Tuesday 12^th November, 2019 1200

Well the ATMs were out again when I went so I had to find another one at a different bank to mine, annoyingly being charged to withdraw my cash. I could have gone for a haircut but the forecast for today said a high of 4°C and (amazingly) snow, so I thought better of it!

Yesterday morning it happened that I was on the same bus as dean Delia but neither of us noticed until we alighted. On the walk to campus she hit me with two things: firstly a gift of a 30Gb USB stick – always handy – and secondly she was coming to observe my class tomorrow.

I suppose there are some teachers who would contact the class monitor to pre-warn them in order that the class (and ergo the teacher) could look good but I am not doing that. If they aren't active it won't be for lack of trying on my part and it will reinforce what I told her, this year's crop are barely more animated than corpses.

Later in the morning I had an email from dean Liu, the head of the translation department. She invited me, Eli and Khloe to her home for dinner and in true Chinese fashion, it was a same day invite. Well, I wasn't doing anything else and dinner was going to be a chicken burger and chips in Dicos otherwise, so I agreed. Along with we three there were two translation majors, the dean herself and the vice dean of foreign affairs (deals with the international students). The latter was there because he could cook and dean Liu cannot, her husband (who is away) does all the cooking. Side dishes were ordered in from a restaurant. The beef and potatoes were lovely but a spinach dish blew my mouth off and started my eyes running after one leaf and later at the end, the chicken soup had an odd taste. I thought it was ginger and indeed some was present but there were some crunchy things which I made the mistake of biting. They were whole peppercorns and the effect was similar to having just paid a visit to the dentist, my lips lost all sensation bar a tingling! The food also went straight through me this morning, I was fearful of going to work (with only squat toilets to hand) but having arranged to meet Pat and go to the optician, I chanced it.

I am now reeling.

I don't have any glasses, they will take about a week to be made. If Pat's translation was accurate, the diagnosis was astigmatism, which would explain why all aspects of my vision have deteriorated over the past year.

Between a rock and a hard place, I knew I wanted varifocals (hope that's what I am getting!) and after the initial shock of the lens and frame prices, I decided on Zeiss lenses, the second-lowest imported price with the additional cost being for “computer fatigue”. Total price with discount? 2640¥!!! There were other lenses that would have seen me paying thrice that and there is apparently nothing that can restore perfect vision across the spectrum but to be honest the 66 bus will now appear as 66 and not 666 or the 15 not the 155.

They'll take some getting used to, I felt nauseous just wearing the test goggles for two minutes.