The rainy season has come to Suzhou and it’s really quite miserable. Everything is wet and there is condensation on most things because the temperature is still so high. The humidity, when it’s not raining is around 70% which is really quite dreadful and of course when it is raining it’s around 100% because I’ve noticed that I get wet very quickly when I go out into it, even if I’m not moving too much.

Even when it stops you get wet just standing still. The rain is vertical, which is way better than that horizontal stuff that you seem to get in Scotland. I like the rain but the downside of living in China for me is that I do not have a car and so I have to venture out into this most days. At my home my car is in the garage and I have an electric door on the garage which I just love because in weather like this I can go from car to hoose and vice versa without so much as a drop of H2O landing on me skull.

I also should invest in a pair of wellies because you know how good they are and they can protect you from many things not just the rain.

And because I live on the 4th floor , I think I have a little time up my sleeve to prepare for the rising water levels and maybe finish that Ark.

I’m the proud holder of a fine from the Australian Electoral Commission and it’s great to see that all those tax payer’s dollars are being used in a timely manner to recoup monies for the pensions of the elected officials. It also goes to show that each department is closely related and they obviously communicate with each other so that they know who is actually in the country. You would think that maybe the guys that look after the elections might check with the super duper border control to see if said person was in the country before they waste more tax payer’s money by sending out this fine.

Mind you it does remind of the happy border guard at passport control…………..I asked him what passport he wanted to see and he said he didn’t care as i was leaving. The difference is that when you check in at the airport they will check both passports if you hold the two of them. I travel on my British passport these days but will only use the Australian when I either leave or enter Australia or when I was getting a motorbike rental in Thailand, I give them that one for security.

But I have sent them an email today to ask them to resolve this matter post haste but I get a funny feeling that this is not the last time that I will hear from them. The next letter will no doubt say” sorry sir we have no details of you leaving the country so cough up”

I’ll keep you posted.

I came across this unusual sight the other day. I was walking through an industrial area and there was this guy lying on a makeshift bed in front of the gate and he was holding a sign. I have no idea what it said and I did ask a friend and they said it was just another dispute. I was very surprised to see this here as I didn’t think that this kind of behaviour was tolerated but apparently it is to some degree, I mean it’s not a Tiananmen Square kind of protest……….no tanks here……..just a few golf carts with blue lights on them and I’m sorry I forgot to take a picture of that. 

I would assume from the condition of the young man on the left and the utter despair of his lady on the right that he has had an accident at work and is now unable to work and so he is no use to man nor beast, but I think it will be a very hard road to find compassion or compensation for that matter. I fear that this is a last ditch effort. I hope some good comes of it but the future for him and his family does not look very bright.

The balance of the house is currently off kilter, Sissi has been away for a few days and her friend has been staying here. His name is “Chunxin” and he is a nice enough guy but there are those cultural differences that still get on my tits.

Water of course is in abundance and the tap will never run dry and so it’s OK to leave it on full pelt and then walk away from the sink while I do something else. I thought I only had to contend with the young guy that is currently living here but now there are two.

Breakfast for me is an enjoyable part of the day, I mean after a good nights sleep it’s just great to wake up again and to celebrate I like to have my breakfast and sit out on the balcony and watch the neighbourhood wake up, I don’t want to have to listen to the gums slapping noises that one gets when food is consumed in a Chinese household. I also can’t enjoy it when I here the tap water being whisked down the sink for 5 mins when there are only two dishes to be cleaned.

The smell of stale breath is a stomach turning event for me and the stale smell of noodles on ones breath is almost enough to make me vomit. I just don’t understand why you would get up and then go and clean your teeth, have breakfast and think that this is the correct order of events. Don’t you usually clean your teeth after you eat. Just sayin’

We have two bathrooms in this flat thankfully, one for the guests and one for myself and Sissi. Sissi is a very clean person and knows how to work the mat that you stand on when you come out the shower. It’s something that I am really happy about and you must be thinking”get a grip wee man for fucks sake” but let me say this………….you go and have a shower after the average Chinese person and you will see what I mean. Water is all over the floor and the once clean floor is now covered in footprints from wet shoes and feet. The mop sits in the corner staring at you because it’s waiting to be used. it hates me because I don’t use it. Our friend Chunxin hasn’t quite worked out the process of how to use the floor mat and it’s not a joy to use the shower after him but it’s way better than the guest bathroom. The young French girl that is here at the moment was discussing with me the hygiene of the young guy that’s here and that he has no fuckin idea what to do with the mat. I would hate to use that bathroom. And of course he is also just another teenager that won’t listen to any adult when given a trinket of wisdom and even more so I would imagine when it comes from a grumpy old foreigner. I’m looking forward to him leaving.

