Tuesday 24th May. 2016               0200

Far too late to be up seeing as I have to be awake at the crack of eight.

It’s been a while so it is difficult to recall what has happened since the last entry.

For starters I made a roast chicken dinner for Dumpling and me, having found the fattest chicken I have ever seen in China. As her favourite spuds are mashed I didn’t do roasties, although I still have to introduce her to jacket potatoes, that will happen on Wednesday. It was a damned good dinner apart from the fact I got the Yorkshire mix wrong again! Last time was when I tried toad in the hole and I used too much milk, this time I erred the other way. Oh yes, they rose beautifully but before being served the damned things collapsed and became tough. Maybe next time I will get it right.

I expected to get my medical report delivered here on Saturday evening but never had a message to alert me. Ok, Sunday maybe. On Sunday Joan came and when I asked her if she had seen the snake outside the entrance she cringed. It’s ok I said, I saw it this morning, I think someone ran its head over with an ebike and it is dead. It had been dead all day but she was terrified of walking past it and demanded I accompanied her to ensure her safety. I am unsure as to what part of “dead” failed to get across.

On Sunday a Chinese teacher (Chester) had invited me to join friends of his for lunch but for lunch we had to leave at 1030! He had tried for a few weekends to set this up but either I was tied up or the hosts were, however this time it happened. I really didn’t want to go because I knew it was simply a way to get me to talk with kids but a free lunch and booze? Goodwill and all that, so feeling knackered I duly met him at south gate at 1030.

Mein host was a government official and when we got there he left to collect the others. There were three kids, one his son and the others two female cousins. In fact the kids were great. A couple of the adults bringing the total to eight were also teachers and colleagues of Molly so surprisingly there was quite a bit of English spoken.

The amount of food on offer was  over the top but they did get me Peking duck and a couple of other dishes weren’t bad either. Best of all, Chester had brought along a bottle of Hennessey vsop. That was far more acceptable than baijou or pijou! A really lovely meal and at the end I asked if we were going to play Do Di Jou? It’s a Chinese card game for four played using two packs of cards including jokers and I love it, although I don’t get to play often. I made up a foursome with two of the kids and Mr Gan, the host. Had we been playing for 10y a round I would have profited to the tune of 120y by the time we  left and unbelievably, when I had jokingly suggested playing for money the mothers kept trying to give me money each time I won! A lunch, a lift to and from and cognac and I am going to take their cash?? Considering I was dreading it, I had a great time, to great as it happened as I got too merry to bother with my plan to go to the supermarket after and take the bus back!

Sunday night the medical results still hadn’t arrived. Now I was getting concerned. Without them plus other paperwork from this school, the new school will have problems getting my residence permit extended and I cannot afford to have to fly back to the UK and go through the visa process all over again, then return here and wait for my next salary. Alice tried calling the hospital but of course they were closed for the weekend.
She called Dumpling and asked her to speak to the delivery company. My envelope indeed arrived on Saturday but because I never collected it, they sent it back! I was livid. I never got a message to alert me! The next I knew, Dumpling was telling me the company would get the package back today and I hadn’t received a text because my phone was off (nonsense because  even if it was the text would arrive after I switched back on) and shortly thereafter Anthony called me.

The hospital had called Miss Yin to say that they had the wrong phone number on the form. Alice screwed up.

Last evening the parcel returned.

Everything great except they have noted a fatty liver (they always say that about westerners), tachycardia and occasional premature ventricular contractions (my palpitations). I feel reasonably confident that won’t scupper anything but just in case I am after all going to the hospital later this morning and taking Vivi to translate. If I need medication to slow my ticker and get it beating normally (although it is very common) then I need someone to explain things both ways. And if I get either pills or the “don’t worry” treatment, should the new place have qualms I can brandish that at them. It’s not as if my engine is packing up, far from it, indeed they listed my BP as 110/70 which for a fat bastard of 60 ain’t that bad!

So five hours sleep beckons after posting this. My life must surely get less problematic soon???