Last night I got a message to tell me that my fight to Taiwan has been cancelled. This has put a bit of a spanner in the works because I was hoping to go to Taiwan to renew my current visa for one last time before I need to go through the process of applying for a new one in the UK. I have a two year visa but every three months I need to leave China get it stamped and then come back in again.
The next problem I have is finding someone to take me back to Australia because many airlines have stopped flying and the ticket prices that I have found so far are about double. When I arrive in Australia I will have to self quarantine apparently which will be a bit of a bugger but it will be good to get away from China for a while.
I’ll be staying in Brisbane for a few weeks and then I’ll have to figure out some accommodation. I would like to go to Sydney but as I don’t have a car anymore it makes things a little difficult getting around Australia, it is very public transport un-friendly. But at least the weather should be cooler and the bushfires will have gone out.
i was surprised when I read the news this morning that this young doctor had died from the corona virus. he seemed a very fit looking young man and even in the picture of him lying in bed with a respirator on, he had life and fire in his eyes or was it more like fear. So to hear the news that he had passed away was as I say surprising and sad.
He was the first person to report this disease and for doing this he was got into trouble from government officials and he was told to keep his mouth shut or there could be consequences. But it was soon apparent that there was a problem and then there was an announcement finally coming from the Chinese Government that a new strain of a flu like virus was spreading through Wuhan.
My first thought this morning was that he had been killed rather than died due to the virus. If he lived he might caused too much trouble for some fat cat in government. of course we will never know if he died of complications or someone else had a hand in his death. Either way, it is a sad day for someone so young to die, especially someone who puts their own life on the line to help others.
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.
It was cold last night, the second cloudless night and the temperature fell. It was warm enough in bed, although my nose was feeling a bit worse for wear. Breathing that cold air along with the pollution is not good.
After breakfast I took off the thermals and swapped them for shorts and my gear for the park. When I exit the community gate the wind cut through me like a knife, its cold today. At the sand pit there are the usual faces, the three old men and the young martial arts guy. The other foreigner Peter has already moved on for a walk.
I warm up a little and then head off for a lap of the park via the monkey bars, do some pull ups and then make my way back to the sand pit. You can do sit ups, pull ups, push ups, there are parallel bars and you can make it up as you go along.
The park is empty apart from us and a few dog walkers and another couple of nutters doing some laps of the park. Not many people have returned to work yet and Suzhou feels like a ghost town. Most restaurants and shops are closed, but thankfully the Muslim restaurant is still open and so I won’t starve. I won’t go out again once I return home after the park today; Sissi is getting a little upset I think because I am going out every day. The government have told people to stay home and self quarantine yourself; I on the other hand have been going to the park in the morning and then going out for lunch. If I’m around people I wear a mask, although that’s a bit difficult when you’re trying to eat lunch, but I do sit as far away from others as I can and most people will not sit at the same table as me anyway which is great. I think that you can still go out and take precautions and you should be fine.
The problem I have today is that due to the high pollution levels my sinuses are in pain and of course I have a runny nose and I cough a little which of course looks a little suspect when there is plague forming outside.
I still can find a place where I can buy masks and I only have one which is a bit old and I also feel that it might do me more harm than good, but until I can find new ones I have no choice. Maybe this is also why my nose is complaining.
I get bored easily and I’m finding it quite difficult to be stuck inside our four walls. If I was at my own house under the same conditions then at least I could go to the garden and potter around, or go to the workshop and make something or even go for a drive, but here I am stuck in a house with few options.
I do have a pile of books I brought back from Thailand and I have already read two of them and this morning after returning from the park I read another 100 pages of my latest read, a Henning Mankell book called the “Dogs of Riga”. I watched a bit of TV, I have even done some Chinese study and I have tried to write a little but I would rather go for a walk in the mountains which I might just do because it should be very quiet.
I have a visa run in March and so I am hoping that there are no travel restrictions by then and of course I am still healthy enough to travel. I will leave China in June for the last time and I will return to the UK and I will apply for another visa, I think I would like to come back here for a little bit longer.
It’s a cold winter’s day in China and as we enter the year of the Rat a plague has arrived and the timing for this event could not have been better. Most Chinese will travel home at this time of the year and if they don’t go home then they will now spread their wings across the globe. Many have already set off before many of the travel bans were implemented.
There is fear in the community, many social gatherings have been cancelled, even family dinners have been postponed. Most of the festivities or anything really where there was going to be a gathering of folk is no more. Mind you I went out yesterday to the shops and they were quite busy with last minute shoppers.
Today I will not go out I think, I’ll stay home and it’s not because of the virus, it’s more to do with the pollution levels which are also causing problems to folk like me and of course it is teeming with rain and it just feels bone shatteringly cold.
