Sunday 2^nd February, 2020 1720

No hazmat suit outside the CDC today. But. Something wonderful happened today – my 550g of Bisto arrived!!! Oh yes! Roast chicken dinner tomorrow, here I come!

Look as though Jody's here for the foreseeable future. I don't mind, we hardly speak except at dinner and when we watch a film. She seems to love the tucker on offer, especially as I baked her a spiced fruit loaf of bread last night so she can have some with her coffee when she gets up. In fact she wants me to make her more when term eventually starts as a minuscule version from the bakery costs her 20¥.

A source in Shanghai (this time, unlike yesterday, a reliable one) informs me there are 99 cases now in this province, 54 of them in Lanzhou. After that he boasted he can now get doorstep delivery from Aldi. Bloody Aldi????

If I am completely truthful, life here has now become so humdrum as to invoke mild anger in me. Besides sitting on the laptop most of the day all I seem to do is try to come up with new dinners for Jody. Ok so tonight will be macaroni cheese and as aforesaid, a roast chicken dinner tomorrow after we both go to BHG to get a bumper shop. As she's more on the veggie side of the scale and I don't eat much, one breast between two will be ample as long as she gets loads of greens. And guess what? She's only the second person I've ever met who actually asked for – yuk – broccoli!!! I'll stick to carrots and peas, thank you very much. Thank God they don't have brussels sprouts here! At least, not that I've seen.