Sunday 11th December, 2016                               0315

Yes, it IS stupid o’clock.

Had a lovely dinner which sat heavily in my bulbous bow, threatening to send me to the land of nod around 2000, fought it until midnight and went to bed with the alarm set for 0900 to go shopping.

I am guessing I slept fitfully for about an hour because I awoke at 0210 (I know this due to my new wall clock!) and I’m damned if I could get back to sleep so I gave up - at least for now. I can always hit the hammock later seeing as I have no work until Tuesday afternoon.

I have just checked the last blogs and to my surprise I never mentioned this. On Thursday Janet dragged me out of my class. Didn’t matter as I was showing half a film at the time. The school need me to test the students. I have to say I had assumed that wouldn’t be necessary for several reasons, not least of all because they are postgraduates and we have had no set curriculum.

However, they pay the wages so I am happy to oblige. Initially she said they wanted the results to give to Cyprus but I hope I dispelled that idea. It’s hardly my job or Lanzhou’s to give an opinion to Cyprus as to whether the students will still need to take English lessons when they arrive, they will have their own ideas and know their own standards and I certainly don’t. In fact it is my opinion that only Suzy possibly doesn’t need the lessons and even then she only barely scrapes in! As for the rest? Well some of them will simply be wasting the family silver because in the UK I would put them into infants school.

Examine them I will, and I am going to be brutally honest in my report. I care not if it is interpreted as my failure because the opportunity has been there for the students to take. Those who have availed themselves of my classes have improved (even Janet was stunned at how much better a couple of the students were than she herself is - and that not long after telling me the dean wasn’t happy with my methods!) but too many of them have simply treated my classroom as a drop-in centre, either turning up whatever time they felt like or not turning up at all.

Now there is panic. They weren’t expecting an exam any more than I was!

My report will cover speaking and listening as requested but I am also going to include a report on attendance. The blame is not going to be laid at my door with any justification and I reckon this weekend there were a few arseholes going two bob/half a crown.

I also discovered this term ends on the 30th and when I told the half-class who were there (what’s the bet there will be a full house on Tuesday??!!) the comment was made “so we won’t have any more lessons?” It was said in such a way that the speaker (Suzy) appeared disappointed. Well she and Sheila are welcome to come to my home for extra tuition - they are the only two who never missed a lesson except when they had to visit the notary. However, provided the school is not actually locked up during spring festival and enough students express a wish, I will suggest that despite my being on holiday, as I have no plans to go anywhere, I would be prepared to run a reduced service, say six lessons a week. I shall see what enthusiasm there is for that. They will need to be flexible, particularly if Molly does come good on her promise to visit me. I must check with her that she is in fact coming because I will need to find out how to get to the airport or train station! Still don’t know.

I intended to go shopping yesterday rather than Monday because tomorrow I have plans to make hideous amounts of sausages. Not only for the party but also to send a box of them to Kevin (he’s even ordered baked beans specially so he can have bangers and mash!) and without help and using a manual grinder it does take a while, about an hour for 18 porkers.

Sadly all that went awry because Suzy was ordering my Taobao shopping and by the time she was done (we were on Skype) I deemed it too late. Experience told me that I would wait forever to get a taxi back. It may well turn out for the best because what with my insomnia, I can go early - it’s getting on for 0400 now as it is.

Why did it take her so long to do my shopping? Well I have had Joanna, Yvonne and Joan over the past six years in Chizhou and all three did a terrific job of getting my requirements but Suzy goes the extra mile. She takes forever to finalise the order because she checks to see how much the delivery is and also whether she can find the same item cheaper from another vendor. I wouldn’t expect anyone to do that for me but she just does. Mind you, since arriving here I have averaged over 600y a month spend (I multibuy to ensure only one delivery cost) and hopefully  now that I will have a stock of basics, I will be able to reduce my costs. With nobody of the same cloth to socialise with (Jacob never even replied to my text inviting him to my dinner party, but then he’s American) I find I am cooking at home 29 days a month. That ain’t cheap here if you like proper food, some examples below in proper money.

1/2lb butter               £4
2kg bread flour         £4.35
1 lemon                    £0.80           (and not much juice in it either)
Heinz beans              £1.00
Olive Oil 1ltr            £11
Cheese 1kg              £7

And those are things I can mostly get in the supermarket! Everything else I have to pay top whack for online. But I do feed myself well, even if it is only once a day.

Still, can’t complain, China has forced me to gain skills in the scullery I would never in a million years have dreamed of acquiring!