Indoor Exercises, Birthday Celebrations and Taobao

February 18^th Cooking for Huan, dumplings, stuffed slices of egg plant, home made flour crisps and steamed bread. More photo editing for me. I use Picasa for simple photo editing, yes it still works with Windows 10. If you mess things up it saves all the original files for you as well. Checking my hard disk availability I thought it was about time I got rid of those originals! We both stopped our work at ten thirty to have a go at indoor exercise. Now, now, don’t be rude, we’re talking about “Walk at home 1 mile” with “Leslie Sansone” the creator egging us on. When we were done I asked Huan “Are you sweating?” “Yes” she replied. I then asked her “Did you feel you heart go faster? I did.” Her reply this time, “I wasn’t trying as hard as you”! It’s certainly a bit of a workout, takes about fifteen minutes using as much energy as if you walk three miles in an hour. We’ll make a video when we are improving and show you a screen shot, don’t hold your breath though. Being already sweaty after expending all that energy, I went straight into my guitar practice; that usually has me sweating too, leaving my shower for later.

After lunch it was singing practice for Huan, sometimes she gets it perfect and then goes way off again when she has another go. If I sing the problem bit with her, she gets it right every time but her homework requires her to sing it alone. I finished all the photos, definitely this time, and removed all the ‘.picasaoriginal’ folders. It was well worth doing, I increased my spare space on the photo drive to 156GB. It was a lot less before, when I started checking it only 100GB and I had already removed a lot before that. I may have to think about adding a hard disk, perhaps next year, and using that one only for photos and videos. Duh, cleaning up the disk gave me even more space; it deleted everything I had sent to the recycle bin today!

February 19^th Hooray, it’s Wednesday, out for a little walk. Today we went and had a look at the progress of the park in the middle of the river behind our house. Initially it was supposed to be completed by the end of 2019. When we reached that point they said it would be done by April. Looking at it today I very much doubt if that deadline will be met either. Anyway, a few pictures of it for you, the first one shows the old way across with the new bridge on the left and the old ‘entrance’ on the right. The second is where they have demolished the small house that was there before and started a shaded area. The third and last is the only one of the three existing buildings that they are keeping. It looks like they will put the public conveniences there. It would be nice if they put a refreshments stall in there too but I very much doubt they will think of that.

We had to go through the town today as the Minister of Finance needed to go to the bank. The town is not deserted but it’s certainly not as crowded as it usually is at this time of the year. Almost everyone was wearing masks, as were we of course. Some of my four legged friends were over the moon to see me, that put an extra spring in my step. Our route home was upriver to the last bridge and then downriver the other side but taking the shortcut back into town. We were rather hoping to find baps and sausages, unfortunately we failed. I did try another panorama for you today but I had forgotten the camera so it was a phone job. The Nokia actually takes very good panoramas, it has a special program for it. There was a minor problem today though, I couldn’t see the screen at all due to the sun shining on it so a lot of guesswork was involved. I could just about make out the two circles I need to follow to synchronise all the photos and this is the result. This is taken on our way upriver from the ‘north’ bank.

Connection with the big wide world is still very problematic, to say the least. Last night I managed to connect for all of five minutes before I lost it again. This afternoon I had a chat with them, the outcome of which was “our engineers are working very hard to restore connectivity”. I was offered a month’s extension on my contract which they offered last year but never carried through. Today I can see that they have extended my contract as offered. Of course an extended contract is not of much use if the service you’re paying for doesn’t work!

Lovely surprise this evening, a nice Skype chat with my sister Gwenda and her lovely husband Robert. It goes with the name you know, all of us Roberts are lovely! It was the evening for surprises, later on my access to the outside world was restored and I was able to not only check on my social media but also to watch another episode of Taskmaster. Somebody in TV land loves us poor Brits overseas who can’t watch these programs at the time they’re broadcast.

