Tuesday 28th February, 2017 1545
So much for going to bed at half time on Sunday! Rugby afficionados will know why, in utter disbelief, I felt compelled to stay up and watch the second half. As a result I managed a mere three hours of sleep before the alarm shattered my world. And hell, did I feel groggy.
If I were Chinese I would have been able to snatch half an hour on the bus, they seem to be able to sleep at will anywhere but I’ve only done it once and that was on the way home. I was faced with a full day of lessons from eight to noon and then two-thirty to four-ten plus a fifty minute wait for the bus back. I could have taken public transport but my ETA would be the same or maybe later.
I think in the entire day there were a total of four students who had already attended one or two of my classes, the rest (about 111) were all new to me. I have to say that 40 students in my classroom makes it very well populated indeed. The students already had the course book I requested but I am told I can have my copy on Friday for some obscure reason. It matters not as the first lesson with new classes I eschew the book anyway, it’s introduction time.
By lunchtime I was really flagging. I made a cup of Twinings and munched on my cheese and onion sandwich while I contemplated the two and a half hour wait for the next and final class of the day. Once fed and watered I decided to try and nod off in one of the two armchairs in my office but to no avail, they aren’t soft enough. There was nothing for it but to put on an “awake face” and struggle through. Naurally, in front of a class you tend to be kept alert more but that break was interminable. With the coming two weekends I shall either not watch England or, if possible, go to bed in the afternoon, get up just before kick off and then stay up afterwards for the bus to work. I am not going through that again!
There was a girl in the final class who at the end of her introduction stated that she wanted to be friends with me, Bonnie. She was duly asked to come to my office after class. I now have my new online shopper!
Of course, once I got home I perked up a bit, so much so that I managed to stay up until after midnight. I had insufficient energy to cook and had planned sardines on toast but changed to cheese and onion on toast! Tonight will be sardines. I so often waste most of any loaves of bread I bake but this one is going to be used.
I don’t know whether there’s a lot of chalk in the water here but so far, with a new shower head I bought on arrival, the holes have slowly but surely over time become clogged. The first time you may recall I thought the thermostat was no good because I was alternately being scalded and then frozen as it cut out on overheat. The problem was solved just before spring festival when I twigged the flow was being increasingly restricted and painstakingly reopened the holes using toothpicks. I have had to do it again today, this time using a proper metal dental pick. I suppose every few months isn’t too onerous.
There’s a small brown dog that hangs about just around the corner from me on the route to the jing jo shop. When I first arrived the bloody thing used to go mad when I walked past but it never had enough nerve to get up close and personal with me. It had plainly got pups in the vicinity and was scaring the life out of any hapless Chinese who passed by. Once the pups (I think she keeps them inside under some stairs) had weaned she stopped barking and whenever I approached she would slink away even if I offered her food.
Well she’s just whelped again.
Sunday, 26 February 2017
Sunday 26th February, 2017 1930
Not a lot happening of late, hence my silence.
Friday before I did yet another shop to avoid having to at the weekend, I went again to see if the sweet pork place was open now. It was but when I went in I thought the place had changed hands. I never recognised any of the staff and it confused me because the place is quite popular, ergo unless you were retiring you would want to stay there for the money it makes and the owners were not old.
Then someone came in after I sat down and I recognised him as the husband so it appears only the waitresses have changed because five minutes later the wife came and, on spotting me, gave me a huge wave. All was normal. So normal in fact that I had sweet pork and ordered thin pancakes to roll it in. I do wish they did smaller portions. Anyway I filled up and twelve or so hours later I found myself not having to worry about constipation. And no, their food is cooked properly - the reason I started going there when I first arrived was because it was popular, clean and you can see the cooks at work in a clean environment. I think it was just that perhaps I ate too much.
Saturday, for the first time in weeks, I cooked myself a roast dinner but annoyingly couldn’t eat much at all. As a result my dinner tonight was the leftover roast spuds reheated followed by a small cake.
I watched the rugby last night (at least the first game was a good one) but I am not sure I will be able to watch England tonight. I have ruled up an exercise book with enough spaces for all six of my new classes and Janet phoned earlier to remind me I am working tomorrow. She loves reminding me when I know perfectly well! But then if she never told me at all I wouldn’t be too happy so I can’t grumble. She also said she has something important to discuss before class in the morning. Well I know it is about measures to try to prevent persistent absenteeism. I complained about this last term, hence the attendance book and now that I know I am expected to test them I can inform them that I can and will deduct 25% if they miss classes.
My bag for tomorrow also contains a small notebook to keep track of what units and activities I do with each class. With only one it wasn’t necessary but with six my memory is not THAT good. I am also taking teabags, milk and paper cups because I can’t drink nothing the entire day. A loaf of bread is shortly about to finish baking and I shall for the first time in China, take a sandwich for my lunch. I suppose at some point I should check out the canteen to see if the food is any good. Probably not but I may occasionally want something.
So that’s me. Clean pair of trousers ready for the morning, shoes polished and equipment almost ready. Now all I have to do is actually get up seven hours before I have been doing for two months!
Not a lot happening of late, hence my silence.
Friday before I did yet another shop to avoid having to at the weekend, I went again to see if the sweet pork place was open now. It was but when I went in I thought the place had changed hands. I never recognised any of the staff and it confused me because the place is quite popular, ergo unless you were retiring you would want to stay there for the money it makes and the owners were not old.
Then someone came in after I sat down and I recognised him as the husband so it appears only the waitresses have changed because five minutes later the wife came and, on spotting me, gave me a huge wave. All was normal. So normal in fact that I had sweet pork and ordered thin pancakes to roll it in. I do wish they did smaller portions. Anyway I filled up and twelve or so hours later I found myself not having to worry about constipation. And no, their food is cooked properly - the reason I started going there when I first arrived was because it was popular, clean and you can see the cooks at work in a clean environment. I think it was just that perhaps I ate too much.
Saturday, for the first time in weeks, I cooked myself a roast dinner but annoyingly couldn’t eat much at all. As a result my dinner tonight was the leftover roast spuds reheated followed by a small cake.
I watched the rugby last night (at least the first game was a good one) but I am not sure I will be able to watch England tonight. I have ruled up an exercise book with enough spaces for all six of my new classes and Janet phoned earlier to remind me I am working tomorrow. She loves reminding me when I know perfectly well! But then if she never told me at all I wouldn’t be too happy so I can’t grumble. She also said she has something important to discuss before class in the morning. Well I know it is about measures to try to prevent persistent absenteeism. I complained about this last term, hence the attendance book and now that I know I am expected to test them I can inform them that I can and will deduct 25% if they miss classes.
My bag for tomorrow also contains a small notebook to keep track of what units and activities I do with each class. With only one it wasn’t necessary but with six my memory is not THAT good. I am also taking teabags, milk and paper cups because I can’t drink nothing the entire day. A loaf of bread is shortly about to finish baking and I shall for the first time in China, take a sandwich for my lunch. I suppose at some point I should check out the canteen to see if the food is any good. Probably not but I may occasionally want something.
So that’s me. Clean pair of trousers ready for the morning, shoes polished and equipment almost ready. Now all I have to do is actually get up seven hours before I have been doing for two months!
Thursday, 23 February 2017
Thursday 23rd February, 2017 1945
Well yesterday I was forced to go shopping as the wine lake had evaporated and in line with the current trend, I ate out before shopping, this time at a Dicos I knew I would get a curry. I don’t know about anyone else but when I go to a fast food restaurant, well, the one thing I expect it to be is……er………fast?
I stood in one of two queues. I had one woman in front of me and there seemed to be rather a lot in the other queue. Eventually I could only assume the waitress working the till I was at wasn’t in fact taking orders so changed lanes and went to the back of the other line. Now by this time, that one wasn’t moving either. New arrivals, on seeing a long queue and one with just one woman in it, naturally stood behind her, leaving me smugly chuckling inside and waiting for their reaction to not being served. So far I had waited fifteen minutes and my only movement had been sideways.
Then the first in my queue was gone, leaving me with just one in front. Hooray! But then the same happened in the queue I vacated ten minutes previously! Not only that, she WAS taking orders! I reckon she was going out each time to catch, kill and pluck the bloody chickens. Eventually I got my meal but only after all the latecomers in my original line had received theirs.
Anyway I have now decided that at 25y for a soup (basically seaweed and bits of egg someone has boiled a kettle and poured water over) and a partitioned curry with chicken and rice in one bit, sauce in another, sweet corn, carrots and disgustingly hard beans a further one and some unidentifiable British Racing green bits in the final one - it is in fact shit. Especially when you consider a perfectly acceptable one is available one bus stop away for 16y - and you can smoke in there. The problem is, with all the stairs to negotiate on the BRT it puts me off combining eating and shopping and anyway I take a cab home when I have heavy bags and six or eight bottles of wine are heavy.
So last night I really tried to go to bed earlier but at midnight I was still wide awake. Then I realised that by getting back into a normal pattern I might find myself falling asleep before this weekend’s rugby starts so comforted myself with that.
Of course today I continued in the vein of indolence I have adopted even more so of late and never cooked. I did though make the intended cheese run and deliberately delayed departure until 1600 so that I could find somewhere to eat near there. The shopping was decent in the context of western produce in Lanzhou, I got my cheese, tinned tomatoes (love them on toast), processed peas and some pasta sauces, all of which bar the peas I used to get in RT Mart in Chizhou. 200y poorer, I left in search of dinner and found a small café. The only pictures of food were of pizzas and a steak. I thought the pizzas looked a lot like the ones in my curry place here but opted for a steak with extra chips, thinking the steak would come with spaghetti as it so often does here.
Now this place appeared to be somewhere that high school students go after school, order a drink and do their homework. Certainly there were half a dozen doing so at the time. I also experienced two “firsts”. One was being given a complimentary coffee in one of those things that resemble the drinking beakers for toddlers with a lid and a spout for sucking that are so beloved of places such as Starsucks. With it being really hot I could only take a small sip but I thought my palate must be very jaded because the coffee tasted uncommonly like orange.
It WAS orange. Red hot orange.
Then the second “first” came. One of the students doing her homework and with her back to me said, “Excuse me?”
“Yes?”
“Would you mind not smoking please?”
This rather took me aback and I replied
“I’m not.”
Anyway the steak was the usual plastic offering and it did in fact come with chips so I couldn’t finish the side order of chips (which were quite good-sized crinkle cut jobs) but I filled myself up. The black pepper sauce was excellent and it was only towards the end of my respite there that I spotted the name of the place. It was another branch of my curry restaurant! I could have had a curry for a lot less than I paid for the steak! At least I know for next time.
Also a student broke off from her homework to assist me when I was asking for salt. I now know it is “yan”. I did wonder if maybe pepper was “yin” but no, it is hujiao or Jiao. I seem to be keeping up with my recent progress of learning one new Chinese word a week!
But then Jiao An is good morning so when I greet a class am I saying pepper morning or good pepper?
Well yesterday I was forced to go shopping as the wine lake had evaporated and in line with the current trend, I ate out before shopping, this time at a Dicos I knew I would get a curry. I don’t know about anyone else but when I go to a fast food restaurant, well, the one thing I expect it to be is……er………fast?
