Thursday 18^th January, 2018 1930

I never showered yesterday. No sooner had my laundry finished than the water went off. I can't shower at the same time because the pipes for the washing machine feed from the bathroom as well as drain. It was off until after five when I took the opportunity to have pot noodles (awful – advertised as Hong Kong Chow Mien, it consists precisely of some noodles and a small sachet of sauce! I was expecting dried beansprouts and the like) and afterwards when I decided I would take that shower, it was off again!

I did though find out my timetable for both campuses next term. All day Wednesday on east campus, all day Thursday on Peili followed by Friday morning on east campus. That is going to destroy me, three mornings on the trot getting up at 0500, 0600 and 0500. Not only that, it will put me in a quandary for Thursdays, where will I get the baguette for my lunch when I camp out on the 7^th floor? I shall have to see if I can find somewhere near east campus that sells them.

On the positive side, it gives me a four and a half day weekend!

I also had an email from Joan, she is after all going to come and visit me although for some reason she finds having to decide whether to accompany me to England this early (bearing in mind she still has to obtain a passport and subsequently apply for a visa) difficult, so as it stands she is declining the offer. We need a chat.

I got up this morning expecting the water to be back on but it wasn't. No dishes washed, no me washed and absent-mindedly I flushed the loo after a pee so all day I had a toilet full of brown stuff. By mid-afternoon it was still off, I couldn't make a coffee, ran out of beer and really didn't want to go outside looking frightful, so I sent a text to Brenda. She is currently in Qingdao but managed to call some of the Chinese teachers here. They had not been informed either and hadn't put any by, so she then called a water engineer. Water would be restored in time for the evening meal but they have a couple more days of work to carry out. That means unless I get up really early I won't get a shower. Forewarned, I have a couple of buckets filled, ditto the kettle but I desperately need to go food shopping so I suppose I'd better be up early. It seems to happen more frequently during the winter holiday, probably because all the students have left.