A not so good surprise was on the cards for Huan, she had a QQ message from our tenants down in Sanya. Because of the Covid-19 problems they are asking for three months free rent! They are not a restaurant or a type of business that has to close down; it could be that they left for the holiday. If that is true then they will have been away less than a month so far and there is nothing to stop them returning. All they have to do is self isolate for two weeks. If it was easy, I would drive down there tomorrow and see if they are in fact still there. P.S. Chatting to Huan before we went to sleep it seems they are still in Sanya, the complaint is because business is slow. In that case they should be approaching the business premises owners for a rebate and not us. If we gave them three free months, added to the cost of the new door we had to fit last year then our whole years rent would be equal to just over three month’s rent. As it is they are getting a much cheaper price than others in the same area. Roll on end of contract time!

February 20^th Today is a special day! Well, not really, I suppose it would have been if I was younger or perhaps if there was anywhere to go and celebrate. Yes, I’ve reached the biblical three score years and ten today. Huan prepared the usual Chinese birthday breakfast for me, eggs and noodles for longevity. I was going to ask her to cut them short so that I wouldn’t live too long but I decided not to, it would not have gone down well at all.

I spent most of the morning browsing the web in between trying to help Huan with her singing homework. It’s amazing how much time we are spending on this one song which I know she can sing well enough is she has the choir or me to sing along with. We even tried recording it together on the PC and then letting her listen to that while she sings. Eventually I had to make her stop for lunch, prepared by me, because it was easy. It was open sandwiches made with German bread, (Jason Roggenvollkornbrot), Irish cheese, Chinese cucumber, New Zealand butter and a bit of mongrel (English/Welsh) love. No photo of the sandwich but here’s an internet photo of the bread for you.

Because I was a lazy slob yesterday, two guitar practices were required today so I did the first one after lunch. Huan was still busy singing in the other room. My ‘birthday suit’ was next up, in a nice hot salty bath to be ready for dinner, I even had a shave! By the end of the afternoon Huan had sent her homework in, let’s hope it’s OK so she can rest her vocal chords for a while. Mind you, I’m fully expecting her to be given another song to learn starting tomorrow!

Restaurants are still closed here so Huan cooked me a nice roast chicken instead. Onions, garlic and mushrooms were hiding in the body cavity. Huan had the neck, on the left, and I had the ‘parson’s nose’ on the right.

Here’s the birthday boy holding the bottle of wine that we opened. What do you think of the name? It’s apt for today I suppose. I’m also wearing my ‘George’ pyjamas by ‘ASDA’ and a home made, (by Huan), badge showing my age.

As we are not getting out much these days you can have another two photos of us enjoying our dinner. Yes, we know the wine glasses are small, but they do for us genteel people.

My fingers are feeling it today, two guitar practices in one day is hard going. I guess I shouldn’t be so lazy but at times I just need a day off playing. After that a restful evening for both of us.

February 21^st Here we are again, putting ourselves in self isolation. You know the old saying, “better to be safe than sorry”. Our first job was translating the rear of my driving licence, my ‘entitlements’ changed when I reached seventy yesterday. We’re still not sure but we think I am no longer allowed to drive manual cars. Hopefully the police station will be open for us to find out on Monday.

Once that was done it was Taobao time again, to stock up the cupboards. It was only a short list though, Nescafe coffee granules, baked beans, (not Heinz or even HP, but Chinese), Lipton’s tea for Huan, (cheap) and Tetley’s for me, (not so cheap). Why two different teas? Well Tetley’s is much stronger than Liptons, better for my taste. Whenever I mention Tetley’s I always remember a training course I went on with the R.A.F. Our classroom had no windows, for security reasons, and we were a small class. Our instructor got us ready for the day the same way every morning. He had the Tetley’s song written on the board. For those of you who can’t remember, it goes “Tetley’s, Tetletley’s, Flavour happy as can be, Tetley’s make tea bags, Make tea bags, Make tea.” He would then conduct us through the song with his board pointer. It was all good fun and certainly put us in a good mood to start the day. Maybe you should start your day with Tetley’s!

After lunch, and after my guitar practice, we took the plunge and did another bout of exercise with “Leslie Sansone” and “Walk at home 1 mile”. Once again we were both sweating and this time even Huan felt a change in her heartbeat. We’re still not ready to make a video of it yet though and we forgot to take any photos.

