Tuesday 24th November, 2015                0030

Another late one which I am sure I will regret in the morning but sleep has yet to overtake me.

Yesterday was a day to remember. I did take a siesta and yes, I did treat Elizabeth and one of her classmates to enchiladas, the fiery ones I had made previously and frozen the leftover chilli con carne. Why is it that when you freeze really spicy food, the second time around it is so much hotter?

No matter, Elizabeth did that thing of having to bring back-up and as luck would have it I had enough for three. It does annoy me though that regardless of whether it is in my home or I want to treat a student for a meal in a restaurant they almost always ask if they can bring a friend. I am in my sixth year here and the only sexual deviancy I have “exhibited” was in the rumour that I go every night on my bike and pay prostitutes. The fact that I have no idea where to find them did not detract from said rumour and when I told my teaching assistant Anthony, he was horrified. Not because it may have been true but because in China, rumours are extremely damaging because gullibility ensures they are believed. I did explain to him that western people of my ilk simply shrug or laugh off such things when they are patently false but oh boy, for him this was unbelievable. No matter.

Anyway, after the enchiladas the girls wanted to stay to watch a film so I showed them Alien. The 5kg of pork was simmering nicely on the hob and I asked them to remind me every twenty minutes to go and check on it and replenish the water. Half was for me, half for Vivi when she came to visit today. They reminded me once and then I promptly forgot it was merrily boiling away while we watched Sigourney Weaver battling the monster.

After the film finished there was a furious knocking at my door. The girls jumped and asked who it was. I said I didn’t know and to go and answer the door to find out. When they did so, there were loud exclamations from the main room. Investigating, it was conveyed to me that Andrei (who was at the door) had been under the impression his flat was on fire.

It wasn’t.

On opening the kitchen door, mine was full of acrid smoke where the ham had boiled dry and the meat was not only becoming blacker by the second but also, judging by the state of my biggest and most expensive pot, welding itself to the metal. You couldn’t see more than a foot. What had happened of course was the extractor fan had done its manly best to evacuate the smoke, blown it outside and it had then been convected upwards into Andrei and Juliette’s bathroom directly above. Perhaps that was my revenge for Andrei’s pedantic winning of the bet……

As it happens I am bloody glad they alerted me because I had totally forgotten about it and if the girls had left I would probably simply have gone to bed, only to wake up to an empty gas bottle, cremated remains and a pot with the bottom melted.

I was angry for many reasons, not at the girls for not reminding me (my fault of course) but 5kg of what should have been ham that had taken a week to cure, the expense and of course the job I may try to tackle tomorrow to retrieve a working pot. Oddly, this sent me into a depression which has persisted throughout today as well - maybe it is allied to my financial concerns as to whether I will be able to marshal enough funds for the spring festival holiday. The flights are paid for but the hotels, train tickets and spending money still need to be found and I have never, ever, been comfortable on going on trips on a shoestring.

Then my night got worse.

I was watching Dads Army (the one where Pike gets stuck in a minefield) and at some point dropped off to sleep on the desk. I awoke at 0237 feeling dreadful and promptly crawled into bed.

I slept until 0500 and could not for the life of me get back off again.

So my mood was not the best for my classes today, I was tired and it was made much worse by the fact I had stomach ache, doubtless brought on by the exceptionally spicy enchiladas. No, I was not happy yesterday at all. And I still have a lingering and as yes not properly explained depression, which is most unlike me. If I am feeling blue I usually know the reason and it’s a damned good one. Even Joan commented on it tonight when she turned up unexpectedly to take a shower and put her laundry in the washing machine. As usual, I was left to hang it up to dry after she left.

Vivi was magnanimous over the lack of the ham I had promised her. After my morning class I will go shopping and buy some new pork so I can make it hopefully without incinerating it again on Sunday - I want ham as well! Even the cats aren’t eating the blackened corpse of the pig from yesterday so it will be deposited at Mummy dog’s feet, she will wolf it down instead of me.

Things can only get better.