Monday 5^th April, 2021 Qing Ming Holiday 1745

Well it's a holiday today for those that work Mondays but the school always contrives to make my weekday off the one that sees me getting the least holidays – I've checked and dragon boat is also on a Monday!

Last week we had a fair bit of rain (by Lanzhou standards) and I've noticed most of it falls overnight. How do I know? Because the drops fall down on the metal cage outside my bedroom windows and ping to either wake me up or keep me awake. Anyway, there was a little bit of precipitation on the way to school. At one point my driver suddenly exclaimed and pointed. There was a lone car covered in about three inches of snow. Where it had come from Lord only knows.

Now on Friday when I got into a cab to go home, the driver said “Peili guantian?” - clearly I am becoming known here!

Yesterday we went to get my cigars plus free gifts of a Great Wall lighter (which I can never take from Lanzhou unless I take the train) and a pair of Sony earphones which were most welcome. So I now have 5,700 cigars stashed in the living room and a reduced bank balance.

After bringing those home, we went to the big Mall. God in heaven, it was like spring festival! We managed to get a table in Burger King but as we walked towards Metro there were huge crowds, queueing inside and outside a new shop called Top Toy. I haven't the foggiest what they were selling but judging from the identical bags happy customers were leaving with, it was just one item – and a shedload of them. It prompted me to remark that if Metro was packed we would just go home but in the event, whilst busy it still made for a quick turnaround. I got my cheese.

The jing jo shop was open and Jody volunteered to get my liquids. I asked her to find out why they had been closed for so long. I was right. Mr Jing Jo's dad had passed away. I suppose popping off just before tomb sweeping festival could be considered good timing. The old boy didn't have any quality of life after the stroke, he was being spoon-fed and was bed-ridden. But then around here people disappear regularly.