February 22^nd Yahoo! We were out in the big world today, it’s still there! It was nice to get some fresh air for a change and to see people, animals and insects as well as hear the birdies. Here’s our first little insect found very near to our area. Huan was warning me not to get too close as it would “hurt me and make my skin red”. You’d have loved the photo after this where it reared up with at least four, maybe six legs off the ground but unfortunately the camera operator failed and that was out of focus. Mind you this one’s not bad.

Our route for today was the mountain scenic walk. The first deviations came when we realised we couldn’t go our usual way, that takes us through someone else’s apartment complex where we will be barred from entry. Still we have another less used way, through some waste ground with a couple of abandoned buildings. We could get in there OK, the abandoned buildings had been demolished and there was no way out the other side. None of this stops us going on the mountain route; it just makes it a little longer. Quite a lot of people were doing exactly the same as us today, most with masks on, some without. It is a lovely feeling when you have no people and you can remove you mask!

I tried to take extra photos for my lovely readers today and even remembered to take the Fuji with me. One that was very difficult to take was this spider’s web. We could barely see it from the side of the road and it was almost impossible to see it in the camera viewfinder. Still, I got a photo or two and had a little play on the computer to give you this.

Our four legged friend was absent from her usual spot but I found her on the steps up to her home. She looked happy enough to see me, tail going like mad but she wouldn’t come down, I had to go up to talk to her.

We think she may have babies up at the farm house hence her reluctance to stray so far. She has a new friend up there, a little too far for me to get a decent photo and I didn’t want to upset the farmer, especially at this time. I think the new friend is a Tibetan Mastiff, an all black one. Maybe I’ll be able to get closer sometime in the future.

I think I may have been there just at the time for letting the chickens out too. They were all making their way to different parts of the forest, some uphill, some sideways and some downhill. This one stopped and gave me a look while I took its picture.

By this time Huan was a long way in front of me, she’s not over keen on this particular four legged friend. I sped up, just a little, to catch up with her and then we walked home through the town, just window shopping though. The only shop we went into was the farmers’ store where the rabbits had had babies again! Cute aren’t they?

I wasn’t too lazy today and managed my two daily practices. Huan was quieter than usual, her homework having been sent. With being in touch with the outside world again I was able to carry on with “The Bill”, keeping “Starsky and Hutch” in reserve for now.

February 23^rd Spent the morning cleaning up my FB timeline. I know not a lot of people do this but I like to know what’s there and how long it’s been there. Some things I remove after a day or two, others after longer periods of time. As an example, my birthday is now done and dusted so all birthday greetings have been removed. Huan had an hour’s homework with her team on WeChat. The teacher has split them into teams to help each other, they must have an hour together every day, Huan’s team are going for two. It might stop her killing her larynx if she only uses these two hours!

February 24^th Monday again, day of rest and shopping. I can’t remember what we got up to this morning so it probably wasn’t much. Shopping was after lunch as usual, not many people at all today, a perfect day for it. There were no shortages to speak of, none of any importance anyway so we’re good for another week.

Huan disappeared a few times, into the second bedroom, where she and her WeChat team tried to get their song sorted out. At times it drives me crazy but at least with the bedroom door shut my ears are not assaulted too much. God knows when they’ll all be singing together in person again.

We both had to go out today, down to the back gate, Huan the first couple of times and me after. Deliveries from Taobao now come that way, they are handed through the fence to us, the delivery drivers are not allowed into the complex at all. So what goodies did we get today then? First off was rodent repellent, something to spray outside the front door, I think it’s some kind of peppermint stuff. Let’s hope it works. Second and third were both mine I suppose, Nescafe and Tetley’s, that will keep me going another six months at least. Fourth was also mine, one hundred guitar picks. “What?” I hear you say, “Why so many?” Well, these are very thin picks, 0.46mm and good for beginners to practice with but, being so thin, they do break fairly easily.