I stood in one of two queues. I had one woman in front of me and there seemed to be rather a lot in the other queue. Eventually I could only assume the waitress working the till I was at wasn’t in fact taking orders so changed lanes and went to the back of the other line. Now by this time, that one wasn’t moving either. New arrivals, on seeing a long queue and one with just one woman in it, naturally stood behind her, leaving me smugly chuckling inside and waiting for their reaction to not being served. So far I had waited fifteen minutes and my only movement had been sideways.
Then the first in my queue was gone, leaving me with just one in front. Hooray! But then the same happened in the queue I vacated ten minutes previously! Not only that, she WAS taking orders! I reckon she was going out each time to catch, kill and pluck the bloody chickens. Eventually I got my meal but only after all the latecomers in my original line had received theirs.
Anyway I have now decided that at 25y for a soup (basically seaweed and bits of egg someone has boiled a kettle and poured water over) and a partitioned curry with chicken and rice in one bit, sauce in another, sweet corn, carrots and disgustingly hard beans a further one and some unidentifiable British Racing green bits in the final one - it is in fact shit. Especially when you consider a perfectly acceptable one is available one bus stop away for 16y - and you can smoke in there. The problem is, with all the stairs to negotiate on the BRT it puts me off combining eating and shopping and anyway I take a cab home when I have heavy bags and six or eight bottles of wine are heavy.
So last night I really tried to go to bed earlier but at midnight I was still wide awake. Then I realised that by getting back into a normal pattern I might find myself falling asleep before this weekend’s rugby starts so comforted myself with that.
Of course today I continued in the vein of indolence I have adopted even more so of late and never cooked. I did though make the intended cheese run and deliberately delayed departure until 1600 so that I could find somewhere to eat near there. The shopping was decent in the context of western produce in Lanzhou, I got my cheese, tinned tomatoes (love them on toast), processed peas and some pasta sauces, all of which bar the peas I used to get in RT Mart in Chizhou. 200y poorer, I left in search of dinner and found a small café. The only pictures of food were of pizzas and a steak. I thought the pizzas looked a lot like the ones in my curry place here but opted for a steak with extra chips, thinking the steak would come with spaghetti as it so often does here.
Now this place appeared to be somewhere that high school students go after school, order a drink and do their homework. Certainly there were half a dozen doing so at the time. I also experienced two “firsts”. One was being given a complimentary coffee in one of those things that resemble the drinking beakers for toddlers with a lid and a spout for sucking that are so beloved of places such as Starsucks. With it being really hot I could only take a small sip but I thought my palate must be very jaded because the coffee tasted uncommonly like orange.
It WAS orange. Red hot orange.
Then the second “first” came. One of the students doing her homework and with her back to me said, “Excuse me?”
“Yes?”
“Would you mind not smoking please?”
This rather took me aback and I replied
“I’m not.”
Anyway the steak was the usual plastic offering and it did in fact come with chips so I couldn’t finish the side order of chips (which were quite good-sized crinkle cut jobs) but I filled myself up. The black pepper sauce was excellent and it was only towards the end of my respite there that I spotted the name of the place. It was another branch of my curry restaurant! I could have had a curry for a lot less than I paid for the steak! At least I know for next time.
Also a student broke off from her homework to assist me when I was asking for salt. I now know it is “yan”. I did wonder if maybe pepper was “yin” but no, it is hujiao or Jiao. I seem to be keeping up with my recent progress of learning one new Chinese word a week!
But then Jiao An is good morning so when I greet a class am I saying pepper morning or good pepper?
Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Tuesday 21st February, 2017 2030
I don’t know whether I am getting better or worse with the sleep pattern. On one hand it was six before I called it a day this morning and on the other I actually got up at one. Again though, I vacillated for far too long over whether to go food shopping and where to eat, resulting in a complete disarray.
Two hours ago I finally moved myself and went out. I had resolved to go to the closest Dico’s for one of their curries. Sometime after I got back last night it clearly snowed after the sandstorm - weird. As a consequence there were three types of car this evening - ones which had been under cover or had been cleaned today, ones covered in snow and others covered in muddy sand. It was a mystery as to how cars could be parked on the same road all night could be a mixture of all three. The cleaned ones I understand but how they could be parked adjacent to each other and one be muddy and the other with three inches of snow is beyond me. I know they hadn’t been driven because I walked past them twice last night.
Anyway, Dico’s is one stop on the BRT but I decided to do something out of character. I walked. I even spotted a pet supplies shop en route, not that I need one. Finally I arrived for my curry, only for them to indicate they didn’t have any! Christ, I could have taken the bus the other way and gone to the one near BHG and still done my shopping had I known. Annoyed, I retraced my steps. Peeking through the windows of eating places to see what they served (if I could). Nothing appealed so I thought I was consigned to having beef noodles locally, until I spotted that Aili was still open tonight.
So “dinner” was a croissant followed by a puff pastry with half a peach and red jam in the middle. Very healthy indeed! Maybe I should have had chicken and chips. I need to get back into the habit of cooking my own again, since Alice left I’ve probably eaten elsewhere five days a week.
I don’t know whether I am getting better or worse with the sleep pattern. On one hand it was six before I called it a day this morning and on the other I actually got up at one. Again though, I vacillated for far too long over whether to go food shopping and where to eat, resulting in a complete disarray.
Two hours ago I finally moved myself and went out. I had resolved to go to the closest Dico’s for one of their curries. Sometime after I got back last night it clearly snowed after the sandstorm - weird. As a consequence there were three types of car this evening - ones which had been under cover or had been cleaned today, ones covered in snow and others covered in muddy sand. It was a mystery as to how cars could be parked on the same road all night could be a mixture of all three. The cleaned ones I understand but how they could be parked adjacent to each other and one be muddy and the other with three inches of snow is beyond me. I know they hadn’t been driven because I walked past them twice last night.
Anyway, Dico’s is one stop on the BRT but I decided to do something out of character. I walked. I even spotted a pet supplies shop en route, not that I need one. Finally I arrived for my curry, only for them to indicate they didn’t have any! Christ, I could have taken the bus the other way and gone to the one near BHG and still done my shopping had I known. Annoyed, I retraced my steps. Peeking through the windows of eating places to see what they served (if I could). Nothing appealed so I thought I was consigned to having beef noodles locally, until I spotted that Aili was still open tonight.
So “dinner” was a croissant followed by a puff pastry with half a peach and red jam in the middle. Very healthy indeed! Maybe I should have had chicken and chips. I need to get back into the habit of cooking my own again, since Alice left I’ve probably eaten elsewhere five days a week.
Tuesday 21st February, 2017 0430
This is potty.
I seriously need to adjust my body clock and I have one week including a weekend of late night rugby in which to find a solution or my new students on Monday will think zombies have taken over the classrooms.
On Sunday night I went for yet another chicken curry. It’s nothing special, a typical curry you might buy from a Chinese takeaway in the UK but it got me out of the house for a couple of hours. There’s only so much catch up TV you can take when you have no human contact. I would go to Buddy’s more often were it not for the prices - the curry only sets me back 16y and I take my own jing jo. They have really nice white beer but that is also priced the same as Buddy’s Guinness at 35y a bottle. Funny isn’t it? I would be over the moon if the prices were that level in Shanghai but I begrudge paying that much here.
Yesterday continued in the vein of surfacing in mid-afternoon and doubtless today will be no different. I eventually decided I couldn’t be bothered to cook but instead would go to Aila, the bakery where I discovered very nice croissants when I was trying to find the mythical spring roll place. As you know, I don’t eat much and I thought if I bought two or three of those then I could have them with butter and wash them down with wine. It would do me nicely.
Except at 2030 they were closed! I remembered there was another bakery the other end of the BRT stop so trudged back there, only to find they either don’t do croissants or they had run out. They didn’t even have decent doughnuts so I left. I could have walked on to one of the fried chicken outlets but instead bought some TUC biscuits and made do with vintage cheddar and black grapes.
However, as soon as I had left home wearing my down jacket (the temperature halved today as compared to yesterday when a light jacket was all that was required) I noticed the tick, tick, tick sound of what at first I thought was small hailstones hitting my coat. it couldn’t be rain because the roads were completely dry. Everyone does it and I am no different - I held my palms upward and extended my arms to try to see what it was but of course it was dark by that time and the street lamps are not exactly bright.
It took me a further five minutes to realise this was one of the sandstorms I had been told about when I first came. Well I don’t know about you but to me a sandstorm is something akin to Lawrence of Arabia wherein the hero has a cloth covering his face and the sand comes howling in horizontally. This though was not what I had expected. Although there was a chill breeze, it was almost as if someone was aloft and sprinkling salt from a cruet. I’m not even sure it will have coated the parked cars. Most odd.
So with a mere six days left I need to go to BHG at some point and I really want to fit in a lengthy outing to get to the cheese place before I start work again. Silly really, given that when I AM working next term it will only be two days a week! Must be psychological.
Of course, once back in the swing of things, it will be back to that old staple of teaching in China - worrying whether you will be asked to sign up for another year! I cannot say that I am happier here than I was in Chizhou because I am not. Sure, I have my own office and my own classroom but none of my own cloth to occasionally socialise with. That’s not so bad but very occasionally everyone needs to have fun with people who understand you properly.
On the other hand I am settled now, they appear to want me and they are getting the books I requested. If I have to move again so soon I will not be pleased, what with the upheaval and expense involved.
Some of you may remember the Belgian French teacher in Chizhou in my second year? Five schools in five years! The only one who couldn’t understand why he was never retained was him and yet even when it was pointed out he never changed his methods. He never went anywhere, drank or anything and so probably saved 80% of his salary and his entire worldly goods fitted inside a suitcase plus he was young but I suppose when you get older you start to put down roots, much as Kevin and I did in Chizhou, only to be cast aside by their policy which the last time I looked still had them with only one western English teacher.
This is potty.
I seriously need to adjust my body clock and I have one week including a weekend of late night rugby in which to find a solution or my new students on Monday will think zombies have taken over the classrooms.
On Sunday night I went for yet another chicken curry. It’s nothing special, a typical curry you might buy from a Chinese takeaway in the UK but it got me out of the house for a couple of hours. There’s only so much catch up TV you can take when you have no human contact. I would go to Buddy’s more often were it not for the prices - the curry only sets me back 16y and I take my own jing jo. They have really nice white beer but that is also priced the same as Buddy’s Guinness at 35y a bottle. Funny isn’t it? I would be over the moon if the prices were that level in Shanghai but I begrudge paying that much here.
Yesterday continued in the vein of surfacing in mid-afternoon and doubtless today will be no different. I eventually decided I couldn’t be bothered to cook but instead would go to Aila, the bakery where I discovered very nice croissants when I was trying to find the mythical spring roll place. As you know, I don’t eat much and I thought if I bought two or three of those then I could have them with butter and wash them down with wine. It would do me nicely.
