Sunday 31st January, 2016                               1630

Yesterday was simply centred on the highlight of my days at the moment, the shopping trip, during which nothing remarkable happened to post. Although it must be said, the idea flitted through my mind today that someone with literary skills could in fact cobble together a decent book based simply on bus or train journeys. One does see a wealth of human interaction in the microcosm of life contained on public transport. If I understood Chinese I am sure I would have so much more to tell just from my travelling experiences here.

Anyway, despite going to bed again very late last night/this morning, I had set my alarm to blare out at 1030 and instead of rolling over and returning to slumber I actually got up. My bladder was quite insistent I did so.

The intention was to go to town at noon after checking emails and stuff but I got rather involved with a couple of things online and so that was deferred until one. You will all know from previous blogs that the weather forecasters here can be relied upon in about 5% of their reports. Today was almost one of them. They had forecast a light dusting of snow and sure enough, when I looked outside, that small “sting your face when you ride the bike” snow was present.

Naturally the question in my mind was “do I or don’t I?” After all, I hardly needed to go out, I have a week’s survival rations both liquid and solid and it is, after all, Sunday and the people would be out in droves.

I went.

The bus that arrived was brand spanking new, a hybrid but tightwads that they are, our local bus providers still gave us plain plastic seats, in fact there were remnants of the plastic delivery covers hanging from the seats it was that new.

En route the bus filled quickly. About half way to town two females boarded, one exhibiting all the signs of being heavy with child. With no seats available, they both came and stood close to my seat. Definitely an advantage of “giitin’ ole” is not having to give up your seat any more on public transport and as there were plenty of much younger passengers to do the honours I stayed put. With the girl’s belly in close proximity I had occasion to study it in a little more detail. A pregnant woman develops a stomach shaped more like mine, rounded and taut (yes mine is taut!) but this one wasn’t pregnant, she was simply obese because I could see the Michelin Man outline beneath her garments. I had to chuckle though when observing the scramble to offer her a seat, only for them to realise she was simply corpulent.

Anyway, by the time the bus got to RT Mart the small snow had gotten angry and had beefed itself up to a full-scale blizzard. What had started out as a leisurely supplies trip had now escalated into a race to shop and get back as soon as possible, the reason being that if it settled on campus I was stuffed for riding the bike back home (all uphill) and I didn’t fancy slipping and sliding everywhere as well as lugging two heavy bags.

Not one of my wisest decisions was going to the obvious bus stop, thinking that the weather would have deterred the locals from venturing forth. In many respects the Chinese are indomitable and invariably don’t let something as trivial as bad weather stop them from doing anything. When two 29s had passed I did what I should have in the first place and took my roundabout route.

By now I was becoming concerned because even in town (and in cities the temperature is always warmer) there were patches where the snow was settling and the vehicular traffic was merely turning it to slush. At the terminus I went to get off and the female driver indicated I should remain aboard. I thought it odd seeing as another 29 was up the road, presumably the next to depart. In fact it was but the grapevine has obviously been hard at it and the drivers all know my trick. They either admire my guile or consider me completely barmy, probably the latter. What she did though was save me the walk to get off her bus when she drove and parked up for her break and let be able to get on the other one. On the way back that bus got so crowded there were several occasions the driver had to stand on his seat and exhort people standing to move further to the back of the bus.

On arrival at school my fears had been realised. The campus roads were white. What to do? Being inherently lazy and infinitely preferring a seat and a ride to walking, I decided to give it a go on the bike - I could always abandon it if I needed to and if I came off at low speed perhaps I would escape without any broken bones. I made it.

What I had bought by way of food gave me the option of making mince and tatties or Bolognese but upon being greeted by mum and pup I felt guilty thinking of them being completely unable to forage for food. My menu can wait for another day, I am cooking a shepherds pie I froze a month ago and that cauliflower cheese with pasta? Yes that too but the canines will be having that once it is done. I never liked it anyway but I am sure they will be grateful. I might as well move them in here for goodness sake!

Not long after I got in and had just put the above in the oven on a low temperature to thaw, Anthony came a-calling. Having broken his foot playing that hideously dangerous game known as badminton, he was supported by a single crutch. I swiftly established that his visit was not bad news (whenever an assistant visits without an invite it is normally not good) and he had in fact just called to be neighbourly, even offering to drive me to Tongling if I want to go for pizza. I may well take up that offer.

I then asked about the TV thing the school wanted me to do, only to be told it had been cancelled. Because in usual fashion, the invitation had arrived at the eleventh hour and I hadn’t been available for two days, being in Wuhu at the time. It turns out the TV appearance was to appear in the spring festival show again. As if my ghastly performance last year doing Tai Chi wasn’t bad enough! Actually I am a little annoyed both at the lateness of the invite (I could with notice have altered my travel plans) and also that Anthony has no idea what they had in mind for me. If it was Tai Chi again then I couldn’t give a monkey’s nuts but if it was something I may have been good at, well………….

Oh, and the snow has well and truly settled, I just made it in time.