Huan gave me a job this afternoon, not an easy one. Her phone would not allow her to open her WeChat account, instead giving her a message “not enough storage”. I did eventually get her back ‘online’ again but it wasn’t easy. I dread the day I have to move to an Android phone, I find my Nokia, which is a Windows phone, far easier to manage. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold out much longer though, phones are required for more and more things in China and the Apps will only work on IOS and Android. Perhaps I need a phone without all the bloatware!

And so, at the end of another day, another week, another episode, I’ll wrap this one up and store it on the PC. I still have no idea when uploads will once again be possible. Never mind, just think how much you’ll have to read by then. TTFN

Rules, Fresh Air and Self-Isolation

February 11^th Up before the street lamps today after a sleep that was less disturbed than usual. I was still worn out from yesterday though and was back in bed by half past nine. I was woken up by “Nurse Nightingale”, not the Florence type, more the bird type or even the “Hyacinth Bucket” type singing in my ear!

Today was another self isolation day, mostly because we were too lazy to do anything else. More photo aspect changing for me and more singing for Huan. I did the usual guitar and Chinese too, neither of which are improving as fast as I would like.

One of the benefits of all the recent restrictions has been a much quieter road in front of our house. We have even been hearing more birds than usual. Ominous forebodings of change came this afternoon though with the first two large trucks for a while going up towards the highway. I wonder how long it will be before the intercity buses start again. Mind you, many cities are now imposing restrictions on private cars too; maybe the worst is yet to come.

YouTube and the movie “Icon” for me in the evening while Huan was out doing her committee duties. She had to visit every resident in our building, take their details, ID card number, telephone number etc, and also take their photos. In exchange for this info the residents were given another face mask each. I suspect we are going to have more restrictions placed on us in the same way that areas in other towns have. Some places only allow one member of the household to exit the area once every two days. At least our freezer has something in it, enough for a week or two anyway.

February 12^th We did it, we escaped! The weather was fine today so we snuck out; well actually, we just walked out of the gate. Members of the committee were not too impressed with us but we explained that we were going downriver first and then to buy some food later.

It did feel nice to walk around outside with our masks below our chins. Mind you, other people from other parts of the city must have had similar ideas as we did see quite a few out today. It was not crowded by any means and everyone we saw had masks like us. When we got closer to each other, probably about ten metres, all masks went up and after passing each other, another few metres later, they went down again. It was also nice to see my bovine friends albeit from a distance. I doubt very much that they could hear me ‘mooing’ at them! About half way down our walk, before the turn round point, I took this picture for you, actually fourteen pictures stitched together, to show you the view.

As the rainy season hasn’t started yet the river was less ferocious than usual and we were able to get across using stepping stones that would normally be underwater.

Walking back into town on the other side we saw some more wildlife. Well, I suppose it’s not really all that wild but neither the goats nor the dog would allow me to get anywhere near them.

Our next stop was the market, yes, I know, we should avoid wet markets. Unfortunately, if you want food in China you don’t have much choice. Anyway, we bought half a duck and half a chicken, already cooked which we will cook again before we eat them. Huan needed some tofu and I suggested she buy some fish too. I think we need to buy some food every time we go out to make sure we have loads in the freezer should the situation deteriorate. Our market photo shows that it must have been a slow day!

Once safely ensconced at home we carried on with our usual routine. Dinner was nice though, roasted pre-cooked duck with sweet potatoes and other assorted veggies. Huan was the architect of that. I will do the pre-cooked chicken next week, but boiled rather than roasted. Other than that all I did, apart from watch movies, was make a list for tomorrow, “Blog, photos, scanning, filing, guitar, Chinese etc, (where etc is anything I forgot when I made the list).

February 13th Self isolation again today, just as well as the weather had turned and it was raining again. First job, catch up on news and social media, done. Second, yesterday’s Blog entry, done. Third, scanning, done. Fourth, photos aspect changing, done up to the end of 2013. Fifth, filing, done. Sixth, guitar, will I ever get the ‘F’ chord right, done. Seventh, Chinese, I was lazy and just reviewed yesterday’s lesson, done. All duties completed I watched a couple of movies on YouTube, ‘Final Approach’, not too bad, and ‘The Employer’, not really my type of film but I watched it anyway. So that’s it, another boring day in paradise.