I’ve seen a few people as I look out of the window this morn, but the community that I live in is very still which I do like. There is always an upside to any situation like this and when you live in a country with such a large population it can sometimes be a struggle to find peace and quiet, but the last few mornings when I have gone to the park it has been wonderful, there are only a handful of hardcore walkers out and about and there are very few workers passing through.
Maybe the reaction to this virus has been a little over the top but when you have a population as large as China it is better for them to react this way than to just dismiss it like other places may do. The social structure here allows the government to lock down areas with ease and there is just no argument, I can’t imagine some of these decisions having the same acceptance in many western countries.
When I went out this morning almost everyone was wearing a mask and I did too but the problem that I have and others with specs have is that we have two choices……….we can either see where we are going and breathe unclean air or we can breathe clean air and not see where we are going due to your specs steaming up. It’s winter here and so the specs are cold and they just fog up. I had the same problem when I went to Harbin in the north of China when I went to see the Ice Festival, but the difference there was that the condensation soon turned to ice.
Wuhan is around 750 km from Suzhou but in this day and age and especially in China that distance is very small, the transport system here is very efficient and of course Wuhan is a transport hub and that is also why the government has decided to lock it down.
A pandemic is never a good thing I guess but that’s what is possibly going to happen in the days and weeks to come. China has once more been the source for a rather contagious SARS like bug that has appeared at the best possible time to cause complete chaos and disruption to the Chinese New Year celebrations. I heard on the news this morn that the infection could have come from a snake or a rat, I’m putting my money on the Rat, after all we are entering the year of the Rat.
Many people are beginning to panic and quickly change their New Year plans, hotels have had many cancellations, Sissi told me that the houses she has with Airbnb have no one now, and future bookings have been cancelled too. Restaurants and most New Year celebrations have been cancelled, in fact anything where there will be a large gathering of people. I for one am not fussed, I can be quite anti-social at the best of times and just now I usually get many invitations and often would rather stay at home with a good book or just watch the box. This year I will get my wish.
Most people seem to be reacting as if the problem has arrived on their doorstep and many are taking no chances. The Chinese will do as they are told by their government, many do not have free thought and so will do what they have been advised and to be honest it is just as well. They have one bad habit here that will help to spread this virus, most Chinese folk do not cover their mouths when coughing and I often want to punch them in the throat if they do this near me. May as well give them something to really cough about. Maybe after this health scare the message from the government might get ingrained into the psyche for future reference.
It is winter here and there are many folk already suffering from some ailment. Last week I had a bad throat, caused I would think by the high pollution levels, there have been warnings that it is unhealthy and for me I would have to agree. I don’t have to look at the app on my phone to tell me that the air quality is not good today; my throat does that for me. So for the last week I have been coughing up a lung or two but after using an expectorant for a few days my cough is better and the amount of phlegm being produced has reduced dramatically. I was really surprised just how sticky that stuff can be. I tried to dispose of a load down the sink while I cleaned my teeth and the globule just refused to be washed away, no wonder it’s such a drama trying to get it out of our body.
On a different note, I was on the bus the other day and a manky old man got on the bus at the same stop as me. He had just lit up a doubt a few minutes before the bus arrived, took a couple of draws and then snubbed it out and put it back into his pocket. I stayed well clear of him on the bus; I would rather breathe in all the PM2.5 on offer than sit near him.
He blew his nose and then dropped the wet soggy tissue on the bus floor at which point almost all of the other passengers got onto him and told him to pick it up and put it in the bin. It was so good to see, maybe there is hope for this country yet. He protested for a few minutes but then he had to admit defeat and he picked it up and put it in the bin. They have many bad habits and throwing rubbish on the floor as you know is one of my pet hates, so to see so many people chastising this guy gives one hope for the future.
When
I went out this morning almost everyone was wearing a mask and I did too but
the problem that I have and others with specs have is that we have two
choices……….we can either see where we are going and breathe unclean air
or we can breathe clean air and not see where we are going due to your specs
steaming up. It’s winter here and so the specs are cold and they just fog up. I
had the same problem when I went to Harbin in the north of China when I went to
see the Ice Festival, but the difference there was that the condensation soon
turned to ice.
It was a little bit before four in the morn that I woke up because I needed to go to the loo. It was cold and I was now regretting having had that late cuppa last night.
A few minutes later I was tucked back up in bed and thinking of the hours of sleep ahead of me, at least two maybe three. I have to get up early this morning and wash the bedding because the sun is set to shine for one day before the rains return and of course I have to get up and do all of this before Sissi’s mother gets up and claims the balcony and or washing machine.
