Friday 7^th February, 2020 1745

I wasn't going to blog today, it was to be a day off.

With updates from Shanghai informing me almost everything is still open by way of shops and eateries, we set off on what I was almost certain to be a futile hunt for my cigars but I needed something to smoke at least, otherwise I would be without tobacco in the morning. Then the plan was Burger King followed by Metro for my shopping I can only obtain there or online.

It was definitely a strange experience.

Great. Shitloads of spare seats on the bus but I regretted not putting on a jumper under my coat because every bus I saw had all the windows fully opened. I understand why but it didn't half make it parky.

Hardly any cars, almost all the shops and restaurants on the way were closed. It was like something between a Christmas Day in England and a scene from a Hollywood post-apocalyptic nuclear war film where you emerge from an underground bunker a week after Armageddon. Utterly, completely alien.

The biggest China Tobacco in the city was closed. That didn't augur well.

Two more buses to get to the train station then back out again to possibly the biggest mall in the city, where I had planned the Burger King feast followed by my western food shop.

The entire mall was closed.

But oh no, the security guard at the entrance never said a word to us as we gaily walked up the entrance ramp, the doors were still open and it was only when we actually got inside that some guards on a desk told us. Well, let's keep the doors open and then have fun telling people we are closed! There are many words I would love to use here to describe this but I won't other than to say I was not overly enamoured at this point. Bastards.

But Jody had spotted a McDonald's not far from where our bus had stopped and so we went there, I hoped not to entirely negate our excursion. A Big Mac would have done, I knew I wouldn't be cooking later. En route we found a small shopping centre and I went in, clearing out the tobacconist of every single cigar-related product, about three days' supply for me.

McDonald's was open for business but takeaway only!! Seriously, who in God's name wants to eat a Big Mac and fries when they are stone cold an hour later at home??

So a taxi to BHG to see if the dry prawn hotpot place was open, more optimism than expectation. It wasn't. Into BHG to buy yet more cigars and then see if I could get a couple of their shitty frozen pizzas. Cigars yes, pizza no. I bought some sushi for Jody while she got pot noodles. Looks as though I will be fasting today.

I am really, really not happy. We wasted three hours essentially for smokes I could have gone out and bought and been back in under an hour. If I smoked cigarettes I could have done it in five minutes. And I wasted money on fares.

It is absurd. The centre of the outbreak is about the same distance from here as it is from London to Rome.