Friday 21st April, 2017                     1400

If there’s one thing I hate more than not getting to sleep when I am tired, it’s getting to sleep at a good time and still feeling exhausted when the alarm goes off. This was the case this morning.

But hey - I took comfort in the fact I would be finished by noon.

My two classes were actually quite enjoyable, influenced perhaps by the fact that when I asked them what they were doing next week they told me they were at kindergarten and had no lessons. There’s nothing that cheers you up so much as finding you now have an unexpected week off work! That’s me done now until next Friday afternoon and, because I only work Mondays and Fridays and Monday 1st May is Labour Day, once I have done next Friday afternoon I am then off again until the following Friday morning apart from my catch up class on Tuesday! Someone commented online yesterday that I should “get a life” (a phrase I abhor for its pure idiocy) - well, I reckon an hour and a half’s work in a fortnight and getting paid for it is pretty well up there in the “getting a life” stakes?

When I caught the bus back at noon I was one of the first aboard and was stunned when hordes of hitherto unknown faces started piling on afterwards. Who they were or what they do I haven’t a clue but what I did know was that this minibus was overloaded to the tune of four people. I was rammed up against a bulkhead and window and mulled over the idea of disembarking in protest but that would have meant getting others to get off to allow my exit and would have caused a demonstrable scene. And don’t forget, we had the lunatic driving. I stayed put and crossed everything.

The driver excelled himself. I swear he is becoming ever more determined to turn me into a statistic in the annual road fatality list. First we had a very near miss that involved sudden braking and a couple of the extra passengers tumbling from their precarious perches and then, confronted by long queues at traffic lights, he crossed double yellow lines to beat the traffic. The moment he started pulling out I saw (as indeed he surely must have) a police van turn at the junction and head in the opposite direction and in the lane we were illegally driving along. With nowhere to pull over our madman carried on as he was, doubtless hoping the police vehicle would give way to him. He didn’t. In fact he forced us to stop, pulled alongside and gave the driver a dressing down. Quite right, too.

And then at about two miles from home whilst we were travelling at breakneck speed, a bicycle shot out just in front of us. The minibus swerved and even the Chinese gasped (normally it’s only me who is terrified). I honestly thought he was going to roll the bus but thankfully not. I find myself somewhat wishing that one day he would have a collision (with nobody injured) in order that he may just learn to drive normally. Certainly near misses aren’t doing anything to moderate his lunacy.

Molly finally posted my forms off to the MNOPF this afternoon. I had given her 100y, thinking it would cost about 20y. I was staggered when she sent a message to say it had cost 226y!!! That’s £24!! For a bloody letter! I am almost certain someone at the post office just supplemented their wages because for that sort of money I posted 25kg of luggage from Chizhou to here. I can hardly blame Molly, she had never posted anything internationally before so she had no idea.

Ah well, back to my life of leisure……