Except at 2030 they were closed! I remembered there was another bakery the other end of the BRT stop so trudged back there, only to find they either don’t do croissants or they had run out. They didn’t even have decent doughnuts so I left. I could have walked on to one of the fried chicken outlets but instead bought some TUC biscuits and made do with vintage cheddar and black grapes.
However, as soon as I had left home wearing my down jacket (the temperature halved today as compared to yesterday when a light jacket was all that was required) I noticed the tick, tick, tick sound of what at first I thought was small hailstones hitting my coat. it couldn’t be rain because the roads were completely dry. Everyone does it and I am no different - I held my palms upward and extended my arms to try to see what it was but of course it was dark by that time and the street lamps are not exactly bright.
It took me a further five minutes to realise this was one of the sandstorms I had been told about when I first came. Well I don’t know about you but to me a sandstorm is something akin to Lawrence of Arabia wherein the hero has a cloth covering his face and the sand comes howling in horizontally. This though was not what I had expected. Although there was a chill breeze, it was almost as if someone was aloft and sprinkling salt from a cruet. I’m not even sure it will have coated the parked cars. Most odd.
So with a mere six days left I need to go to BHG at some point and I really want to fit in a lengthy outing to get to the cheese place before I start work again. Silly really, given that when I AM working next term it will only be two days a week! Must be psychological.
Of course, once back in the swing of things, it will be back to that old staple of teaching in China - worrying whether you will be asked to sign up for another year! I cannot say that I am happier here than I was in Chizhou because I am not. Sure, I have my own office and my own classroom but none of my own cloth to occasionally socialise with. That’s not so bad but very occasionally everyone needs to have fun with people who understand you properly.
On the other hand I am settled now, they appear to want me and they are getting the books I requested. If I have to move again so soon I will not be pleased, what with the upheaval and expense involved.
Some of you may remember the Belgian French teacher in Chizhou in my second year? Five schools in five years! The only one who couldn’t understand why he was never retained was him and yet even when it was pointed out he never changed his methods. He never went anywhere, drank or anything and so probably saved 80% of his salary and his entire worldly goods fitted inside a suitcase plus he was young but I suppose when you get older you start to put down roots, much as Kevin and I did in Chizhou, only to be cast aside by their policy which the last time I looked still had them with only one western English teacher.
Saturday, 18 February 2017
Saturday 18th February, 2017 2115
Talk about after the Lord Mayor’s show!!
Thanks Mum, God did I feel rough when I woke up!!
After blogging in the not so small hours this morning I carried on. I listened to really sad songs which; if you don’t do it when you are feeling maudlin; you really should try. I find it makes me sad at the time and when I wake up it is as if someone came along and sprayed me with anti-sad disinfectant. Works a treat.
And so it came to pass that after 6 beers, a bottle of red and a litre and a half of jing jo (equivalent to scotch or rum) I tottered (literally) to my bed. I have no idea how long my mind was in turmoil before I dropped off but what I do know is that I never got out of bed until 1500!!!
Now I have been hugely fortunate in never having had what I assume most people call a hangover. Specifically headaches. Besides having a bang on the head I have never actually had one and if I suddenly had one I would be petrified it was a brain haemorrhage or something of that order. No, I just feel icky and hell, was I groggy but there was no point in staying abed because there was no way I could fall back to sleep.
I had a coffee with my medicines and then partook of the best and only cure for the morning after - more alcohol. Within the hour I was feeling normal again and ready to face the world. With fists if necessary!
I decided to eat out, maybe go and get a gar-lee (curry) where I had an “Arab” pizza a couple of nights ago but in the end restored myself so much to last night’s state that I actually decided to cook myself a prawn and cheese omelette and chips and only go out for a replenishment of my drinks cupboard. I really must at some point get a proper omelette pan because I spectacularly failed to turn it into a nice semicircle. Might not look that good but with Linghams on it, it was great. Life, as they say, goes on!
The one thing that did really disappoint me today was when I looked to see what times the 6 Nations matches started tonight. I was really looking forward to three more cracking games to take my mind off everything and really cheer me up. It was only then that I discovered the teams have a weekend off.
Now I don’t begrudge them, they have all played their hearts out every game so far but blow me if the remaining matches for England aren’t ALL on a Sunday night! They will finish at about 0100 and my timetable this term means I have to be up at 0500 Monday morning! Ever get the feeling I might blot my copybook???
Talk about after the Lord Mayor’s show!!
Thanks Mum, God did I feel rough when I woke up!!
After blogging in the not so small hours this morning I carried on. I listened to really sad songs which; if you don’t do it when you are feeling maudlin; you really should try. I find it makes me sad at the time and when I wake up it is as if someone came along and sprayed me with anti-sad disinfectant. Works a treat.
And so it came to pass that after 6 beers, a bottle of red and a litre and a half of jing jo (equivalent to scotch or rum) I tottered (literally) to my bed. I have no idea how long my mind was in turmoil before I dropped off but what I do know is that I never got out of bed until 1500!!!
Now I have been hugely fortunate in never having had what I assume most people call a hangover. Specifically headaches. Besides having a bang on the head I have never actually had one and if I suddenly had one I would be petrified it was a brain haemorrhage or something of that order. No, I just feel icky and hell, was I groggy but there was no point in staying abed because there was no way I could fall back to sleep.
I had a coffee with my medicines and then partook of the best and only cure for the morning after - more alcohol. Within the hour I was feeling normal again and ready to face the world. With fists if necessary!
I decided to eat out, maybe go and get a gar-lee (curry) where I had an “Arab” pizza a couple of nights ago but in the end restored myself so much to last night’s state that I actually decided to cook myself a prawn and cheese omelette and chips and only go out for a replenishment of my drinks cupboard. I really must at some point get a proper omelette pan because I spectacularly failed to turn it into a nice semicircle. Might not look that good but with Linghams on it, it was great. Life, as they say, goes on!
The one thing that did really disappoint me today was when I looked to see what times the 6 Nations matches started tonight. I was really looking forward to three more cracking games to take my mind off everything and really cheer me up. It was only then that I discovered the teams have a weekend off.
Now I don’t begrudge them, they have all played their hearts out every game so far but blow me if the remaining matches for England aren’t ALL on a Sunday night! They will finish at about 0100 and my timetable this term means I have to be up at 0500 Monday morning! Ever get the feeling I might blot my copybook???
Friday 17th February, 2017 1530
Today’s the day when my Mother’s earthly remains will be united with my Dad’s.
Part of me wishes I could be there but that possibility disappeared yesterday morning even though I could have mustered enough for flights and hotel. I shall not dwell on it (I will probably do that when the service starts at 2100 my time) and instead I will now do what I often do - go shopping and then cook some cottage pies.
2350
All over now and the mourners who are free are now drinking in my youngest brother’s pub. I suppose I should lie and say that I was completely unmoved but to be truthful at nine when the service started and again at ten when the interment commenced I must confess to a couple of minor wobbles.
Not long before the service started my sister emailed her own eulogy for me to read, full of things she had gleaned from Mum over the years and that I knew nothing about. It was considerably lengthier than my submission for the padre to read and I admit I had concerns she would be able to get through it all but I was informed my other sister would be by her side for support.
First reports before they all get drunk indicate that it went very well, with a slideshow screened throughout. I am told the padre and the undertaker commented that it was the best service they had ever officiated at (although they probably say that to all the girls) but get this - there was a round of applause in church! Not seen that before but I will wager it was for my sister who was desperate to do it right for her Mum.
An old friend of mine did me the honour of burning the Chinese spirit money at the committal, apparently it was hard to get burning at first but when it caught it went like Billy-Ho. That will have been Mum grabbing it as she left!
I shall doubtless get fuller reports tomorrow but my overwhelming feeling right now is that I do so wish I had been there. A ridiculous notion I know, but shortly before the service I did look on the church website to see if they had a live webcam feed! Well they have them everywhere else these days…………..
So that’s it. Nowhere to run to when I am frightened of the dark any more. It feels strange even at my age to suddenly be the oldest in my immediate family even though it comes to us all eventually, well the first-born ones anyway.
So it’s bye bye Mum, no I won’t wear a vest and I WILL go out in the cold with wet hair just as always. Thanks for your wonderful salmon and cucumber pies and cheesecakes in the summers. I lost the recipe for the former (hidden inside a book and I can’t find it!) and I wish it wasn’t your secret recipe because it isn’t on the internet.
Breaking news: The applause was indeed for my sister and deservedly so. She struggled towards the end but having done it myself so would I have. I am proud of her and so would our Mother have been.
As for my words, they seem to have had the desired effect, a combination of laughter and tears. And that’s the end of Book 1 of the Life and Times Of Me. Book 2 starts now.
Today’s the day when my Mother’s earthly remains will be united with my Dad’s.
Part of me wishes I could be there but that possibility disappeared yesterday morning even though I could have mustered enough for flights and hotel. I shall not dwell on it (I will probably do that when the service starts at 2100 my time) and instead I will now do what I often do - go shopping and then cook some cottage pies.
2350
All over now and the mourners who are free are now drinking in my youngest brother’s pub. I suppose I should lie and say that I was completely unmoved but to be truthful at nine when the service started and again at ten when the interment commenced I must confess to a couple of minor wobbles.
Not long before the service started my sister emailed her own eulogy for me to read, full of things she had gleaned from Mum over the years and that I knew nothing about. It was considerably lengthier than my submission for the padre to read and I admit I had concerns she would be able to get through it all but I was informed my other sister would be by her side for support.
First reports before they all get drunk indicate that it went very well, with a slideshow screened throughout. I am told the padre and the undertaker commented that it was the best service they had ever officiated at (although they probably say that to all the girls) but get this - there was a round of applause in church! Not seen that before but I will wager it was for my sister who was desperate to do it right for her Mum.
An old friend of mine did me the honour of burning the Chinese spirit money at the committal, apparently it was hard to get burning at first but when it caught it went like Billy-Ho. That will have been Mum grabbing it as she left!
I shall doubtless get fuller reports tomorrow but my overwhelming feeling right now is that I do so wish I had been there. A ridiculous notion I know, but shortly before the service I did look on the church website to see if they had a live webcam feed! Well they have them everywhere else these days…………..
So that’s it. Nowhere to run to when I am frightened of the dark any more. It feels strange even at my age to suddenly be the oldest in my immediate family even though it comes to us all eventually, well the first-born ones anyway.
So it’s bye bye Mum, no I won’t wear a vest and I WILL go out in the cold with wet hair just as always. Thanks for your wonderful salmon and cucumber pies and cheesecakes in the summers. I lost the recipe for the former (hidden inside a book and I can’t find it!) and I wish it wasn’t your secret recipe because it isn’t on the internet.
Breaking news: The applause was indeed for my sister and deservedly so. She struggled towards the end but having done it myself so would I have. I am proud of her and so would our Mother have been.
As for my words, they seem to have had the desired effect, a combination of laughter and tears. And that’s the end of Book 1 of the Life and Times Of Me. Book 2 starts now.
