Tuesday 25^th June, 2019 2230

Yes, it's late but I am really trying to adjust the body clock to waking up after five in the morning and going to bed at nine at night.

I sent a text to the errant student from Friday requesting they attend their exam tomorrow towards the end of the lunch break but have had no reply. Further investigation shows it is probably a boy, the class monitor and he doesn't speak a word of English! To be fair, that's fine by me, English is not required for them but what I will not do is sit around for four hours this Friday for a no-show. The tragedy is, had he presented himself last week and done absolutely nothing I would have given him the lowest possible pass mark, the strategy I have had to adopt during three years on east campus. Ah well.....

Monday night's dinner was dreadful.

I have prepared hundreds of meals in China and not all of them have been resounding successes but nonetheless they were edible. How can you screw up a ham salad???? Buy a piece of pork that even after curing, boiling and roasting with honey still comes out like shoe leather. I'm not even sure the feral cats would eat it if I chuck it outside. I was mortified. I was gratified to learn from Alice's friend Lillith, a French major, that Nordine's cooking is far more disgusting!

I did though go into full porky-pie mode earlier in the evening. Knowing that Annie's radar was on full alert for a set-up (especially as that idiot Eli had fuelled it by saying it was a secret) I was happy when she arrived before everyone else. I excused myself for not preparing dessert (little did I know what I had made was awful, hopefully to be redeemed with lasagne and apple pie next week!) and said it was because of the party.

“Yeah, what party? Everyone keeps telling me it's a secret!”

“You don't know?”

“No!”

“Oh, it's Delia's (a dean) birthday, maybe they never told you because they know you talk often with her and might have ruined the surprise”.

I think she swallowed it because then she was panicking because she hadn't bought a birthday card.

I have to confess she handled the surprise itself very well. Better than me, for when called upon to give a short speech which ended in my saying I would miss her I started to choke at the end. And indeed I will miss her, in nine years here the only other colleague I miss is Kevin. The others have been mere acquaintances.

Flight prices this year in China are astronomical. Well, they are if you want to sit up front. They just aren't coming down as expected nearer the day in question. No idea about economy but I suspect the same holds true. I would fly economy if Lanzhou airport had somewhere to get a proper drink and the damned airlines served a beer on flights of three hours.

So today the choice was trying to book an entire rail compartment both ways for £700 or business class flights for £850. Twenty-four hours each way or under three hours. I am now skint but we will travel more swiftly.

I am happy to report that I heard from Mulan, who will definitely be joining us for an evening in Shanghai. Loyal readers will recall she gave up her Chinese new year's day and her siblings looked after me when I broke my pelvis in Chizhou four years ago. She is now (I assume happily) married and her daughter is five months old. Considering the travails she had in school and indeed her shitty younger life, I am happy to know she has found her place. And I will never forget her and her brother and sisters' kindness for tending to me when I could not walk.

Anyway, a couple of hours work left this week. Bloody Annie (a pain to the end!) has been invited to a teachers party on Peili campus on Friday. I haven't and although I may be expected to go I may just not do so, protocol and all that. However, all the invitees have been asked to bring one dish.

I think Annie can just about prepare a pot noodle if pushed, so she asked for help. I am going to show her how to make brownies (and wash the pots afterwards!!) so she can say she actually made them even if I paid for the ingredients.