Friday 5^th February, 2021 1700

For the past few days I have been trying to get myself in gear and go and do the shopping I need to do before the mad rush. It is new year's eve next Thursday and there is no way I want to be a prop forward or crowd control officer then, I will steer well clear of the known “troublespots” ie main supermarkets.

But I get by far the best deal in BHG on wine so at the very least I needed to get in enough stock to last until after the frenzy. Annoying really considering yesterday I should have been in Kunming and looking forward to a trip for five days in Lijiang starting tomorrow. Anyway, I am alive. And lazy.

Last night I entertained thoughts of going to BHG today and then on to Burger King and Metro. Silly me. What I did do though was actually move my backside and at least get to BHG. Didn't get much food though, hard to carry much more with a dozen bottles of wine at my age! I did get tinned ham for my ham, egg and chips dinner tonight and yes, it is as awful as I remember. Tastes like Spam in aspic. But hey! Rejoice! The annual potato famine is over and there are half-decent ones available now! And once I move myself I can make my own ham. Oh for some Branston......

Anyway, when I turned into the wine aisle to find one of my “girls” to order my plonk, I was immediately confronted by four bodies wearing army fatigues, shopping. You may be forgiven for thinking the Chinese are diminutive in stature (as I did before I came here) but this was ridiculous. I thought perhaps I could have been looking at the Chinese version of the Harlem Globetrotters! I swear the shortest was no less than 6' 2”. With my paltry 5' 7¾” (definitely less now 45 years down the line) I felt positively tiny.

And the taxi driver who brought me home was yet another who wanted a “selfie” with me. I really should start charging! I know there aren't many foreigners in Lanzhou now compared to a year ago but we are still hardly a rarity.

In fact Brenda forwarded me greetings from the Bureau of Foreign Affairs today which said they had recently taken 28 laowei on a cultural trip (thank God they never asked me after the last time climbing a mountain!) and informed me she and the leader will descend upon me at 1500 on Tuesday. That means I need to do Metro tomorrow or Sunday and another wine run to BHG Monday. I am trying to amass sufficient reserves so that a box of six a week will see me through to summer at a bottle a day. No telling what my timetable is next term even though the Chinese teachers all have theirs. Odd that.

At least though the temperature at lunchtime is now above zero, in fact this afternoon I wore a jacket but no jumper. Roll on summer!