Occasional Tales

What an anticlimax. As the Heathrow Express emerged into the dusk as it departed from the airport, I felt happy to be home for the first time in three years. And then on the Monday, things turned bad. I had ordered a new Switch card and had included the information when I'd be collecting it because I knew there was going to be a delay between the request and my arrival. When I got to the bank, I found that the card had been destroyed, although I learnt today that it perhaps should've been left alone because it seems that the date I'd be collecting it was passed on. I'm not sure of the facts, though. I ordered a new card, but want of it left me in a difficult position because I was limited to withdrawing £50 a day. My plans to buy things like a new laptop, some games and various other items went up in smoke. I was told that a replacement card would take three to five days to arrive, but when I went into the bank yesterday, the card had yet to arrive. It turned up today a...

On the job again. I now believe that most of Class 13 no longer have their books, and even the ones who have their books aren't even bothering to open them. As for asking them about what they did during the holiday, it seems that apathy reigned supreme. The general response I got was "sleeping". Perhaps it's only the migrant workers and foolish foreigners who travel in China during any of the golden weeks. I'm wondering whether the heat will is going to make their brains even more torpid than usual. We're not even sure how much more teaching time we have left. Probably the final exam will be in the last week of May which is a mere two and a half weeks away. We'll simply stop teaching without any sense of a conclusion. In fact, we'll just be starting the next theme. The latest news I have about our antics in June is that the teaching load has been badly skewed, with Jane and Todd getting four classes a day, whereas I've ended up with two. I haven...

Oh how I wish I wasn't. Actually, I nearly wasn't back today at all. If I hadn't checked the date on yesterday's paper, I would've been trying to come back tomorrow only to find I was a day late . But I had the misfortune to note the date instead. I managed to spend a whole week doing none of those things that you'd traditionally associate with a holiday. I didn't go to a single museum which is a little unusual for me. Nor did I go anywhere special per se , unless you count Tai Wo and Discovery Bay; but I had good reason on both occasions. In fact, apart from buying 17 books altogether, I'm not sure what I did to fill in the time. There was at least one day when it rained and I sat round in Alison's flat reading until I felt that I needed to go on my adventures. I had intended to buy books and read them throughout the week, although I did no such thing most of the time. This is why I'm baffled about how the past seven flew by with such celerity. ...

It's back to that again. After threatening rain all day yesterday, the weather finally decided to get down to business last night. As is typical in most places, there's a Lunchtime Effect ("The moment lunchtime arrives, the amount of rain will increase"). Anyway, lunchtime also marks the start of the holiday since I have no classes this afternoon. I have a little business to attend to which, I hope, will assure a better future for me, although there's another year to go before that happens. And once that piece of business is out of the way, I'm then just waiting until I depart for Hong Kong tomorrow, which means the usual feelings of aimlessness, anxiety and anarchy. (All right, I couldn't think of a third word beginning with 'a'.) I've got something to amuse me, although I hate leaving it in mid air, especially when I'm on a roll with it. Time is once again messed up because the past three days have been Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Yes,...