Complacency?, Snail Mail, Needle

March 10^th Another very lazy morning, Huan watching the TV and me surfing the web. All I was finding was more and more information about the bug causing all the problems. It seems that every day they learn something new, today it was how far it could travel in the air and how long it could live on surfaces. Both figures were far higher than before. I also see that Western countries are now facing more problems; their data is shifting, upwards! What is more of a worry, as I see it anyway, is the complacency in the background. Here in Wuzhishan everyone seems of the opinion that it’s all over now, despite people in the North of China still having restrictions imposed on their movements.

Shopping was on today’s agenda, the supermarket was nearly empty when we got there, of people not produce I hasten to add. We even managed to get our beloved kitchen towel and a couple of bottles of bleach today. We still have to wait for Dettol though.

On the way home we stopped at the post office for me to collect the mail while Huan went to check the lottery ticket shop to see if they were back in business yet and then the police station for her local Hukou card. Her results, the lottery should start again later this week, no sign of her card yet. My results, a birthday card from one of my sisters, spot the date it was sent.

At least it wasn’t a letter from the pensions people, yet!

March 11^th Miserable weather this morning so we played couch and computer potatoes. After lunch the sun showed its face so we decided a walk around the town was in order. Not much to report, fewer people were wearing masks, life slowly coming back to normal. We spotted some goats along the riverbank behind the house but they’re not included in the photos, you’ve seen them before, further downriver. Instead, we thought you might like a view of the main street, going up to the main post office and then onwards to Sanya. We see the ‘pointy’ mountain from all sorts of places, no idea what it is, except that it’s not the famous five finger mountain.

The post office is where we turned right back towards home, and where we took this next photo. It’s a nice bit of misspelling for you. What makes this one even worse is that the same sign is spelt correctly just a few metres away on the left of the main entrance. You’d think someone, even if they don’t know English, would realise that the two signs are not the same.

Not much else to report, I did find a replacement for “The Bill”, still on YouYube and that is “The Midsomer Murders”. That should keep me going for a while.

March 12^th Struggled to open my eyes this morning, could have had something to do with the time, half past three! Yes, it was Haikou day again, or needle day as I prefer to call it and as usual we wanted to be there and back in one day. Here we are, just starting out.

The highway looks deserted doesn’t it? It wasn’t. Traffic was pretty much back to normal today with quite a lot of cars and trucks, the numbers increasing as dawn approached and we neared Haikou. There was one exception though, no inter-city buses.

We were still early arriving at the hospital, as planned, so it was breakfast, (ham, cheese and tomato baps) in the car park just like last time. What wasn’t like last time was getting in, it seemed we needed the green “Healthy” QR codes on our phones. Here’s Huan trying her best to sort it out.

Even with the help of the security guard she couldn’t complete the process. The poor old woman in the queue had even more of a problem; she had no phone at all! I lost count of the number of times she went back and forth between her husband and the security guard, she was so worried as to whether or now she could get her husband in to see a doctor. I then saw this sign near the door. So, if you have a healthy QR code you can go this way, if you are staff or family visitors. All patients, with or without a healthy code had to be pre-screened. That meant standing in line, getting zapped by a thermometer, filling in all your contact details and then walking through an airport style fever scanner.

Success, we were in, and once we were it was pretty much business as usual although whilst busier than last month, it wasn’t back up to normal levels yet. One slight worry, for me anyway, we met another gentleman in the ‘needle’ room with the same box from the pharmacy as me. I’ve been told I have to have these needles for three years, he is now starting his fifth year! Hopefully that will not be the case with me. I guess we should have asked him if he had a full or partial prostatectomy and then compared our experiences more. Anyway, we were out by half past eight and could get on with the rest of our day.

Our first port of call was RT Supermarket, where once again we were zapped, scanned and logged, because we had no healthy QR code. It was good to see their bakery section was still operating and we loaded up with sliced bread. Huan bought some boneless fish but we were unable to buy the necessities of butter, cheese and sandwich meat.

