Friday 25th August, 2017                      0150

I blame Alice. I keep going to bed very late yet still waking about 5 hours later. Ok, when I start work again and probably find myself with 0500 alarm calls that will be a good thing but to be honest, right now I would be happy to laze on the donkey’s breakfast until eleven occasionally.

Speaking of starting work again, even though it may be late next week when I set foot in a classroom again, I still don’t know when or what my rota is! Even after 7 years I still find it hard to believe the schools don’t know the restart date before they break up for summer.

As I mentioned, Wednesday I baked a loaf of bread. Now the breadmaker I was given by the school for playing Santa, whilst producing reasonable bread, has never once produced one with a crusty exterior. I had a brainwave and just before the program ended I switched on my oven and gave the loaf 10 minutes in that to crisp it up. It worked! Next time I am going to see if I can bake crusty rolls instead.

So I did have bread, cheese and pickled onions, the latter courtesy of Shenyang Steve’s brother. The downside of that was that I ate half my supply in one sitting. Rather than be cheeky and request they be made in industrial sized jars next time, I did some research into making my own in future.

It will be expensive without doubt, all ingredients will need to be imported and bought online but the biggest obstacle I had faced was finding pickling onions. Searching on Taobao produced a crying figure saying “sorry, baby not found”. Google presumably translates “item” as “baby” in the same way it translates “university” as “hospital”. so I translated shallots into Chinese and searched again. I do believe I have found them but I will send some links to Steve who, as a time-served chef, should be able to advise me which ones would be best. If I can crack pickled onions then along with my homemade ham I can have lovely ploughmans lunches!

I only got spat on a few times on the way out shopping and before the supermarket I decided to go for a Generation Game hotpot. I always eat the same items and whilst not cheap, it is not expensive either.

The only actual food I bought in the supermarket afterwards was a pack of bacon! I spent just over 300y, which for me is an expensive shop. Ok, big jar of coffee, some blue dooberries to plop in the loo cistern, a brillo on a stick to try to actually get my kitchen floor clean for once, cooking oil and a few bits and bobs. Of course, it would not be a shop if a bottle of wine wasn’t involved but my helpful girl wasn’t there!

I think at long last, her colleagues have cottoned on to what I look for because one came over and signalled that what I have been buying for the past six months (and had been steadily increasing in price) was now no longer on special offer. She suggested another, new BOGOF. I’ve had it before and it’s potable so I was happy - she even did as her mate does and came and packed my shopping at the checkout. Happy days.

I have no reason to stray far today but I may well get my end of summer haircut and possibly buy another pen knife to replace the one stolen from me by security at the train station.

Life is back to grist to the mill stuff now and whilst I enjoy it I do find myself missing being idle in different hotels and the odd spot of travelling. To be sure the school trip knocked the stuffing out of me simply because it was too much in too short a time but my own arrangements were at a far more stately pace. I think if I was a multi-millionaire I could get used to globetrotting with a week here and five days there in different luxury hotels in different countries!