Sunday 23^rd September, 2018 1900

The REAL Sunday! Had a senior moment when I labelled yesterday's wrongly – of course it was in fact Saturday. I blame the workmen for disrupting me. And senility.......

So today it was, as hereinbefore stated, important to go and find allopurinol.

First I decided to go and get my watch fixed underground in Peili Square. The 10 had fallen off the face. Previously the 11 did likewise so I am hoping it's not working its way backwards around the dial. The guy on the stall is cheap and quick at taking the unit apart and gluing the little metal pieces back. That and a new grommet to replace the existing one which had perished (the watch is after all 20+ years old) set me back 15y.

Then I left to go to the usual chemist in case they had some pills in stock now. Two of the serving staff were walking across the square, recognised me as a regular (and foreigner) and so I showed them my empty bottle. Mayo. Ok, plan B was that big place I had seen on Friday. A fair walk for me these days but if I didn't do something pretty soon I wouldn't be getting out of bed, let alone walking.

Incredibly this large shop also said mayo. Frustrated, I tried to ask where in this damned city I could find a common medicine I had been taking for 33 years without aggravation (8 of them in China) because in a couple of days or so I was in big trouble. I was given general directions to a Watsons. Surely a western chain would have it? Nope. The boss sent me off in another direction to somewhere his body language conveyed would surely have it. I hoped so, from the waist down I was on fire. Mayo.

This was no longer remotely funny. Anyone reading this who suffers from gout will know the agony of an attack and I was fast approaching the cliff edge. I gave up after the fifth pharmacy and made my way to somewhere for some fried chicken, despondent. This now meant that tomorrow I had to play my last card – the place I used once near China Tobacco, a two hour round trip.

Shoulders slumped, I made my way slowly homewards but decided to actually call in to the normal chemist and scour the shelves myself and if unsuccessful, create a stir so that they would get some sent over for the next day or at the very least give me an address to show a taxi driver.

I had just walked miles for nothing. They had it! I nearly exploded but the two I saw earlier had left for the day. Sodding expensive at 104y for 30 days (slow release capsules) when the normal pills are a third of the price but what the hell, I was safe for another month and the crisis was over. I now have a month to explore possibilities and enlist my network in finding cost-effective medicine. I guess I average about 300y a month for all my medicl needs which in western countries may seem a paltry amount but here it is a decent sized percentage of my salary – for a Peace Corps slave it would be over 20% of their allowance! I do not need that figure inflating by a further third and the last thing I would ever do is buy drugs over the internet.

So tomorrow if I wish I can go to the supermarket. I may chance it. I would also like to try and rustle up Tuesday's dessert in advance. I am rather limited on options and apples often feature, however if plums are still around I may make a plum pie for the first time. My reason for wanting to get dessert out of the way is because I shall make a curry and I want to try my hand at making onion bhajias. Never tried before but then I never tried to do an awful lot of things (never needed to!) before coming to China.