Sick Boss, Nurse Bob, Vice Versa, New Year.

December 27^th Shopping on a Tuesday, for a change, there was no need yesterday. I can’t say I enjoyed it much today; the queues were longer than usual for the grocery weighing and pricing. It appeared that there may have been a few more customers than usual but the hold up seemed to be that the two people pricing and packing were new to the job.

After lunch, I decided we should investigate the hanging plants on the rooftop. I asked Huan to accompany me so that she could record all the hard work that I did. As it happens, I didn’t do any at all! The plant is easy to reach, not dangerous to hold, but far too entrenched for me to be able to pull it out. Even if I was strong enough I would probably damage the roof tiles.

The view was pretty good from the roof, probably a lot nicer than the views many of you have at this time of the year. Are you jealous? Not even a little bit?

Huan was worried about me last night, I had lots of sneezing fits after dinner. This morning I was fine but she was beginning to feel under the weather. After our rooftop sojourn I took her temperature, not too bad, 36.7, but then sent her to bed anyway. She had made some dumplings earlier so no work in the kitchen was required, from either of us.

Around half past nine I checked on her again, she was sweating cobblers and her temperature had gone up to 36.9, still nothing to worry about yet. Despite living on a sub-tropical island we also have the flu season every year, probably due to all the snowbirds visiting. So has Huan got the flu, that’s what her symptoms are, or has she got Covid? At the moment Chinese people are all hiding indoors to avoid Covid and of course we are not being tested anymore. I suspect that most people who get sick, whatever their symptoms, will be telling all their friends and neighbours that they have had Covid. Whatever Huan has, hopefully, by the morning, she will be on the way back to her normal self.

December 28^th Unfortunately the chief was not back to her usual bubbly self so she was sent back to bed as the patient and I stayed home as the nurse. I didn’t want to leave her alone in the house until she was substantially more improved. It didn‘t take long after lunch before she was back under the sheets yet again and yet again very soon after dinner.

By half past five I had to leave her ‘home alone’ so that I could go and get our lottery tickets. Here we can only buy for the next draw unlike the UK where you can buy weeks in advance. Today being Wednesday I bought today’s sports lottery tickets and tomorrow’s welfare lottery tickets. That’s the furthest in advance that is possible. The weather had also changed and we had a little rain but I needed to walk so managed about six kilometres. Remember we showed you the future beer garden area? Well this is what it looks like today. The last time we passed it the gents who were running it told us that due to a lack of customers it was closing, before ever opening!

Further upriver I came across the two diggers; they had progressed to the downriver side of the Fodelai bridge. It looks as though they are building a whole new riverbank here.

As usual, chatting to people when out walking, they often ask where Huan is. When I replied that she was at home, sick and sleeping, they invariably responded with “阳了吗” (yángle ma). This is the current response and it is related to these Covid times, a rough translation is “Has she tested positive?’ We have no idea of course so I just told them that it was only 小的病 (Xiǎo de bìng), a small illness. Arriving home I found Huan in much better spirits, sat on the sofa and on the phone to Yu and Zhaode. Yu was advising Huan to stay home because it appears that there are sick people where we live! Strange how they still know more than we do despite the fact that they have moved to another village. Yu also told Huan that the ‘fourth booster program had begun’. I told Huan to ignore her until we have valid information provided locally.

December 29^th Her ladyship was better this morning, but not well enough for walkies. I stayed home to keep her company with the plan to have a little walk after dinner just like yesterday. As the afternoon wore on I cooked dinner for us both and then decided to defer my walk until tomorrow. Before too long I started shivering and not feeling so good. We swapped places for a while, I became the patient and Huan became the nurse. My temperature was on the way up while hers was now safely down. I was up to 37.2, still not too bad though. While I sat in my chair I didn’t feel too bad, but as soon as I moved, to the kitchen or the bathroom, my body began shivering violently. An early night was on the cards for me!

December 30^th I have to say that I am beginning to wonder if this is just a seasonal cold, the flu perhaps or is it the dreaded Covid. There wasn’t a single part of me that felt comfortable last night. A lot of the time I felt as though someone else was in my skin trying to fight their way out. When I eventually roused my weary bones Huan kept trying to feed me. She had forgotten that my way is 24 hours on water only and then see how it goes. Thankfully, she is improving as each day rolls by, not much of a nurse though!

Another early night was on the cards for me, another disturbed sleep, although not as bad as the one I had yesterday. My temperature seems to be up and down like a yoyo, so I checked Huan’s, hers is all over the place too. Neither of us are burning up so nothing to worry about.

December 31^st New Year’s Eve, “Do you want to go out for dinner?” asked the Catering Director. I’m afraid I was on day two of no solids, at least in the morning. After lunch, Huan’s lunch that is, I went back to bed again, whatever this particular bug is it has certainly knocked me for six. Maybe Huan, and her WeChat is right, maybe it is the dreaded Covid.

We did brave the big outdoors though, Huan wanted to by some fresh chicken for the proverbial chicken soup for the soul. That will be for tomorrow though. Both of us were well prepared for the weather today, not that it was cold, but we were.

The more people that we spoke to the more I understood that Huan was telling them that we had more than just a seasonal flu. At one stage, at home, she even suggested that we should go and see the doctor, not for her of course, but for me because of my heart. I respectfully declined. More than likely we would have ended up in a room like this.

As you have probably guessed Huan had been pestering me all day about what I was going to eat, it had been forty eight hours since my last meal. When we went up the steps to Baijiahui the lamp of memory switched on and she knew what we were there for. Crisps and cola, only ready salted, none of those more exotic brands, and only real Coca Cola. This was my medicine this evening; it also doubled as my dinner!

In retrospect, that may well have been not the right choice this time. I seem to have a memory of feeling woozy and then perhaps fainting but I don’t know. Huan told me that she came into the office and found me slumped in my chair, with no colour at all in my face and breathing, as she put it, like her father did before he passed away. She was frightened and asked me if she should phone 120, the emergency ambulance, to which I supposedly replied yes. I don’t remember any of that. Eventually Huan slapping my face brought me round and I got her to cancel the ambulance and agreed to go straight to bed. I had to make a slight detour via the little boys’ room, the coke and crisps were coming back from all sides!

January 1^st I slept in after Huan got up, for another few hours in fact. It was almost midday when I dragged myself out of bed. I think I needed the rest. We had no plans for today at all except chicken soup. Very nice it was too. I spent a lot of time worrying about yesterday and trying to decide whether a visit to the hospital was needed or not. No decision made yet.

January 2^nd This one really threw us, both of us are sleeping much longer, me even longer than Huan. It was another half past ten for me this morning. We had our first coffee for days, it was OK but still didn’t taste right to me. We had solid foods for lunch, a half bap sandwich for me and a bit more for Huan. Swallowing was a little uncomfortable.

After lunch I had to get out for some fresh air a little exercise, Huan agreed to accompany me. I did give her the choice to stay home, honest! We had no intention of going a long way, just along the road to somewhere and then back into town.

Coming back into town we found that the main road bridge has also had barriers installed on it. We did find out a little more today though, this particular barrier had a notice showing the replacement of a lot of the large sewer pipes. This is going to happen on both sides of the river all the way down to the sewage works past our house. We will not complain.

It also looks like the river may gain a retaining wall in one or two spots, that we’ll have to wait and see if we guessed right later on.

And so, another week, another month and another year have come to an end, a rather depressing end in our case. We hope you all had a better new year than we did and we wish you a very Happy 2023. May you all be blessed with all you need for a healthy and happy life!