Disaster looms for the Lingdian Society.
With two debacles under their belt, a third would surely see students leaving in droves. They have a bash tomorrow night and it has been marketed on the basis that Kevin and I will sing a duo. One slight problem.
I have lost my voice!
I could sense it happening last night and all this morning all I could do was squeak at my students. I forewarned Carol we might have a problem and of course that has sent her into a tailspin. Kevin can’t sing solo and Ollivier won’t be here as he is going tonight to Huimin for the weekend to celebrate his son’s fourth birthday. Guilt trips are being laid at my door but all I can do is rest my voice and hope it returns for tomorrow night. I don’t really fancy doing what ancient opera singers did, which was tie a piece of string to a live frog and swallow it to coat the throat with their secretions. An hour and a half affair should not be based on just one song, unless perhaps it is being sung by an internationally famous artist.
I have prescribed myself afternoon bed rest today and tomorrow and a McBreakfast in the morning. One can but hope.
Saturday 6th 2200
If anything, when I woke up my voice was worse and exacerbated by a nagging cough. It wasn’t looking good for this evening at all. I took the bus to have breakfast and on entering McDonald’s the only staff member I recognised was one of the cleaners. Assuming these were new people to cover for routine days off, I ordered the “big breakfast”. This is priced at 24.5y but I realised much later I had only been charged 18y. Considering what they did, I have no intention of pointing out the error tomorrow when I go and paying the shortfall. Sod them.
My breakfast came minus knife and fork and bereft of the jam they give you for the breakfast muffin. By the time I had gotten them to understand, my petit dejeuner was stone bloody cold. Why the hell should I tell them about the pricing mistake?
Tonight the Lingdian party went ahead. I was armed with packets of Hall’s mentholyptus sweets and a quarter bottle of jing jo medicine wine, hoping against hope that even at that late stage my voice would recover. It didn’t.
However, I am happy to report that Carol took the advice we gave her after the last catastrophe and aside from it all being in English (remember this is a foreign language lovers society!) it was good fun with plenty of acts and a game of musical chairs. Unlike before, when the hall was packed but rapidly emptied, this time there were so many that probably 25% were forced to stand. And they stayed.
After some time, I called Carol over and asked her how many acts were left and she told me there were two. I had a suspicion that Kevin and I were not one of the two and so called her back. We had indeed been axed. The only reason it bothered me was because Kevin and I both knew that the evening had been marketed on the basis the students would get to see us make chumps of ourselves and, voice notwithstanding, I certainly didn’t want to let them down if I could help it. I thought if I toned down my volume I might just get away with it and Carol seemed surprised when I told her we wanted to give it a go. I’m not sure Kevin was ecstatic (Roy Orbison he is not) but we sang. All things considered it wasn’t a bad effort and at least nobody can say we let them down.
I understand under Carol’s leadership there has been unrest in the ranks of the “officials” due to two failed bashes and I told her to call a meeting and let anyone who wants to resign do so, then recruit new loyal henchmen. That’s exactly what happened later and she did exactly what I suggested - showing the dissenters that they weren’t that important in the grand scheme of things. I am certain she was highly relieved to have pulled off what turned out to be a great show, even if it WAS third time lucky!
After the show Joan came back to my place to watch some programmes and as she hadn’t eaten dinner I made a simple supper of British style bangers in French bread with good old HP sauce. She seemed to really like it and if you have ever tasted a Chinese sausage you would understand.
Sunday 7th 1415
Again this morning I got up early to bus to town for breakfast and do more shopping. The wine that I buy in RT Mart is 12.5y a bottle as opposed to 32y on or near campus, so at almost a third of the price the savings even if I buy just two bottles more than pays for Mcbreakfast and the bus fare.
The bus fare as of this morning has now doubled to 2y each way, signalling that winter is upon us. As we left campus and went onto the main road, for the second day in a row on the opposite side of the road there was a queue of ballast lorries awaiting police checks. There is clearly a big safety purge going on and each time I estimated thirty trucks parked up.
Whilst on the bus I observed a fat boy who was possibly twelve or thirteen years old and who had boarded awhile after we left. At one stop some students got off and a middle-aged man of about my vintage went to grab a vacant seat, the kid was seemingly either oblivious or unconcerned that there were much older people standing. I must point out that the students in our university almost always give up their seats for their elders, regardless of sex. Anyway this kid made a dash but I was amused to see the older chap pip him to it.
When we were nearing my stop for McDonald’s I stood up and went to the exit doors. There had been a lady who was at least in her late sixties standing near my seat and who had only just boarded but when I looked back, expecting to see her sat down, yes, you guessed it, fat boy was in my recently-vacated seat! Indignant, I went back, tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the old lady. Slightly shamefacedly and with some reluctance he surrendered the seat. Giving up your seat to older people or women with young children is not a courtesy here, it is expected and I laughed at a story I read a couple of months ago about a young man in his late teens or early twenties who refused to get up in deference to the silverbacks. The fossils beat him up!
Anyway, stone me but didn’t I go into McDonald’s to see the same clueless team as yesterday. Aha! thought I, instead of ordering the sausage and egg Mcmuffin, I will order the breakfast again to see if they still undercharge me, I will say nothing because of yesterday’s cock-up but will point out the error the next time.
Now McD stops serving breakfast at 1030 and I was there at 0950, yet here I was, faced with the daytime menu! That early, the last thing I wanted was a Big Mac, especially given the fact I was anticipating a breakfast. I damned near walked out but spotted the new German sausage burger Kevin mentioned yesterday so after trying in vain to complain about their non-existent timekeeping, opted for one of those. I have to admit, the fries went in the bin, it really was far too early. I hope to God they haven’t replaced all the staff permanently with these incompetents because if so, there is little point in the branch being open from my point of view. I would complain to McD China but I did that once and never even got an acknowledgment. Now if they were on Trip Advisor…….
So that’s it for now. Tonight Joan is coming again and we will watch Flowers of War (internet speed depending) together. I will share supper with her, which will be hot spicy chicken pieces (a cheat from the supermarket) and either chips or roasties depending on my mood after my snooze.
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