Carrefour was our next port of call, but we failed miserably there. They were working on the healthy QR code only, so if you didn’t have one, you didn’t get in!

We had a choice now, try Corner’s Deli, or go back onto Haidian island and try the Grocery. We opted for the latter and a good choice it was too. We were zapped and logged again of course, but no need for the QR code. The cool box was loaded up with butter, cheese and some German bratwurst. From the shelves we found Raisin Bran and our much loved pickled beetroot, our shopping trip turned out well after all!

The ride home was exhausting, Huan nodded off more than once, I managed not to. Luckily, the service stations were back in action, enough for us anyway, and we were able to have lunch and much needed coffee for me. When I say coffee, I mean bottled of course, there’s no good cafes on this highway yet. I bought an extra coffee for the anticipated second stop as I doubted very much I would get all the way home without it. It was a good decision.

Home and straight to bed, we both desperately needed an OAP kip today. Huan was up again by quarter past three and gave me a call. I did respond but it was almost as bad as getting out of bed this morning. I felt as though someone had super-glued my eyelids together while I slept!

Dashcam work took a fair amount of the rest of the day, but what took the most time was getting a “Healthy QR Coce” onto Huan’s phone. Her storage was at the limit but I had no idea why, she doesn’t have any programmes loaded, except WeChat. I guess it’s all Huawei ‘bloatware’. In the end I did a factory reset which then allowed me to install AliPay and WeChat. Going through AliPay allowed us to give her the QR code so she’s fine now. I, on the other hand, am still stuck until such time as I buy myself a new phone!

March 13th Well we woke up a little easier than yesterday! Our plan for today was a short walk around the town in the morning, get some important stuff out of the way, and then our indoor exercise in the afternoon. First we had a little browse of the internet. According to Chinese news, the worst of the virus is over now, there are far fewer new cases in the Wuhan / Hubei area and it seems that there are more cases among incoming travellers.

And off we went, two happy little teddy bears. Before long it became apparent that the local people must have interpreted the news rather differently to us. In other words they didn’t hear or read (in Chinese of course) “the worst is over”, they heard “Everything’s fine now, you can return to normal”! Some masks were still being worn but small restaurants and shops once again had their chairs on the pavements and tea was being drunk everywhere. Our first port of call was the important stuff mentioned up above, the lottery ticket shop! Here’s Huan, happy with some previous (small) winning tickets and with money in hand to buy the weekend’s.

From there it was a short walk down to the riverside and the first thing we noticed was that the tea shops were once again doing a thriving business. Why there were so many people today we had no idea, it’s only Friday, a normal working day. Perhaps they were all off because of the virus still? Spot the masks!

Carrying on along the riverside, taking the slightly long way home so that we could buy some Xinjiang bread, we noticed that almost everything was back to normal here too. People playing instruments, this time normally and not two metres apart, singers with them, dancers too. The only groups missing were the large singing groups like Huan’s.

And finally, today’s wildlife, which I was able to get quite close to before it flew away. As I was getting into position to take the photo it actually turned its head to look at me. I only had my phone with me today; I wonder what a Fuji photo would have been like.

Our planned exercise went by the wayside, Huan had an afternoon nap, and I was also feeling a little bit tired too. I skipped the exercise but didn’t sleep, instead I carried on with dashcam work and searching for phones. I’m still not buying one yet though!

March 14^th Out for a slightly longer walk than recently but still nowhere near as long as I would like. Today’s walk was along the main road to the doggy toilet and then back along the river. No, it’s not really a doggy toilet, it’s a public convenience where the cleaner has a dog that always remembers me. Sometimes explaining routes is easier this way. The dog was there, and happy to see me as usual. His mum stayed away from us, she stayed in her little office. No photos because you’ve seen this dog before. Instead you can see a tributary flowing into the main river.

Quite a few fishermen were out today, some fishing while some just appeared to be lazing by the river. Walkers were aplenty too. One walker, whose husband we later found out was a fisherman, left her little pooch resting under her electric scooter. She also told us that she thought her dog was很可爱 (Hěn kě'ài), this means ‘so cute’ or ‘very cute’. I suppose you could call him that and at least, unlike his movie counterpart he wasn’t afraid, or petrified. This is him back under the scooter after coming out for a chat and a stroke.

