Monday 3rd October, 2016                     1140

I’ve just realised something. I haven’t heard or seen any fireworks since arriving here. I have heard large explosions but my guess is they are from dynamite where they are probably blowing up the odd mountain. I just searched online and indeed, Lanzhou is one of the cities that have banned them in certain areas.

I like fireworks as much as the next person - in their place. It seems odd after Chizhou, where, in the words of Martini, they were set off anytime, anyplace, anywhere, to be somewhere completely bereft, even on China’s birthday. I am now wondering what will happen at Chinese new year. Certainly it would be unwise to let off munitions where I live, given the close concentration of accommodation. That’s a good thing if there is near silence on the night. Cracks and bangs for, say an hour after midnight would be fine but I haven’t forgotten the new year’s eve I spent in the Dong Rong in Chizhou or the hotel near Amy’s home in Tongling. The noise was never-ending throughout the entire day.

Living on the ground floor as I do was initially of great joy to me because it means carrying heavy shopping bags home is not too onerous, especially when I have already had to tackle the flybridge steps at the bus stop. It also has disadvantages in that people walk past my windows constantly. In itself that is not something normally I would comment on but as a foreigner in China?

There are a lot of geriatrics living around here, possibly dwelling with their offspring who are teachers living in the surrounding blocks. My kitchen is a rectangular bay with large windows and whenever I am in there cooking everyone who walks past cannot resist looking to see what I am up to. The oldsters particularly, tend to stop not three feet from me and stand there staring, which is irritating.

The other evening I was startled to be sitting at my laptop and then becoming aware of a teenage boy literally with his nose pressed against the office window watching me. No idea how long he had been there but I really don’t want to have to keep my curtains closed twenty-four hours a day. It does offer a hint as to what the world’s saddest polar bear in Chongqing feels like though!

Last night I became tired of watching catch up ITV online and so started daydreaming about what I could do during the spring festival holiday. Quite apart from the fact I would actually need to save some money, that notwithstanding, with no pets I can do anything I like. Places I thought might be cheap and quick to get to aren’t, neither does distance have any logic when it comes to flight fares. I will probably end up staying here alone but it was fun looking at going to the likes of Nanning, Ulaan Bataar, Hanoi, Bangkok etc.

When I tired of that I decided to try and find the local news websites. I still regularly read local news from my hometown and Luton and of course Chizhou. I found “breaking news” and so read the articles. Seven students at Lanzhou university (not far from here) injured in a dormitory explosion. Not good. Then another story about how everyone was buying bottled water as the tapwater had been found to contain thirty times the safe level of carcinogenic benzene in it! People had been instructed to refrain from drinking it. Well, I hadn’t been told and although I usually confine myself to a morning mug of tea (or lately, coffee) I started to get indignant at being kept in ignorance.

Until I looked into the stories in more detail and noticed they were a year or two old! Breaking news??

Ah well, shower time, then a twenty minute outing to buy some peppers for my dinner.