Tuesday 3^rd July, 2018 2030

Hard to blog when you are basically confined to barracks!

My bank card suddenly stopped working when I tried to buy Greek ferry tickets. With enough money in the account I could only guess the reason was an unusual spending pattern. The EU is not yet a notifiable “country” to get your bank to activate the card.

And so it proved. It took five hours to get it sorted, during which time I warned that I would utterly destroy the account balance before once again saving for next year. Ho hum. I also discovered that with Accor hotels (I want to book an executive room in the Guangzhou airport Pullman) if you are a member you do not get the advertised 10% discount unless you use the app. My phone is not connected to the internet and I think that is utterly wrong. Ok, only 250\ but even in Shanghai that is three Guinnesses! Why should using the phone instead of your laptop be any differentif you are a member.

Tonight Steph, Alice and I sat down for dinner. I made cheeseburgers, crisps that weren't crispy (first attempt and need at least two hours next time – I was late up having stayed up until four watching the football this morning) but tasted fine, followed by madeira cake – with ice cream to accompany for the girls.

I had asked them both how many burgers they thought they could eat. Alice said two, Stephanie said three. I said I would be surprised if either of them could manage even two. How many did they eat?

One! I'm stuffed was the refrain when I enquired if they wanted another.

They had McDonald's in mind. They now know where the best burgers in Lanzhou can be found – inch thick beauties that even if I say so myself were fine specimens of the genre. “Why haven't you done these before?” demanded Stephanie. I thought they were too simple to offer, I said. The look I got said every week would be perfectly fine! The odd thing was, when I asked if they wanted tomato ketchup or sweet chilli sauce on the buns, I received surprising answers. I guessed Steph, being Mercan, woud opt for tomato and Alice for chilli. Nope! Both went for tomato!

The cake was great. Prepared it exactly to the recipe using my digital scales and ended up with something akin to Blue Circle cement. I have said before, recipes (this from the BBC) are just a chance to screw up and learn. A pint of milk later and I deemed it runny enough to bake. Perfick!

My wounds continue to heal. It is merely painful to get out of bed and today I was at times using just one crutch. After a while I had to revert to two but my hopes are high that in time for my holiday I will be as mobile as I was before.

I honestly wonder how people in wheelchairs fare in China. Only top hotels have access, buses are a no-no and everywhere else challenges even the able bodied. You hardly ever see anyone in a chair and small wonder, it is basically a prison sentence.