Tuesday 30^th October, 2018 1245

Well so much for only having two guests to be my guinea pigs!

Last night it was only supposed to be Alice and Stephanie. Annie and Eli were judging the singing competition, or so everyone thought. Accordingly, I kept to the plan (I was convinced it was completely misguided) of making curry filled Yorkshires followed by something more mainstream – coffee cake.

Just before I was ready to serve Stephanie received a text from Eli saying he was on the way! What??? He was supposed to have been at the contest fifteen minutes already and it didn't finish until 1930!

I had made three individual Yorkshires (how can you “fill” one that is not completely enclosed?) and now we were about to become four. A dilemma. It must be said that Eli did offer to go and buy some dumplings for his evening meal and ordinarily my meals consist of plenty to feed the entire campus but occasionally (as last night) they are individually prepared.

I said I wasn't hungry anyway so never actually had anything. I hadn't felt 100% all day and I was very, very dubious about the coupling of Yorkies and curry. It would have been a crime to have told him to buy baozi and then eaten just a mouthful from my own plate. It turned out the contest was postponed at the last minute and nobody thought to tell me, had they done so it would have been simplicity itself to whip up another pud.

Annie wasn't following suit thank God. Her mother is visiting from America and is an anti-smoking fanatic (wise move to come to China then!) and I am not allowed to meet her.

With some trepidation I handed out the filled puds and do you know what? The plates were all but licked dry! I even forgot to put the yoghurt in the curry. Success. I managed to salvage a crumb of coffee cake before it all disappeared (I wasn't completely heartless, a portion was allocated to be taken to Annie) and I need to say that despite all the faffing it took, it was really quite nice, next stop chocolate cake!

Before the guests arrived I had been experiencing VPN trouble. When that happens I am up a creek. Facebook I can live without but I cannot live without my email (Google – blocked in China) or my UK telly. YouTube is handy as well when I run out of British TV to watch. After much perseverance I did connect to LA which at least restored my email for a while but that was also disconnected after a time. The Peace Corps contingent later confirmed all VPNs were down China-wide as the entire P/Corps network were reporting being cut off.

I've been there before, usually just before the CCP annual congress but that finished six days ago. I have no idea why the 2 million-strong internet army had suddenly decided to play “whack-a-mole” again with VPNs but they had. Kevin changed his provider again, he is a butterfly, then complained to me he had made a mistake as the new one was hellishly slow. I have stuck with mine for eight years and so far they have always come through, for after dinner and everyone left I even managed to connect to the UK for a while. Today getting connected takes a while but I am online and have been watching BBC and ITV. I don't ask for much.

As always, once one meal is over my attention turns to the next one. Chicken a la King and rice next week or salmon with (another first) Dauphinoise potatoes? At least it gives me an interest. And improves my culinary skills.