Besides torrential depressing rain, not a lot has happened since the last entry. There was an English Corner on Friday night which was conducted entirely in Chinese, French, Korean and Japanese so as you can imagine, I sat there like a lemon. I did however immediately spot the error the students had made on the blackboard. You may be able to see it in the photos.
I got stuck again in the office this afternoon when the heavens yet again opened just when I was about to leave. The solution was to have another bottle and wait until it died down a little. That of course left me with a bit of a scramble to start preparing tonight’s meal (at which Rita will be the last “wife” to actually attend - she has asked for her evening class off) of salmon steaks, new potatoes, peas (both minted) and dill and lemon sauce. Simple but hugely expensive, it probably cost me about 300y. Not having to cook and buying wine instead would be a far more economical situation for me! But then I quite enjoy watching others appreciating what I prepared.
Don’t faint - Kevin has actually made the entrée! Ok it’s only a salad but apparently he has made home made mayonnaise. I did quip that with raw eggs he is in danger of poisoning us but I hope not. Ollivier has made a new dessert which is top secret but he did let slip earlier that it was a tart. I just hope this time I can eat some of it.
Thursday 11th 1840
Not my fault Guv!
Well the meal went ahead as planned and for the foreigners it was rather pleasant. The Chinese are proud of saying they eat anything with legs except the table and anything that flies except a plane. In general I have found this to be true.
Fresh salmon steaks however, would appear to be the exception. Celestine (Ollivier’s guest) in fairness ate all hers, Rita (mine) made a good fist of it although it was obvious she wasn’t keen but Vivi plainly disliked it, opining that she would have preferred it to be spicy. Some you win, some you lose and I won’t lose sleep over serving up a delicately herbed main course fit to grace any table.
I would have completed this entry on Tuesday but for the fact that when I woke up we had no power, ergo no internet either. A campus substation had gone up in smoke, knocking out half the campus (Sod’s law stated that it had to be the half the foreign teachers live in) and so at lunchtime I went to town. If there is one thing I hate it is leaving home without showering but I had no choice and it’s not exactly cool here at the moment either.
Kevin was teaching at the time it occurred and the station is below our teaching block so he had a grandstand view of the fire appliances tackling it and evidently a good whiff of the stench an electrical fire gives off. It took them from 0900 to getting on for 1800 to repair the damage so all I cared about was having a shower and bugger the blog - I would finish it Wednesday.
Which of course I would have done if I had internet!
After my classes I couldn’t get online. I checked with Ollivier’s wife Coco who had no problems and went through the usual routine of rebooting both router and laptop to no avail. To say I wasn’t pleased would be an understatement and it took me over two hours to finally get connected. By that time I had almost lost the will to live, let alone blog.
Today was a much nicer day until just now. Just the one class this afternoon where for a treat I showed half a film after we covered the unit and then derived great satisfaction from the looks of horror on their faces when I informed them that the exam questions would be concerning the Wild China BBC programmes I have shown them and the films they have seen. I have let it happen but some of the students have taken the liberty of sleeping or watching something else on their mobile phones and so will have no idea about the answers to the questions. Some will learn a lesson the hard way.
Additionally today’s class, when given the sheet to enter their details, rather than putting their name and number next to the pre-printed one, simply entered them in the next free space. I further informed them that only two students were in the correct space and so as I have no intention of searching through 31 numbers I will simply allocate marks to the student number they put their mark beside - meaning good students will get poor student’s marks and vice versa. Methinks next week a numerical list will be presented to me in class!
I may have mentioned that last month (I think) I made a mistake in calculating what my bank balance was, to the tune of 1,000y to my detriment. Fair enough, I accepted maybe I was going mad. Tonight though I just went to see if we had been paid early this month to save a trip to the cash point tomorrow. Again I am 1.000y poorer than I KNOW I should be!
For some reason for months now my card has not allowed me to view statements at the machine but until now it wasn’t important. Apart from me only two people know my PIN and for those who believe me to be foolish please bear in mind I was bed-ridden for a time and barely able to to get to the bathroom, let alone the ATM for some while so I had little choice but to divulge it in order to be able to pay for daily necessities. One of those I trust implicitly and should be able to do the same with the other but sadly suspicions are now cast.
Joan and I are going to the bank tomorrow after classes finish. Last month could have been me going potty even though I didn’t think so at the time, this month there is no way because I checked my balance and knew exactly what surplus I would have before payday tomorrow. I am not bloody happy.
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