Sunday 24th September, 2017            1945

In twelve hours my life gets an awful lot busier.

Today I had little option but to go shopping. No wine, little food and the prospect of a “dinner date” which I have promised Annie rather forced my hand. No cigar problem though, behind me sit 600 of Hefei’s finest cheap cheroots!

I hate shopping at the weekend. I hated it in the UK but some may find it surprising the supermarkets are busy here given that there is no such thing as a weekend in China. But they are - banks are open every day, nothing closes except government departments.

Today was one of those occasions where I felt the need to buy two boxes of vin. I couldn’t leave it until next week as my free days are now taken. My bloody taxi driver on the way would never have even passed The Knowledge in Marlow, let alone Lanzhou. Completely flummoxed when I said Beijing Hualia, he started to input it in his mobile phone satnav. Don’t bother, I will show you, it’s two miles away! Christ, it’s even a straight line from where I hail the cab! He even tried to turn off somewhere beforehand because his all-knowing phone told him to.

The wine section has now been moved in toto to the middle of the store which is bloody annoying, previously it was the last section, which meant I could do my shop and leave it to the end so my wine girl could drag my trolley to the checkout.

No wine girl today but one who knows my requirements well stepped up to the metaphorical plate. My trolley, complete with vegetables, was taken away as she sailed off out the back leaving me trailing in her wake. When she returned I had to brandish my shopping list to indicate I still had things to buy and I would return so she could bring the BOGOF barcode with me.

As the nights are getting a little colder now and I have been for the past few days waking and noticing that perhaps just a duvet cover is not enough for a restful night, earlier I decided to actually break out the summer quilt. I have no idea why but anything that stays in the bottom of my wardrobes for longer than a fortnight stinks to high heaven of I know not what! Never happened last year.

Into the washing machine it went but being a top-loader and not being that big, the machine moved but the quilt didn’t! It is now drying for tomorrow but I suspect there will be more expense and I will have to buy a new one.

I saw on the BBC website earlier that when Kim Jong Fatty described Trump as a dotard, Merriam Webster saw a huge increase in searches for the meaning. I suspect an online translation service provided the word to Fatty but surely to God it is not too much of a leap to get from dotage to dotard? Mind you, I assume Americans are the main users of Merriam, no self-respecting British person would consult it!

Today I have felt under the weather the entire time so shortly it is time for bed, hopefully a few hours of airing will have done the trick with the linen. In the morning it is back into the fray for a week because a week Monday it is a short break to the rainbow mountains.