February 14^th We’re indoors again, we decided two days in and one day out should be enough to keep us sane, and the weather is miserable again. Today was much as yesterday but with the added inconvenience of no Facebook and no YouTube for most of the day. That meant I finished reading one book, started and finished a second one and then started a third one. Anybody got piles of old books they can send me? (F.O.C. of course!) I finished my day by starting a binge watch of Starsky and Hutch, I have all four seasons on DVD. That should keep me going for a while and then there’s a few more to carry on with after.

February 15^th Fresh air again, with an overcast sky so definitely not too hot. Today we went along the main through road and back along the river, masks on and off as required! First for today, here’s quiz for you. Can you spot the deliberate errors with these two cars?

Get them? Well the white one is a Land Wind which is a copy of the Land Rover Evoque. Note the small badge on the grill, it does say Land Wind but it’s almost identical to a Land Rover badge. The mucky brown one, (well I don’t know what colour it is, I’m a man), is a Ford, that’s true. As you can probably guess, it’s not a Mustang, it’s a Mondeo.

I did take a couple of photos of the streets but they are nowhere near as deserted as other cities in China. It looks just like a sleepy summer afternoon when there are no Snowbirds here. There are obvious signs that something is amiss, there are no groups of musicians, groups of singers or groups of dancers.

Next up is one of my three legged friends, yes, I have more than one. Actually, this one has four legs but one doesn’t work so well. His ‘Mum’ looks after the public toilets where we join the river to walk back. If I see her ‘office’ door open I only have to clap my hands and say something and he’s out in a flash. His Mum usually follows for a chat, today she stayed inside, probably in view of the rules about staying away from people and wearing masks. Pets don’t care about those things of course, and as I have read that Covid 19 cannot be passed on to cats and dogs I wasn’t worried either. I must apologise though, my mask fell off my nose and I didn’t notice. It’s a free issue one and is a little on the small side for my big schnoz. So here we are, bosom buddies as always.

And here he is having a chat to Huan, who, although you can’t see her, is desperately trying to ignore him and not touch him.

What would a Blog post be without a panorama now and then? This is on the way back home, you can see that the weather is not so hot. In fact a lot of the time we could feel tiny droplets on our bare skin, I suspect that rather than rain it was actually clouds. Nice view though.

Some of my bovine friends were relaxing down by the river, giving me a lazy look, probably knowing they were reasonably safe from rampaging human beings like me. Once back to civilisation we looked for baps or sausages, they were nowhere to be found and the usual Saturday market is closed until further notice. There are still people around though, living their lives just like always, except most are wearing masks, as you can see in this photo.

Our last stop before coming home was the pharmacy, I needed to top up my supply of Aspirin for my circulation. Guess what? Our usual pharmacy had run out of Aspirin. Huan was surprised until I told her that Aspirin was the medicine of choice for colds and flu when we were young. We did get some from another pharmacy so no worries, that gives me sixty days supply now.

After lunch it was more aspect editing, finished up to the end of 2016 now. My phone was bought in 2014 and I think that’s when I started using 16:9. Only a few needed editing here and there, some from Huan’s phone, some from other people, some screen shots and the occasional one I had cropped differently.

Then, I’m sad to say, it was back to normal, or worse than normal, no access to the real internet again. You don’t realise how much you rely on Facebook until it’s not there. Hopefully, my family will understand that no news is good news. My brothers and sisters probably will because we were ‘travelling people’ long before the internet. In fact at least four of us were travelling before Mam and Dad ever had a telephone in the house. Communication was by ‘airmail’. I do have to say though that the postal services were much better in those days.

February 16^th So, I had a plan, start with guitar, do some Chinese, repeat again in the afternoon. YouTube ambushed me! No, my VPN is not working but the unreliable free proxy was this morning. I was down the rabbit hole for two hours, until coffee time, listening to a lot of the good stuff from the sixties and seventies. I did get a fair bit of guitar in after lunch and reviewed four old Chinese lessons, some of the ones where it had taken me more than one attempt to get 100% on the tests.