A little later on we spotted our white bird again and as usual tried to take some photos. You’ll know by now that I can never get close enough but today when we got home and checked the photos, there was a surprise. Huan was often wondering if these birds would ever lay eggs to make sure we have a lot more around. I doubt very much whether they will stay around but there is now a chick. You can see it slightly to the left of the white one taking off and you’ll see by the colour why we didn’t see it in ‘real life’.

And our last photo of the day, a tattoo parlour. Actually, I thought “Tattoo” was the name of the RV company, it was Huan who pointed out that it is an actual tattoo parlour. Today I only got photos of the outside, he was busy inside and with my needle foibles I didn’t really want to go inside. A long time ago, between 1970 and 1973, I visited a tattoo parlour in Hong Kong, Pinky’s if I remember rightly, quite a few times. On every occasion I was drunk on arrival, to put it mildly, but had sobered up a bit by the time I got to the front of the queue. Fear of needles then set in and I chickened out every time! Maybe some other time I will venture in for you, but just for a look, not a tattoo.

So we walked just over nine kilometres day, not fast and no hills, it took us nearly two and a half hours. Our plan was to do our indoor exercises this afternoon. It wasn’t a very cunning plan and it failed, miserably. Sat in front of the computer I couldn’t keep my eyes open so both of us retired for an afternoon OAP nap. Waking up from that, neither of us felt like doing the exercise so we procrastinated and said we’d do it tomorrow. Maybe, having had to self isolate and not being able to go so far, we are not used to longer walks any more. More practice needed!

March 15^th Miserable weather today so we stayed in this morning. At least it gave me a chance to catch up on my guitar practice, I had missed a day when we went to Haikou and hadn’t made it up yet. With a practice this morning and another after dinner I’m back on track again. That doesn’t mean I’m getting any better though! Staying in during the morning also meant we were not too exhausted for our indoor exercise this afternoon. Our plan is to keep going with this one, the “Walk at Home 1 Mile” until the end of the month and then graduate to the “Walk at Home 2 Mile”. Another video will be made next month. Apart from the exercise and guitar it was quite a quiet day, for both of us.

March 16^th Our weather today was very English, it rained all day, somewhere between drizzle and downpour. Luckily it’s Monday so no walks planned, no exercise either, just shopping. That went without a hitch today although there does seem to be a shortage of granulated sugar. That’s more than likely due to supply difficulties rather than panic buying.

Huan also had a trip to the lottery store to buy today’s and tomorrow’s tickets and to collect our winnings from the weekend. They were huge, ¥35.00! It’s all good practice though for when the big one eventually comes in.

A good day for me, on Skype. First I had #1 son, checking on me, which also allowed me to check on him! All is well at his end, he works from home most of the time. After talking to him I was also able to call one of my younger brothers, turns out he is in Indonesia now. I’m pleased to say that as far as this virus goes he is also well.

And so we come to the end of another not very exciting week. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we can get out and about a bit more. 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!

Dreary Weather, Face Masks and Knitting.

January 28^th As you may or may not be aware, all Chinese people have a ‘Hukou”. This is like an I.D. card. Huan has a card, which acts as her I.D. and a book which is her ‘household registration’. Despite the fact that we live in Hainan her registration is in Dalian. Last night Huan was contacted by her ‘Area Boss’ in Dalian. They knew she had flown through Wuhan to Dalian and wanted more details. While some in the West believe I.D. cards are the bane of all evil, in this case it shows how they can also be beneficial. The government will be able to track all those people who have travelled through Wuhan and keep tabs on them. Huan will probably be contacted again in a week or so to see if she is still healthy or has come down with the bug.

As for today, we were confined to barracks, not because of the Wuhan bug but because of the weather. Wuzhishan was completely encircled by clouds over the mountains again and it rained nearly all day. All I needed was a fire in the living room and Radio 2 on the radio and I could have been back in good old Blighty!

