Friday 1^st February, 2019 1515

Well dinner on Monday was ghastly. The menu showed proper lobster and I was tempted but then when a western menu lists the prices as “seasonal” you just know it's going to be expensive. They had a guess at 600¥ a kilo so I gave it a miss and ordered steak. If they'd given me a hob in the room I could have found a supermarket, bought a frozen ready meal steak dinner, cooked it and eaten that. Because that's what it was, a ready meal. Perfectly circular cow, pepper sauce, one floret of broccoli and a dozen of the tiniest, soggiest and smallest “fries” I have even seen. Sometimes it helps that I don't eat much and thank God, it wasn't expensive.

Surprisingly the beds were comfortable, normally in Chinese hotels it's akin to sleeping on the bathroom floor so I was pleased at least with that. Breakfast was a let-down although I had expected that. There was bacon of a sort but no sign of eggs or any butter for the toast. I decided I would make do with a glass of orange juice and a couple of bowls of cornflakes. When I asked about milk for cereals the waitress proceeded to fetch a container I would have expected to be holding coffee or tea, then pour hot milk on my cornflakes! And guess what? The juice was hot too! Oh, how I longed to be back in the Sofitel!

I didn't feel too good either, I had been labouring under a form of cold since we left for Chengdu and perhaps that was it. Either way I was knackered so took an afternoon nap which did wonders for my fatigue but also served to make me feel worse.

In the evening Alice collected me and dropped me at the restaurant in a private room, then left to go and get Mum, her brother and two nieces. Just the six of us and to be realistic, three and a half eaters in that number. Surprisingly, even though I ate little, most of the food went from six dishes. The piece de resistance was a large fish cooked too spicily for me. When I asked I was told it was a “spindle” fish. I'd never heard of one but further investigation revealed it could well be a form of catfish. After the meal I visited Alice's home for half an hour and then she walked me back to the hotel where I had decided I would go to bed late, not even bother going for breakfast and instead wake late in time for a noon checkout.

I omitted to mention that when I checked in on Monday and paid in cash for the room the hotel refused two of my 100¥ notes, telling Alice they were counterfeit. I had forgotten but the taxi which I think took us to Chengdu airport had refused one also, at the time I thought it was because a small piece of one corner had been torn. These two notes both bore the same serial number. Concerned, I had them check the rest of my money and to my relief the rest were ok.

So, the first fake money I have been fed in eight and a half years here, but where had it come from? Well certainly in the last few months the only places I have obtained hundreds have been from the Bank of China ATM around the corner and Colt, my IELTS boy, he gave me a hongbao as a gift for my services. Except the envelope he gave me was a BoC one. I couldn't imagine he would fob me off with fakes given that he wanted more lessons and it would be embarrassing seeing as his parents both work at the Bank of China where he got the cash and they are friends of Janet.

So when I saw him for another two-hour session on Thursday, I asked him to inform the bank they had fed me fraudulent notes. I knew it would be denied but wanted them to be aware. To my astonishment the bank emailed Colt a computerised list of the serial numbers of the notes he'd withdrawn! I never knew they could do that. My fakes were not on the list. That means the only possible source has to be the ATM near me. Needless to say, from now on I shall be checking every withdrawal for duplicate numbers.

Yesterday I finally bought the last of the cigars from the large consignment Mr Jing Jo got for me. I now have a veritable wall of cartons comprising 3,000 cigars, six months' supply. I'm ok now until the beginning of August.

Earlier today I decided to get my new years' final shop done before the shops go mental. I now have enough wine until 12^th, mince to make several dinners along with fish fingers and large prawns, plus three boxes of Milan sausages, one of which will be made into a hot dog tonight. Anything else I can get from the nearby stalls, although tomorrow I want to go in search of cheese and tinned peas, the only way I can get real peas and not beans masquerading as them.

And then the solitary existence commences.