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!