Sunday 19^th April, 2020 1515

Oh my Lord, it's blatantly obvious that many people in other countries are becoming bored in lockdown. Facebook has now become even more intolerable than it was when the Brexit Blusterers were in full swing. Now all you see are misleading posts about the virus, people taking “impossibly hard” quizzes that defy anyone to get more than 7 out of 10 right – and getting 10/10 so they must be Einsteins – people finding out which film star the would have been, which animal they were in another life and now I have someone appearing in every third post with The Soundtrack To His Life! If I want someone slinging songs at me I will hire a DJ and throw a party! Why can't people be content with binge-watching Downton Abbey or Killing Eve?

Another thing I am getting tired of is being fed different dates for returning to campus. We have gone from two weeks ago to last week to September and now mid-May.

I'm not sure how I feel. The constant checking homework is starting to grate, in fact I have started doing a few, watching something on iPlayer or ITV Hub etc and then pausing at the adverts to do a few more. Sitting marking for four or five hours solid has lost its attraction and is in fact becoming rather a chore.

I just marked one class' essays. I thought it would be a good idea to get them to write a news article about something they heard of or witnessed or were part of. The stipulation was that it should not be written in the first person. A reasonable task I thought? I estimate half the students submitted entries using I, my, our, me etc! And I still have another class to look at who had that particular task. It may be a blessed relief to get back into class after all.

But not before mid-May though. I am toying with the idea of a weekend break. Nothing special, not too far away, just a nice hotel with western breakfasts and dinners, somewhere to break the monotony. And I can do that by leaving at noon on a Friday, something I wouldn't be able to on campus. I haven't made my mind up yet though, it would be a couple of thousand spent which I was saving towards summer. But then it looks as though it will be a case of “What summer?”!

We are supposed to be getting a sandstorm here on Thursday. Looking out of my window I think it has possibly already started. No doubt I shall find out in a little while. I am going out shopping for pastries and goodies from Metro and of course something in Burger King for my dinner. Last time I had their fish thing which turned out to be three fish fingers in a bun (with sauce and stuff of course) so as BHG haven't had any for yonks it reminded me to check for them in Metro. I miss Cap'n Birdseye!

Well you can do so much with fish fingers, can't you? Butties, with chips, mash and parsley sauce and now it seems, burgers.

1820

In order to avoid anything with underdone streaky bacon I ordered a Big King thing that had cheese in it. Bloody expensive at 62¥ but when it arrived they had given me a portion of nuggets as well! Jesus, I can't even finish the burger and chips let alone a freebie! Why can't they just lower the damned price?

Metro was more or a less a waste of time. No fish fingers. I did get tinned tomatoes (yes, not easy to find here), some chocolate and when I went to the bakery there were no turnovers of any flavour. Croissants and egg tarts it had to be.

I did though go and look in the lobster tank. An Auntie tried to convince me to buy one but let's face it, I'm like most people – a hypocrite. I am quite happy eating my beef chicken, pork etc but I really don't want to kill it. Maybe one day some poor lobster will have my name on it and I will freeze it for an hour before plunging its head into boiling water but not just yet.

Oh, and when I left to go downtown I was walking towards the security gate when I suddenly realised that yet again I had forgotten my mask. I'd never have made a surgeon. At the exact moment, Mr Zhang and his wife were walking in the opposite direction. They very kindly gave me a mask, confirmed that the plan was a mid-May opening and went on. I forgot to ask if I was being sacked in summer!