Tuesday, 14 February 2017
St Valentine’s Day, 2017 1815
I’ve just continued being lazy lately, so much so that tonight my last bottle of plonk will disappear down my gullet. That of course will force me to go shopping tomorrow. I never cooked yesterday and instead went to Buddy’s for fish and chips, armed with my malt vinegar. One of the waitresses took a look and asserted that they had this. Really? Off she went to search for it, only to return with a huge bottle of balsamic salad dressing! Full marks of course for spotting the correlation between “vinegar” on each bottle but zero for not knowing there are loads of different types. I gave her a taste of mine and asked her if she would put it on her dumplings. This elicited a horrified response and I pointed out that I would feel that way were I to put balsamic on my fish. Sadly, the quality of the food there is dependent on whoever is cooking and the batter was overdone whilst the fish was slightly undercooked. They don’t actually have a cook there, merely young men doing the basics, mostly out of boxes or packets. It’s a pity, I have many suggestions.
When I returned on the bus, in the square there were the usual old people dancing but there was a rather curious group which I went to investigate. They had no music, merely a leader who may have been 70 and they were following his lead, bending over and slapping their legs all the way down and all the way up again to his count. I suppose it is good exercise and of course in China they think looking like a prat is normal but I couldn’t help smiling as I walked away from this truly wonderful spectacle.
Today I haven’t even gone to the jing jo shop. By the time I thought about getting dressed I decided I didn’t actually need to, it can wait until tomorrow. And anyway, it would mean what with going to BHG I would need to go to the cash point a day earlier than I budgeted.
I was idly checking my survey rewards earlier. In particular one I have been doing for six years and never redeemed anything. You can earn airmiles with your points and I checked out I had 10,000 airmile points with Air France or KLM. Well I don’t want to redeem for a return trip to the UK seeing as the school pays for it once a year if I want to go (or gives me some cash if I don’t - although not as much as the flight would be) but I checked it out, thinking Shanghai-London return would be about 12,000 miles and 10,000 points would be 10,000 miles.
Wrong. A return trip will take 80,000 airmile points! That means in just another 40 years I might have enough points! Bizarrely, if I combine my Hilton points with the survey points I have enough for ten free nights in Wuhu or about 8 hours in the Hilton in Pudong! I must investigate the other companies I do surveys with further. If they give cash I take that but some give vouchers and I always take the Amazon ones, even though I can only use them in the UK. Now if they do travel vouchers as well…………..
Janet finally gave me my timetable for next term. I have six different classes, none of which are going to Cyprus, and will have each class for two periods per week back to back. Great, actual working time 9 hours a week. But. They have scheduled me for six periods on Monday and six on Friday. So, with a 2.5 hour lunch break it makes for a long day because I will rise at five and get back at six in the evening. They will be very long days, however it only means a maximum of 4 hours on the free bus per week as opposed to eight and I have the weekends plus Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off!
Whoopee! And the best of it is, I only see each class once per week so I shouldn’t run out of ideas. Apparently the course book should arrive at the end of the month which is perfect because I will need it around 6th March.
I haven’t cooked per se today, when I was scratching my head as to what to do for dinner (went for noodles on Sunday) I hunted in the fridge and to my delight found two containers of frozen chilli so it’s enchiladas tonight. I really must get around to making macaroni cheese in bulk before that cheddar turns, it’s starting to get a few green spots and with the price of it here I hate to waste.
I’ve just continued being lazy lately, so much so that tonight my last bottle of plonk will disappear down my gullet. That of course will force me to go shopping tomorrow. I never cooked yesterday and instead went to Buddy’s for fish and chips, armed with my malt vinegar. One of the waitresses took a look and asserted that they had this. Really? Off she went to search for it, only to return with a huge bottle of balsamic salad dressing! Full marks of course for spotting the correlation between “vinegar” on each bottle but zero for not knowing there are loads of different types. I gave her a taste of mine and asked her if she would put it on her dumplings. This elicited a horrified response and I pointed out that I would feel that way were I to put balsamic on my fish. Sadly, the quality of the food there is dependent on whoever is cooking and the batter was overdone whilst the fish was slightly undercooked. They don’t actually have a cook there, merely young men doing the basics, mostly out of boxes or packets. It’s a pity, I have many suggestions.
When I returned on the bus, in the square there were the usual old people dancing but there was a rather curious group which I went to investigate. They had no music, merely a leader who may have been 70 and they were following his lead, bending over and slapping their legs all the way down and all the way up again to his count. I suppose it is good exercise and of course in China they think looking like a prat is normal but I couldn’t help smiling as I walked away from this truly wonderful spectacle.
Today I haven’t even gone to the jing jo shop. By the time I thought about getting dressed I decided I didn’t actually need to, it can wait until tomorrow. And anyway, it would mean what with going to BHG I would need to go to the cash point a day earlier than I budgeted.
I was idly checking my survey rewards earlier. In particular one I have been doing for six years and never redeemed anything. You can earn airmiles with your points and I checked out I had 10,000 airmile points with Air France or KLM. Well I don’t want to redeem for a return trip to the UK seeing as the school pays for it once a year if I want to go (or gives me some cash if I don’t - although not as much as the flight would be) but I checked it out, thinking Shanghai-London return would be about 12,000 miles and 10,000 points would be 10,000 miles.
Wrong. A return trip will take 80,000 airmile points! That means in just another 40 years I might have enough points! Bizarrely, if I combine my Hilton points with the survey points I have enough for ten free nights in Wuhu or about 8 hours in the Hilton in Pudong! I must investigate the other companies I do surveys with further. If they give cash I take that but some give vouchers and I always take the Amazon ones, even though I can only use them in the UK. Now if they do travel vouchers as well…………..
Janet finally gave me my timetable for next term. I have six different classes, none of which are going to Cyprus, and will have each class for two periods per week back to back. Great, actual working time 9 hours a week. But. They have scheduled me for six periods on Monday and six on Friday. So, with a 2.5 hour lunch break it makes for a long day because I will rise at five and get back at six in the evening. They will be very long days, however it only means a maximum of 4 hours on the free bus per week as opposed to eight and I have the weekends plus Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off!
Whoopee! And the best of it is, I only see each class once per week so I shouldn’t run out of ideas. Apparently the course book should arrive at the end of the month which is perfect because I will need it around 6th March.
I haven’t cooked per se today, when I was scratching my head as to what to do for dinner (went for noodles on Sunday) I hunted in the fridge and to my delight found two containers of frozen chilli so it’s enchiladas tonight. I really must get around to making macaroni cheese in bulk before that cheddar turns, it’s starting to get a few green spots and with the price of it here I hate to waste.
Saturday, 11 February 2017
Saturday 11th February, 2017 1800
The intended trip to BHG yesterday never took place, partly due to my inertia and partly because I have a split on the turn of my heel which stings a bit when I walk. I never injured it and I think it is purely because of the dryness of my skin here, the climate really is arid.
I was also incredibly lazy too because I didn’t cook, instead opting for a heated bun with an egg and Lord knows what else I picked, it could have been fish, chicken, pork or maybe all three. This time instead of having the bun fried in oil I tried one which was merely warmed through. To be honest the unhealthy option tastes better! However for 10y it filled a hole and I could only eat half.
Today almost went the same way (except I may have had noodles) but I relented and decided to have salmon - except this time I defrosted it thoroughly so as to avoid a repeat of last time. Somehow I still think the cats outside will be happy later because it’s quite a size. I wish they also did half portions. Chopping it when it’s frozen is not really feasible.
The internet is still slow which is damned annoying because it impedes streaming (although BBC is ok because it merely takes longer to download) and worse, I don’t know if I will be able to actually watch the 6 Nations this weekend. That and the two world cups are pretty much the only sporting events I watch so is it too much to ask? I could get highlights on iPlayer but by the time I downloaded I would have had to stay off the internet for hours because the results are plastered everywhere you look.
After a sudden brainwave I decided to see if I could find Chizhou’s spring festival TV show this year. It was mainly because I wanted to see if they had roped Daniel, Andrei or Juliette in, as they did me in 2014. I sort of went through it which was difficult as it kept buffering and it looks as if the answer is no. Doubtless Daniel went to stay with his girlfriend and the other pair probably holidayed in Thailand or Singapore or somesuch. It was nice though to spot a few familiar faces and places from a city I came to regard as home. If anyone is interested in watching it is here:
http://video.cznbtv.com/video/2017-01/25/cms42071article.shtml
As for me, I keep toying with the idea of going to Xining. It’s 70y and just over an hour away on the fast train (the only one) and if I do weaken it won’t be for any scenic attractions (I think they only have temples and lakes anyway) but because there’s an Indian restaurant there! But I really must save for summer. With absolutely no desire and now no reason to visit Blighty (except for pork pies) I shall do my China Tour. Shanghai has become a calendar fixture (and anyway I have a debt to repay) and if Steve is still in Shenyang I would like to afford to get there also. The problem is, quite apart from flights and hotels, every time you go out for an evening in those two places you end up 1,000y down. Oh to be on UK wages! I have asked Joan if she wants to accompany me but she can’t answer me at present.
If I remain here next year my pay will go up and I won’t have the set-up costs of moving and re-equipping so who knows, maybe next summer I might even be able to fit in a few days in Vietnam or Cambodia?
You, know, considering school doesn’t resume for another fortnight, there appear to be one hell of a lot of students back already. In Chizhou they started returning the day before (and many came late) but here it’s different. I suppose perhaps most of them live in Lanzhou or the surrounding area, maybe their parents are back at work and they want to be back with their mates, I don’t know.
I had to laugh at Alice this morning. I had alerted her to the lunar exclipse which occurred here at breakfast time and told her of she was awake to look for it. She sent me an email with a photograph of a blue sky over Wuhu and it read, “Clear skies and nothing looked different”. So I asked her if she looked at the moon? No, she replied.
The intended trip to BHG yesterday never took place, partly due to my inertia and partly because I have a split on the turn of my heel which stings a bit when I walk. I never injured it and I think it is purely because of the dryness of my skin here, the climate really is arid.
I was also incredibly lazy too because I didn’t cook, instead opting for a heated bun with an egg and Lord knows what else I picked, it could have been fish, chicken, pork or maybe all three. This time instead of having the bun fried in oil I tried one which was merely warmed through. To be honest the unhealthy option tastes better! However for 10y it filled a hole and I could only eat half.
Today almost went the same way (except I may have had noodles) but I relented and decided to have salmon - except this time I defrosted it thoroughly so as to avoid a repeat of last time. Somehow I still think the cats outside will be happy later because it’s quite a size. I wish they also did half portions. Chopping it when it’s frozen is not really feasible.
The internet is still slow which is damned annoying because it impedes streaming (although BBC is ok because it merely takes longer to download) and worse, I don’t know if I will be able to actually watch the 6 Nations this weekend. That and the two world cups are pretty much the only sporting events I watch so is it too much to ask? I could get highlights on iPlayer but by the time I downloaded I would have had to stay off the internet for hours because the results are plastered everywhere you look.
