Sunday 28th June, 2015                Noon

Friday was a rather annoying day.

No sooner did I arrive home for my lunch break, turn on the laptop, than the heavens opened accompanied by peals of thunder. As often happens, we had a blackout. Fine, I thought, it should be back on again by the time I finish in the afternoon and have been to the business street.

Sure enough, just as I finished my exams for the week, voila - power restored. Down to the office to kill a few flies and a couple of bottles. Kevin turned up but just for a chat as he was going to town to teach at his small school. About twenty-five minutes after he left I received a text from him complaining that it wasn’t supposed to rain that evening. I said it wasn’t here but he responded to say he was in a dumpling restaurant quite literally steaming and that it was bucketing down. Rather unwisely in retrospect, he had elected to take his motorbike instead of the car. Halfway through his journey it had started to spit but he decided not to break out the cape. Of course the ferocious storms we get here are on you in an instant and before he knew it he was under a power shower.

Taking that as my cue, I finished my beer and left for home. It started raining mildly en route but nothing troubling, so I put the bike on charge and covered it. Got home, turned on the laptop and the storm hit us. Bang went the power again. Two hours later at 1930 it was restored. For about 30 seconds and then off it went again. No water, electricity or internet. Another hour passed and some of the student dormitories had it restored but not ours and not Joan’s.

Just as I was about to turn in at eleven because I had an early start, ours came back. It took half an hour for the internet to return because the school mainframe had to boot up but at least we were back to normal.

In the morning Joan and I left to go to Helen’s school for me to spend a couple of hours testing her students’ pronunciation. Boring probably for Joan but at least we got lunch out of it (neither of us got dinner Friday night due to the power) and to be honest, spit and sawdust restaurant though it was, the food was the equal of anywhere in Chizhou, with place of honour going to a delicious sweet pork whose only drawback was that the meat had bones in it.

Sadly we had to leave early as Joan was volunteering to teach (and thus learning how to teach) elsewhere in town. I promised to have her there on time and did so. I came straight home to try and grab forty winks, for I was going out again a little later. I had been invited to a “gathering” dinner hosted by “my” little school (the one I am getting a free holiday at summer camp with). Once the owner had been informed by me that Kevin was leaving Chizhou, he immediately asked me to invite him as well. Nice for Kevin and handy for me because it meant we took his car. Admittedly we had to pick up three of the small school’s girl teachers but they showed us where the restaurant was.

I kicked myself hard for not taking my camera. I had expected just another run of the mill place but this one was so very typically Chinese, with old photographs on the walls, part of it had a thatched roof and the dining room  had spectacular furniture and crockery with exquisite blue patterns. I am sure I will find an excuse to go there again and will be sure to take the camera next time.

The owner of the school himself was, as per the norm, extremely late, so the food had been on the table for fifteen minutes by the time he arrived. The dishes on the burners were fine but the rest was cold by the time we started. Fourteen of us tucked into a dozen dishes, the best of which for me was what looked like deep fried battered aubergine but none of us knew precisely what it was. There was also Chinese “pizza” which I love but is very spicy. Each time I had a mouthful I had to leave it alone for fifteen minutes for the pain to subside!

During the meal we were assailed by another monumental thunderstorm. Kevin and I both remarked that we would be in darkness once we got back and we were sadly not proved wrong. The drive back was fraught, visibility was much reduced and there were even deep puddles going uphill. For two pins I would have checked into an hotel downtown for the night (rare to lose power there) but all the street lights outside campus were on and it looked as if the business street was fine. I believe a number of students went and stayed in hotels, doubtless half a dozen or more to a room. Wise decision because we weren’t back to normal until 2315 that time.

Joan, Kevin and I have all been grumbling about the cuts but this morning I happened to see this in China Daily online:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-06/28/content_21123440_2.htm

Nanjing is (by Chinese standards) quite close to here, about three hours drive. I have visions of students retreating to the top bunks!

Today so far all is fine. Overcast and warm enough for a ride to town for breakfast and shopping. They even have plenty of my cheap wine now Ollivier’s car is not here - typical - but I bought a few bottles. Hopefully he will return and we can go and buy all the bottles they have although once he and Kevin leave it will be a problem for me. I guess it will be a case of seeing how much of it the supermarket have and if ample, hail a taxi to carry it. Of course that would mean taking the bus in so a reconnaissance mission on the bike would need to be carried out the day before.

And I forgot to buy more candles.