Anyway, Sunny sent an Evertonian as his replacement. Though he was a supporter of the people's team in Scouser City, he was cruel to the pupils, and was screaming at local worthies on a reef of the river. Both pieces of information were reported to the school FAO! Funnily enough, he was ex Nippon too. Anyway, he was disliked by the school, and seemingly disliked by a college too, prior to having been sent to my school by Sunny. What amused me greatly was that he had described Scouser City as a boomtown to his pupils!

How did you get to know about the 'boomtown' part? I doubt that had come from the school FAO. Probably you asked his students about him, and one of them told you that. Very unprofessional of you to go behind his back in that way!!

You are a discerning reader - that's good!

I'll have to go into more detail regarding Sunny Hu's two FTs and the teaching jobs at that public high school in Sichuan to convince you that I didn't go behind anyone's back to get to know about the 'boomtown part'.

The Glaswegian was the first of Sunny's two FTs to arrive. He taught well enough, so I was told by the school FAO, but the school was very disappointed that he had done a runner. The FAO had no idea that I had assisted him run. He was so nitpicking about cleanliness that I thought he could have been a gay who realized there were very few other westerners in that county, and so had to do a runner fast to preserve his own sanity.

The Liverpudlian was the second and last of Sunny's FTs to arrive. He was teaching 6 classes of junior middle school students and 12 classes of senior high school grade 2 students. Meanwhile I was teaching 6 classes of junior middle school students and 12 classes of senior high school grade 1 students. The school told him his teaching was over as soon as the junior high school students went on summer vacation. Then they asked me to teach grade 1 and grade 2 students, and paid me 70 RMB/overtime class, which applied to 6 classes weekly, for three weeks. The Liverpudlian had been fired early, but couldn't leave because he was broke. Sunny was so angry with him that she didn't send him his salary. The school was angry with Sunny, but on Sunny's instructions he was issued with a canteen smart card. I think Sunny didn't want him to return to Chengdu until she had arranged a performing monkey job for him at a training school. Accommodation for him in Chengdu at a dosshouse of a hotel in the meantime would have cost Sunny money, which she obviously didn't wish to part with. It was when I taught his former classes that I was told about how wonderful the UK was, especially the boomtown of Liverpool, by a couple of the students! Of course, I put them right in this regard!

I left before the Liverpudlian, who had to wait until Sunny sent him his salary so that he could afford bus tickets for the 6-hour ride to Chengdu. The school arranged a going-away dinner in my honour, to which he was not invited. That was where I was told about his cruelty to his students, and his screaming at local people on a reef of the Yangtze every evening. I was also told that the school had ceased its cooperation with Sunny's 'professional' agency. Both of her FTs had complained bitterly to me about how shabbiliy she had treated them, including paying them basement wages.

I didn't wish to renew my contract with the school for two reasons: First, because the local dialect was so different from standard Chinese that it didn't help me improve my Chinese. Second, because the school had tried to cheat me financially. That had annoyed me greatly!