Sunday 30th April, 2017                1440

As it was quite a warm day yesterday I opted for a simple salad. Simple in the respect that the only meat I had was luncheon meat. Now luncheon meat here is a hit and miss affair. You haven’t a clue what’s inside until you open the tin and taste it. The worst is the hideous spicy one but I was lucky to have avoided that, although what I got was somewhere between spicy and normal. It had lumps in it (presumably pork) but it was edible. 

One thing that I do like about where I am living is that within a hundred yards of the flat I can buy so many foods from the stalls. Pork and chicken are always available (without having to have them slaughtered to order either) plus all kinds of fruit and vegetables. There is a stall that does rice and pulses and spices but I can’t use it because I have no idea what is in the baskets although they may do red lentils. I must take an empty packet (bought on Taobao) and ask, I do like making carrot soup. So anyway, now that the veg stall is stocking decent spuds I could get all I needed last night. 

Then a relaxing late night being a couch potato minus the couch and off to bed. It took a while to drop off to sleep because my mind was pondering on why there was such a long hiatus on Tuesday morning between trains to the airport. I really wasn’t looking forward to 2.5 hours clicking my heels (no bar there) and it seemed very odd that the trains usually run approximately every hour and yet when I wanted one there was a two hour gap. 

When something niggles me, it keeps me awake and I very nearly got up again and turned the laptop back on to see if I had made a mistake. I didn’t, but it was the first thing on my mind this morning. 

So I checked another train site and sure enough, that one listed the “missing” train, meaning that if true, I would only have 1.5 hours wait at the airport. This would be perfect because the people will have gone to work when I go for the 131 bus and there will be less traffic on the road to the station. And of course I get longer in bed!

I emailed Alice and asked her to look up times too because the Chinese find all sorts of sites for these things whilst I am confined to three sources. Sure enough, there IS a train that is ideal for me. Then I checked the site I go to first and spotted that they are listing two different trains on the same route that are leaving and arriving at exactly the same time! Failed! Their site says if you spot any errors to please let them know and they will immediately correct it. It was four hours ago I submitted a report but nothing has changed yet. I suppose that will teach me to check more sources next time.

As you do, I checked the weather forecast for Wednesday for our trip to the dust barracks. Oh yes, can I pick ’em! Raining all day apparently. Disappointing to say the least because for the days before and after it says nice and sunny and 28C but that’s life. 

I’ve started putting the mint outside into the cage covering my study window when I get up and taking it in at sunset. I seem to have killed quite a few sprouts during the repotting operation but there are still plenty left. The trouble is, they don’t seem to be growing very fast. They move to follow the sun (even though they are in shade) so they are definitely alive but I did expect the stuff to grow much like weeds. Maybe a couple of months will make a difference. 

One thing I have noticed here is that there are quite a few “different” characters living nearby. It’s hard to tell what they are because some act quite normally while others don‘t. Anywhere else and I would say they all had Down’s Syndrome but given the proximity to Mongolia (it’s the province adjoining this one a little further north) they could in fact be Mongolian. The old couple next door to me have one living with them but with the age gap he could very well be a grandson rather than son. I often see them out and about walking or driving e-carts delivering parcels but as they don’t speak English (indeed most people here don’t) I can’t be sure. The natives up here certainly look very different to Anhui people and the difference is quite striking, especially when I remember I am still in the same country. 

If I stay here for some time I think I should really make the effort to go to Urumqi (as long as there is no major unrest) and also Ulan Baatar, the latter will give me another country to tick off the list. But if I go it won’t be in winter!