While I’m here I may as well get this off me chest. He washes his clothes and so that’s all good but he often leaves his clothes in the washing machine and so if anyone else wishes to use it they either have to remove his clothes or wait for him. Sissi has often hung his clothes up when he does this but I will not and so I just throw them on the bench and he can find them next time he visits the laundry. Dry clothes are not removed from the laundry they just hang there taking up room and so when someone else needs the space it’s limited.

The washing machine door is closed after use and so is does not get dried out, another small irritating thing.

Every morning he makes dumplings or noodles and he just can’t clean the dishes properly, he uses only water with no detergent and will use the a cloth rather than the rough sponge to clean the dishes. as I sit here he is eating his breakfast and so I have removed the cloth this morning and I will wait to see what he will do. Will he finally use the correct tools for the job or will he just use his hand as he has done on many occasions.

No wonder I have lived on my own for so many years……………

So he has just finished his breakfast and he is once more using his hands to clean the dishes with no detergent, I couldn’t give a fuck if they were his own dishes but they belong to the house and so everyone may use them and as I say his hygiene is not the best so I’m not too keen in using any utensils after he has had his mankiy paws all over them. How the fuck do you train such an animal, why can’t he understand this simple process.

As much as I complain about these things I also find it fascinating to see how other folk do things and I’m sure they will do some things better than me and vice versa. Wasting water is something I hate and it’s not only in China I see this, Ken in Scotland will happily let the tap run because he has told me that we will never run out of water there because of the amount of rain that falls, this may be true but I just don’t like to waste anything.

And so because life is out of kilter I am less tolerant than usual if you can believe that and I’m hoping that after this weekend everything will settle into a more harmonious state. Although the young guy is still here for another month but if I time things right I won’t have to see him. There is another guy moving in for a month on Saturday when the French girl leaves and he is quite civilised I think.

Just before I go I will leave you with one more observation. Like most Chinese Chunxin spends the greater part of his day on his phone and I can’t comment too much on this because I also use my phone quite a bit. In the metro on the street people are walking, talking, sitting………..they watch movies, they read the news, they play games but one thing I don’t get is why you would watch someone else playing a computer game………..it’s a big thing in Asia and not just in China. Many young kids will spend hours watching their favourite gamer and the gamers can make a lot of money too. The human race is really on the verge of turning into complete and utter vegetables.

It’s a hot and miserable day in Suzhou. There was a huge storm last night and today the humidity must be round 100%. The cleaner was washing the stairs when I left the house this morning and yet when I returned a few hours later the stairs were still wet, the bathroom still looked as if it had condensation on the mirror. In fact this morning you could not see the tops of the buildings in Suzhou due to the low cloud.

Slowly the low cloud burnt away and with that the sun was able to crank the temperature up and do it’s thing. I went in search of my trendy sun umbrella, my parasol and I don’t really care if I get funny looks. The sun had a bite in it today and I was not wanting to get bitten. It’s actually better than wearing a hat and covering up too much because you can get the airflow around the heed and the body and you end up feeling cooler.

I ventured out only for lunch and then I came home and put the feet up because I really didn’t feel like doing anything else. I got a phone call to see if I wanted to teach tonight and I toyed with the idea for about 2 mins and then decided .No.

Tomorrow I have a class and today is a day for preparation and relaxation and so that is what I have done. I think I will go for a walk once the sun goes down and head to the park.

Over the last few weeks I have had a few technical issues with the old PC. First it was the screen that went on me and I got so angry with it that I gave it a good thump and then it came back to life. This fix lasted me for at least 3 weeks until I could not take it anymore. Sissi took me to a computer market where we searched for a guy that replaced the screen for $90 and low and behold I have a brand new computer. Now that I could see the screen once more and everything was ok I decided to reinstall windows and so I started the process of backing everything up and then I reinstalled Win 10. I formatted the second partition and then completed that install too.

Two days later I was downloading some updates and so I went to the park while it was going through the motions. When I returned I got the shock of my life to see that the BIOS screen was staring me in the face. I spent the best part of the day trying to fix the problem before I was severely tempted to launch it from the balcony. I resisted this temptation and went for a walk and bought chocolate and just generally felt sorry for myself, plus the fact that I was so fucking pissed off that my computer had once more decided to toy with me.

The next day we got an IT guy to come to the apartment and he said that he could check out the problem and if need be replace the hard drive for about $70, which included the windows install. I went ahead with this and got a 500GB hard drive installed. I got the PC back the next morning and low and behold WIN 7 Ultimate was installed and it was great to be back to a cleaner looking and in my opinion a better operating system than 10. I mean 10 is OK but it’s designed with the tablet in mind and all this fancy apps store nonsense is just a drain on resources and so to get back to a much leaner system is great. Of course if you know WIN 7 then you will know that it does take quite a lot longer than WIN 10 to set up, this is where 10 has the advantage. But at least you can see the updates easier in WIN 7.

