Thursday 19^th March, 2020 1930

Someone asked me earlier where my blog was today. Very flattering actually but I need everyone to know that time is a commodity I have little of right now.

Most days lately I'm not cooking (last night it was a supermarket pizza which was awful, I ate half of it and have had the shits most of today and today it looks like being biscuits).

Ok so maybe I could have cooked an omelette or something simple but I literally finished the backlog of marking five minutes ago. And yes, I “wasted” two and a half hours this afternoon going for smokes.

I arrived at China Tobacco and with melancholy and despair, plaintively said “Wang Guan?” knowing I would get the usual “mayo” response. They said “Doay! Doay!” What??? How many do you have? I will take three thousand!

They had fourteen hundred. They have none now. I had expected to spend 860¥ on cigars that make me cough dreadfully for a fortnight's supply and I was so happy to spend 1400¥ on my brand for three month's worth! AND, the boss gave me her card and said next month they should have more, text her – and she speaks a bit of English. The same again will see me set until September, if only I could get them to order in 6,000 once a year that would do me just dandy. Can't afford a full year just yet, months of buying inferior, more expensive lardies have dented my saving capacity.

But saving for what? Will anywhere be accessible? And hell, the last few days have seen the UK exchange rate in freefall. I think a week ago the pound against CNY was 9.2 and as of now it is 8.2. When I arrived in China it was just above ten. Great if I have loads of Chinese money going to the UK but as my savings are in a UK bank in sterling, what do you think?

And now I read the UK government is going to try to prevent people from touching their faces! I must have done that a dozen times typing this and I have no hand sanitiser, refuse to use it and I haven't washed my hands for three hours. And I haven't caught the virus in two months of being supposedly exposed. I knew the UK was being incompetent but this latest takes the biscuit!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51869634

I am tired. Tired of the horrendous extra work and tired of the precautions. China is virtually clear and other countries now have to deal with it. I just want to get back to doing what I do best.

And I still wonder if that holiday in August will happen