January 29^th The weather was still miserable today, clouds all around again, but this time without the rain. That meant we got out for a walk, along the main street and back along the riverside coming home via the sausage market. It was like a British Sunday afternoon walk, Huan had on a knee length coat, I was wearing jeans, shirt and hoodie. The hood stayed down though, my hair needs fresh air too! I forgot to take the big camera with me but there wasn’t really much to take pictures of anyway. There were less people than expected; I guess some are staying indoors because they are wary of the ‘bug’. Of those who were out I would guess less than half were wearing masks despite the Hainan government suggesting they be worn. Huan and I will wear them in crowded places only.

Only one of us needed an OAP kip this afternoon, me. I felt very cold under the blanket and then woke up with a headache and the beginnings of flu symptoms. I’m trying not to worry too much yet, Huan has shown no signs of any discomfort at all since she returned. I gave up and took some Chinese medicine, highly recommended by the CMO, (Huan) twice before bedtime. By then I also had a splitting headache so my forehead, my temples, below my eyes and under my nose got a liberal application of Tiger Balm too.

January 30^th My headache was nearly gone, still there but not too bad, this morning. The flu symptoms had eased as well. The boss says I need to take the medicine today as well, so being an obedient soldier, I will.

Our weather was better today, still a little on the chilly side, but a walk in the fresh air was definitely what the doctor ordered. We took the other side of the river again, opposite our house, so that we could make the most of the sun. I had intended that we went up to the small village at the other side of the bridge to nowhere and turned to follow the irrigation canal. We were stopped! The village had put a guard post to keep everyone who is not from there from going inside. We tried to explain that we were not going to go inside but that fell on deaf ears. When we reached the road we passed the entrance to the village where we saw this sign, but with no guard point for some reason.

Once by the canal, I decided to give you a panorama from that side. You can see our complex of six buildings nearest to the river with a few villas in front of us. Our building is the second from the right. Behind our flats there used to be a mountain with rubber trees, and cows and things, that’s all gone and been replaced by what I like to refer to as the ‘council estate’. If you’re interested this photo was stitched, four photos each on two rows, eight in total.

Both of us feeling like an amble rather than a walk we stuck to the riverside so, as we had no photos on Tuesday or Wednesday, I’m going to bombard you with panoramas today. Here’s the first one, taken just after the sluice gates, you can see them on the right.

The next one is just a little further upriver and is Huan’s choice. I made two panoramas here, one much longer than the other. I liked the other, Huan preferred this.

And our last one for the day is at the next bridge where we crossed over to walk along the other side and get some Xinjiang bread.

Now if you go onto Google maps satellite view, or Google Earth, you can probably see where I took these. We live in a very pleasant place.

No OAP kips today, for either of us, just a lazy day indoors. After our dinner of seashells, could have been some kind of scallops, I’m not sure, we had a visit from a neighbour, bearing gifts. She had brought us some noodles because it seems tomorrow that is what we have to eat. Spring Festival lasts fifteen days and there are certain things you must do each day and certain foods you must eat. We usually forget most of it but, we’ll be eating noodles tomorrow! She was wearing her mask and wouldn’t stay for a cup of tea. In fact, she hasn’t left her house all day. There is quite a lot of worry here despite the fact that our county has no confirmed cases of the virus yet. Better to be safe than sorry I suppose.

January 31^st The Wuhan bug is spreading exponentially so we decided to make some changes in our routine. We will walk after our lunch when nearly everybody else is home for their lunchtime break. Most working people in Hainan rest from half past eleven until half past two which means the streets are fairly empty between twelve and two. We’re also going to check if I can have my PSA test done here in Wuzhishan which will avoid us staying in Haikou for two or three days. Unfortunately, the needle has to be done there so we still have to go.

We were lazy so didn’t go anywhere. As a lot of people are saying on the internet these days, we ‘self-isolated’ ourselves.

