Red water

Up at just gone 7am to prepare the kids for school. Neither wanted to go but they love riding the bike so at least it's easy to get them there. At Xixi's classroom the teacher tried to explain to me that I needed to go to the main office because school was breaking up today due to "Hongshui", which means "red water". They weren't supposed to break up till 15th July, and this is annoying as Tan is away till Wednesday evening and I will be quite busy. Up at Leilei's classroom the teacher corroborated Xixi's teacher's red water story, and as if to prove it handed me 40+ kuai in some sort of recompense. The teacher did say that the kids could come back on 19th July for "preparation" classes for the next year, designed mainly to help with working parents I gather.

So I went to the main office and asked about this mysterious red water, expecting them to give me back some of the money I'd paid for Xixi. But they didn't, and I didn't want to make a fuss over a few quid. I still didn't understand the evil red water that was shutting down the school two weeks early.

After the school run I went to check on the house. The tiles have been delivered but more importantly the floor had been concreted and things were just starting to look a bit different as both the bathrooms had doors fitted. Lin Hong first took me to the 9th floor to look at an identical flat. Identical that was until the owners decided to move the door of the middle bedroom a few feet to the right. They had simply concreted up the doorway that was and cut a doorway out further up the wall. When I asked why Lin Hong explained that the door had been opposite the front door and that was not good feng shui. She asked if I wanted to do the same thing and I laughed and said "bu yao!". She saw the funny side too but I presume she took me to this flat to genuinely ask if I wanted the same thing done to ours.

All those pipes now covered by concrete - too late to ask for the ethernet cable...

At home Tan rang during a break in her class. She had been learning how to wash faces, and said that it was really interesting, and said she could give me one. We'll see. I explained about the school closing early and discovered that it was hong with the second, rising, tone - not hong with the third down-and-up tone. This "hongshui" means flood. This goes to show how important it is to get your tones right in Chinese. Ok, I knew that the red water wasn't responsible for closing down the school now but it hasn't rained here for over a week, and today is the hottest day so far at 37 degrees C. Are they expecting torrential downpours tomorrow? I knew it was 37 degrees as Er Jie rang me up at lunchtime to ask me if the school had air conditioning. I said it didn't and she told me I should take the kids home as it would be too hot. I said I wouldn't as they have fans and that none of the other kids would come home. Yes, they'll get a bit sweaty but that's part of life here.

Later Waipo was calling me in the house. Jiuma (Tan's brother's wife who now also seems to be living in the house) was in our new house, and had left the key inside while going out to chat on the phone. As luck would have it the only breeze to brace Pingguo in the last week had turned up on the 14th floor and nudged our front door closed locking her out. So she'd called Waipo and Waipo was now panicking asking if I had the other key. When I finally worked out what she was talking about I said I didn't have the key, but maybe Lin Hong did, or would know its whereabouts. Waipo shouted that Lin Hong was in Bangxu and couldn't get back. I asked whether Lin Hong had the key but again Waipo shouted that she was in Bangxu. I thought I was being misunderstood so I asked in very clear Chinese: "Lin Hong you mei you di er ge yao shi?", but still Waipo said she was in Bangxu as if I was asking where she was.

Then it dawned on me to call Lin Hong myself but both her phones were engaged. As Waipo was getting more animated I said I'd go to the house to see what I could do. On the way Lin Hong returned my missed call but the line was so bad I could hardly hear a word. In case she could hear me I shouted that I was going to the house, and that if she didn't have the second key on her person could she arrange for the person who did have it to bring it there? I met Jiuma at the house a bit later and explained I'd tried to speak to Lin Hong, whom I rang again and when she answered passed the phone to Jiuma. It transpired that the second key was indeed in Pingguo and the worker was coming over to deliver it. So we went up to the 14th floor to wait and lo and behold when we got there the door was open and the workers were there working.... Apparently the bloke with the second key had turned up two minutes after my call to Lin Hong. Jiuma looked slightly sheepish as she picked up her purse with the key in it.