After a sudden brainwave I decided to see if I could find Chizhou’s spring festival TV show this year. It was mainly because I wanted to see if they had roped Daniel, Andrei or Juliette in, as they did me in 2014. I sort of went through it which was difficult as it kept buffering and it looks as if the answer is no. Doubtless Daniel went to stay with his girlfriend and the other pair probably holidayed in Thailand or Singapore or somesuch. It was nice though to spot a few familiar faces and places from a city I came to regard as home. If anyone is interested in watching it is here:
http://video.cznbtv.com/video/2017-01/25/cms42071article.shtml
As for me, I keep toying with the idea of going to Xining. It’s 70y and just over an hour away on the fast train (the only one) and if I do weaken it won’t be for any scenic attractions (I think they only have temples and lakes anyway) but because there’s an Indian restaurant there! But I really must save for summer. With absolutely no desire and now no reason to visit Blighty (except for pork pies) I shall do my China Tour. Shanghai has become a calendar fixture (and anyway I have a debt to repay) and if Steve is still in Shenyang I would like to afford to get there also. The problem is, quite apart from flights and hotels, every time you go out for an evening in those two places you end up 1,000y down. Oh to be on UK wages! I have asked Joan if she wants to accompany me but she can’t answer me at present.
If I remain here next year my pay will go up and I won’t have the set-up costs of moving and re-equipping so who knows, maybe next summer I might even be able to fit in a few days in Vietnam or Cambodia?
You, know, considering school doesn’t resume for another fortnight, there appear to be one hell of a lot of students back already. In Chizhou they started returning the day before (and many came late) but here it’s different. I suppose perhaps most of them live in Lanzhou or the surrounding area, maybe their parents are back at work and they want to be back with their mates, I don’t know.
I had to laugh at Alice this morning. I had alerted her to the lunar exclipse which occurred here at breakfast time and told her of she was awake to look for it. She sent me an email with a photograph of a blue sky over Wuhu and it read, “Clear skies and nothing looked different”. So I asked her if she looked at the moon? No, she replied.
Thursday, 9 February 2017
Thursday 9th February, 2017 1800
I actually got up before midday, having retired at about 0200. This was, I must admit, only occasioned by the horrendous problems I had with the internet - or more precisely the VPN. Xi is having yet another crackdown (media said it shouldn’t affect foreigners, only VPNs inside China but that seems to be nonsense from where I sit) and not only do you get cut off and end up trying to keep one step ahead by connecting all over the planet but for some reason it really slowed the speed. It is not much better today but with luck the geeks will sort out a fix. My problem is that I need to be connected to a UK site and one that will actually work with iPlayer and ITVplayer, not all of them do.
I read today that China is about to start fingerprinting all foreigners on entry or re-entry to the country. This is allegedly in order to make exit and entry more simplified but if you believe that then you will also believe it isn’t anything to do with ensuring we wear gloves whenever we commit crimes. Of course, foreigners break the law here on a daily basis, don’t they? Doing time in the Middle Kingdom is a piece of cake………..
So anyway, I left home at 1430 to go and get my smokes. There was some sort of event in the square with an exhibition of paintings and photographs and a young lady belting out songs on a stage. She was actually quite good and it was tempting to linger and listen but as I espied a 131 sitting waiting to depart, I went and boarded.
A minute later a chap in his early thirties got on with a small suitcase (the 131 goes to the main train station an hour away) and sat immediately in front of me. On the pavement were obviously his wife and their young son.
Now I know many other people do what I do when you are sitting outside a bar alone having a drink or waiting as I was on a bus and watching the world go by. Observing people and wondering what their story is. Well this one was pretty easy because mum and son stayed until the bus left and Dad was taking pictures on his phone through the window and also short video clips.
He was back off to work after the holiday to who knows where. Recalling Yangmei Lily from 8 years ago, who she and her son saw their husband/father only at spring festival, I wondered if this was the case here. Chinese parents do make enormous sacrifices in most cases for the children, far more than western ones do, from working away the entire year to perhaps starving themselves and using their meagre earnings from a smallholding so that they can put their child through college or university. Here, no degree equals no job, or at least only one as a waitress or supermarket assistant. Times are changing but in a country so vast, any change can only take place slowly.
Speaking of change, next year the foreign expert/work permit system is changing for laowei. They are combining the two departments and creating a new ID card which ostensibly will give us the same rights and access to the same services as Chinese nationals. Theoretically it means we will be able to check in to hotels without out passports, order train tickets online and instead of having to queue at a counter to collect them at the station, be enabled to use the dispensing machines which do it in seconds. Great.
However. Foreigners will henceforth be classified into three levels, A, B or C with of course A being the highest. There is a website with a programme where you can input your details and answer questions to find out what grade you will be. I have used it and no matter how much I cheat I still remain firmly embedded as a class C alien!
Janet told me today I should have my timetable in the next few days but better still, they are ordering Book 1 of the course series I requested. Fair enough, no point in paying for all four when one book does one term, so I am happy even though there are misgivings it may be difficult for non English majors to understand. However, it’s my job to help them understand and their job to work to understand. Wish me luck.
I actually got up before midday, having retired at about 0200. This was, I must admit, only occasioned by the horrendous problems I had with the internet - or more precisely the VPN. Xi is having yet another crackdown (media said it shouldn’t affect foreigners, only VPNs inside China but that seems to be nonsense from where I sit) and not only do you get cut off and end up trying to keep one step ahead by connecting all over the planet but for some reason it really slowed the speed. It is not much better today but with luck the geeks will sort out a fix. My problem is that I need to be connected to a UK site and one that will actually work with iPlayer and ITVplayer, not all of them do.
I read today that China is about to start fingerprinting all foreigners on entry or re-entry to the country. This is allegedly in order to make exit and entry more simplified but if you believe that then you will also believe it isn’t anything to do with ensuring we wear gloves whenever we commit crimes. Of course, foreigners break the law here on a daily basis, don’t they? Doing time in the Middle Kingdom is a piece of cake………..
So anyway, I left home at 1430 to go and get my smokes. There was some sort of event in the square with an exhibition of paintings and photographs and a young lady belting out songs on a stage. She was actually quite good and it was tempting to linger and listen but as I espied a 131 sitting waiting to depart, I went and boarded.
A minute later a chap in his early thirties got on with a small suitcase (the 131 goes to the main train station an hour away) and sat immediately in front of me. On the pavement were obviously his wife and their young son.
Now I know many other people do what I do when you are sitting outside a bar alone having a drink or waiting as I was on a bus and watching the world go by. Observing people and wondering what their story is. Well this one was pretty easy because mum and son stayed until the bus left and Dad was taking pictures on his phone through the window and also short video clips.
He was back off to work after the holiday to who knows where. Recalling Yangmei Lily from 8 years ago, who she and her son saw their husband/father only at spring festival, I wondered if this was the case here. Chinese parents do make enormous sacrifices in most cases for the children, far more than western ones do, from working away the entire year to perhaps starving themselves and using their meagre earnings from a smallholding so that they can put their child through college or university. Here, no degree equals no job, or at least only one as a waitress or supermarket assistant. Times are changing but in a country so vast, any change can only take place slowly.
Speaking of change, next year the foreign expert/work permit system is changing for laowei. They are combining the two departments and creating a new ID card which ostensibly will give us the same rights and access to the same services as Chinese nationals. Theoretically it means we will be able to check in to hotels without out passports, order train tickets online and instead of having to queue at a counter to collect them at the station, be enabled to use the dispensing machines which do it in seconds. Great.
However. Foreigners will henceforth be classified into three levels, A, B or C with of course A being the highest. There is a website with a programme where you can input your details and answer questions to find out what grade you will be. I have used it and no matter how much I cheat I still remain firmly embedded as a class C alien!
Janet told me today I should have my timetable in the next few days but better still, they are ordering Book 1 of the course series I requested. Fair enough, no point in paying for all four when one book does one term, so I am happy even though there are misgivings it may be difficult for non English majors to understand. However, it’s my job to help them understand and their job to work to understand. Wish me luck.
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
Wednesday 8th February, 2017 2200
Strewth, I really need to get my body clock back into kilter. Whilst it is great for not nodding off during the 6Nations matches, it plays havoc with my intentions for the day.
It was afternoon before I surfaced today so the intended morning supermarket shop went out of the window before I even left the bedroom. It’s not so much to do with recent events as what normally happens in spring festival when I have nobody to play with - I stay up all hours watching films and videos on the computer.
So anyway, with a shopping trip looking more and more likely to coincide with people finishing work for the day, I decided I wouldn’t cook but instead would go to the restaurant near BHG. I suddenly had a craving for sweet pork in pancakes and the more I thought about it, the more I salivated.
I was delighted whilst sitting here to receive a text from the bank telling me I had been paid because I suspected it may have been late due to the holidays but I cannot fault the school. Great, now I could go and get some cash (I could anyway, psychologically if you are trying to save then dipping into the target is disappointing) and think about maybe making the marathon monthly bus trip to get my monthly smokes tomorrow.
So I duly withdrew cash from the cash point and immediately I did that the bank sent me a text to tell me I just did - for this service I am charged 2y a month which is well worth it. I never looked until I was on the bus and to my consternation, despite having withdrawn 1,500y it said I had 2,000y more than I had even before the withdrawal!
It took some minutes to cotton on to the fact they must also have paid me my travelling money. In Chizhou it was 2,200y a year, here it is 3,500y. On checking at a cash point near BHG it proved the case. Slightly irritating as I hadn’t asked for it and wanted to save it until the summer, now I shall have to be careful not to spend it.
So then I went to get some sweet pork, I was ravenous. Arrrrggghh! Still closed for the holidays! That was more than irritating because I didn’t know anywhere else to eat around there where I might like the food. So I went wandering and came across a Dico’s. I went to one once near here and it was awful but I had to eat and I knew I wouldn’t cook tonight for myself, so I went in. Dico’s is a bit like KFC and I thought I would end up with a chicken quarter and fries but they had little flyers showing the menu in Chinese and English so I picked one up.
The print was not only minuscule but it was in yellow against a white background so anyone who doesn’t have supersight can’t read it (although the price is large enough!). Hmmm. Crispy chicken curry and rice with lotus and spinach soup. Also what they called a shrimp bun but surely must be either their equivalent of McDonald’s filet’o’fish or a prawn burger. In the end I went for the curry which filled the hole but I am sure I will sample the other at some point now I know it is there. I would have eaten in the underground at the BRT stop but they also are closed still.
Then it was time to shop and come home. 235y later I unpacked what I had bought. I had to laugh when I realised that although I had bought the most important stuff -wine - and stocked up on loo roll and soap, the only actual food I had bought was another salmon fillet! I may need to go again on Friday!
Talking of McDonald’s, last night/this morning I watched Founder. Initially I thought it might be a maritime catastrophe but is in fact all about Ray Kroc. Very interesting and heck, didn’t he turn the two brothers over. Nasty piece of work indeed.
So the plan is (and don’t hold me to it because I may not be able to get to sleep early enough) is to do a cigar run tomorrow. This is going to cause problems during term time because unless I want to work extremely long days to get two days off rather than one during the week, at least once a month I will need to devote a day to that. As I abhor food shopping at the weekend there will be a conflict.
But then I suppose it is good to actually have these trivial problems, isn’t it. I could be housebound or skint.
Strewth, I really need to get my body clock back into kilter. Whilst it is great for not nodding off during the 6Nations matches, it plays havoc with my intentions for the day.
