Wednesday 29^th August, 2018 1730

On arrival at Zhongchuan airport I bought a train ticket but afterwards noticed I had to wait two hours for the next one! To hell with that, lost some money in returning it and buying a ticket for the bus which costs more to start with but at least I know now where to get off and take a taxi home. Ten hours from start to finish and by then I was overtired but in need of cold liquids. It was the wee hours before I went to bed and frustratingly I was up yesterday at 0545, still knackered.

I only went out for my usual at the jing jo shop, the rest of the day was spent doing the huge pile of laundry that had accumulated. I don't know if I pulled a muscle lifting my suitcase (at 25kg I would have laughed at it when I was on the trucks) but the painkillers never cut the mustard last night. I did get to sleep but awoke in the dark due to pain and try as I might I could not find a painless position. At 0545 (again) I got up, fired up the laptop and then hunted for one of my remaining remedeine tablets from the UK. Well out of date of course but they still work. I waited until it had kicked in and returned to bed for a couple of hours.

Today I went to BHG and also a chemist for some ibuprofen. Hard to find here, they sold me medicine in a box with no English and only later did I realise it was diclofenac – I take that already! So, when I got back I had to walk to the local chemist. That was a trial, both hips and my side are almost crippling me. I took the precaution of finding out how to say “painkiller” in Chinese (zhitong yao) but it took four assistants to understand simple Chinese!

Once I got through to them they also tried to flog me diclofenac so I demonstrated that I didn't want anything for my joints, just pain. To do this I whacked my hand with my phone, let out a loud aaahhh!!! and indicated I wanted tablets for just such a thing. No idea what I have but Mr Jing Jo seemed to think they were right. I'll find out later.

Stephanie says she brought a load from the Peace Corps stash so at least I will not be completely bereft. They've already got her hard at it, with meetings, classes, planning etc and it appears the only weekday night she is free for our western meals is Monday. I'm pretty sure it will be good for me (I get my timetable on Saturday) and I hope it's ok for Annie and Alice. Of course it they weren't all young we could do it at the weekend but then I was young once – even though it seems a century ago now.

So tomorrow I hope to drag my sorry carcase out of the flat and carry out a cigar sortie, if nothing else it will keep me in their minds. I don't think I can blame the shops for not getting enough, I do think the government decides what they get and how many.