Wednesday 12^th February, 2020 1530

Inertia has bested me again today, admittedly partly due to hip pain. I haven't mentioned that for a while because lately it has improved – hell, I managed to walk all the way up Maijishan in Tianshui and that was the least of my problems! It would seem to me that the optimum solution (injections too frequent and painful, replacament operation in China? No thanks!)is to keep taking the fish oil capsules. Not perfect and they take months to show results but yes, I do discern the difference. Of course, it also helped that I am not desperate for gas or medicine so can procrastinate with abandon.

Just the daily “school run” to see Mr Jing Jo today but this time I took my camera. For those wondering why I don't use my phone for pictures it's because I am a dinosaur armed only with a dumbphone.

For the first time here at the gate I was greeted by a small army of security guards and police. And for the first time they took my temperature. They have been taking it with the Chinese and strangers and making everyone sign a “visitor's book” but somehow I was never accosted before. Maybe that's because of the police presence today. I still haven't had to sign the book though but then as the only laowei here they know exactly when I am here and when I am not. Cars were being stopped for the same purpose and there's a “red carpet” for them to drive over which I assume they are keeping sprayed with disinfectant – not dissimilar to when I drove off a Red Funnel ferry on the Isle of Wight years ago, possibly when BSE was all the rage.

And as I half expected, still the lockups are, well, locked up. That street, even in spring festival is always populated. If you look hard or magnify the photo, every one of the tan-coloured “garages” is shut and normally all but one or two would be open for business.

Jody has decided to take a bus to find an open mall. Typically Chinese, she gets the shakes if she hasn't got plenty of fruit! She said yesterday she really wanted something really hot and spicy and I reminded her I made a prawn thing a few days ago that I ate ONE forkful before giving up! She's also going to stock up on pot noodles. I rarely eat them but when I do it has to be the one in the blue container with pictures of prawns. It's the only type I have found that doesn't detach the top of my skull. Even after a decade I haven't discovered which of the sachets not to include in the mix!

So I continue to hear from Shanghai that the city is slowly but surely coming back to life, whilst mine seems to have lost the will to live!