Friday 24^th April, 2020 1400

Realising that if the school reopens and I nevertheless pressed ahead with my plans, it would mean Alice couldn't come, this morning I decided we could go next weekend during the Labour holiday. No conflict. Great idea?

Well it was until Brenda threw a bag of spanners into the works.

We would both need “healthy” certificates (she thought that would entail a hospital visit and full testing) and that it may also involve fourteen days quarantine in Xining and another fortnight on returning to Lanzhou!

So basically, despite everything “getting back to normal” I am nonetheless a prisoner in an admittedly large gaol.

The getaway has now been cancelled. I could probably get most, if not all, of the money already paid refunded but as the hotel informed us that the special deal we had been given will remain valid until 31^st December I agreed to keep it active.

The new plan (not that my plans ever go awry!) is now to sit with fingers crossed and hope that by Dragon Boat festival it will all be a distant memory and we can go then. If not, well, there's summer, mid-autumn, golden week etc. I may ultimately end up going alone, Alice will graduate and will doubtless enter the employment treadmill when she does.

In fact I don't even know now if I will actually be working on the day I had planned but now I need to try and figure out somewhere for a good meal. Burger King doesn't quite hold the allure, nor does a hotpot. I suppose there's always the Holiday Inn buffet. Or perhaps some Pot Noodles at home!

Ah well, at least I am enjoying more freedom than plenty of others elsewhere in the world – and horror of horrors! - I see South Africa has introduced Prohibition! It's a strange old world we now live in.

I read that schools are staggering lesson times so that canteens are not mobbed as they are normally and students maintain “social distancing” whilst eating. That's a laugh, unless they halve student numbers in the classroom (and by so doing doubling the number of lessons) there's no way it can happen in class!

Maybe I'll go to Sweden.......