Saturday 3rd September, 2016                        1800

I never went to bed early as planned but I did wake up a bit earlier. I may adjust the old body clock yet before Monday morning. The problem is I can’t plan on being able to take a siesta if I am tired because firstly I need to be taken to open an account and secondly I am now starting to push hard for technicians to come and drill through walls and get my washing machine plumbed. That could happen when I least expect it and when I am at my most tired.

I went out a couple of hours ago to buy some bits and forage for food. I found a fly-infested café up a back street which sold beer but not cold ones and the menu was in Chinese with no pictures. The owners’ two daughters (6 and 3) were very interested in the foreign barbarian and I caught the family having their own late lunch or early dinner. I decided against eating there but had a couple of bottles and ruminated.

I worked out that if I went steady I didn’t need to buy cigars until tomorrow and then I could buy the small tins of ten which last longer than the fat fives, which are all I can get in the vicinity. I also decided not to buy jing jo as I have some and anyway I had two bottles of red wine, or I thought I did - more on that shortly.

After an hour or so of watching earthmoving plant go to and fro from whatever they are building down there I left. By now it was past five and the street stalls were out and setting up shop. Whilst drinking I had formulated a plan for a western style meal using only a wok. If I saved most of my money, tomorrow I could buy some oil, bacon, eggs and bread then fry them all (separately of course as they will all flock to the middle of the wok) and provided I remember salt’n’pepper and can buy some paper plates (I was only left a few small bowls) then I can have a crack it. No HP sauce, grilled tomato etc but I am beginning to feel like I AM a noodle.

Anyway I had to eat so I perused the stalls. The usual barbecued skewers that you see all over China but there was one stall which was frying things that looked like baps. I thought I may just buy two of those (yes I know, just bread for dinner) but then the chap suggested I have an egg or two inside. Ok, just one bap and two eggs, that would be enough for my daily nutrition seeing as I still have two bananas in my fridge. I refused the spicy sauce that was offered for obvious reasons. It cost 5y.

So for the first time in more than six years here, I bought street food. Back home I opened a bottle of “Romantic Lovers” wine - I swear I never read the label - poured a glass and tried it. God. It tasted like Ribena gone bad! It was last seen disappearing down the S bend. I will save the unopened bottle as a gift for someone I dislike.

My belongings are not yet en route to me, Anthony only having got back to campus today. They can’t arrive quick enough.

This flat has a TV which I assume works and also a box beneath. I haven’t even plugged either of them in so far yet today I looked on the box and it said “Coship” so I went online. It seems it may be a cable or satellite affair so at some point I will see if I can figure out how to work them both - who knows, I might get western telly?

There were no roadworks outside my home today, the first time I wouldn’t have minded them waking me up. They are digging up and replacing the pavements and road surface, which being in China, consist of concrete. They rarely use tarmac in China because it can’t handle the extreme high and low temperatures but then again the concrete cracks regularly too.

The buildings here are old in comparison to Chizhou where the new campus (where I was) only opened in about 2008. This university was founded a mere two years after I was born and despite the discolouration I must say is in better shape than Chizhou.

Lanzhou is the only city in China that the Yellow River (the 2nd river in China after the Yangtse) passes through. With the forbidding, arid mountains surrounding this city it seems obvious that without the river there would never have been a city established - just Bedouin tents!

My final remark for this entry has to be a thought that occurred to me a few days ago. Whoever named it the Yellow River had to have been colourblind. It is completely and utterly brown. As the river flows you can see the silt and sediment hurtling down it, turning it a constant shade of mud.