Friday 23^rd October, 2020 1400

I am not enjoying this winter. I hate it at the best of times but couple it with freezing cold, the communal heating not coming on until next month, Monday to Thursday my classes finishing at 1830, the closure of the road to the bus from campus and a detour now over waste land and the sparsity of taxis near the gate at that time of night and you may get an idea.

And getting home at 1930 is not exactly conducive to cooking a dinner. As for Thursdays, well, teaching all day leaves me drained on Friday too. I was going to BHG today but can't be bothered, instead I will buy the makings of bubble and squeak locally for my dinner tonight (and probably Sunday too!). I really enjoyed it last week with a couple of badly poached eggs and for some reason it is “scoffing” food – stuff I can actually fill up properly on. If I do a roast dinner half of it goes in the bin, maybe Jody is turning me into a vegetarian!

This week was crunch week regarding the school computers. I may have said that last week all the MP4 films on my USB had been wiped and 18 viruses showed up on a scan I ran on the laptop.

I was hell-bent on finding out the culprit, after all, I only use three PCs this term. 3102 and 3302 were blameless, which left 4104 on Thursday. Bingo. First class and every MP4 was reduced to 665kb and 8 viruses installed. Rendered useless.

I got Jody to contact IT and the chap came at noon. I am in that classroom all day (I take my own lunches and don't leave except for a smoke) and I showed him the problem. Thursday is the only day I need to take my laptop so I can while away the two and a half hour lunch break so I was able to show him the results of the virus scan.

Jody showed up later to translate, ergo I remonstrated to the effect the school should instal free antivirus software on the devices seeing as teachers and students alike use them at will and are clearly infecting them. Except me of course!

I can't do it myself, they are all set up to delete anything – except bloody viruses! - someone instals the moment they are switched off. The reason they don't put antivirus software on? Because it will make them run slowly! They already do! They use Windows 7 believe it or not.

So I asked what the solution to my problem was? Well this was a revelation not only to me but Jody as well. To sort it out I need to buy another USB (128Gb costs about 160¥) that has its own antivirus built-in! Jody is going to order me one online tonight and it should be with me before Wednesday. If it works I will be very happy.

It's once again silly season with student majors. I have lost I think four who changed majors, the two who stick out went to study politics (I can't think of anything more boring) and early learning ie kindergarten on east campus. I have however gained eight new students. So I am in credit.

I really don't understand how this all happens. I do know that whatever score they achieve in the Gaokao or college entrance exam dictates which universities they are eligible to apply for (and this one is very much in the middle of the bunch) but they are also initially told what major they have to study. Yet a few weeks in they are given the opportunity to switch. Why not just let them choose their own major in the first place?