Friday 10^th July, 2020 1645

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions eh?

My intention yesterday was to do my weekly BHG hong jo run and then mark one set of written exam papers. That all changed when a student emailed me to say Dean Delia had said I needed to allocate marks for “online” students ie. those who were unable to return. Well that's a fair request.

Ever-obliging, I asked if they were oral or written students? The reply was six students in such and such class and one in this class. Yes but were their assignments written or oral? Were they written it was a simple case of emailing the test paper, oral is not possible online because they don't have Skype and I don't do pre-recorded exams.

Yes, Miss Li said you decide what the test will be. This was going to be arduous. Please answer the question, written or oral assignments? Eventually after half an hour it was established they were oral. Hooray. Looked at the sheets the monitors had handed in and the 6 students absent were all in the only class that never gave me a spreadsheet of the marks for the assignments. Yes he gave one to you. No, he gave me a class list but not the marks. I need the marks, presuming they submitted the assignments? Oh I will tell him. Good. Now the single student, what's the name? Ruta.

I spent the next twenty minutes searching every piece of paper I had and could find no trace of Ruta, had she changed her name? No. Panic was starting to set in by now. Ok, tell me the first four names on the class list. Ruta. Give me strength.

Listen, I have no record of a Ruta anywhere, which class? English 193. more frantic scrabbling. Oh my God. Absolutely no record of English class 193 either! I knew I wasn't mad, I had tested every single class over two or three weeks so where the hell was it? Had I left the sheets in the classroom? I went through every scrap I possessed to no avail and then finally a thought hit me. I had a vague recollection of one of the class monitors coming to collect the results the moment I finished. Could it be that class? I don't know, I'll ask their monitor later because we have activities this afternoon. Please don't take too long, I may have a heart attack.

Nine hours later it was confirmed I had not in fact “lost” a class and I was given Ruta's assignment details. By taking an average, she did fine with 81% but I could have done without all the stress. Jackson, the other monitor, now needs to provide for the other six and I am not going to ask again. He has probably four days to do it before I submit my figures and if asked I will tell them why no marks. I get the blame for enough anyway.

So today I simply haven't had the impetus, however I did my shopping. It was the monthly payday shop where I buy stuff like laundry detergent, toothpaste etc. Didn't need much today, just soap and toilet roll. Soap was no problem, a five pack of Lux. Toilet roll. Now, in China there are two different types of loo roll. The normal one with a holder in the middle and another type that's solid and has no perforations to tear off neat squares. I like my Western style stuff. I couldn't find a two-pack of toilet rolls regardless of brand! They only had “bargain” 10+2 packs. Even with the two of us living here that would last until next year so I left it.

Then on a whim I thought I might try making the prawns I loved so dearly at the restaurant just outside Chizhou university. The owner had told me how he made them and I still have a sealed bottle of Salt Pepper Spice he gave me but have never opened. Bought some rice and went to the fish counter. Pointed at some large fresh prawns and was ignored by the woman. A man came from behind so I pointed again and he promptly picked up the entire tray and poured the contents into a bucket. I thought “I don't want all that lot, must be about 1,000¥ and I'm conserving for my holiday”. The prawns were then huckled out through the plastic curtains at the rear!

That was the first and last time I have ever tried to buy anything from that section. I did buy two packs of frozen uncooked king prawns from the freezer section so will give it a go. From what I was told you simply fry them shell and head on (very common in China) and while they are still oily just coat them in the spice. If it works I will be ecstatic. I used to eat them whole, including the head.