Sunday 11^th April, 2021 1900

I know it has been a little while but unless I wanted to dwell on HRH Phil passing, there has been little to tell.

I am struggling with the timetable I have been given, so much so that on Saturdays (after a damned long Friday of teaching) I have now taken to doing absolutely nothing, not even going out to the jing jo shop. I won't wear another piss-take timetable.

I sent an email to Brenda a few days ago saying I assumed I would be the university's pet foreigner for another year, fully expecting an affirmative answer.

And the mind games have started.

I don't know, we will be discussing it next month.

They must think I'm an idiot. They want to end up with no native English speaking teachers at all?? The only reason they had three before was because of the Peace Corps and Trump pulled them out of China (and was doing so even before Covid). So who in their right mind would actually want to come here? And with travel restrictions, who could? They must think I'm 19 years old. If it wasn't that moving would be such a pain I would ask GAU next door if they still want me. More money and no commute as I'd live on campus. Anyway, in my mind this place owes me one more year seeing as I never took a powder when the virus hit.

The cat and mouse games are; after eleven years; quite frankly pathetic and tiresome now. And they don't seem to realise it is precisely because they do this that so many other westerners like me stay just one year at a school and move on to another the next. They are actually shits because they virtually have jobs for life (it's almost impossible to sack a Chinese teacher) yet we foreigners are only guaranteed a year each time with no security or continuity of tenure. Well pretty soon I won't need to care about all that any more.

So, anyone get the rub of the green on the Grand National? I managed to lose £40 on Mr Malarkey and Sub Lieutenant. I just go on names, it's as good a way as any with the National, and Malarkey is a word I have used in this blog and of course Sub Lt is a naval rank. Unlucky again. I've only ever had two winners in my life – 40 years apart – but then I don't gamble very often. Certainly not the nags and only on the big rugby tournaments and football world cup.

Come to think of it, besides winning £2,000 when Greece won Euro 2004 it has been a disaster! Oh, and there was the time I dabbled with arbitrage betting, placed a large wager on a rank underdog and then couldn't get a bet on the huge favourites!

It was between two Russian teams and one was odds-on, the other something like 50-1against. I went to bed convinced I had dropped a huge ricket but the next day I was stunned to see the minnows had won! Day saved and a good payday.

A couple of days ago my smartphone stopped working. I know it has run out of money but it still worked through my home wi-fi and every day I update my green code just in case. But it stopped and so tomorrow when I went to BHG I was going to stick more money on it. I will need to for the summer holidays anyway. However I investigated and somehow the phone had simply turned off the wi-fi mode. And no, it wasn't me, all I do is turn the phone on and off, do the health dooberry and answer the odd wechat message so God knows what happened there. Fixed now.