Did some checking of ‘outgoings’ today and realised there was no record of December’s or January’s needles and no mention of them in my medical file either. Minor panic until I checked the side pocket of our computer travelling bag where a whole load of receipts were found, silly me.

When Huan finished her singing, which is driving me crazy, I managed to get some more practice in on the guitar. I am trying to increase my ‘chord changes in a minute’ by using a metronome and setting the tempo above my last figure. It seems to be working although that darned ‘F’ chord still won’t play nicely! Just so that you know I’m not fibbing, here’s the latest picture of my poor fingers.

I found bad news this evening as well. I thought my photo aspect ratio work was finished but it seems I started from 2007 which means I still have to do 1941 to 2006! Not all will be suitable for the 16:9 aspect ratio though so it shouldn’t take as long as what I’ve already done.

February 17^th Our routine is decided, by us I hasten to add, until such time as we get the ‘all clear signal’. It will be Sundays – home, Mondays – shopping, Tuesdays – home, Wednesdays – walking, Thursdays and Fridays – home, Saturdays – walking. On walking days we will try and avoid crowded places. On home days, we are thinking about using one of Huan’s fitness videos, so far, only thinking about it!

So today being Monday, shopping it was. Some of the shelves are beginning to look a little empty although the only things we couldn’t buy today were kitchen towel, Dettol, bleach and salad cream (or mayonnaise). The cashier told us that they were having trouble getting things into the store. We presume she meant from the mainland. So far there are no food shortages but it looks very much like milk will shortly be gone too. I’ll have to do what my mother did and water down carnation milk, we can probably order than on Taobao.

Managed to complete 1997 photo editing so not too bad a job today. What is surprising is that sometimes, the whole of 1987 for example, I don’t have a single photo. Hopefully the children have some from that time for their memories when they get older.

Finally, because it’s Monday, we come to the end of another episode. Who knows when I’ll get the chance to upload it though, and the previous few? Never mind, you’ll have a lot to read when they eventually get there. Bye for now!

Pests, Battening Down, Scarcities & Empty Hospitals

February 4^th Intruder alert! It appears we may have mouse trouble again. (Maybe it’s because this is the year of the rat! In Chinese the characters for rat and mouse are the same.) We’ve found a little poop on the shoe rack and Huan’s bag of seeds on the coffee table has been infiltrated. Searching the internet I think it may be a mouse. It also got to the fruit, here’s a tomato it nibbled.

Sat in the house I felt I was going stir-crazy so I decided an afternoon stroll was in order. This chap has got the right idea I suppose. I wonder if you have the same question as me, “Why does he have an upside down umbrella on his umbrella?”

Going out also gave me a chance to visit the sister shop of our usual Monday one and check to see if they had any Dettol or Mayonnaise / Salad Cream. Sometimes the two stores don’t have the same items out of stock, unfortunately today they did. I also went round the medicine shops looking for a ‘point it at your forehead’ thermometer. We do have a thermometer but the battery has gone and it’s doubtful we’ll find a new one before the virus crisis is over. You’ll tell me that I can use the old fashioned type, which is true, although I broke the last one we had in Harbin and also broke one in hospital in Haikou. Clumsy, aren’t I? However, whichever type I chose today would have made no difference because, yes, you guessed it, nobody has any in stock!

Going out also gave me the opportunity to visit the only shop we know that sells pesticides and such like. Last time we went there he gave us glue mats but today he gave me some kind of poison. Huan sent me the Chinese which Google translate tells me that the poison is an anti-coagulant. I only hope the mouse doesn’t hide in the furniture somewhere while he dies!

Our last ‘news of the day’ is that Huan has completed her knitting job. With the extension of the school holidays by the time the kids get all these jumpers they won’t need them.

