Tuesday 2nd February, 2016                                1700

Shopping trips will be fraught for a while now until new year has passed. Certainly the trip to town is still bliss in that a seat is never a problem but even on a Monday afternoon I had to cheat to get one on the way back.

As for RT Mart, absolutely chaotic and of course here the shoppers have no consideration for others, simply blocking everywhere with their trolleys rather than trying to put them to one side to allow people to pass. It was with some relief that I escaped the madhouse and took two buses home.

On the second bus however I think I saw yet another first. When the bus was already full (way before arriving back at RT Mart) an elderly woman got on carrying a baby. This of course guaranteed someone would offer her a seat. On closer inspection I became suspicious. For starters the baby was completely enclosed in a blanket and the only thing visible of it was the bottom few inches of its legs. Secondly, it never moved at all. Musing on this, I became more and more convinced the baby was either deceased or in a coma. When the woman eventually got off, I got a glimpse of the baby’s “feet”. They were circular. It was a doll! Quite why the woman resorted to such subterfuge in order to ensure she got a seat defeats me, for she was at least in her seventies and would have been given one anyway - hell, I would have offered her my seat had nobody else done so.

The big thaw has now seen all the roads 99% cleared, with just rooftops and grassy areas still sporting snow. We are now in positive temperatures again so ‘ere long even that will disappear.

I have relapsed into the late turn ins and later rises routine. My problem, which is not something I have encountered often before, is that watching films online, of late I seem to nod off in the chair without really having much warning, waking perhaps thirty minutes to an hour later. Naturally afterwards as the clock chimes twelve I am still very much awake.

I would probably have left at about two for my scintillating outing today but at 1320 we suffered a power cut. Nothing better for that than bringing forward ones plans if one is going out! If anything the supermarket was even worse than yesterday and it wouldn’t have been so annoying if they had had more than one bottle of my wine and replenished the Guinness shelf. For what I bought I needn’t have taken a trolley, a basket would have been more than sufficient. I would have been better off not going at all. I think the next time I go I will need to set my alarm for 0600 so I can be there for when they open at eight. Easier said than done at the moment when it is nearly noon before I open my eyes!

Again I took the double bus route back, the bakery was also rammed so I never even bought doughnuts, and as we arrived at the Yangtse terminus I got off and headed for the next one leaving. It pulled away just before I reached it. Ordinarily I may have been miffed but given that I had no idea whether there would be any power when I got back I took it on the chin, put my shopping back on the bus I had just alighted and got off to have a smoke.

Now the Chinese are not renowned for having sotto voce conversations, or indeed phone calls, and I am still undecided as to which is the noisiest, a bus full of kids or one full of pensioners. Mine became the latter, with many of them bound for the terminus after the school so I had them the entire trip. Maybe I should arm myself with earplugs. Nothing wrong with their vocal chords even if everything else is a bit creaky.

Anyway I was rather happy when halfway home we passed the bus I had just missed catching. It was disgorging passengers and taking a load more on and it was very full. This was in contrast to ours which only had two people standing. In fact we made it back to the south gate seconds before the other one. I have no idea what happened, I can only guess it had to pull in at every single stop.

Another thing about the buses. I have already said that for two periods each year the fare doubles from one to two yuan, normally around the time they switch on the cooling or the heating. 1st March will see the prices revert to one yuan but when I am paying double for the privilege of being kept cool in summer or warm in winter it would be really nice if they would actually turn it on! Only about half of the buses are heated at present.

Nearly forgot. The business street supermarket opposite campus ran out of my preferred beer before end of term so I started buying in town. Well, it has closed for the holidays now but as I was waiting to leave campus the manageress of the three shops (business street, on campus and at nearby traffic lights - the latter staying open almost all of the spring festival) was riding pillion on an e-bike and got her friend to ride over to me. Pijou! Pijou! she shouted, and I looked at the business street shop because I was sure they were closed for the duration. They are. The manageress then pointed towards the traffic lights, she obviously misses my custom! Must pop in there tomorrow and buy a case. I may even buy a box of rockets for Sunday night.