Tuesday 18^th December, 2018 1645

Well the mystery of the beer delivery has been revealed. It was sent to me by Rabbit, one of my old students, she sent me a load of yoghurt last year which I knew about, this time it was a surprise but I think she knows which I prefer!

I hadn't seen her since her graduation party (2014 maybe) until summer this year. She is now living and working in Shanghai and this time she was able to come and join the gang one evening. It does somewhat surprise (and delight) me at the number of my old students who actually keep in touch, albeit sporadically.

Last night's dinner was well received, the soup was a hit and amazingly so was the bread I made on Sunday night. French it certainly isn't but then again it doesn't taste like cake either! The macaroni au gratin was eagerly devoured (only a quarter of a portion defeated them) although it didn't taste particularly cheesy. Mild cheddar was not my choice, it was simply the only cheese available bar camembert, some of which I have reserved for Christmas dinner, and of course my rare treat, a bottle of port!

After dinner we sorted out Annie's phone. For fifteen months she has been unable to access any social media other than Chinese domestic ones. She cannot afford a VPN and she asked me last week if she was able to access mine. I immediately said “no” because although she could, only one device was permitted to be connected at a time and I hardly want to be denied access as and when I want it considering it costs me $99 a year.

Well the next day I decided to investigate how much it would cost to add another to the account, hoping perhaps it would be discounted to a small fraction of my own bill. Lo and behold, they have changed the rules! You can now have three devices connected simultaneously! It seems you can perm it anyway you like between pcs, phones and ipads and there is no extra charge. Someone left as a very happy person, able at last to access Instagram and YouTube.

At about 1000 this morning I was in my study when I heard Alice shouting for me to open the door quickly! As at that time I did not know who the beer donor was, so I wondered if she was staggering with yet another case of lager. She wasn't. It was the ham and at 4kg was hardly strenuous to carry but the need for haste was because she had to get back on campus for her next class which started in ten minutes. Bless her, she remembered I had told her it would arrive frozen and had requested she bring it immediately so I could keep it that way. Jinkou despatch stuff like that with icebags and pack them in polystyrene Eskies so it would have happily waited until lunch time, especially bearing in mind the current temperatures.

It solved the conundrum of what to have for my dinner tonight because I had to empty the largest drawer of my freezer to accommodate it! A half an inch longer and I would have had real problems. I don't know whether I am disappointed or not though, for I ordered it on the bone and it isn't. That fact is in large part my own fault, for when I pre-ordered it, it was ¥578 for 3.5kg. Later I noticed they also do a boneless one weighing 4kg which cost slightly less.

Take the bone out and what I ordered at first would yield perhaps 2.5kg of meat, so I emailed them and asked if I could swap. In so doing I unwittingly alerted them to an error on their website, for the boneless is actually 3.5kg and today when I checked, the on the bone one is 5kg! The chap who deals with me said he thought the bone-in should read 4kg but he knew they had a 4kg boneless too, the biggest they had. I replied that he may as well leave the order as it was originally and left it at that. Somewhere along the line I still got switched and now both versions are out of stock anyway, they are specially ordered for times such as now, thanksgiving etc.

But by God have I got a lorryload of ham! I reckon I will be making ham baguettes, Hawaiian pizzas and everything hammy for weeks! And probably resort to giving the others slices to take home to make sandwiches themselves. I hope it's good stuff.