It’s not 10 am quite yet and I have had two showers.

The first was a hasty wash and shave after a phone call from a colleague. There was a summer camp applicant in his office, a walk-in, could I come speak to her?

No. I was working from home.

Can you speak to her on the phone then?

Telephone interview, especially with people whose first language is not English, is fraught with perils. I don’t like them. Being the dutiful lad that I am, I hit the shower and scraped the two-days growth off my goateed face.

The interview went well. The young woman’s English was better than most of the English teachers, Chinese or foreign, I know. She spoke without an accent, very strange. I thought I was speaking to a young woman from California.

My task complete, I left the office and noticed a gentle mist falling from the now overcast sky. By the time I passed through the school gate it was a downpour. It had been bright and sunny when I left my apartment, so sunny that I searched for a pair of faux-Oakley sunglasses.

I passed two men and a woman, safe under umbrellas. I heard them snicker at the wet shirt sticking to my chest. Looking down at the tiled path I walked to my apartment.

Two showers by 10 am: I can’t wait to see what the rest of the day holds.