Sunday 14^th July, 2019 1730

Having now ensured I have enough medicines to last until the next payday in September I decided to order a top-up for my cigar stash to do likewise. Those readers not addicted to anything will not understand that being somewhere where something you like, indeed need, is not freely available means opportunities must be taken as they present.

In Anhui province my brand is abundant, that's where they are produced, but it is well documented here that in Lanzhou it is scarce and others which are less desirable are thrice the price for half the size.

With just one box of a hundred from that gigantic stash of 3,000 I posted a photograph of some time ago left plus 600 purchased last month, I figured I needed 300 more to see me through. Last month I had actually asked for 500 but Mr Jing Jo found someone with 600 so bought that amount. I cannot complain, he's the most reliable source here and we are friends. He really wants to help - as well as take a profit.

So two days ago I asked for 500 rather than 300 to make it worth his while sourcing and collecting them and prayed he wouldn't get 600 again. Not because I won't smoke them but because I am doing my damnedest to conserve money for my holiday.

He didn't get 600. He got 800!!! I currently have 1,500 of them.

I now have enough smokes to last until October's payday!

That's put paid to any eating out before we leave. No great hardship other than the fact I will need to cook more when I was rather looking forward to taking it very easy indeed. Batch cooking of cottage pies, prawn and mushroom curries and the like loom large now. The trouble is, with Alice now living on the main campus I am cooking for one. I have no incentive. I understand why the single elderly in Britain rely on Farm Foods and meals on wheels!

In fact I think tomorrow I will make a load of cottage pies and a lemon drizzle cake, I have space in my freezer again.

I was reading on both the UK and Chinese news sites recently that nineteen people were arrested in (I think) Jiangsu province (next to Anhui) for drug offences. Four were British. Doing what I do. Reading between the lines, whatever their drug of choice is/was, I reckon they were doing it with their students.

Really? In a country where smuggling gets you a high-velocity piece of lead through the back of the skull and your students grass you up for the slightest thing you say in class – such as that Hong Kong used to be British? I should reach for Roget's to find a superlative for “stupid”. I am guessing when their “adminstrative detention” (15 days in the slammer) is up, they are out of a job and out of the country on the next plane. If ever anyone reads about me in the same situation, do not believe it!