Sunday 30^th June, 2019 1800

So my final day on east campus came and went with barely a whimper. Admittedly, I started at 0955 and was finished by 1020 so the only people to really see me were the remaining eight students. The afternoon absentee? Well, he never responded to my message so I wasn't hanging around for him. So, twenty-five minutes work and a three hour round trip!

I don't know why but when I put the exam results in a drawer and took the keys off the keyring to leave them, it was a little poignant. After three years of teaching people who can't understand me there should have been champagne corks flying but no, I found myself actually feeling sorry I was leaving. Most odd.

I was back in plenty of time to bake some bread pudding for the Peili campus end of term teachers' party and duly attended. With around fifty teachers, all of whom had been asked to bring one dish each, there was an enormous variety of food on offer, sadly none of it to my taste but a veritable banquet for everyone else! I did eat some sushi and two prawns (they tasted weird) and needed watermelon to dispel the aftertaste.

Many of those attending performed a song or dance and I found myself, rather worryingly, out of breath singing Court of King Caractacus! Maybe I should stick to Wild Rover in future!

Still no insight into who I am teaching and what next term, although I now know the entire foreign language department is moving on 13^th July to main campus. I know where I will teach. I also discovered the school buses have now been discontinued. This is due to budgetary constraints – not because of my pay rise – and having just spent an entire term taking an hour and a half and two buses to get to and from work, I couldn't care less. It will be one bus of thirty minutes or less from now on. I can but hope my rota is not arranged with huge gaps between classes when I can't return home.

While I was at the party I had a text from Janet apologising for not being on east campus to mark my final day. Just as bloody well, considering I bunked off early. The reason? She can't “bend her body”. I am guessing a bad back.

So nine weeks holiday stretch ahead. At times such as this I do wish I was wealthy, I could go to another country for a couple of months but I am not, so a week in Shanghai will have to suffice. I can't really count the two nights in the hotel near Lanzhou Zhongchuan airport that I have had to book for the night before leaving and the night we return, due to a very early morning flight and a very late evening one respectively. One bonus is the free airport shuttle they offer. I normally choose civilised hours to fly but this year the prices are astronomical.