February 5th Escaped! At least for a short while, we took a walk to the hospital to get my PSA blood test done. As usual we were zapped on the way in, both of us OK. Normally, we would have to head for the third floor, today they told us it was closed; we could see a doctor on the second floor. I don’t what his discipline was but he was using the 神经外科 (Shénjīng wàikē) office. “What does that mean?” I hear you ask, to which I reply “Why, neurosurgery of course!”

On our way home we passed by the outside market to get some more of that lovely Xīnjiāng bread. So far our markets don’t appear to have been affected much by the ongoing virus crisis. It was still reasonably busy and everything was available.

Being good little people we went home from there. Coming back into our complex we spotted three people who were not following the government’s suggestions. We think they are new ‘snowbirds’, at least we haven’t seen them before. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Nothing much for the rest of the day except Huan had to do her duty and go and knock on everyone’s door in our building and tell the occupants that if they reported to security with their Hukou card they would be issued with one face mask. How much good that will do when the advice is to throw away masks after one use I don’t know!

February 6^th We escaped into the big wide world again today, our excuse being the collection of my PSA results. Our plan was to visit our favourite market first and buy some baps and sausages. The first three entrances we passed into that housing complex were all blocked off. The fourth one was still open so we got in through there. Bad news inside though, no sausage man! The bap man was there but he told us this would probably be our last chance. Everyone in the complex is being issued with ID cards specifically for that location, nobody else will be allowed in. As we left through the main gate one of the guards also told us this would be our last visit. Here’s the queue of residents waiting to sign for their ID cards and get back in. Spot the man at the front who is obviously having some argy bargy.

At the back of the queue was another security guard spraying people’s shoes.

Outside this compound there are a few shops and restaurants which were still open. Each day now we see that Wuzhishan is battening down more and more, despite there being no confirmed cases of the virus here yet. People are being advised to stay indoors, wear masks if they have to go out, avoid crowded places, not to visit other people’s houses, not to congregate in groups for dancing or singing, the list goes on.

One problem doesn’t appear to have a solution yet though and that is the availability of certain items. Almost every medicine shop we passed had notices like this one; they’re not even letting customers over the threshold.

Huan told me that most of the pharmacies that we passed had signs saying, no masks available, no cold medicines available, no disinfectant and no thermometers available. Now if you suspect you have the virus you are supposed to stay at home and self medicate and only go to the hospital if you have to. It could be difficult self medicating if there are no medicines to do it with!

Life, and death, goes on as usual. Being the year of the rat I would guess this one is not too happy. It’s not ours! It wasn’t dead when we saw it but there wasn’t a great deal we could do, it was clearly well on the way there. The local government puts poison down at various locations around the town; this poor chap has obviously found some.

We took a circuitous route home, trying to find a battery for our little thermometer. We were in luck so at least we’ll be able to check our temperatures. Coming back we passed 三月三 广场 (Sān yuè sān guǎngchǎng), otherwise known as the town square. Normally, whatever the time of day, there will be some life here, OAPs dancing or doing太極. (Tàijí), children young and old playing, people sitting just passing the time of day. Not so today, it looked like this.

Going into the hospital we received yet another zapping with the head thermometer, both of us within the healthy range. Some people have been heard to ask why we need all these checks and rules when the virus is not in Wuzhishan. Trying to explain that just because there are no confirmed cases does not mean it is not here is just about impossible. Anyway, we were there for my PSA results which I’m not too happy with. I won’t worry too much yet, hopefully May’s test will be back in Haikou in the usual laboratory.

February 7^th Self isolation again today, Huan spent the morning making stuffed eggplant, vegetable balls, meat balls and crispy fired flour. I spent mine of Facebook and then searching for snippets of poems for the rest of the months of the year. We had just sat down after lunch when an almighty cry of “Bob!” came from the living room. Our intruder had appeared, doddery on his feet although still a little nimble. ‘Mousehunt’ came next, remember that movie? We did manage to get him out of the front door by which time he was slowing down so we caught him the same way people catch spiders, an upturned Dove chocolate tub which I then rapidly sellotaped all round. Once I was satisfied that he was now almost comatose I took him down to the large garbage bins and left him there. Hopefully the scavenging grannies are taking notice of the government advice to stay indoors.

