I suffered remorse at the end as in the morning session I awarded three performers 9.2 as the highest but with the older ones in the afternoon three of them were given 9.3. In hindsight the young girl should have been given the same. However, I am certain she is through to the finals to be held just before Christmas in an hotel downtown and if she sings as well then I will not make the same mistake again. She won’t win - older acts will - but she deserves a place in my view and I will do what I can.

When I returned for the afternoon session the fleece was dumped. This time I wore my down jacket underneath the coat! I should also perhaps have worn long john bottoms but at least I wasn’t in too much discomfort. I also decided to time the run to the school on the new bike. The old one, which was the fastest I had had to date, used to do door to door in 23 minutes. I knew the new one was faster but was stunned to note it did it in 17 minutes!

I have to admit to feeling somewhat jaded by the time the last contestant had been heard and by which time the sun was setting. There will be fewer entrants at the final of the contest although I will have to be Santa afterwards. My consolation is that I am sure I will get a dinner at the end of it.

Kevin made it back from collecting his passport in Shanghai tonight. He should have been back yesterday but they cancelled his bus! What with having to find an hotel for an extra night he is regretting not flying now even though it would have cost him 3,000y return. Ten hours on a bus is not my idea of fun, at least on the train you can get up and stretch your legs and more importantly, smoke. That is why my plan for the Christmas outing is to bus up to Hefei (it arrives earlier) and get the train back when it doesn’t matter how long it takes - bizarrely the train takes an hour longer.

We have had a thunderstorm tonight which I hope will be gone when I want to go to town. I need breakfast, shopping and now I need to take the bike as my first teething problem is that the saddle won’t lock down.

Sunday 30th                     1430

I can’t get that song out of my head now!

Anna has to sing a song for this hostess competition she entered and she didn’t know which song to sing so when we messaged on Skype last night I simply sent her “Count on me”. She really should be blonde because she refused my offer, saying if we sang together I would steal the show!!!! After explaining what I meant, she is now going to try singing it if she can find a microphone. I suspect she has a voice that is sweet enough to get away with singing it, at least I hope so.

I did get up early enough for a cold ride this morning, although not as cold as they are forecasting for the rest of the week from Tuesday onwards. It is predicted the highs and lows will be one and zero respectively! For this part of the world that seems to me to be winter arriving early so God help us in January and February. I suppose with three relatively mild winters having passed we are due a harsh one again.

In RT Mart I had a look at what salad was available for Wednesday’s cheese fondue. Annoyingly not a lot. No proper lettuce and just tomatoes and cucumber. No such thing as radishes here and celery is seasonal so two weeks ago saw the last of that. I will go on Tuesday anyway to buy as much of what I would like as possible, maybe spring onions will put in an appearance. I did buy a baguette which I will use for dinner tonight with home made ham, tomato and English (not that French muck) mustard.

It gave me a thought though for Christmas. Well not Christmas day as I will be working morning and afternoon, but definitely feasible for Christmas eve, providing there are no functions. Highly unlikely we will be treated to a school banquet, they seem to have gone by the board following the government edict prohibiting the use of public funds for entertainment. If I can find a decent sized pork leg I could make a ham on the bone and we could throw a traditional English Christmas dinner with roast potatoes as well as mash if the other laowei used their ovens and hobs too. I will sound them out and if it’s a green light, scour Taobao for piquant sauce or the ingredients to make it.

After shopping I went to the bike shop to complain about my saddle and was immediately made to look a complete chump. Rather than a key and lock affair to release it, as with all my other bikes, this being a different brand has another system. You open the saddle by twisting the ignition key backwards. Well of course I can’t read the little instruction leaflet but I have guessed if you twist the key back twice it stops it locking, so the solution is to do it again and problem solved. Stupid idea.

Time to wrap this up now, I fancy an hour in bed while my laundry is doing.