Wednesday 6th  July, 2016              1430

Yesterday I awoke to a text and an email from Beijing. With trepidation I logged onto their website where you can track your application’s progress. It was merely to inform me it was being processed and to be patient. Patient? I started all this a fortnight ago and only now has it started the process!

The rain yesterday was light but the buses were still not venturing to the end of the line. That was fine by me because few students were waiting and the buses were dropping off and picking up right outside south gate. I think the residents on the estate near the terminus must be wading through waist-deep water to go and buy their food. I can’t recall seeing any shops up there.

Later when I was in RT Mart Joan sent me a text to say she wouldn’t have dinner with me (just as I was selecting a pasta sauce) and that she was going home for a few days. As she hadn’t mentioned this previously I knew something had happened. It had in a way. Her mother has been plagued by a telephone scammer and Joan is concerned that although she herself would not fall for it, her mother is not so savvy of the new world order which dictates BEWARE.

She arrived back to collect her rucksack and we had a mad dash to get to the station. When we left there were only 25 minutes until her train departed. I got her to the ticket office with 13 minutes left and she managed to catch her train. Here’s a thing: there is a high speed service from here to Suzhou that takes under 3 hours. Great. You would expect a reciprocal service for her to come back, no? There isn’t one! Coming back takes 9  hours. It makes no sense at all. She intends to come back at 2100 on Friday so I hope the forecast is right when it says that’s the one day there won’t be any rain. Guess who will collect her.

With this latest delay on a decision from Beijing I decided that today I would go to the PSB and apply for a permit extension. I planned it like a military operation in order to be able to go food shopping as well. That meant departing from south gate when the bus I needed departs from west gate. I would be returning to south gate with heavy shopping so the bike was no good there. No problem, they coincide at the train and bus stations. The plan was to get off the 29 at the train station and take the next 7. Once finished at the PSB, a taxi to RT and then a 29 back. What could be simpler? The buses were even going right to the end today.

I have only myself to blame on this occasion.

Having been a few times, and mainly in Kevin’s car, I had it in my head that it was on the left and so kept a beady eye out, ready to stop the bus. I never saw it. I ended up at the terminus and had to take another bus to retrace the route. On the way it had been on the right! At least I know exactly where to stop the bus when I make the expedition again tomorrow!

I took the bus as far as I could to minimise the cab fare to get to RT Mart and did my shopping. No need to cheat to get back, just ignore the first bus which was packed and take the next one which was nearly empty.

Earlier I had spotted one of the staff at the office riding with a takeaway order so I thought perhaps they were open after all and rode to take a peek. They were open for food but the fridge was bare of cold beers so I left immediately, bought some ice creams and came home to the rumble of thunder.

Before I parked up at home I thought I would go and investigate the damage control they carried out on the landslip of our mountain. About 45 yards of the wall has collapsed but the emergency response looks to have been simply a case of putting a few sandbags a metre high at the foot of the mountain - pitiful! I can’t see that doing much good if Mr Mountain gets angry.

No sooner had I got home than the heavens opened yet again. It has stopped now and with luck we will start to see slightly dryer weather. Ollivier kindly emailed me a link he found, which if you follow has some very good photos showing just how bad it is.

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