It was afternoon before I surfaced today so the intended morning supermarket shop went out of the window before I even left the bedroom. It’s not so much to do with recent events as what normally happens in spring festival when I have nobody to play with - I stay up all hours watching films and videos on the computer.
So anyway, with a shopping trip looking more and more likely to coincide with people finishing work for the day, I decided I wouldn’t cook but instead would go to the restaurant near BHG. I suddenly had a craving for sweet pork in pancakes and the more I thought about it, the more I salivated.
I was delighted whilst sitting here to receive a text from the bank telling me I had been paid because I suspected it may have been late due to the holidays but I cannot fault the school. Great, now I could go and get some cash (I could anyway, psychologically if you are trying to save then dipping into the target is disappointing) and think about maybe making the marathon monthly bus trip to get my monthly smokes tomorrow.
So I duly withdrew cash from the cash point and immediately I did that the bank sent me a text to tell me I just did - for this service I am charged 2y a month which is well worth it. I never looked until I was on the bus and to my consternation, despite having withdrawn 1,500y it said I had 2,000y more than I had even before the withdrawal!
It took some minutes to cotton on to the fact they must also have paid me my travelling money. In Chizhou it was 2,200y a year, here it is 3,500y. On checking at a cash point near BHG it proved the case. Slightly irritating as I hadn’t asked for it and wanted to save it until the summer, now I shall have to be careful not to spend it.
So then I went to get some sweet pork, I was ravenous. Arrrrggghh! Still closed for the holidays! That was more than irritating because I didn’t know anywhere else to eat around there where I might like the food. So I went wandering and came across a Dico’s. I went to one once near here and it was awful but I had to eat and I knew I wouldn’t cook tonight for myself, so I went in. Dico’s is a bit like KFC and I thought I would end up with a chicken quarter and fries but they had little flyers showing the menu in Chinese and English so I picked one up.
The print was not only minuscule but it was in yellow against a white background so anyone who doesn’t have supersight can’t read it (although the price is large enough!). Hmmm. Crispy chicken curry and rice with lotus and spinach soup. Also what they called a shrimp bun but surely must be either their equivalent of McDonald’s filet’o’fish or a prawn burger. In the end I went for the curry which filled the hole but I am sure I will sample the other at some point now I know it is there. I would have eaten in the underground at the BRT stop but they also are closed still.
Then it was time to shop and come home. 235y later I unpacked what I had bought. I had to laugh when I realised that although I had bought the most important stuff -wine - and stocked up on loo roll and soap, the only actual food I had bought was another salmon fillet! I may need to go again on Friday!
Talking of McDonald’s, last night/this morning I watched Founder. Initially I thought it might be a maritime catastrophe but is in fact all about Ray Kroc. Very interesting and heck, didn’t he turn the two brothers over. Nasty piece of work indeed.
So the plan is (and don’t hold me to it because I may not be able to get to sleep early enough) is to do a cigar run tomorrow. This is going to cause problems during term time because unless I want to work extremely long days to get two days off rather than one during the week, at least once a month I will need to devote a day to that. As I abhor food shopping at the weekend there will be a conflict.
But then I suppose it is good to actually have these trivial problems, isn’t it. I could be housebound or skint.
Wednesday 8th February, 2017 0235
Well last night I cooked for the first time in a while, I was disappointed at not being able to do it justice but doubtless the cats in season that caterwaul at night lately and the wild dogs will enjoy the remains tomorrow along with three decent portions of lasagne. The reason for the lasagne? Recall that I inadvertently added salt instead of milk?
Well the second one I reheated was utterly abhorrent but I am sure creatures in the cold won’t give a damn.
Mum’s funeral will take place next Friday. I have had many messages of condolence since posting of her passing and of course I thank everyone for their thoughts but I feel I should make the point again that I was going to say nothing publicly when it happened but when I thought about it, my blog has, as I said, been warts and all from the beginning. We all go through it, it was not a cry for sympathy.
The news has been greeted in China though with astonishment that I shall not go home for the interment. Unlike the west, in China, family ties trump everything. I have received some support though when I have pointed out that were I to return to my hometown it would simply to be to look at a wooden box. To most though probably my stance appears alien. But I did promise Mum not to just go back for it. I am keeping it even though I want to break it.
Meanwhile, my stalwart of a sister who cared for Mum for years unthanked, is handling all the arrangements. Someone who asked recently who elected her head of the family is I suspect now regretting that comment and thankful for what she is doing.
My thoughts will not be absent next Friday at the funeral for I am doing the Padre’s job and sending plenty for him or her to recite. The last time I was in the UK I gave my mother a wad of spirit money. I knew I may not see her again so I told her that I would ask the family to burn it at her interment. I’m not entirely sure the Chinese do that but I will find out. I do know they burn it during Qing Ming so can’t see the difference myself.
A fifth of the world may just be right.
My laundry is now back to normal and I really should never leave it to get that desperate again. Not as if I only have three days’ worth! Tomorrow I have no choice but to go shopping unless I want to pay over the odds for my wine.
Janet tells me I may have info on my schedule next week although she never mentioned my books. I know my Mum would love this one though. I texted to say great but please don’t contact me about it next Friday night as I will be sad because it will be my mother’s funeral. The reply?
Is she still alive?
You have to laugh and as sure as eggs are eggs if you really do look down after you peg out my Mum will be telling that one to everyone up there!
Well last night I cooked for the first time in a while, I was disappointed at not being able to do it justice but doubtless the cats in season that caterwaul at night lately and the wild dogs will enjoy the remains tomorrow along with three decent portions of lasagne. The reason for the lasagne? Recall that I inadvertently added salt instead of milk?
Well the second one I reheated was utterly abhorrent but I am sure creatures in the cold won’t give a damn.
Mum’s funeral will take place next Friday. I have had many messages of condolence since posting of her passing and of course I thank everyone for their thoughts but I feel I should make the point again that I was going to say nothing publicly when it happened but when I thought about it, my blog has, as I said, been warts and all from the beginning. We all go through it, it was not a cry for sympathy.
The news has been greeted in China though with astonishment that I shall not go home for the interment. Unlike the west, in China, family ties trump everything. I have received some support though when I have pointed out that were I to return to my hometown it would simply to be to look at a wooden box. To most though probably my stance appears alien. But I did promise Mum not to just go back for it. I am keeping it even though I want to break it.
Meanwhile, my stalwart of a sister who cared for Mum for years unthanked, is handling all the arrangements. Someone who asked recently who elected her head of the family is I suspect now regretting that comment and thankful for what she is doing.
My thoughts will not be absent next Friday at the funeral for I am doing the Padre’s job and sending plenty for him or her to recite. The last time I was in the UK I gave my mother a wad of spirit money. I knew I may not see her again so I told her that I would ask the family to burn it at her interment. I’m not entirely sure the Chinese do that but I will find out. I do know they burn it during Qing Ming so can’t see the difference myself.
A fifth of the world may just be right.
My laundry is now back to normal and I really should never leave it to get that desperate again. Not as if I only have three days’ worth! Tomorrow I have no choice but to go shopping unless I want to pay over the odds for my wine.
Janet tells me I may have info on my schedule next week although she never mentioned my books. I know my Mum would love this one though. I texted to say great but please don’t contact me about it next Friday night as I will be sad because it will be my mother’s funeral. The reply?
Is she still alive?
You have to laugh and as sure as eggs are eggs if you really do look down after you peg out my Mum will be telling that one to everyone up there!
Monday, 6 February 2017
Monday 6th February, 2017 1645
I haven’t cooked for days now and yesterday my Hilton Hotel boss suggested last night would be a good time to go out and tie one on. Not that I ever need much encouragement in that area, in the face of my unwillingness to actually cook and needing to eat somewhere, I determined that this was a jolly good idea, even if I don’t have any playmates here.
Accordingly (and fittingly) I decided to go to Buddy’s. They have proper steaks there (as opposed to the usual plastic ones the Chinese consider fillets and sirloins) and at my suggestion some time ago they started stocking cans of Guinness. The game was on. Anyway I didn’t fancy curried chicken three nights on the trot because when I went back there to try their pizzas, the café that does the curries didn’t have any pizzas despite the counter sporting mock-ups!
Considering I already knew what I was going to order, for some reason I nevertheless read through the menu, only to spot something I hadn’t before - probably because there was no picture beside it. Fish and chips!
Now this place actually does chips as opposed to French fries so instead I asked for that. I wondered why, when the cheapest steak is 70y, the fish was only 40y and I found out when it arrived. It was more like a child’s portion, although it wasn’t on the kids page. Eventually the waitress got the message that I wanted salt and brought some. The other waitress speaks a bit of English but she was busy. Now this place has foreign stuff such as parmesan and Tabasco but no malt vinegar or tartare sauce. Fish and chips aren’t really fish and chips without a generous soaking in Sarsons! They did however give me some lemon.
With a couple of cans of the black stuff it was nice but even with my smallish appetite I felt the plate could have been fuller. When I paid I suggested to the English-speaking girl that perhaps they could offer two sizes and charge more for a bigger portion because I could have eaten more. I also promised that the next time I go there for it I would bring my own vinegar and show them what they need, I have a bottle here at home. I am sure she thinks I am loopy because there are many vinegars here but for use with dumplings and they taste nothing like western stuff.
I woke up today (having done a thoroughly good job of anaesthetising myself on my return) feeling decidedly below par and it must have been three hours after I had sat in my office shivering before I realised the central heating was off. My little fan heater makes a difference but not THAT much. I had thought perhaps I was coming diown with something.
I shall not cook again tonight and to be truthful I don’t feel hungry but I noticed last night some of the food stalls have returned so if I get peckish I will simply buy some street food. One thing I absolutely must do after my shower is put the washing machine on, I’m almost out of clean underwear and socks, although I still have masses of shirts.
1745
As I went to take a shower the heating came back on so at least I will be comfortable inside tonight. I just had an idea, when I go to the jing jo shop I will check if the fruit stall has any pineapple. Haven’t had crackers with cheese and pineapple in ages.
I haven’t cooked for days now and yesterday my Hilton Hotel boss suggested last night would be a good time to go out and tie one on. Not that I ever need much encouragement in that area, in the face of my unwillingness to actually cook and needing to eat somewhere, I determined that this was a jolly good idea, even if I don’t have any playmates here.
Accordingly (and fittingly) I decided to go to Buddy’s. They have proper steaks there (as opposed to the usual plastic ones the Chinese consider fillets and sirloins) and at my suggestion some time ago they started stocking cans of Guinness. The game was on. Anyway I didn’t fancy curried chicken three nights on the trot because when I went back there to try their pizzas, the café that does the curries didn’t have any pizzas despite the counter sporting mock-ups!
Considering I already knew what I was going to order, for some reason I nevertheless read through the menu, only to spot something I hadn’t before - probably because there was no picture beside it. Fish and chips!
