Monday 9th February, 2015                1000

This is China.

The above is the often used and resigned refrain from westerners living here, in response to another calamity, unfathomable piece of logic or other bemusing occurrence.

Yesterday was in every sense a “This Is China” day.

I got up early and made ready for the trip to town to rendezvous with the TV people. The plan was to meet Molly and her friend Casey and have breakfast before starting “work”. I was cursing Mulan for dragging her heels as I had arranged to be there at nine and her tardiness ensured we would be late. Just as we boarded the bus I received a text from Molly. She was not happy and her text was guaranteed to incur my displeasure.

She was already on the way to McDonald’s when the director called her to tell her filming was cancelled. They had been despatched to the airport instead. Not unnaturally, Molly was miffed and demanded to know why she was only being told this half an hour before the event. He said he had sent a message to her on WeChat (some messaging internet thing) the night before. Well she never saw it as she was sleeping and never went online when she got up before leaving. Anyone with an ounce of commonsense would, on noting that the WeChat message had not been acknowledged, telephone and text in order to guarantee the message was received but not him. It turned out that it was indeed for the best in respect of the little school failing to get involved, otherwise there would have been far more people unhappy.

Anyway, we decided we would still meet for breakfast regardless. When we had eaten Mulan received a message telling her a parcel had arrived in town for her. It turned out to be a box of wine with wine glasses. She left and then spent the next two hours chasing all over town trying to find where it was.

As is often the case, the best of times can come after a disastrous start and as Molly and Casey were free all day they pondered what we could do now. I suggested we could go to the end of the 29 route and see if any Yangtse cruise ships were docked, so that’s what we did. We were disappointed in there not being any ships tied up but the girls had never been there so we walked around for a while before heading back. There was a cold wind blowing and on getting to a deserted bus I opened the door and we got on into its warm interior. A couple of minutes later the female driver emerged from a shop and with a face like thunder demanded to know (in Chinese of course but there was no mistaking what she was saying) who had opened the doors. I indicated I had done the deed and then Molly told me she was indignant as she was on a break. I in return said we never asked her to cut her break short, we just wanted to get warm.

She obviously had the right hump because when we got to the stop we needed so we could go to a western style “pub” she stopped the bus and only opened the entry doors, not the exit ones. She could clearly see we wanted to alight but nonetheless proceeded to drive off, prompting shouts from me - and very nearly a rude word.

The bar was closed and we had twenty minutes or so to kill so we went into a small café to wait, during which time I asked Mulan to come and meet us in the bar when she finally located her package. We spent a couple of hours having drinks/coffee and when Mulan arrived we destroyed (well mainly me) one of her bottles of wine. I may order the same box next term, for it was 70y for two bottles of vino and four rather sturdy wine glasses.

I then suggested everyone came back to mine and I would cook them dinner. That involved shopping and I planned chicken wings followed by mince and potatoes spiced up with chilli. In the end they only wanted the wings and Mulan disappeared to see one of her students. The two girls eventually left with just enough time to catch the last bus from school and by then I was really tired. Now that Pooh is back the door has to be kept locked to stop him from liberating the other three cats so I checked that Mulan had her key. No, she hadn’t. This revelation did nothing to cheer me up because I couldn’t go to bed until she got back and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. The reception she got when she did finally return was frosty indeed.

I think I had a good sleep but for some strange reason ever since I woke up I have been feeling depressed. I can think of no cause for it, I have nothing to do today if I don’t want to do anything and nothing is troubling me. I still have over three weeks holiday left as well. Most odd but hopefully as the day wears on my spirits will lift.

Oh yes, while we were out it seems Zorro worked out a way to scale the heights of the wardrobe and join Pooh in the heavens. The casualty of this little adventure was my friendship tree. There are leaves everywhere and all that is left sticking forlornly up out of the pot is a naked twig now.