So a few days have passed and the PC is nearly ready, but then need to print a PDF which is a very simple process with WIN 10, however with WIN 7 you have to set up yourself but then that’s easy enough. This is where you can see some advantages of having 10 but you know going back to 7 is really great. The PC was designed to run 7 and so it does run faster, but I also like the look of 7 compared to 10 and so I am once again happy to use my PC and I am so glad that I did not launch it over the balcony last week

Looks like all my money troubles are over, I received this the other day but I missed it, I hope I can still get the money………………….

Subject: WE ARE STILL WAITING FOR YOUR EMAIL.

From: “Mr. Robert Steven Kaplan” <ceo@federalreserve.com>

To: Recipients <ceo@federalreserve.com>

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 05:37:05 -0700

Dear Beneficiary,

This notification message is from the Federal Reserve Dallas District,Your name is enlisted among the beneficiary whose fund is approved for payment, by the Board the Governors Federal Reserve Bank , and we have been waiting for you to contact us for you to claim your funds of $56 Million dollar, but to our surprise one Mrs. Brenda Miller came forward for the fund, that, you asked her to claim the fund on your behalf with documentary evidence which we are not sure of it source.This was why we decided to contact you to confirm to us if you really sent Mrs Brenda Miller.

She said, you instruct her that the fund should be transfer to the below account detail. I will advise that you change your email password,because your email is be use to write to us,but because of the name on the account, we have to confirm.

Bank name : Heritage Oaks
Bank Address : 545 Twelfth St, Paso Robles, California 93448
Phone Number: 1(805)239-5200
Account number: 001453521
Routing: 122239982
Swiftcode: HEOAUS61
Beneficiary name: Brenda Miller

Most importantly, confirm to us urgently if you gave permission to Mrs Brenda Miller to claim the fund on your behalf and if case you did not authorise anybody, then, You will have to stop communicating with the impersonators and the organisations, because they are trying to divert your fund to themselves. She tries, so hard to change the fund ownership to her name. We await your prompt response,

We will need to communicate on cell phone by sms or whatsapp.

Yours in Service

Robert Steven Kaplan

As you may know or not know, my current accommodation is also an Airbnb house. For the most of the last three months it has been great and I’ve met some interesting guests along the way, however some of them are just a fucking nuisance and death would be too good for them.

This weekend we had one guest that was a closet gay and he was just way too hyper active. Him and Sissi were carrying on like a couple of school girls, screaming and shouting and laughing and after a few hours of this I was tempted to throw him over the balcony. I can’t throw Sissi over because she is the landlord and chief translator.

The other guest that is here for a month or more is a school kid about 16 years old and although he is self sufficient he is also annoying when he appears from his room. He spends most of the time playing games and when he ventures out he is unable to open or close a door without nearly ripping it from the hinges. Doors are slammed and windows shake. He walks through the house like a fucking elephant and does not seem to be aware that other folk are present, but then this is common behaviour here. In the restaurants or on the bus or train they people will watch something on the phone without headphones so that everyone can share. It’s so fucking inconsiderate.

This young kid does not feel very comfortable around me and that is just fine, mind you I have had to give him some advice. For instance when he was washing his dishes after breakfast he will let the water run on full bore and spray it all over the place. So I have shown him how to wash the dishes using just a little water and not an Olympic size swimming pool. There is a dish rack to allow the dishes to dry but this simple piece of apparatus seems to confuse many Chinese and they choose to ignore it completely and instead put the freshly washed dishes on the bench, stacking them in a manner that allows the water to collect in the bottom dish. I have shown him the process but it doesn’t seem to make any sense to him and he continues to empty the swimming pool.

But let’s return to the noise levels…………………….Sissi too will play music loudly on the phone when the TV is on or even if you are sitting quietly reading a book. I honestly don’t know why they are not aware of their surroundings, I mean would you just crank up the music if someone in the house was reading or watching TV?, I don’t think so. This is not just grumpy old man syndrome, no this is someone trying to understand the human condition and trying to figure out the answer or the cure before I’m tempted to take some action myself.

Living in China for the most part is good and I enjoy my life here, but there are some things which I guess are cultural differences which I struggle with at times, maybe I can open up a “Finishing School” and become wealthy teaching not just English but etiquette.

Well I’m at the airport once more after finishing up my two night stay in Hong Kong. I caught up with Grace yesterday and we went to Stanley on a double decker bus. The rain was tipping it down but it was far from being cold. My shoes are waterproof and so all was well.

The accommodation was small but functional and you certainly could not swing a cat in the room because it said so. It was cheap and at the entrance there were quite a few Indian restaurants and so I had a big helping of Pakora.

I’d been to Stanley on my first visit to Hong Kong but we decided that due to the weather this was a better option than going for a walk.

I like Hong Kong for a few days but would not like to live here even although there are a few more civilised behaviours, such as staying in line in a queue. But Suzhou is relatively quiet in comparison and so I’m looking forward to going back.

Another three months from now and I’ll be off to somewhere else but just now I’ll leave that decision to a later date.