Tuesday 1st December, 2015                               2030

This meticulously planned and mostly already paid for holiday is now turning into a nightmare. Flight prices are up with the planes in the stratosphere (for where I want to go) and where the cheap flights are going, the train prices from them to Harbin alone are more than I have already paid for flights we probably now won’t take. Worst of all, I don’t even have any money to throw at the problem until payday and now that train tickets have been released for sale ahead of spring festival, options are disappearing faster than Jeremy Corbyn supporters.

I could of course stick to the original plan and go alone but that really is the last thing I want to do. I’m not sure who would feel guiltier, Joan or me - her for screwing everything up or me for leaving her behind. Of course, having money to throw away would solve everything but it really is a kick in the rowlocks to be presented with this after bagging great prices on flights and hotels and having previously simply been waiting for train tickets (for short journeys) to go on sale to finalise the trip.

Now I am scouring the internet and maps of China for fly/rail combinations that won’t cost my next quarter’s salary. I don’t know whether to rage and rant or just break down in tears. I could of course simply cut my losses on the flights (they charge a cancellation fee), cancel the hotels and the whole damned trip but after five years of wanting to go I do have my heart set on getting my knackers frozen off just to see some ice sculptures.

This is not how I work, I am proactive and not reactive. I plan ahead.

Madam should be arriving soon for a shower and some Bolognese. I have told her to bring her debit card and as much money as she can muster. I will of course repay it but we need to take evasive action now in order to postpone it a week. I shudder to think how much more it is going to cost and how much longer the travelling times will be. And there is no way I am sitting in a ramrod straight train seat an entire day!

I did what is my usual Tuesday shopping trip this term, RT Mart plus the new addition of Yumeic for splendid doughnuts and the like -costing me a packet so I must buy one of their membership cards for 10% discount. As I waited patiently to cross the road on leaving T Mart, the green man came on and everyone started to cross the road. I followed but suddenly found one of my carrier bags was being wrested from my grip from behind.

Well nobody pinches my wine or anything else for that matter without a fight, so I turned to see a rather well dressed Chinese chap (slightly younger than me possibly) grinning and chattering to me in Chinese. He clearly knew me and was playing a prank although for the life of me I have no idea who he is.

Drama over (it only took a couple of seconds) I resumed crossing, still with 20 seconds of the green man left. A black car came hurtling down honking its horn at all the people crossing - remember, we had the green man. At my age and weight I no longer have the option to run or jump out of the way of oncoming danger so I did the next best thing. I stood my ground and bellowed an extremely well known, two word (total 7 letters) expression of a British pair of expletives .

The car stopped just short of me and if I had thought for one moment his doors weren’t locked or would have been shortly thereafter, I would have dragged the little swine out and given him a lesson on what it is like to be a pedestrian in China. I had to content myself with simply having halted his progress.

Thursday 3rd            1620

Oh well this is magnificent.

Joan couldn’t get here until late last night and there was no way I was sitting until midnight trying to salvage the Harbin trip. That will happen at about nine tonight. I think I have found a way to do it by spending only about 500y more but it involves flying to Dalian and then taking a bloody sleeper car overnight to Harbin. Bad enough but it arrives just before 0600, probably in temperatures around -30C and eight hours before we can check in to the hotel. I can only find and sit in a McDonald’s for a couple of hours at most - who wants to sit there for eight hours?. Not exactly what I planned.

I think I am closer to the mystery of the attacker who snipped my e-bike cable and sent unpleasant texts. I won’t reveal a certain name simply because she and her family saved my bacon in the spring festival and helped me stay out of hospital but the boy involved would not only seem to be smitten with the girl but he also believes I am mistreating her.

Last night I sent her a text (matters not what it was about but suffice to say it was a quite normal arrangement and one she hadn’t turned up for as expected on Tuesday.) I simply wanted to know when she was coming so she wouldn’t wake me up. There then followed the most bizarre text exchange I have ever had - she seemed to have taken leave of her senses. Eventually I stopped replying because it had descended into lunacy.

Today when I returned home from shopping my washing machine was going and it could only have been her stuff. When she came back to collect it, I confronted her with the idiotic shenanigans of the previous night.

She has a new phone.

Ah.

Tears flowed, she informed me that she had suffered from bad skin for eight months due possibly to an allergy to the cats ( she had the medicine to prove it) and so I had to ask how on earth was I to know if she never told me? She comes for on average 20 mins twice a week and I pay 50y - they earn 7y an hour working in the supermarkets so I am a generous employer. In fact for students I am a milch cow.

I couldn’t understand where the “arrogance” had come from, I have only ever treated her kindly, as she has me.

Anyway, just after she quit and as a precaution I relieved her of the key to my place. Maybe a good job. Not long after she left I got another message simply saying “fun” and to which I replied not for much longer seeing as he had used his own number this time. Five minutes later another one arrived informing me that “you will die”.

You really couldn’t make it up, could you?

An ultimatum has been issued. They both either meet me tomorrow for a chat (I have nothing to hide or be ashamed about other than pissing in a bucket because I couldn’t get out of bed with a busted pelvis) or I go to both the police and the university. I don’t take threats easily, especially from cowards who choose to remain anonymous - at least if they revealed themselves I could tackle them head on but I am not prepared to walk around with a head swivelling like an owl’s.

If I have been an arsehole then perhaps I deserve whatever I get but paying 200y a month, free laundry, showers and afternoon naps plus the occasional snack all in return for at most four hours work is not in my book maltreatment - especially when the girl gets to choose when she wants to do the work.

I was going to take a siesta an hour ago  but this has made me furious and I have to say I have deadlocked my door from the inside on the off chance. If I am to be murdered it is not my intention for it to be by a student sneaking in when I am riant and having a blade thrust into my heart!