Wednesday 4th November, 2015                    2300

After parking up on Sunday night, touch wood, no further attack on the bike. My assistant has requested CCTV footage from 1700 to midnight on Friday. I hope they have it and I have said if they can give me a USB memory stick with it on then I will trawl through it. All my students so far have expressed incredulity that anyone could do this and who knows, I may just get a lead on who was responsible?

I had a bit of a worry on Monday when I went to check to see if my monthly donation from the translation firm had been put into my account. It should have been there by Friday but wasn’t and when I checked on Monday it still wasn’t. Bearing in mind I looked like a fool once before when I thought 2,000y had been stolen from my account, you will understand I started doubting myself and wondering if I had made a huge error - big enough to possibly jeopardise the Ice City trip.

I contacted the company and they were surprised, everyone had been paid on the Wednesday. Now I knew for certain I hadn’t made a mistake as I had checked my balance at the ATM every day from then (my card won’t allow me to get a mini statement) because I was concerned about the prices of flights. The day I wanted was 650y a ticket but every day either side had rocketed up to 1350y which was prohibitive and I was worried the same would happen to my date. Knowing there is a possibility that one leg would probably involve a train trip I was keen not to spend 46 hours of a 6 day excursion aboard them.

We rang the bank. I could have kissed the guy on the other end of the phone when he said “mayo”, the amount had not been received.

Apparently they had attempted transfer and indeed on Monday they made three more attempts but each time the payment was returned, saying the details were incorrect. Quite how after two years without any hassle suddenly the details are wrong is beyond me but then again this is China. Ultimately it was resolved yesterday when they made the deposit into Joan’s account. I now have to open a reserve account in case of a recurrence.

So, last night the outbound tickets from Hefei to Harbin were paid for and Joan has enough left over to order online two sets of ice spikes that slip over your shoes. Hotels are booked in Harbin and then Hefei on the return, which unless the prices reduce dramatically will mean a train journey. I gave Joan the choice as to whether she preferred a sleeper train for 20 hours or a fast train for eight and a half. You can smoke on the former but not the latter so that would entail my leaping out at stations to have a quick puff during stops. She chose the short version.

The idiotic thing is, were I to fly in four days time to or from I could bag tickets for the bargain price of 200y but of course the government hikes plane fares during the spring festival, the biggest human migration the planet has ever seen. If funds permit and we are forced to train it then I will endeavour to get first class tickets (second class costs what I have paid for the flights to get there!) as the seats recline a bit. Ideally if I was wealthy I would treat us to a VIP seat which boasts free drinks and snacks plus a meal and also the seats fold flat to form beds. At nearly 2,000y a ticket that is doubtful - in less hectic times I could fly first class for less!

However, the decision is made and barring something untoward I will do something I have wanted to do for five years. Keep the Great Wall, the ice city and Guilin are on my bucket list, along with a Yangtse cruise.

Tomorrow is Western Wednesday, Juliette has apparently invited two students which is fine because Richard won’t invite any of his because his girlfriend may not be equitable. I have Dumpling coming. I tried to make fudge a couple of days ago and it was a disaster - it still hasn’t set so I can only assume I should have boiled it for longer but the pan I used was clearly too small as it boiled over too readily. I have never attempted it before but I have learnt a very expensive lesson. I hope my attempt at toffee apples at the weekend fares better. I may make a bread pudding for the students to take back to their roommates though, we always like to give them something for their friends who aren’t invited. Busy afternoon slaving in a not so hot kitchen for me tomorrow and the joke of it is, I am making my world famous chicken wings and I don’t even like them!

Never mind, I will eat my fill of macaroni au gratin. And of course drink Richard, Juliette and Andrei’s wine to excess as always!

Oh and here’s an impressive fact from Trip Advisor. I looked up restaurants in Harbin. The number one eatery is an Indian so on our second night we will eat there (we will be too late arriving the first night) but the number two is McDonald’s and number three is KFC! Would you credit it????