Thursday 11^th October, 2018 1230

Ah well, it was back to work today. The morning was a bit parky and I swiftly found myself regretting the decision not to wear a jumper under my new lightweight jacket. I was not impressed either when my students told me the heating doesn't come on until next month. I had thought it was in October.

To be fair, I am fine at home, for on Tuesday I purchased a new fan heater for my home study. The old one, whilst having done sterling work for the past two years, never quite cut the mustard when it got really cold. It was 1Kw and my new one is 2Kw – powerful enough to have dried my trainers in five hours after they had been in the wash. I shall be fine in the dead of winter, especially when they turn the heating off for maintenance. That was when the old one showed its limitations. A grateful Annie now has it and I am sure her life is immeasurably more comfortable for all that. I in the meantime will have to keep a very close eye on my meter because it gobbles up units like a Chinese student at an all you can eat hotpot.

For the past few weeks I have noticed the Yellow River has been consistently the highest I have ever seen it, so high and fast-flowing in fact that islands in mid-stream will exhibit altered shapes when it recedes again. A few of the trees that once stood proudly on the upstream ends have been swept away and the pillars of the many bridges resemble the bows of ships making ten knots. For the dams further upriver to have been opened so much and for such a sustained time must mean somewhere (probably Xinjiang) has been getting ample rain – it certainly hasn't been here!

My mobility problems are now in the past with luck. I took a hike earlier to buy some kidney beans (chilli con carne next Monday methinks) and besides general lethargy from zero exercise, there was an absence of pain or limping. The reason for this recovery given that a fortnight ago my entire loins were girdled with a belt fashioned of agony? Instead of, as in the past, only resorting to medicine when under attack, I started taking a daily dose. It would seem to have to be the way of things from now on.

Other than the above there is not much else happening here, although as you will know that can and often does change rapidly.