The paranoia grows every day; the fear for many is real. There have been 8 cases confirmed in Suzhou out of a population of 11 million but this has sent ripples of fear through the community. I’m being told to stay home and not go out, but I like to go to the park in the morning and I feel it is perfectly safe to do, mind you pollution levels which will be adding to the problem. I cough and splutter in the morning just trying to get bump started, especially after I have had breakfast and my first coffee of the day; the pollution levels have been really high and they are to continue like this. For me this has always been my greatest fear about living in China because I don’t want to spend the rest of my time here wearing a mask as I find it extremely uncomfortable and makes me want cough and splutter more.
The house is cold but we have been advised to keep it like fresh air fortnight, one of the recommendations from health authorities is to keep the house well ventilated and so most days I’m looking like the Michelin Man. Two layers on the legs and four on the body, gloves and beanie, I do remove a couple of layers when I go to bed and it’s usually comfortable.
The more you read the more information you receive and some of it is conflicting. I’m not sure what the Chinese people are being told, well in any great detail I mean. I think you also need to have a common sense approach to this and for the most part that is sufficient. Going to the park in the morning is not going to make me more vulnerable to this outbreak, especially if I keep away from everyone. I have more chance of catching the common cold because it’s so cold in the morn.
To add insult to injury you could say, Bird Flu has also been detected in Wuhan and so that is really going to upset the apple cart.
Thankfully my biggest gripe at the moment is that my travel plans may be severely screwed up. I have an early visa run in March and the idea of this is to return to China before the 12th of March, which is the last date that I can enter on my current visa. This will allow me to stay until June the 6th at which time I will head off for a wee excursion before getting to the UK at the end of July. I still want to go to the UK this year and so if I have to pull my plans forward a bit it really puts a spanner in the works and I am not sure of plan B is at this stage.
So many airlines are cutting ties with China and there is no warning. My flights are with China Eastern and so they might be ok, but if I manage to leave the country ok, will I get back in before the visa expires? A few unknowns at this stage but hopefully in the next couple of week’s life will get back to some kind of normality.