Monday 5th October, 2015                    1515

From Saturday being gloriously warm, we have now had two days of rain and very chilly temperatures in the low twenties. Amazing to think that five years ago I used to think 22C was positively hot yet now 24C is bloody cold!

We went early to town for breakfast, the allure of which is definitely waning for two reasons: firstly a big breakfast for two costs 51y and secondly I can cook better and tastier for half that. However I did need to shop for food either today or tomorrow. I have frozen chilli for enchiladas but today I have decided to make hamburgers. No beef mince available so pork it is. This, the second time I will make burgers, it will not see me repeat the mistake of omitting breadcrumbs for binding. Having checked online for burger recipes it astounded me to see just how many different varieties you can make, given that they are “only” burger patties.

I think Joan has been bitten by a tse-tse fly. I swear she is sleeping longer this holiday than the cats. Mulan is not happy. She is coming at some point to clean but coming back from her uncle’s her e-bike ran out of power and she had to push it to her rented place near the station. I am patiently waiting for her to recharge it and get here - I told her of course she can plug in at mine. Maybe she has learnt the lesson to keep the bike fully topped up if she is making a journey of any distance. In five years I have only come close to running out of steam and that was when I took Joan to the airport and back - one-up instead of two and it would have been a breeze.

It turns out that Richard was initially expected to arrived on Thursday but now it is thought he may be delayed. Whether that’s down to him or the school not processing the invitation letter and contract in a timely manner, who knows?

Oh, and the 29 buses are back! Brand new yellow ones still with the plastic coverings on certain screens. But the penny pinching is evident - they aren’t hybrid, not automatic gearboxes and the seats, although new, are nowhere near as comfortable as those on the repossessed ones. It is also difficult to know what to believe here. For five years I have been told the local government owns all the local buses, yet now I am being told there is a bus company and it is them who failed to pay for the hire of the old buses. Which is it?

Tuesday 6th                         0115

Well the pork hamburgers turned out ok but I must tame myself and make them thinner next time. Poor old Joan tried manfully to eat two (I was always only ever going to eat one and I had to leave some of that!) because I had told her to feed a cold and starve a fever.

I showed her Toy Story before she went back to her room but then I got to thinking. She has been feeling ill all week, complaining of a heavy head (presumably from the medicines we bought her this morning from the chemist - yes, my temporary card worked) and other symptoms. As it has been an ongoing thing I just had  to look online for meningitis symptoms and  went to her on her “deathbed” to check. For some strange reason she thought me odd and wasn’t too happy over my frightening her but the last thing I want is her pegging out regardless of whether it is in her dormitory or here - if it was here the consequences to me compared to the grief would be as nothing.

Thankfully there are no tell-tale symptoms and my diagnosis is girl-flu. She will recover tomorrow.

I strongly suspect I will be cooking her a breakfast of either scrambled or poached eggs on toast in the morning but bugger all for myself because I won’t be hungry - can anyone tell me how to get my appetite back aside from running marathons? Not going to happen, ever.

And Haha! Mulan came this evening (finally) to clean. Bless her she does a good job and I pay four times as much as the supermarkets but she makes full use of my (yes I bought it) washing machine. She did two washes, the first was her uncle’s clothes from working in the fields harvesting the rice and the second was her bedding which she left in mid-wash. Yep, I hung it up and as for the uncle’s gear? Any time. Any man who gives up his chance of marriage and happiness to bring up his brother’s three kids when he and the wife buggered off  and arrange for the fourth baby to be raised by his sister deserves my respect, if nobody else’s. I really have to meet this man and by God I will at some point.