Wednesday 9th August, 2017                             1130

Yesterday Steve departed at noon to catch a train to Beijing. Sensibly, he opted for a 5 hour train ride instead of a flight in order not to be at the mercy of whimsical air traffic controllers. There was a very slim chance of him missing his UK flight that way - nothing quite like falling off a plane and straight into church as father of the bride!

All his managers came out to see him off and after he left his deputy Vivian said he was sure they only saw him off to make sure he had actually gone. I said “Well it’s true isn’t it?” - they all laughed and agreed it was!

We went to the Chinese restaurant in the hotel for lunch, quite nice but the portions would have fed four. After that Alice went for her swimming lesson. She remained for another 90 minutes practising, until almost time to make use of the executive lounge for the first time this visit. A proper lounge with food instead of biscuits masquerading as snacks. That was dinner and will be again tonight.

After that I went to the BBQ beer garden for a drink. I was pleased to see it was nigh on at capacity with everyone eating and drinking. A good move opening that, especially as you can smoke unimpeded there!

Today is a lazy day even for Alice, she has another lesson in the pool, hopefully she will be taught how to breathe this time - yesterday that part wasn’t covered! We strolled to the market after breakfast where she bought a swimming cap and (believe it or not) goggles for the myopic. I decided to splash out another 100y and bought four more shirts. I now have blue, green, red, orange, white, pink, purple and yellow. My airport attire tomorrow will be decidedly lemony. Alice said I looked like broccoli yesterday and a tomato today.

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The mermaid was keen today, going to the pool an hour before the lesson to practise. She can do the breaststroke but has not yet mastered that little trick you have to do so that your head leaves the water, enabling one to grab some air. As a result her swimming is a case of forward 5 yards, stop, stand, breathe and then swim again. All very well provided there is no deep end. I went to take a photo but she became uncharacteristically coy now she was wearing her new equipment.