Friday 31^st January, 2020 Brexit Day!!! 1500

Last night Jody texted to ask if she could come and stay for a couple of nights, there was no water where she lives. My cats used to sleep less than she does! Today she excelled herself, admittedly I kept her up until 0130 but still, she didn't surface until three this afternoon! It does bugger me up though, I have to creep around the place.

She tells me the Wanda shopping mall downtown and the big mall in Xiguan have closed, which is unprecedented. By all accounts the actual supermarkets are staying open but with limited hours. As long as BHG stays open for a few hours each day that's fine by me, I can no longer buy meat locally and once a week is fine. Now I am really missing the chest freezer I bought in Chizhou. With that I could easily have stocked up for a month of being under siege.

And that's in a way how it feels. I was reading this account on the BBC website and actually felt sorry for the young lady. New home, new city, no friends yet.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51276656

If I am being frank, being 90% under “house arrest”, whilst slightly annoying, is not that much of a privation for me. Unlike Chizhou where I had many friends and my e-bike to go to town eating out quite often (and warmer!), here friends are mostly confined to students and they are with their families. I would be staying home most of the time anyway but normally I wouldn't have to wear a mask or worry about whether somewhere I wanted to go to was open or not.

As long as I can access my alcoholic and nicotine requirements, my medicines and decent groceries I cannot complain. I can though about the internet censorship which seems ever-increasing at a time when morally they should be relaxing it. Not only that, connecting to the UK is very hit and miss again and painfully slow. I have a feeling yet again my 6 Nations will be played out on the radio.

I also read today of a guest on BBC Question Time who horrified the rest of the audience by suggesting British expats in Wuhan should have been left there rather than bring them back to the UK. I think all my readers know full well I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment.

I told Jody last night I would make her a cheesy frittata for dinner today because she tends toward the vegetarian/pescatarian diet, only for her to inform me at four that she is partially allergic to eggs! Why didn't you say anything last night? I don't cook so I didn't know what it was.

So it was either a trip to BHG to see if we could buy sushi or I came up with something else. Tonight if the dough turns out ok, we will be having a veggie pizza but with king prawns on top. It must be nearly two years since I made pizzas.

One thing's for sure, if the school doesn't open for a while, I am glad I have enough electricity on my meter for another six weeks! Gas is not a problem, I have a month but I can go and buy more any time. I think!