Saturday 30th July, 2016                         1640

As of midnight tonight I will be unemployed, hopefully not for too long.

Joan returned from work today with the good news that she will in fact teach her Monday class as planned in the morning. I have been clearing cupboards a bit more and we now have three large boxes full of clutter (that’s the 3 Kevin gave me) and tomorrow I will start on the huge ones I bought. They will be lighter seeing as really all that’s left to pack are my kitchen appliances and utensils and the clothes I can’t fit in my suitcase.

I have planned the catering to a T, tonight it’s a roast pork dinner (this time I never burnt the apple sauce) and tomorrow spaghetti Bolognese. The reason for that is because I have some in the freezer, it will only take two pans and  I have aluminium containers we can eat out of! Everything I wear tomorrow will be disposed of (a 15 year old pair of M&S trousers, holey socks and shirt and an awful pair of Chinese boxers) as indeed have countless carrier bags of either rubbish or things I have never used in six years. It really is amazing how much junk you hoard “in case”.

Sunday 31st                                1600

I am heartily fed up with packing. If it was my choice to leave quite possibly it would be far more pleasant.

Today we went to town. Firstly to get a new strap for one watch and new battery for another. Also my defunct half hunter has been left with the chap to see if he can fix it. If not then it will go in the bin.

The only things I wanted in RT Mart were Guinness (I had a hankering) and a bottle of bubbly. Typically they never had Guinness so I ended up buying German Weissbier instead. The bubbly is for tonight to celebrate/console my last night on campus. Joan wanted to buy some snacks to munch on her arduous 9 hour train journey starting just after midnight on Tuesday. See - even the Chinese don’t eat the food they sell on trains! For anyone unfamiliar, they come round regularly with a trolley with airline style plastic trays. Once on a 7 hour trip to Huainan I weakened and paid 30y for one.

There is a website that is dedicated to shaming airlines for serving the worst in-flight food and certainly the photos look pretty dire. In comparison to train food here they are cordon bleu. in fact the only thing edible is the steamed rice unless you are a fan of tofu, vegetables braised in snot and chicken feet.

So three boxes and a small suitcase are full and I am wondering if I will get away with just the one massive box. I hope so as I am running out of duct tape.

Some lasts today: Last visit to the business street supermarket. Last time charging the bike. Last night Mum gets fed , although she is about to get a bumper harvest - two chicken breasts, a steak and two hamburgers. Last time cooking tonight. Mind you, especially for her it’s her favourite spaghetti Bolognese.

Last night’s roast dinner was divine and I really pigged out. The pork was so tender (having been cooked for four hours) and I made the most of my penultimate proper western food for a while, although doubtless I will gravitate to western style food places during my hotel stay.