Monday 28th August, 2017                                      1740

I have days like today occasionally.

The cheese I bought in Shanghai didn’t travel very well and it is certainly not as strong/sharp as advertised on the tin. In fact because it went a week in (admittedly airconditioned ) hotel rooms, on arrival in Lanzhou the edges were noticeably creamy. Edible but not a belting good cheddar as befits Andy Magor’s pickled onions.

So I decided to take a trip to the only place I know of in Lanzhou where you can buy decent, if expensive, cheese. I hate taking the number 15 bus. Whilst it drops you off on the return at the terminus, on the outbound leg you have to go up the stairs and cross the overhead walkway. I am not a fan of stairs - even going down them.

Then of course you have to scrum down the moment a bus does pull up and the doors slide open, even if you were the first one in the queue, which I was, given that I had narrowly missed one on getting into the stop. All I can say is that I may be unsteady on my pins these days but thank God I don’t weigh seven stones wringing wet, I can still bulldoze my way through all these people to whom “time means nothing” and still bag a decent seat.

At the shopping centre I eagerly awaited a cornucopia of western goods. By then of course my nether regions were aching like mad but buoyed with the prospect of really mature cheddar I felt it a small price to pay.

Not only did they have no proper cheese but they never even had burger cheese slices! Not that I wanted any of those anyway yet suddenly the only sure-fire outlet for one of my most basic needs had let me down. Just to rub salt in the wound, I started to think that they had dispensed with all the other imported goods as well, however eventually I did locate a small area with some miserable offerings. Having anticipated spending a couple of hundred yuan there, I left with some pasta, a tin of peas and some sweets - total cost 34y.

By this time my body and brain were telling me to simply go home. My heart said sod it, you’ve come all this way for bugger all, you may as well carry on. The Shenyang Slags had advised me of a market wherein there was beef aplenty and I wanted to buy some steaks and maybe a small joint for my freezer. In high dudgeon I set off.

So I duly went, found it and entered. Very good for vegetables. This was particularly opportune for the only potatoes around here now either turn into cement when you make chips or mush when you want mash, as happened last night. Diabolical. What happened to the good variety? Are they seasonal? I scoured the entire market and all but one stall had the floury variety - and by floury I MEAN floury. One stall had some that didn’t look like the good ones but they are different to the others, so I bought a kilo - fingers crossed.

Then it was time to go and get some lovely, dark red beef. Great market for fish, chicken, pork and lamb but despite my valiant pantomime efforts at depicting a cow, of beef there was not a whiff. If the spuds turn out to be decent then only two good things happened in that market today, the other being rather nice sweet peppers which I shall probably stuff tomorrow.

I caught a return bus feeling somewhat deflated and spent the entire journey frantically thinking of where I could eat that didn’t involve lengthy walks. I really didn’t want either a walk or noodles so I had no idea.

As the bus approached the terminus I kept my eyes peeled and spotted a couple of spit’n’sawdust cafes so decided they were close enough to warrant a more detailed inspection. The first one I came to was the one I went in, enticed by the fact they had a few pictures on the wall  so at least I could point and order.

Their sweet pork was actually very good. At least now I know of somewhere I can get that and a beer within 5 minutes of my home.

Welcome to my largely wasted day.