After I posted my last blog I made my noodles. Halfway through eating them there was a knock at my door. I was astonished to see, when I opened it, the drill instructor standing there with a beaming smile and a plastic bag, which he gave to me. The contents were hot, he rubbed his belly and left.
He had obviously gone in his car to find a KFC-like place, bought a chickenburger, some chicken pieces and fries, simply because I never ate anything that day! When I get a quiet moment with him and the headmaster I will endeavour to pay for the food but it does go to show that on one hand the Chinese can be incredibly rude and ignorant and on the other they can be amazingly thoughtful and kind. It was just a pity that having eaten half the noodles I could only take a few bites of what had been bought for me.
I went to sleep at half past midnight, having set my alarm for eight. Chinese breakfast is not something for me. Though I may not have kids rooming with me they still wake me up. At some ridiculous time some of them rose and were conducting conversations shouted from one end of the corridor to the other. At eight the headmaster phoned to ask if I was going down to breakfast - no thanks unless it’s full English - and then just as I went into the bathroom at five past eight the maid came to make up the room! What????
As if that wasn’t bad enough, once I had showered and let them in, all they did was give the bathroom a wipe. The teacup wasn’t washed, the glass I drank wine from was untouched, the bed unmade and the ashtray not emptied. Now the children have to clean their own rooms (there are two to a room) and the instructors inspect them each morning but I really don’t expect to have to do much the same in a paying establishment even if I am not personally paying. I am quite sure I could find a classier location for one of these events and probably for not a lot more money per head. The profit-based culture here takes absolutely no consideration of customer satisfaction, instead they are content for people to come once and tell all their friends to not use it, the population is so vast it is in may ways a bottomless pit of custom.
The children spent the morning playing war games, togged up with hats to sense if they were shot and each given an electronic assault rifle. Most of them hadn’t a clue about taking cover and sniping but they appeared to have a ball doing it.
1225
Having been assured lunch was better than dinner I was looking forward to being able to at least eat something for lunch. Lunch is now two bottles of beer in my room.
The kids again had decent-looking food, we had pigswill again. I didn’t even take a seat, just informed the headmaster this wasn’t for me (he suggested we order something and pay for it but I rejected that because it would have taken too long to arrive and I suggested we do that for dinner - and I will get him to come with me in plenty of time beforehand) and that the situation was intolerable. Flaming heck, simple egg fried rice or chow mien would have been SOMETHING.
There are occasions when my tiny appetite comes in handy and this is one of them. Had I known it was going to be as awful as last year I would have stocked up on snacks and maybe brought some boiled eggs with me. Worse, it’s like being on a desert island, I have no cost-effective way of getting to an outside restaurant. And lunch must have been really amazing for everyone else because I can hear our group outside on the parade ground already, less than ten minutes after they went into the restaurant.
If I am still here next year and they want me to come, yes I will come but by God I will come prepared.
2010
When it got to seven this evening I was not in the best of moods. I had decided that probably our group had already eaten and nobody had told me to go down. I had managed to get the restaurant to agree earlier to provide the aubergine and mince dish (more on that later) but had worked myself into a lather. I decided I was leaving tomorrow and making my own way back independently a day early. It’s not as if I am being paid, so why allow myself to be subjected to conditions such as this?
Anyway, I was wrong. What had happened was the kids had an activity where they had to be the “button boy” and stand on top of a “mast” (actually a metal piling as you will see from the photos) and then jump off in harness to be lowered by the instructors. I watched the first one do it and left. Since my hard landing from 21 feet in 1982 heights are not my thing and watching it sent shivers up my spine. Best I left.
Anyway, they were delayed because a lad (I nicknamed him WC as we had to stop the coach on the way here for him) froze atop the structure and it took half an hour to coax him down.
Feeling guilty about my thoughts, I went down for dinner, the food must have been put out at least an hour before because yes, there was the dish I requested, but everything was stone cold. I informed the headmaster I was off tomorrow and I meant it.
I relented when he said he was going into town tomorrow to visit friends and would take me in his taxi to the bus station. It has now been agreed that he will drop me at Pizza Hut for lunch, I can then buy a spare one for this place later and maybe even have a cold breakfast on our last day. I will not need to darken the “restaurant” again other than to grab a cold bottle. I am such a softie.
A new group from Shanghai arrived this morning and get this - they are booked in but there are no rooms for the children! As I type they are setting up bivouacs in the car park and someone has already been to raid my room for the spare duvet and pillow! Remember what I said about profit-driven? I will lay odds the kids’ parents paid the same amount as ours.
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