Friday 30^th October, 2020 2200

Well, you know nothing ever goes right for me at the start. No change there on Thursday. Whacked the USB into the malevolent computer and it instantly wiped the MP4 files and installed eight viruses. Jody tried to get the IT man to come at noon but he was already home for lunch.

So I buggered around with it, formatting to eradicate the viruses and in the process everything else I had loaded on it and after an hour of despair I discovered something by accident.

Two things actually. Firstly that the tiny symbol I had set the switch to thinking it was a padlock is in fact a key. The other symbol which still looks like a cassette tape was where it should have been set. Secondly, it doesn't have antivirus (God preserve me from language differences) but has “write protect”. That part I found out when my laptop refused to load anything on it after I formatted.

Now it was making sense. A couple of sentences of English instructions on the pack would have been handy. After lunch my films were bomb-proof. I might buy another one!

I have to confess that Thursdays are killing me. Getting a taxi from the gate is too hit and miss and even the new walk (as it is dark by then) is knackering when you are carrying books and a laptop. Worse, even though I had every intention of doing my weekly shop this and past Fridays, I have ended up doing absolutely nothing. That means a weekend trip.

Yesterday I was standing outside building four smoking before class. I watched as students, male and female, ran up and down steps and hurdled low walls with consummate ease. I used to do that. Now those elements represent a terrifying obstacle course!

My sister sent me a message asking how things were here with Covid-19 seeing as the UK and Europe seem to be heading into lockdown again, not to mention financial ruin. What else could I reply but “What Covid?”

Talking of the virus, I have been diligent with my green health code. I have been turning on the smartphone for a minute each day to update it. Except today. Investigation suggests that the 19¥ a month cheap deal China Unicom gave me isn't true. I have never used the internet, made one short call to the Xining hotel when I left my other phone there and that's it. It should have lasted until next March. The paperwork looks as though it expired on Wednesday. So basically I need to pay 40¥ a month for nothing more than to keep a phone active in order to travel. My other phone gets used for texts and calls and costs me 100 yuan a year!