Now this place actually does chips as opposed to French fries so instead I asked for that. I wondered why, when the cheapest steak is 70y, the fish was only 40y and I found out when it arrived. It was more like a child’s portion, although it wasn’t on the kids page. Eventually the waitress got the message that I wanted salt and brought some. The other waitress speaks a bit of English but she was busy. Now this place has foreign stuff such as parmesan and Tabasco but no malt vinegar or tartare sauce. Fish and chips aren’t really fish and chips without a generous soaking in Sarsons! They did however give me some lemon.
With a couple of cans of the black stuff it was nice but even with my smallish appetite I felt the plate could have been fuller. When I paid I suggested to the English-speaking girl that perhaps they could offer two sizes and charge more for a bigger portion because I could have eaten more. I also promised that the next time I go there for it I would bring my own vinegar and show them what they need, I have a bottle here at home. I am sure she thinks I am loopy because there are many vinegars here but for use with dumplings and they taste nothing like western stuff.
I woke up today (having done a thoroughly good job of anaesthetising myself on my return) feeling decidedly below par and it must have been three hours after I had sat in my office shivering before I realised the central heating was off. My little fan heater makes a difference but not THAT much. I had thought perhaps I was coming diown with something.
I shall not cook again tonight and to be truthful I don’t feel hungry but I noticed last night some of the food stalls have returned so if I get peckish I will simply buy some street food. One thing I absolutely must do after my shower is put the washing machine on, I’m almost out of clean underwear and socks, although I still have masses of shirts.
1745
As I went to take a shower the heating came back on so at least I will be comfortable inside tonight. I just had an idea, when I go to the jing jo shop I will check if the fruit stall has any pineapple. Haven’t had crackers with cheese and pineapple in ages.
Sunday, 5 February 2017
Saturday 4th February, 2017 1245
Sadly a short one.
My Mum crossed the bar at 1520 GMT, less than half an hour ago. No telegram this time, with the power of modern technology, notification instead came via Mark Zuckerberg.
She cheated death in 1972 and outlived my Dad by 34 years but has now gone to join him in the Ponderosa in the sky.
She never buried any of her kids despite my best efforts to bring that about and all in all, for a working class girl she lived an interesting life and left plenty behind.
I am sad of course and would love for there to have been a teleporter for me to have been there before she left.
Quite how much I shall mourn I know not but one thing I do know is that she would slap my chops and tell me not to be so stupid.
So, very publicly (because of course they have wifi in heaven now) I shall say thanks Mum and I shall miss you so very badly.
Sadly a short one.
My Mum crossed the bar at 1520 GMT, less than half an hour ago. No telegram this time, with the power of modern technology, notification instead came via Mark Zuckerberg.
She cheated death in 1972 and outlived my Dad by 34 years but has now gone to join him in the Ponderosa in the sky.
She never buried any of her kids despite my best efforts to bring that about and all in all, for a working class girl she lived an interesting life and left plenty behind.
I am sad of course and would love for there to have been a teleporter for me to have been there before she left.
Quite how much I shall mourn I know not but one thing I do know is that she would slap my chops and tell me not to be so stupid.
So, very publicly (because of course they have wifi in heaven now) I shall say thanks Mum and I shall miss you so very badly.
Saturday, 4 February 2017
Saturday 4th February, 2017 0530
Why so late or indeed so early some may ask?
I have thought long and hard as to whether to include this in my blog but those who have stayed with me for the past six and a half years will know that I have always made this a warts and all account of living and working far away from your home country. So here goes (and it will also be posted on my family-only blog) although I tend to baulk at living EVERY aspect of my life online.
But such is life in exile.
Naturally I won’t reveal the minutiae but suffice to say that in the past 49 hours I have slept for no more than five of them. My mother has just entered the final straight. I was alerted in the early hours of yesterday by my sister, who has been her main (and unpaid) carer for the past few years.
Mum was in hospital and the moment anyone hears the word “palliative” you know the end is nigh.
So I stayed up, in constant contact via Facebook Messenger of all things. When I think back to when my Father went it was a telex that informed me 8.000 miles away. This time I have almost instantaneous communication with someone at my Mother’s bedside.
How do I feel?
Well of course I will be feeling much the same as my siblings who are in a position (whether enviable or not I am unsure) to be keeping a vigil in the hospital. Of course, I managed to lose my Old Man when I was en route to Australia and now I will lose my Mum whilst in China. As the quote goes, to lose one parent is unfortunate, to lose both looks like carelessness. Except I am doing so both times whilst I am thousands of miles away.
It’s the risk you take. Nobody hangs around forever no matter how much you believe they will always be there.
From memory I was alerted Mum went into hospital at about 0200 my time yesterday. Since then I have stayed awake for all but five hours. Don’t criticise me for wanting to be awake when the time comes. At 60 years of age though, I can’t stay up as long as once I may have and so at 0800 this morning I admitted defeat - after all I can do nothing.
That was not before going out into -10C at six in search of breakfast. Thinking I could go to the KFC two stops away I was dismayed to note the BRT had not yet started for the day. On impulse, I hopped on the 131 that goes all the way to the main train station.
What a mistake. Expecting KFC to have a similar breakfast offering to MacDonald’s (Which is awful anyway but I wanted to stay awake) was lunacy on my part. In China it is either Chinese muck or a bun with a cheesy egg. An hour each way for that!
But it kept me up until 0800 at which point I had to cry enough, I need some sleep.
Mum is as I type still on palliative care, stubborn to the end. My siblings are playing her selected songs as her life approaches the closing credits.
Naturally, cooking has been the last thing on my mind so I absconded for an hour earlier and managed to find a place to get a cheap Chinese curry (thanks Mum) and as I type the clock now reads 0600.
Yes if you want to know, being thousands of miles away from all this is not pleasant but I take comfort from other family members being present. It just happens to be made that much harder for me because I am not in Chizhou and I have absolutely no friends or students I could invite just to chat to and take my mind off things for a few minutes. I would spend my last yuan to fly Joan up here just for the company.
But as they say, such is life……….and death,
If there is a delay between now and the next entry I hope my readers will understand and cut me some slack.
Why so late or indeed so early some may ask?
I have thought long and hard as to whether to include this in my blog but those who have stayed with me for the past six and a half years will know that I have always made this a warts and all account of living and working far away from your home country. So here goes (and it will also be posted on my family-only blog) although I tend to baulk at living EVERY aspect of my life online.
But such is life in exile.
Naturally I won’t reveal the minutiae but suffice to say that in the past 49 hours I have slept for no more than five of them. My mother has just entered the final straight. I was alerted in the early hours of yesterday by my sister, who has been her main (and unpaid) carer for the past few years.
Mum was in hospital and the moment anyone hears the word “palliative” you know the end is nigh.
So I stayed up, in constant contact via Facebook Messenger of all things. When I think back to when my Father went it was a telex that informed me 8.000 miles away. This time I have almost instantaneous communication with someone at my Mother’s bedside.
How do I feel?
Well of course I will be feeling much the same as my siblings who are in a position (whether enviable or not I am unsure) to be keeping a vigil in the hospital. Of course, I managed to lose my Old Man when I was en route to Australia and now I will lose my Mum whilst in China. As the quote goes, to lose one parent is unfortunate, to lose both looks like carelessness. Except I am doing so both times whilst I am thousands of miles away.
It’s the risk you take. Nobody hangs around forever no matter how much you believe they will always be there.
From memory I was alerted Mum went into hospital at about 0200 my time yesterday. Since then I have stayed awake for all but five hours. Don’t criticise me for wanting to be awake when the time comes. At 60 years of age though, I can’t stay up as long as once I may have and so at 0800 this morning I admitted defeat - after all I can do nothing.
That was not before going out into -10C at six in search of breakfast. Thinking I could go to the KFC two stops away I was dismayed to note the BRT had not yet started for the day. On impulse, I hopped on the 131 that goes all the way to the main train station.
What a mistake. Expecting KFC to have a similar breakfast offering to MacDonald’s (Which is awful anyway but I wanted to stay awake) was lunacy on my part. In China it is either Chinese muck or a bun with a cheesy egg. An hour each way for that!
But it kept me up until 0800 at which point I had to cry enough, I need some sleep.
Mum is as I type still on palliative care, stubborn to the end. My siblings are playing her selected songs as her life approaches the closing credits.
Naturally, cooking has been the last thing on my mind so I absconded for an hour earlier and managed to find a place to get a cheap Chinese curry (thanks Mum) and as I type the clock now reads 0600.
Yes if you want to know, being thousands of miles away from all this is not pleasant but I take comfort from other family members being present. It just happens to be made that much harder for me because I am not in Chizhou and I have absolutely no friends or students I could invite just to chat to and take my mind off things for a few minutes. I would spend my last yuan to fly Joan up here just for the company.
But as they say, such is life……….and death,
If there is a delay between now and the next entry I hope my readers will understand and cut me some slack.
Friday, 3 February 2017
Friday 3rd February, 2017 0200
Haha! By the time I actually moved myself to go in search of dinner it was all but dark. Too late for me to consider a two hour round trip to the city centre so I decided I would go and see if the restaurant on Google maps listed as being a spring roll place was open now. Don’t ask me why, I simply have a hankering for spring rolls and not something I have encountered more than a handful of times in the past six and a half years and even then not quite up to the large, oily, full of shrimps and bean sprouts ones I adore from decent Chinese takeaways in the UK.
Failing that, I had notions of taking the bus to KFC to see if they have the chicken curry thing after six. Spotting lights where the spring roll place allegedly is, I made my way towards the illuminations, only to discover it was a bakery. I will check again when everything is open again but somehow I think the information may be dated.
Instead of heading back to the BRT station, I decided to take a look inside the bakery. Please don’t get me wrong, the bakeries here have marvellous looking produce to match any in the world but that’s as far as it goes. The stuff usually tastes awful. I saw large croissants and so bought two for later. Before paying I spotted in the freezer what appeared to be frozen mini baguettes (advertised as French bread) and so bought one. The intention was to abandon going elsewhere for dinner, defrost the baguette and have it with cheese and pickle. Ok, not exactly gourmet fare but to be honest it would have been a treat I haven’t had since leaving Chizhou.
All ideas of eating out now banished, I came straight back home and allowed the baguette to defrost. Sometimes I amaze even myself with my idiocy. The words “Love Gift” on the plastic sleeve really ought to have given me a clue but to be honest I never noticed until it was too late. When I opened the wrapping I thought it odd to find it was already sliced in two lengthways and on separating the two halves, already “filled”. It didn’t look like butter, so I broke a piece off one end and tasted it.
Aaaaggghhh!
I have no idea what it was but it was sickly sweet. Destination: rubbish bag.
Now it became a case of sod it, at least you have two croissants and some fruit, stay home! And that’s precisely what happened. I should perhaps have put butter on the croissants but I must say they weren’t bad and at least now I know where I can get more should I wish.
On the walk back I noticed a couple more temporary evening stalls had opened just outside the entrances to our campus and the adjoining Lanzhou Normal University. Some have been open throughout the festive period flogging boxes, the contents I can only assume being milk. Not of interest to me but astonishingly the Chinese have a huge appetite for milk - even though the first cow I saw in six years was in Zhangye when we went to the coloured mountains. Funnily enough that was also where I saw my first sheep and horse in China. I think Alice said her parents kept cows when she was young and she used to ride them. However one chap was selling nothing but sewing kits, safety pins and the like. If he had stocked buttons I may have bought something. For I have a pair of trousers short of one but no such luck.
