Tuesday 1^st December, 2020 2200

Nope, my three day weekend was a sea of nothingness. I just don't have the get up and go any more. It got up and buggered off.

I did however wash some glasses and things seeing as the “housekeeper” is on a freeze-out right now. How the hell is a bloke supposed to cope with the menstrual cycle when he is set upon by a rabid wolverine merely because he points out that ripping off a connection pipe to the washing machine is not the way to do it and you need to lift the bottom and pull down the top? Cue hysterics and frostiness for the past two days. To be honest, the histrionics over what amount to trivial things are now not only mounting but becoming ever more tiresome. I don't need that.

I am finally getting even my most reticent classes to open up, even if just a little. They are still hard work compared to Chizhou though and sadly I will probably have them for just one year and will not see the fruits of my labour in the second year. Surely the school will be able to get more foreigners next summer???

Yesterday I “broke burger” with Jason at McDonald's again. I also found out why he was dragging a suitcase once again. Yes there are books but on a Sunday night he stays in an hotel because like my uni, his also has multiple campuses. When I suggested perhaps a taxi would be a cheaper option he informed me the school owned the hotel (just as this one owns the hotel opposite me) and he stays for free! I never got to the bottom of which of us has the heavier workload although I suspect he may have the edge because some course he is doing for extra cash is ending soon. I haven't done extra-curricular stuff for many a year now, it's enough summoning the energy for my day job!

After school tonight I did BHG. Well, at 1830 when I finish it is well dark so after I shopped and the taxi pulled up at the security gate, it was impossible but no way was I lugging 6 bottles of wine and a briefcase one side and the same weight the other.

The problem is, since they introduced the facial recognition gates there was no room for a guardhouse and so they moved it backwards. Please, I have nothing against the poor buggers keeping warm but it means they are distant and when the vehicle scanner doesn't recognise the numberplate we don't get let in. Thankfully a stentorian “Ni Hao! Hello! It's ME!!!” normally penetrates the confines of the hut and they lift the barrier.

Oh, and on Sunday I booked most of spring festival. My flight to Kunming and hotels for Alice and I there, Lijiang and Dali. Only thing I haven't booked is my flight back. At the moment three times what it costs to get there so I am trusting time will see the price reduce. If it doesn't then it will be purgatory on a sleeper train with strangers.