Yes, I’ve been away from my blog for three months. Several reasons… firstly I have been busy doing my masters in online and distance education, secondly I have been super busy with work and thirdly, as part of my course I have had to tweet so I have been on twitter instead.
Now I am back by popular demand (well at least one person wondered where I got to!). And what a day to come back, it’s dark, it’s cold and it’s wet in Nanjing. I braved the bus back from the city centre today – I say ‘braved’ because I am always grateful to get off the bus with all my possessions! I had already been relieved of a brand new iPhone on the number 2 so I am more wary now of crowded buses and metros. As readers will remember from my earlier post not only did I lose the iPhone but also my bicycle on the same day.
Since that terrible day in October I have been even more vigilant and careful with my stuff. However, several weeks ago and the day after returning from the UK someone was cunning enough to get their thieving little fingers into my bag and take my purse. I only noticed when I got to the Jinling Hotel and tried to buy some train tickets. £50 is not a fortune but it’s enough to keep me in coffee and pasta for 4 or 5 days and of course the loss of two Chinese bank cards was an inconvenience I could have done without. Can you imagine how long it takes in the bank to get a new bank card and cancel the other and then tell those who pay me my new bank details.
So I was still reeling from the loss of my purse when I got up this morning and went outside my front door into the locked corridor to remove the very big expensive lock I have securing my cheap bike only to find….. yes you got it….. another bike mysteriously disappeared. And this time, it went from outside my door which is behind a locked gate and secured with a lock suitable for a motorbike. And the bike itself was really really cheap – £20. I suppose I should feel sorry for the bloke (probably a bloke) who was so desperate that he had to steal that bike.
So that’s a total now of 3 bikes, 2 phones and a purse. (Oh and a pair of Spny headphones!).