Suzy is now on holiday in Beijing prior to jetting off to Cyprus and when I asked her when her flight was she said they still hadn’t been told. Given that the entire class will be going en masse this month, I thought this remarkably Chinese. Surely to God SOMEONE must know the arrangements??
Mind you, I also have no idea (well I do and I won’t like it) whether I will get my course books, my timetable (and Janet told me when I came that she arranged mine) or even how many classes, whether they want to study abroad or how many students in each class - mind you if Janet hasn‘t been told what classes I will have then of course she can’t draw up a schedule.
Many aspects here are ten times better than Chizhou but also many are not dissimilar.
I have no idea what I shall do in the morning. I wouldn’t mind taking a trip for my dinner in town but then I could instead go shopping again before the weekend. I forgot to buy aluminium takeaway trays last time. I have started using them to batch cook and I quite fancy macaroni cheese but my baking dishes cater for four to six people and to be honest it doesn’t reheat that well, far better it gets frozen wet and then properly cooked another time. And if anyone thinks I have any intention of going through the rigmarole of cooking what one might think is an easy dish just for one portion, think again!
Oh! Nearly forgot! A few nights ago when I wandered abroad and ended up having a fried chicken dinner (not KFC) on my return through Peili Square I came across a man in his thirties sitting on a bench with his dog by his side. I have seen plenty of “Teddy Dogs” and a few retrievers in China but never before a British bulldog. My brother has a leonberger (Neo) and a bulldog (Bentley) in his pub and Bentley is a young but very portly chap. Well this one (never felt to see what sex) was even fatter. I suspect the owner was only sitting to give the dog a rest as I doubt it can walk far but what a lovely temperament it had. I think the owner was quite surprised at my asking to pet the mutt, I doubt that happens often, given the Chinese innate fear of dogs. I hope I see him again.
Haha! By the time I actually moved myself to go in search of dinner it was all but dark. Too late for me to consider a two hour round trip to the city centre so I decided I would go and see if the restaurant on Google maps listed as being a spring roll place was open now. Don’t ask me why, I simply have a hankering for spring rolls and not something I have encountered more than a handful of times in the past six and a half years and even then not quite up to the large, oily, full of shrimps and bean sprouts ones I adore from decent Chinese takeaways in the UK.
Failing that, I had notions of taking the bus to KFC to see if they have the chicken curry thing after six. Spotting lights where the spring roll place allegedly is, I made my way towards the illuminations, only to discover it was a bakery. I will check again when everything is open again but somehow I think the information may be dated.
Instead of heading back to the BRT station, I decided to take a look inside the bakery. Please don’t get me wrong, the bakeries here have marvellous looking produce to match any in the world but that’s as far as it goes. The stuff usually tastes awful. I saw large croissants and so bought two for later. Before paying I spotted in the freezer what appeared to be frozen mini baguettes (advertised as French bread) and so bought one. The intention was to abandon going elsewhere for dinner, defrost the baguette and have it with cheese and pickle. Ok, not exactly gourmet fare but to be honest it would have been a treat I haven’t had since leaving Chizhou.
All ideas of eating out now banished, I came straight back home and allowed the baguette to defrost. Sometimes I amaze even myself with my idiocy. The words “Love Gift” on the plastic sleeve really ought to have given me a clue but to be honest I never noticed until it was too late. When I opened the wrapping I thought it odd to find it was already sliced in two lengthways and on separating the two halves, already “filled”. It didn’t look like butter, so I broke a piece off one end and tasted it.
Aaaaggghhh!
I have no idea what it was but it was sickly sweet. Destination: rubbish bag.
Now it became a case of sod it, at least you have two croissants and some fruit, stay home! And that’s precisely what happened. I should perhaps have put butter on the croissants but I must say they weren’t bad and at least now I know where I can get more should I wish.
On the walk back I noticed a couple more temporary evening stalls had opened just outside the entrances to our campus and the adjoining Lanzhou Normal University. Some have been open throughout the festive period flogging boxes, the contents I can only assume being milk. Not of interest to me but astonishingly the Chinese have a huge appetite for milk - even though the first cow I saw in six years was in Zhangye when we went to the coloured mountains. Funnily enough that was also where I saw my first sheep and horse in China. I think Alice said her parents kept cows when she was young and she used to ride them. However one chap was selling nothing but sewing kits, safety pins and the like. If he had stocked buttons I may have bought something. For I have a pair of trousers short of one but no such luck.
Suzy is now on holiday in Beijing prior to jetting off to Cyprus and when I asked her when her flight was she said they still hadn’t been told. Given that the entire class will be going en masse this month, I thought this remarkably Chinese. Surely to God SOMEONE must know the arrangements??
Mind you, I also have no idea (well I do and I won’t like it) whether I will get my course books, my timetable (and Janet told me when I came that she arranged mine) or even how many classes, whether they want to study abroad or how many students in each class - mind you if Janet hasn‘t been told what classes I will have then of course she can’t draw up a schedule.
Many aspects here are ten times better than Chizhou but also many are not dissimilar.
I have no idea what I shall do in the morning. I wouldn’t mind taking a trip for my dinner in town but then I could instead go shopping again before the weekend. I forgot to buy aluminium takeaway trays last time. I have started using them to batch cook and I quite fancy macaroni cheese but my baking dishes cater for four to six people and to be honest it doesn’t reheat that well, far better it gets frozen wet and then properly cooked another time. And if anyone thinks I have any intention of going through the rigmarole of cooking what one might think is an easy dish just for one portion, think again!
Oh! Nearly forgot! A few nights ago when I wandered abroad and ended up having a fried chicken dinner (not KFC) on my return through Peili Square I came across a man in his thirties sitting on a bench with his dog by his side. I have seen plenty of “Teddy Dogs” and a few retrievers in China but never before a British bulldog. My brother has a leonberger (Neo) and a bulldog (Bentley) in his pub and Bentley is a young but very portly chap. Well this one (never felt to see what sex) was even fatter. I suspect the owner was only sitting to give the dog a rest as I doubt it can walk far but what a lovely temperament it had. I think the owner was quite surprised at my asking to pet the mutt, I doubt that happens often, given the Chinese innate fear of dogs. I hope I see him again.
Thursday, 2 February 2017
Thursday 2nd February, 2017 1400
Sorry for the hiatus, this was due to two things: firstly it’s difficult to blether away when all you are doing is staying home and secondly I have been under the weather.
Somehow I managed to contract yet another of the seemingly endless variety of colds in China. On their own, I normally pay them scant regard and merely reach for the tissues, awaiting the inevitable paroxysms of coughing once the symptoms die down. Thankfully, the hacking has not manifested itself this time to any degree.
But worse, I became bunged up again. In large part I am to blame. I know my daily drug regimen tends towards blockages and I eat nowhere near enough fruit and vegetables. Hell, I don’t eat enough to be ABLE to have five a day! As I was feeling nauseous and had bellyache I resorted to medicine, which normally requires just one dose to clear the plumbing.
It worked inasmuch as it started to bulldoze through but the stomach ache (or stomache as one of my students once texted me) worsened. After three days of dosing myself it has eased and last night I bought some bananas and mandarins. If only bran flakes were readily available here! I could probably find just bran but the thought of eating sawdust with milk doesn’t really appeal! I really must however make a conscious effort to force myself to eat at least a little fruit each day though.
Last night I treated myself to salmon fillet baked with butter, rosemary and thyme (I don’t have dill , sadly) and screwed it up. When I served it up (it was quite a large slab costing 30y) the tapered ends were fine but towards the middle it wasn’t quite cooked. I had put it in foil whilst still frozen. Nothing wrong with that of course as long as you cook it long enough! Determined to eat at least one banana and a couple of mandarins afterwards though, I left the bulk of the salmon and indeed put it near my doorstep to give the feral cats a special treat. It wasn’t there when I got up!
I am toying with the idea of going somewhere for dinner tonight. The buses don’t seem to have been on reduced hours at all and most businesses have remained open throughout the holiday so as I haven’t really left home for a few days I think an outing will do me good. If I sit at this desk for the coming four weeks I will surely develop a DVT.
I hope I am not being premature in saying this but it looks as though the worst of the cold has passed for the winter. For some time now all I have needed outside has been my down jacket over a short-sleeved shirt, no jumper necessary. If this is indeed the case then my fears of Siberian winters here were unfounded. Whilst being a mere 300 miles south of Shenyang the climate here, although of course colder than Chizhou, is nowhere near as severe as the places nearer the sea. Maybe the proximity of the Gobi desert has an influence.
Time now to consult Google maps to see if I can find a restaurant.
Sorry for the hiatus, this was due to two things: firstly it’s difficult to blether away when all you are doing is staying home and secondly I have been under the weather.
Somehow I managed to contract yet another of the seemingly endless variety of colds in China. On their own, I normally pay them scant regard and merely reach for the tissues, awaiting the inevitable paroxysms of coughing once the symptoms die down. Thankfully, the hacking has not manifested itself this time to any degree.
But worse, I became bunged up again. In large part I am to blame. I know my daily drug regimen tends towards blockages and I eat nowhere near enough fruit and vegetables. Hell, I don’t eat enough to be ABLE to have five a day! As I was feeling nauseous and had bellyache I resorted to medicine, which normally requires just one dose to clear the plumbing.
It worked inasmuch as it started to bulldoze through but the stomach ache (or stomache as one of my students once texted me) worsened. After three days of dosing myself it has eased and last night I bought some bananas and mandarins. If only bran flakes were readily available here! I could probably find just bran but the thought of eating sawdust with milk doesn’t really appeal! I really must however make a conscious effort to force myself to eat at least a little fruit each day though.
Last night I treated myself to salmon fillet baked with butter, rosemary and thyme (I don’t have dill , sadly) and screwed it up. When I served it up (it was quite a large slab costing 30y) the tapered ends were fine but towards the middle it wasn’t quite cooked. I had put it in foil whilst still frozen. Nothing wrong with that of course as long as you cook it long enough! Determined to eat at least one banana and a couple of mandarins afterwards though, I left the bulk of the salmon and indeed put it near my doorstep to give the feral cats a special treat. It wasn’t there when I got up!
I am toying with the idea of going somewhere for dinner tonight. The buses don’t seem to have been on reduced hours at all and most businesses have remained open throughout the holiday so as I haven’t really left home for a few days I think an outing will do me good. If I sit at this desk for the coming four weeks I will surely develop a DVT.
I hope I am not being premature in saying this but it looks as though the worst of the cold has passed for the winter. For some time now all I have needed outside has been my down jacket over a short-sleeved shirt, no jumper necessary. If this is indeed the case then my fears of Siberian winters here were unfounded. Whilst being a mere 300 miles south of Shenyang the climate here, although of course colder than Chizhou, is nowhere near as severe as the places nearer the sea. Maybe the proximity of the Gobi desert has an influence.
Time now to consult Google maps to see if I can find a restaurant.