Saturday 16th September, 2017                        1730

The slight pause was of course due to little happening. Still no classes. I have been told to “rest up and don’t worry”. I am certain they have no idea the cause of my worry is not the extended holiday (we would all like one) but the implications it could have come April/May next year when contract renewals crop up. Steve? Oh yes, didn’t really need him much, did we?

I hope not.

When I did my shop on Thursday I thought I had gone in the wrong supermarket. Don’t you just love it when they do their periodic “change everything so the customers have to look for what they want instead of going straight to it” thing?

Good job I wasn’t in a hurry. The worst part was that my wine girl was nowhere to be seen. She would have been handy, seeing as the wine display has not only moved but been split asunder. Two smaller displays miles apart, I couldn’t find my wine or any signs for special offers. I almost left in disgust but managed to find 4 bottles of 13.5y stuff, the plonk I was buying before Winegirl came on the scene.

On Friday Max sent me a message to let me know one of my parcels had arrived. Of the five items ordered only one was perishable. You know which one arrived first - the cheese! Cue a 4 bus round trip. Ok, I used the occasion to take some more gear in for whenever I actually start teaching again so it wasn’t a wasted trip.

Even better, I had asked her to order 2 x 200g packs and because the vendor didn’t want to ship (still hot in Shanghai) she went elsewhere, never checked the description and ordered 2 x 500g packs! No matter, it will be used.

In fact if (as indeed looks to be the case) I don’t have classes on Monday, I will use a fair bit. I have asked Max if she has a friend who likes cleaning because if they come then I will cook dinner for them. I thought macaroni cheese and bread and butter pudding would be good.

She is also very honest. I had paid her 400y yet when I got on the bus I noticed I was 100y short on what I thought I should have had left. Sure enough, two brand new notes from the ATM must have stuck together as she sent a text to let me know. Well that will be part-payment for the cleaning.

I was going to take a walk to test the undercarriage a little more this evening but after spending two hours trying to get this laptop to work, I tossed that notion out. The wifi switch wouldn’t turn on and even plugging a cable in had no effect. It has happened before and eventually I got online, only to find that Auntie is now being more aggressive than Beijing at preventing access to their programmes. It took a lot of perseverance and trying countless protocols and UK sites before I finally found one that opened the door about an hour ago.

Oh yes! I had a call from Jacob yesterday asking what would happen if someone lost the receipt for their passport! It’s the one you get when you hand it over to be sent away for new permits. As there is a microchip in the new ID card which  includes passport number, in theory when we go to collect in 11 days time there should be no problem.

This being China…………… well……….