Thursday 7^th January, 2021 1700

Well that's it, the holidays are truly now started. I filled in and emailed all the spreadsheets for the marks so officially I am done. Four weeks now of doing bugger all unless I want to do anything and apart from shopping and cooking there's not much else I intend to do.

In fact I haven't set foot outside in two days now, what with having no hair and the Arctic conditions (ice even on the inside of my office window this morning and that's with communal heating) but I do need to get some bits in due course. New trainers for starters and I need to splash out this time, the cheap ones aren't cushioning me from the terrain enough and if they do they are too firm. Do you know, if they had Dr Martens Airwear (if that still exists) here then I might actually consider getting a pair. I also need more boxers and socks. You can never have enough of the last two.

I also want to replenish my supply of Prague Instacure. It's been a while since I ran out and Jody's utterly useless when I have asked her to order on Taobao for me and I want to start making ham again – damned handy for lunchbox sandwiches as well as dinners. Also, I intend to replace the deep fat fryer (finally) that I stupidly managed to destroy. The times this past year or so I could really have done with being able to make chips is unbelievable.

So for that I have asked Wuhu/Guangzhou Alice to order for me and I can give her the money on 4^th February when we meet in Kunming. If the virus doesn't rampage again – we have a few little hotspots again here. Hopefully we can keep out the new English version seeing as all flights to and from the UK are now banned.

Talking of Alice, last night she asked if we could abbreviate our holiday by cutting out Lijiang! What?? The entire trip was her idea! I miss home, she said. As everything is booked now bar my return flight (waiting for prices to drop) I was somewhat miffed, particularly – and as I pointed out – I had asked her if she was ok with not being with her family at Chinese new year and she had said she wanted new year in Dali.

We are back to sticking to the original plan.

She is also desperate to leave her “international” school (a euphemism for slave labour language mill) as she is pissed off with being treated like a skivvy and abhors teaching naughty little kids. For the latter she only needed to have asked my opinion before she took the job!

She has found a university in Guangzhou that she might be able to get a job at. First she told me the money was so low she couldn't live on it (4,000¥ a month) and I certainly couldn't even with free housing and utilities, which she wouldn't get. So I told her to stay put, grit her teeth and continue looking elsewhere. I suspect all men reading this will understand my reaction when she then said she could live on the salary! New advice was to take it if she could, get away from kids, work fewer hours and just maybe make a career in higher education.

Sometimes I despair.

Jody seems to be done with invigilating but now Dean Bitch (who has been unnervingly nice to me since I became the sole foreign incumbent) has been calling all-day meetings at which I gather the teachers emulate the students and nod off in their seats. I understand these meetings are pointless (aren't most?) so I guess she is simply grandstanding while she still has a department.

And that hot water bottle the students gave me for Christmas? It has been used every night except once when I forgot to plug it in to heat it. My feet can't really feel it but it must surely be doing some good!