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!