Monday 15th December. 2014                        2030

I am bushed.

I got up while it was still dark this morning, showered and donned my suit, ready for the 0800 pick up. Number 6 middle school, despite my being told was just ten minutes from here by bus, was in fact close to apricot village just outside the town centre. Much further.

This presented me with a problem. Had it been 10 mins away it would have been simple to request a lift home at lunchtime to let Pepsi out but the reality was that it would take almost all of the lunch break. Kevin was fitting my new one “terror bite” hard drive while I was away and I asked him if he could try to get her to go outside for a pee. She was having none of it and simply hid under my bed. I just had to pray she could last.

As is very often the case, on arrival at the school I was treated like a Hollywood star and when I was offered Chinese tea I suddenly realised that though I had made a flask of English tea I had forgotten to take it with me!

The contest was the third annual speaking competition for senior high school students in the city, although I am certain there were middle school students also entered. The standard surprised me, although not at the same level as our students, it was overall far better than I anticipated. Thirty-one entrants gave speeches of about four minutes’ duration and that took until 1130 when we broke for lunch. It’s harder work than you may think.

All the judges and  principals of the schools who were participating decamped to a restaurant where we ate the usual fare but sadly everyone was only drinking tea. I did manage to get a beer but only the one. With an afternoon of 31 more speeches (impromptu ones this time) yawning ahead of me I was thankful I had taken an emergency ration of jing jo wine which fortified me for round two.

Throughout the contest there had been a film camera, to which I paid scant regard even when it was pointed straight at me, thinking it was school students recording for posterity/the school website. It wasn’t. It was the local TV station. I had been asked to give a 5-10 minute speech at the conclusion of the speeches (to fill some time while they worked out the placings) and the film crew also wanted to interview me outside. This is the third time I have been on the news here. I think (hope) that the university has gained some Brownie points for giving support to this local initiative and on the whole I have to say I did quite enjoy it even though it turned out to be a pretty dry affair.

However, by the time the rankings were announced, prizes given out (everyone got a prize, a first, second or third award) it was after four and then there were the photos. Group photos and also dozens of students and teachers wanting to be taken with me for their own use. Within minutes these pictures were on Weibo, the Chinese social media site.

I was invited to go to dinner but had to insist that first I must be taken home, Pepsi had been inside for ten hours by the time I got back at 1700. She had managed to hold on though, much to my relief.

Then it was back to town for a dinner with two teachers, the student host and hostess of the day and two of the first prize winners. I will sleep well tonight I think.