Shortly after four I hear someone moving around, they are in the kitchen. The microwave is switched on and then I hear the clink of cutlery against a bowl. Light switches being switched on and off and then footsteps to the front door. Slippers kicked off and then the door is opened and closed. Who is going out at this time of the morn, maybe Sissi has decided to go off on one of her random adventures.
I’m up at 6:30am, a little bit later than I wanted. I stripped the bed and put on the washing machine then made breakfast. I love that first coffee in the morning, it does wonders for the body. Not only does it want to expel yesterday’s food but it is also helping to dislodge the phlegm that has been causing me to cough the last few days. The pollution has been bad and my throat has not been happy, it feels like I have a Klingon on my throat catching my breath and making me cough. The lump that was ejected from my mouth was large enough to give someone concussion if it happened to strike them on the noggin and so I instantly felt lighter.
The second load was on, breakfast was finished and still the house remained quiet. The machine told me that my sheets were ready to be hung over the balcony, so I hung them out and got ready to go to the park.
I feel lethargic today, could be the air quality or because my sleep was disturbed, but either way I’m home and I’m going for shower. It’s great to step into the shower but I have to make sure that I warm up my hands and feet before I step in because today the feel a little numb.
Sissi is up and she told me that her mother had gone out early this morning but she has no idea where, I said that she left just after 4 am. Her clothes are here and so is her toothbrush and the like so I guess she hasn’t gone home. The house is so quiet and there is a level of calm that I have not experienced for some time. I can’t relax because at any moment she will walk back through the door. Mind you as I look around I see that the plastic basins have been removed from the bathroom, she fills them each night with water and then uses this to flush the loo thinking that this is better for the environment by saving water…………….instead it only makes the toilet less efficient when you flush it as normal. The water level drops in the bowl and there seems to be an airlock created and so sometimes you end up having to flush twice.
I go for an early lunch with the intention of going to the old city today but after brunch I head home in the off chance that the house may be still empty and to my joy it is. There is no movement, it’s quiet and still and now the birds outside seem noisy………all is well in the world………….normality has returned.
Sissi comes home and she still hasn’t heard from her mother but rather than worry just yet I take the opportunity to read my book. The sun is shining and the balcony is beginning to warm up and it’s really very pleasant. I keep waiting for Sissi’s mother to come out to the washing machine or bring a bucket of water out or to just suddenly appear. There is a stillness in the house that I have not felt for weeks. Her mother can not just sit still and so the house is always in a flux, but today……..today is glorious and I am going to enjoy it the best I can.
And so after reading a few chapters, having more coffee and soaking up the sun and feeling warm from head to toe I have decided to write these thoughts for all to see. Sometimes the simple pleasures in life are all we need, it’s all we want sometimes and I have certainly enjoyed my quiet day at home.
I travelled to Singapore to see the solar eclipse last year. This meant that I had to get a plane train and an automobile to get to my destination and then the next day I spent nearly two hours getting to the Science Museum to get a pair of glasses so that I could look at the sun during the eclipse. So I made quite an effort to see a natural wonder happen in real time, in the flesh so to speak.
As I mentioned earlier I ended up not getting any glasses because everywhere I went they were sold out and so I didn’t know what to do, because it is way too dangerous to look at the sun with the naked eye and so I was pretty well stumped as to how I could solve this problem. I went back to the shopping centre near the bus terminus and thought that I would just get the bus to the nature reserve and give up on my plan to see the eclipse and anyway no matter where I was in the city I would still be able to see the sun.
I passed McDonald’s and thought that I would pop in for a coffee and I just happened to look up through the glass awning outside McDonald’s and low and behold I could see the eclipse, I put on my dark specs and looked again and I could see the eclipse perfectly. I could not believe it.
I stood for some time and the crowds started to swell under the awning as we all looked through and watched one of nature’s wonders. I stood there for quite some time, in fact until the full annular eclipse arrived and then a bit longer as it began to pass. All this time I took pictures with my phone and I took a few pictures with my camera, which I’m glad to say, have turned out remarkably clear indeed.
I went into McDonald’s for a coffee and sat down for a bit and rested my weary legs and my neck was getting a bit tired and strained for looking up for so long. In the middle of the restaurant there was a group of young guys, maybe 14 years old or so and they were sitting in this circular booth playing games on their phones and stuffing their faces, meanwhile outside one of the wonders of nature was taking place and yet they have their noses stuck in the virtual world on the phone.
Is this a sign of the times or has it always been this way? If they had no phones would they still be inside or would they have been outside watching the nature’s spectacle for free? Either way I thought to myself that they have missed out on something that they may never get to see again.
