God it’s cold! Yes, the internet says it is 12 degrees but that is blinking freezing for me now. Bad enough that it drops below zero at night but this morning there was yet another planned power cut so the classrooms were cold too. Nice of them to stick the notice on the school website this morning rather than last night (I checked and there was no mention) and thank goodness it never affected me because I had to be ready to leave before the switch off time of eight.
I could so easily have slept much longer this morning. I went to bed at a sensible hour but still, when the dreaded tune played on my phone at six-thirty I silently groaned. I will be going to bed very shortly for two hours. This is ridiculous.
My ride to class in the “bracing” air was filmed. Yes, I agreed that the students could yet again use me as their subject for their homework. At least I shall get another video in payment for allowing the intrusion and they have said it should only take a week or so to complete rather than the aeons the last one did.
Don’t talk to me about Christmas. In the space of a few hours my schedule has suddenly become manic. Tonight I am taking Rita for dinner. Early tomorrow I am taking Joan shopping and for Mcbreakfast and in the evening one of my classes has a Christmas party so I will attend. I told the monitor I would telephone Santa to see if he could come - I need to get some mileage out of the costume after all!
Sunday morning it will be Mcbreakfast with Yvonne and yet more shopping, followed by the singing competition downtown with Nancy as my date. So far next week is pretty free apart from last minute shopping on Tuesday and our Xmas dinner Wednesday but I have just been invited to one of my classes’ party next Sunday night. My train back from Hefei won’t get here until almost six so it will be a case of hopping on the bus, going home and then straight back out again. I just hope I can grab forty winks on the train. For a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas it certainly keeps me busy!
I have to break now, I am yawning for England and I have decided to walk all the way to the south gate for the bus later. Not because I enjoy walking - I hate it - but because I know it will be Arctic conditions later and rather than ride back I will get the taxi through security so we can be dropped off at home.
Tuesday 23rd 1500
It has indeed been manic.
I had a lovely dinner with Rita at Love in the Town on Friday night, Saturday as planned Joan and I went shopping and had our breakfast and in the evening the class party. It was a small affair being just one class in a very cold classroom but I dressed as Santa for them and in return the sods roped me into a balloon game and also a synchronised dance routine which was most definitely not up my alley.
Sunday the little school had the talent competition in the Chizhou hotel. Five hundred strong, comprised of kids and parents! I had the hump throughout because being typically Chinese they made so much noise they drowned out the singers, sometimes they are so discourteous I want to strangle them. And yes, the little girl who sang Count On Me was given the highest score of the night by yours truly as I had vowed to do and she definitely won a prize. I’m not sure whether a first, second or third but she got one - in fact the goody bags I saw looked worth having, certainly the first prize ones included a digital camera.
The food I was offered before the contest started was provided by the school owner’s wife’s fast food restaurant and was in pre-packed plastic tubs. Not my cup of tea and so afterwards I, along with Nancy and the film crew, wandered across to McDonald’s for a spot of supper. Quite what the motorists thought when they saw Santa crossing at the lights I know not but the staff in McDonald’s all wanted photos taken with Father Christmas. I ordered the “bucket” of chicken and regretted it. Sixty-nine yuan for wings, legs and quarters and all of it was so spicy it hurt! I live and learn.
Yesterday I was thankful I just had the one class as I felt decidedly ropey and ended up actually going to bed at a reasonable hour. It didn’t do much good though as the moment I finish this I am taking a nap. I think I will be boiling ham until very late tonight as it weighs about ten pounds. First though I had to go and watch the gymnastics display at which Anna, Joan and Nancy were competing (in different teams). They only decided to hold it in the sports ground instead of the gym! The girls wearing skimpy costumes must have been frozen rigid. I don’t know about the others but I believe Anna’s team came a creditable third. They had the nicest team kit as well.
This morning the two lads who are filming me followed me to town. I had to take the bike for a check up as it is now a month old. They had a motor scooter so I assumed they would have no problem keeping pace. Incredibly when I got to McDonald’s (yes, yet another breakfast) they were way behind and when they did finally arrive - get this - they complained I rode too fast! I am rather chuffed.
After breakfast they wanted to film me shopping in RT Mart when I bought the last minute veg for tomorrow. Security stopped us at the entrance to the mall and told the boys filming was forbidden. I told the guys to tell him we could always go to Lottemart instead but he was having none of it. They told him it was a university project and still it was no. I went to the toilet and when I came back I went to customer services and informed them I wanted to speak to the general manager of the mall as I felt this was unreasonable. I also said (and it wasn’t a complete lie) that the video was for my Mother. Faced with such determination, we were eventually allowed to film in the mall. Quite why it is banned is beyond me, it’s not as if there is crocodile meat on sale there, in fact the only things that westerners might possibly find unpalatable are the live fish, turtles and frogs but they didn’t feature today.
Then it was service time for the bike. The suspension was oiled but annoyingly still squeaks so it is now a case of getting the WD40 out again. The trouble is, that only lasts a couple of days.
2100
Well I confess to worrying about our Christmas dinner tomorrow. This is the first year we haven’t simply let a restaurant take the strain and the bulk of the responsibility lies with me. I am happy that the pate will go down well and Kevin will bake bread so we can make toast. The Tesco Finest Christmas pudding set the nerves ajangle as it still hadn’t arrived when I went to sleep. I am happy to report though that it came this evening so we have pudding and hopefully whipped cream. That just leaves the main course.
Ten pounds of ham is simmering right now and it looks a bit pink so hopefully I did it right. Tomorrow Ollivier will be roped in as the veg chef because my two burners will be busy with spuds and steaming the pudding, which to my horror I discovered takes TWO HOURS to steam! I can handle the roasties and the stuffing in my oven so as long as I boil the ham long enough tonight the biggest problem is going to be timing and that’s not easy when you are using kitchens in miniature. I hope I can report back at a later stage that it was a successful meal………
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