Once home again it was a case of moving all the living room furniture away from the walls to do a clean up. Huan mopped first with a Dettol solution, I then Jiffed any marks left behind before Huan did a final Dettol mop. Needless to say, after all that it was a hot shower each, all clothes into the washing machine to be washed with soap powder, Comfort and of course, some Dettol. Then for me, it was back to the interwebs yet again to search for some method to keep rodents away from the apartment. We have no idea how this one got in!

February 8^th Another day of self isolation, it wasn’t planned but the weather didn’t look conducive to a walk down the river. Never mind, I got a lot more photos done. I didn’t get much further along date wise, the months I did had a lot of photos, over a thousand in total.

What do you call your cousin’s son? Well, from a genealogy standpoint, your cousin's child is your first cousin once removed, but the common name to call them is niece or nephew. They would call you aunt or uncle, and your children would simply call them cousins… although of course, they are really second cousins. Confused? Maybe this will help.

So, what’s that all about then? Well my nephew, a.k.a. my first cousin once removed, a.k.a. Kevin was visiting his Grandmother in Pwllheli, my Aunty Sally, so we had a nice long talk on Skype. I’ve always had a soft spot for my uncles and aunties, I think because I grew up with them and my Gran until I was eight years old. Over the years I’ve never kept in touch as much as I should have so I feel very grateful for the chance to chat to them now and then. Needless to say, it also gives me a very happy feeling inside!

Some bad news on the rodent front, the bait from outside the front door was eaten last night so there must have been more than one. So far, there is no trace in the house so we are keeping our fingers well and truly crossed. More bait was laid out tonight, when we come back from Haikou we’ll need to check again and see if any further action is required.

February 9^th Rain stopped play! Well it stopped walkies anyway. Another day doing not a lot in the house. Huan tried to learn her latest two songs for homework, I spent the afternoon switching between a documentary on “Mad Mitch” in Aden and a 2007 movie called “Flood”. The reason I was alternating between them was YouTube was playing up a lot today. Mind you, I did manage two sessions of guitar and two of Chinese, every cloud and all that.

February 10^th “Ridin' along in my automobile, My baby beside me at the wheel”. That was us just after three thirty this morning, the difference being of course that we did have ‘a particular place to go’. Yes, today was needle day. Traffic was very light indeed; in fact in some places it was almost non-existent. We passed the ‘temperature stop’ in Haikou just before six o’clock, the thermometer guy was asleep and the other guy, a policeman I think, was on his phone. Once at the hospital, around half past six, we ate our prepared breakfast, egg mayonnaise sandwiches. We had decided that restaurants in the vicinity of the hospital would be out of bounds due to them usually being full of patients!

I had expected the hospital to be chock a block when the desks opened at half past seven, I was wrong. Here’s Huan waiting for the shutter to go up.

She actually got served second because we had to go back to the door and have our temperatures checked. The doctors won’t see anyone with a fever. That sounds odd until you realise that this hospital already has a separate building specifically for this kind of problem. Anyway, she paid for my consultation and my number was 01. Here you can see the corridor and the waiting room of that department just before eight.

From there it was down to the treatment station where again I was first in the queue, not only first, but the only one in the queue. Usually this place has quite a crowd on intravenous drips and the odd crying baby or two. This was it today.

We were back to the car park by half past eight, normally crammed by this time with a long line of cars waiting to get in, not so today.

On our way back to Wuzhishan we stopped at a fuel station in Haikou just in case the ones on the highway were shut for some reason. It’s a good job we did; this is where we took our break. Note the lack of cars and the fact that everything is closed.

Last item for the day, and for the week, this is what we drove into coming back into Wuzhishan, the temperature stop. The first picture is the two nurses, one each, along with the police to check our IDs and address. The second picture is our car being disinfected. Some people could consider this scary, others may thing it’s over the top, personally, I’m quite happy with it.

Two tired teddy bears rested for the rest of the day, apart from Huan singing and me doing dashcam work that is. See you next week!