Tuesday 8th December, 2015               1300

Yesterday was not a good day. On Sunday night I baked bread pudding in preparation for Vivi’s customary Monday visit. I taught in the morning and when I came home at lunchtime I bagged up a couple of kilos for her and took it with me to afternoon class. I sent her a text telling her not to be late again as I had dinner to cook.

On finishing my class I went as usual to my bike, hopped on, pushed back and turned on the ignition. I narrowly avoided colliding head-on with a pillar for, the second I turned the key the bike shot off without any input from me. I turned it off after the scare, checked the twist throttle and it felt “different”.

I then lined it up so that I had clear space ahead of me and switched on again. Once more the bike leapt forward and so all the way to the business street it was flat out and I had to check my progress using the brakes. I resigned myself to an icy ride to the repair shop sometime later this week.

I grabbed my shopping and then made to go to the office to meet Vivi. Switched on and…………nothing. Dead as a dodo. Marvellous. I had a carrier bag with about 15kg of shopping and was 2km from home. I don’t walk, let alone lug heavy bags! In five and a half years I have never had an e-bike that refused to go (flat tyres don’t count) and now twice in a month, although I can’t blame the bike for the cable cutting episode.

I pushed the bike to the office (about thirty metres) and dug out the paperwork to find the phone number to summon help. No point in my making the call, even if they spoke English (which they don’t) I couldn’t tell them where I was. I could though use body language to get one of the waiters to call them for me, so I did.

In the meantime Vivi had texted me to say that despite my admonishment on this occasion to be punctual, yet again she was running late. Now, of course it didn’t matter in the slightest. I was going nowhere in a hurry.

The mechanic must have been hiding around the corner and he almost certainly never came from the repair shop, for he arrived in just ten minutes. Ok, he had to disappear twice to go and fetch things but fair play to the lad, he took the fairing off, snipped some wires and replaced both handle grips, restoring my mobility. The bike is a fortnight out of warranty now so of course I had to pay but I was highly pleased to only be asked to hand over 35y (£3.50)!!!!

The episode didn’t hinder the bangers, chips and beans though because we actually had that on Sunday when Joan changed her mind. Women. Instead we had the last of the ham with mash, peas and Branston pickle, a lovely filling meal and now the weather is colder, after payday I will buy a new bucket and plenty of pork because I can now cure it on the enclosed balcony instead of in the fridge - something I can’t when the weather is warm.

I was absolutely knackered this morning. Tigger rocketed into my bedroom last night as I paid a final visit to the little boys room and I was too tired to bother trying to evict him. I suspect he pestered me during the night as I shouldn’t have been that tired. At least I can take a nap soon.

During the class break this morning I was called upon to be an agony uncle again. This time concerning the angst of a girl who likes a boy who has a girlfriend but is too scared to tell him and she also has an admirer who was a high school classmate who she has spurned. She wanted to know what to do.

Of course, I am an expert in such matters, after all I must have fallen in love dozens of times yet never married and had my heart broken nearly every time to boot. But I will guarantee the girl will never ask a Chinese teacher the same question.

As Joan isn’t coming tonight because she wants to do intensive revising for the upcoming exams (I start mine in a fortnight) I decided I would forego what has become my habitual trip to town on Tuesday this term. I don’t need anything as I will make a breakfast for myself tonight and if I went I would only go to Yumeic for buns and I always spend a packet when I walk in there.

So I came straight home to find Richard outside the building with his new purchase. A second hand motor scooter he  bought from a student for 1,000y. He was just leaving for the garage because it needs a damned good service. Students and adults alike in China never have their bikes serviced, instead work is only ever done when the things actually won’t run any more. Then they wonder why they flatten their batteries every morning trying to coax the engine into life and all probably for the want of a new spark plug. However, even if he has to spend 500y at the garage it’s not a bad buy.