Thursday 30^th January, 2020 1100

Brenda very kindly reassured me yesterday that if the situation becomes too severe, HMG will come and take me out! I told her she obviously didn't know me very well if she thought I was going to skin out just because I could.

Well according to the BBC there may not be the option to leave for much longer, airlines (including BA) are starting to cancel flights to and from China and to be honest it's the correct thing to do – not evacuate and spread the thing.

Alice Wuhu's school has just postponed reopening. She had already booked her flight to go back (rather silly) and I told her this morning to check as I doubted they would open on the 8^th as planned. She has now cancelled her ticket and was going to book another for the new proposed date of 24^th. I told her not to bother, that could well be pushed back as well. There's not a soul on the planet who knows when it will die down. Or even if! She is desperate to get back to Guangzhou and the warm. I had to point out the school wouldn't allow her in her dorm.

1400

Another call from Brenda with “good news”. Mr Zhang the director had managed to buy a couple of masks for me and would bring them this afternoon. He has done so, two of the same type I bought and one 3M 9001. FOC from the school. They probably think I'm bonkers for not having legged it. I've just been out wearing a cheap one and I hate it. Not just because I feel uncomfortable wearing anything on my face but because the damned thing kept riding up and poking me in the eye! I suppose wearing it underneath the nose would be rather defeating the object.....maybe I need a Siebe-Gorman SCBA outfit.

The bad news was that today the epidemic has “exploded”, sadly the line was too bad for me to get an update on numbers at present.

I also see that the evacuation flight for Brits in Wuhan is grounded due to lack of paperwork. I would have thought they could have sorted that out before sending a plane?

Notwithstanding, I'm not sure I'd want to be on that flight even if I wanted to run. Maybe someone can correct me but let's say 200 people from the worst-affected place on the planet, packed into a flying cigar tube. Aircraft recycle the air. So if even one person is down with it, everyone will be treated to it, masks or not. And then two weeks cooped up together in a hangar at RAF Northolt or wherever?

Oh well, look on the bright side, the UK leaves the EU soon and if my internet is fast enough, I have the 6 Nations!