Day off and one on which I went shopping. I am having a dinner party tomorrow. I invited Janet and she agreed but sadly this morning she was informed she had extra work tomorrow and had to cry off. A great pity because tomorrow I shall put on leek and potato soup (those Murphys are lovely!) as I am cooking it now for my dinner and there will be loads left, lasagne (I have wanted one for such a long time) and bread and butter pudding, something I have never made but surely can’t be that hard to get right?
On a whim I have also tried my hand at making fudge to take to school tomorrow. I used a very expensive tin of Carnation evaporated milk, followed the instructions to the letter and to my intense annoyance it didn’t seem to be setting so it now anguishes in the fridge along with my hopes.
For the past week my skin has been getting dryer. I am now slapping lotion on every night but I have also become itchier and have been waking up with what look like mosquito bites. They very rarely bite me, my smell naturally puts them off (no! I don’t stink, it’s just that people give off imperceptible odours, hence some are mozzie magnets and others not) and anyway they all seem to have disappeared now it is cold.
I now have it in my head that possibly this flat is infested with bedbugs - after all, mosquitoes don’t bite your arse when you are covered up in bed. Naturally the thought of sleeping with repugnant insects feasting on my flesh is not one I relish and so I have alerted Brenda to the possibility that I may need a fumigation team and a new bed. She thinks it may be an allergy.
Whilst I think not, on reflection all the bedding I have been using seems to have been professionally cleaned (everything was folded and pressed far more neatly than even a woman would achieve) and so there is a possibility she may be right even though I don’t have a rash as such. That may be because I am scratching myself in my sleep. The only way to find out for sure has to be to see the school “hospital” (a nurse) and try some antihistamines. Annoyingly, I have none left over from Chizhou. Frankly I would love it to be an allergy to whatever the bedding was washed in because even if professionals have to come and eradicate the pests I would always worry they will return. I’ve never encountered bedbugs to my knowledge, even in cheap hotels - not that I have stayed in many.
Friday 18th 1740
Last night was a success. I made the soup thinner than I normally would on account of the amount of food I was cooking. When all had declared they had had enough, I went to empty the rest down the toilet. This provoked horrified reactions and they demanded they be allowed to finish the lot off. Fine by me.
My guests were Suzty and a classmate (she doesn’t have an English name and she was a latecomer to the class) and Brenda, the one in glasses and black top. They were fascinated by the lasagne, which I knew would be good and it was. You can see from the photos there was ample for four people and yet that too was polished off. Suzy took the accolade for eating most.
Now the bread and butter pudding was a different matter. Yes, simplicity itself to make unless you are a dopey sort and you forget to include the eggs! Yes, that’s me! Well I wasn’t wasting the ingredients so I beat a couple of eggs into some more milk and added the mixture afterwards, crossing my fingers it would be ok. The fudge STILL hasn’t set and obviously never will, so had the pudding been a disaster I was going to whip out, buy some bananas and ice cream and stick runny fudge on top! I need not have worried, dessert was lovely although I finally bested them - there was enough left over for me to have some tonight after my ham dinner. Everyone was straining at the waist.
I still have Janet and Harriett to feed so that I have treated all my helpers here. For Janet I think perhaps pizza and wings, Harriett macaroni cheese and green pea soup. The ingredients have started arriving from Taobao and should all be here by next week. It seems odd that my socialising here is limited to the occasions I have people over for dinner though.
Aside from collecting some of my internet shopping from Suzy this afternoon I may as well have stayed at home. Not a soul turned up for the voluntary class. I gave it half an hour and left, taking the public buses home - good practise for the next time the school bus is overloaded. I pray the absence of students was as a result of preparations for their big exhibition next week.
I asked Janet yesterday and Brenda last night, what was to become of me next term. It would seem both are keen for me to remain on east campus. Oh, and you learn something every day - Brenda told me the little school I go to that I thought was annexed to a larger campus at the back IS in fact the full extent of east campus. Well the commute is a royal pain in the derriere but I like the freedom I have there (and my office) and as I suspected, Peili campus are apparently far more strict and controlling. That would hardly suit me. And they have the dreaded English corners.
That however presents a problem inasmuch as where will my students come from? I suggested that as the Cyprus arrangement is a new venture for both the school and me, they want it to be a success as do I. perhaps I could make some suggestions for their consideration. That is this weekend’s job, to compose same and email it to Janet to present to the leadership.
It’s a pity I have so many unknowns because I may offer suggestions that are impossible
but there again I might just give them food for thought. Notwithstanding, it will demonstrate that I am as keen to make a fist of the new programme as they must be. I have nowhere near decided yet whether I wish to remain here longer than a year because there are so many drawbacks (mainly the cost and time involved if I wish to travel to anywhere else in China and the travelling between home and work) but there are also good aspects, now the internet seems to be fixed and stable!
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