Wednesday 18th February, 2015      Chinese new year’s eve        1800

There wasn’t much point in going out today seeing as everything has closed locally. It wasn’t warm enough for a ride to town (although it’s not THAT cold) and I didn’t want to take the chance of the buses stopping so early I would have to take a taxi back.

I sent all my new year text messages and of course have had them all day from students wishing me well - some telling me who they are, others not so I have no idea. Mid-afternoon after a late shower I decided to take Pepsi out on the bike just for some fresh air. The roads were almost deserted as usual at this time of year. In the vain hope of finding a restaurant open where I could sit for an hour with a bottle or two, I took the route to Maya, which is near where the little charity school in the mountains is. Couldn’t see anything open bar a shop selling fireworks so decided on a whim to take Pepsi up to the cemetery on top of the hill overlooking a valley. My previous bikes have struggled to get up the steep ascent but I was very pleased when the current one flew up it. I haven’t been there for two years and was saddened when we got there. Whereas before where the poor people’s urns lie in unmarked graves they at least had a nice view of the fields and stream in the valley, now the earth at the edge has been very badly eroded  by wind and rain. Slipped down about ten feet and you can’t get close enough for a view. This is all because the dirt was once dumped there from some excavation project or other and nobody bothered planting any vegetation to bind it together. In another few years the poor dead people will probably find their remains also sliding down the hill - not that anyone seems to go and visit them anyway.

Our show airs at 2000 tonight but bizarrely it is seemingly not going to be shown on the local TV channel - the one that made it. Hopefully at a later stage they will upload it into the video section but Molly informed me it’s on CCTV, the national network. There are about twenty channels but she thinks it may be on 1 and possibly 9, the English speaking one. That’s on a TV though and as I don’t have one, Lord knows if the online version will be the same. It’s actually very annoying as I have been quite looking forward to watching it ever since I was given a link.

Rain is currently forecast for Friday and Saturday. Great. That will mean getting damp taking the dog to hospital and going to the bus station. Mind you, I wouldn’t be surprised if it started raining tonight by the way the wind is getting up. That would be a good thing because it might mean that by Saturday it will be gone. I only need to go to town on Friday for some pet food before I leave and if it is inclement the buses will be running.

So an extremely quiet night for me, I haven’t seen anyone other than the guards in their security huts so I assume everyone else has gone to be with their families.  This is a short one just to say Xing Nian Kwai Le to all my readers. Hurry away the highborn horse and rush in the rampant ram. May happiness health and wealth be yours in the coming year, which by one Chinese standard is 4726!