Saturday 11th March, 2017                                0200

And a very happy birthday to one of my long-term readers, ex shipmate and friend of 38 years, Ian Brightmore, Chief Engineer who hopefully is in fact ashore for his big day today. I hope you have a good one and do not end up with your arms covered in grease at your advanced years!

Ok so why am I up so late after an 0500 start? Well I discovered this morning that I had made a mistake which not one of my readers corrected - bit like Chinese students really. I misread the final fortnight of the 6 Nations and in my mind both England matches were being played on Sunday nights. Today I discovered that they are in fact on Saturday nights and therefore I CAN watch them! So I needed to stay up a bit late tonight (forget the other match which starts here in two hours) anyway.

Now since arriving in China (and please, we all have solitaire and other mindless things on our computers with which to pass the time so no judgements!) I have been playing Tagged and when they introduced cash runs, those as well. It’s infuriating at times when you lose but it is something you can play any time of day or night against whoever is online. Tonight someone bought me and started snaffling my pets so I fought back but this chap (American) had far more virtual money than me. We did however come to an agreement to help each other. As a result I have now risen to the dizzy height of being Number 8 player in China (4068 in the world) which although utterly meaningless, when you have been dabbling for 7 years gives a childish pleasure.

But that’s not important. What is, is that it kept me up. It means there is every chance I shall be able to stay awake later to watch the oldest international competition in the world and also see England extend their record-breaking winning streak.

Friday was a struggle but not as much as last week. It took me until about eleven to nod off, really annoying when nine would be the optimum. And of course with me unless there is a proper bed on offer a daytime nap is out of the question. I made it though and certainly there were a few students missing from each class, most of which had not asked for leave of absence. The word is getting around - Steve counts heads and takes a roll call! Suddenly I am getting texts and notes after class starts because their mates have alerted them I know they are AWOL. Too late, he cries! Marks lost in final exam. Tough maybe but I make no apology. Last term my classes were treated as a drop-in. Now I know the school wants exams, even though it won’t affect their degree I have leverage. Just what I asked for and as with the text books, I got it. Haha! I shall prevail!

Actually on the whole this first week of using the book hasn’t been bad. A few teething problems but there will be none next week. For instance, every class “forgot” their homework (I simply ask for a few students each week to relate an interesting tale) and it was amusing to see them all giving me bemused looks when I know full well every class was told yet they denied all knowledge. The first unit in the book by chance gives me opportunity to emphasise the importance of them bringing me stories or nuggets of news. No prisoners next week.

I had to laugh during the second period of the last class today. Before class I had a message from (insert Chinese name) saying sorry, she couldn’t come, she had something to do. Well that’s fine, she told me, I can mark her as present for marking purposes, that’s all I ask.

Except when I tried to find her in my attendance book she wasn’t there. I asked the students to look at the Chinese names. Nope. Not there. Bloody hell.

When I restarted after the break they told me she wasn’t a student, she was a teacher! As soon as they said that I knew who it was. She is a teacher/admin in the office up the corridor and likes to sit in on my classes to improve her English. Bless her! She asked for leave!