February 1^st Carrying on with this year’s theme of poetry, “Little month of February, You are small, but worthy - very! Will you grow up like the others, Like your sister months and brothers? Every four years with a bound, With a leap up from the ground, Trying to grow tall as they - All you stretch is one small day! Even then you're not so tall But just the shortest month of all.” (Leap Year by Annette Wynne)

Today’s weather was a little overcast and as we had no real need to go out we didn’t. Instead Huan carried on with her knitting and I carried on with changing the aspect ratio of my photos. It seems to be taking quite a long time but then again, #1 son is just as bad as me and takes thousands of photos where just a few would do. I managed to finish 2010 and 2011, and then synchronised mine and Huan’s computer. Only another two or three years to go, I can’t quite remember when I started using 16:9.

February 2^nd As we had two full rubbish bags on the balcony along with one bag full of plastic bottles for the cleaning lady, we decided that we had to go out today. However, we still didn’t go too far and we still probably wore too many clothes and just to be on the safe side, we also wore our masks. Just as we reached the river, a ‘strange man’ recognised us and took our photo. It seems I was supposed to recognise him as one of Huan’s singing group although How I could do that when he was wearing a very large face mask, sunglasses and a baseball hat I’ve no idea. Anyway, here’s the photo he took, not such good quality, we received it via WeChat.

I hadn’t taken my big camera today as we are quite limited on where we walk these days. Around the town we have no problems and of course we can walk along main roads in and out of town. However, many of our countryside walks take us through small villages quite a few of which are now banning ‘outsiders’. We have no way of knowing before we get there whether or not we will have to turn around and retrace our steps. Even our own complex has locked the back gate and put a notice on it. I did try and explain that as well as the security guards never actually stopping anyone at the front gate, there is also another way in without passing any security at all. “Ah, well nobody except you knows that.” was their response!

February 3^rd Busy day today! After checking with Dr. Tim in Haikou yesterday our first visit was to the local hospital to see if they were capable of doing PSA check ups. Arriving there, as soon as we crossed the entrance door, we were immediately zapped with temperature sensors by nurses wearing masks. In fact we were zapped three times each. I think the first zap showed us both having the exact same temperature, the second was much the same. They then checked on each other and came back to us again. This time we were marginally different, 36.2 for Huan and 36.1 for me. They let us in. The laboratory are able to check TPSA but not fPSA but as my last Haikou check up didn’t include the fPSA I think I’ll skip it this time too. We’ll return later in the week for the actual test.

From there it was off to the fuel station, Huan asking me “Why are we doing this today?” I told her that I wanted to be sure we had enough fuel to go to Haikou and back next week just in case they start shutting more things down.

As you know by now, Monday is shopping day so that was our next stop. Most of the customers are following the local government suggestion of wearing masks but not all. We were being model citizens ourselves! The bakery shelves were empty of supermarket baked products, I wonder if they’ve stopped the supermarket baking or if the staff stayed on holiday.

Quite a few other shelves are beginning to show signs of hoarding and/or panic buying. Our Dettol is down to half a bottle so it was on our list but there was none available. It will be at least a month until they are able to get more stock. At the checkout we noticed that the self check-outs were all switched off, I suppose because they utilise touch screens. I guess some of the health advice is beginning to trickle down and be taken notice of.

A trip to the police station was next to collect Huan’s local ‘Hukou’ card which should have been ready the day after she travelled up north. There were people working inside, behind the glass, but they are having nothing to do with customers at this time! We have to wait until there is a relaxing of restrictions from the local government. Oh what a life…

Home to our humdrum existence, me to my computer and Huan to her knitting. She has plenty of time to do this as the ‘return to school’ for everyone, children and OAPs has been postponed quite significantly. However, Huan doesn’t believe in relaxing, if something has to be done, once she starts she keeps going until it’s complete. Doesn’t she look grand and just look at the speed of those hands!

And so we come to the end of another week, a week in which Bob is actually beginning to worry a little, not so much about getting the virus, but about how life will change while the authorities get it under control. Bye for now!