Today I walked into the old city and there was a fair bit of traffic around although not many people were walking. I didn’t wear my mask but I had it with me because people were a bit thin on the ground and wearing the mask will do me more harm than good. When I did come face to face with someone I got strange looks and maybe a wee bit of fear in the eyes as they gave me a wide berth.

This is the first time I have been in the old city since all this hullabaloo virus thingamajig appeared on the scene and I had forgotten just how stupid, ignorant, selfish and inconsiderate most of the drivers are. I had quite a few confrontations mainly because I refuse to give way if I have the right of way and I force a situation. One such situation was when I was crossing on a green man and an Audi A8 was coming around the corner and didn’t want to stop until I was right in front of his grill. We stared at each other for a few seconds as the car lurched to a halt and the other pedestrians that stopped for the car were looking at me. Without so much as a blink of an eye I finished crossing the road. It’s this kind of arrogant behaviour that gets on me tits and I would love to carry a baseball bat for this sort of occasion and then I could give them a persuasive reminder of how to behave. Alas I am not allowed to do that even in China.

I’m not going to miss the driving etiquette or lack thereof when I leave China. I’m returning to Australia for a while and I have to admit that they do drive a little bit better than the Chinese and are not so eager to use their horns and usually they don’t drive on the kerb with Ebikes but maybe all that has changed, I guess I’ll find out on Sunday.

And so I am at a bit of a juncture at this point in time, what to do next and where to go. I’ll go back to Australia for a month or so and see how I feel being back. I really would like to get another car and go on a bit of a road trip which might be good fun. I would really prefer to do the road trip in the UK but that might be a bit more difficult but you never know, where there is a will there might be a way.

I’m also thinking that I might just go back to my house and potter in the garden and go back to the simple life, although maybe a little boring but if I could get a part time job for a little while, put some money back in the bank and maybe buy a new car…………….

So I walked 10km’s today and when I got back home I was knackered. I did get up at 6am and after breakfast I went to the park and then to the shops to buy me messages and then after lunch did me 10kms so I’ve had a busy day and too much coffee but I am feeling that if my head hits the pillow I will fall down into the wormhole of sleep and not surface for some time. It’s only the back of 4pm so it might be a little bit early to retire for the evening. I hope my last coffee kicks in a bit more to keep me going.

So it’s five days to go till my flight and yes I am counting. My suitcase is just about packed, it sits at 18kgs and I have 5kgs to spare but I still have a few more things to fit in yet. I’m not too sure just how strict the airlines will be, but as I have a connecting flight in Australia on a smaller plane I am thinking that they might give me a bit of grief but I’ll just have to play the sympathy card and see how I go. I’ll keep the beard long and unkempt looking and they might just take pity on me after my 10 hour flight from Shanghai to Sydney.

I’m ready to leave now 🙂

I woke up before the sun this morning and I was starving so I got up and had breakfast. About 7.30 I went to the park and it was rather busy which I was surprised to see. Many people were not wearing their masks and they seem a lot more relaxed but it makes sense not to wear a mask when you are exercising as it can’t be healthy for your lungs and body, especially if the mask is not fresh.

I stayed for about an hour and then came home and had a shower and then I went out for a walk, I was really just at a loose end with not much to do. I have started a new Ebook by James Patterson but to be honest after reading the Henning Mankell books it’s kinda hard to go back to this amateur style of American writing. I’ve read a few of James Paterson’s books but they are all much the same and the main character “Alex Cross” has so many enemies that do all these things to him and the ideas become more far-fetched the longer you read the series, and so I gave it a miss. I only have a week to go before I board that big plane so I will see if I can find another book online that I can read.

So I went for a walk to Jinji Lake or Golden Chicken Lake, for a wee stroll and to ease the boredom. I went out for about an hour and a half and then swung passed the Muslim restaurant and picked up lunch and headed home. After lunch I had a bit of a siesta as the early rise was catching me up. I didn’t sleep very well last night and according to my “Fitbit” thing I only slept in deep sleep mode for two hours and so I feel knackered today. To solve this problem I am going to finish the evening with a single malt or two, after all I only have the week to finish the bottle which will be quite easy really. SO glad that I kept it for this week.

And then I just have a quick note about today’s events which as you can see was quite boring and so it looks like I will have to get on my high horse and start to give my opinion about something, oh what about the panic buying that’s taking place everywhere…………people really have gone fuckin’ nuts…………more to follow later on that subject because I have more important things to do which include one bottle of Jura whisky and my glass…………..my glass is empty and I need to rectify this immediately!

Friday has arrived and the sun was out although the wind would slice you into pieces. After breakfast I went to the park as usual and said good morning to all the usual faces and then went for a lap of the park. My chilblains on my left hand have healed well but this mornings wind would encourage them to return.

Mid morning I met my old friend Chynna to give her all my English novels that I have. She is from Taiwan and has been good company while I have been here. She spent her secondary years at school in London and so she understands the British humour and subtleties very well and I think we will both miss each other when I leave. She used to own a cafe but sold it last year which for her was a good decision, especially when you see the current state of play in China where almost every cafe apart from Starbucks is closed.

I picked up lunch on the way home, Cumin beef, vegetables and rice………..very nice.

The afternoon was the same as every other afternoon these past few weeks, some TV, read my book and surf the internet and then write some stupid stuff for the world to see. I’ve done most of my online shopping here and I will be returning the “New” battery that I bought for my laptop as it is worse than the one I currently have. The battery life has reduced from 4 hours to 2 hours over a matter of weeks, mind you my laptop is around 7 years old I think so it’s still doing OK.

Later in the day I’ll check the Torrent websites and download some TV or movies for my viewing, if the VPN does not work I can’t look at Youtube and as I am staying home most of the time and I have no more books to read this is one thing to do to pass the hours.

And then I’ll finish the evening with some Jura whisky just to keep the cold away of course, oh and the virus. An 19 year old Single Malt is very good for it so I am lead to believe and I am willing to experiment by drinking it.

The sun was shining today and Sissi decided to come to the park with me this morning. On our second turn of the park we went to the swings, I haven’t been on the swings for years and it was great. The park was busier this morning which just goes to show that life is beginning to return to some form of normality.

There was a car accident outside the main gate where a car and an ebike had come into contact and from the position of the car and bike I would say that the ebike was at fault because they rarely pay any attention to the colour of the traffic lights. Last week I nearly got hit by one that did not think of stopping and tried to sneak between the kerb and myself but I made him stop and then gave him a mouthful which I’m sure he didn’t understand word for word but would have got the gist.

A few more restaurants are open and they have even set up tables and chairs outside for patrons to sit at which was a surprise to see, I thought that this was still not allowed. My local fruit shop has re-opened which is great because their fruit is better priced and more tasty than the supermarket and I would rather shop at the small shops if I can.

We are still stopped at the entrance to shopping centres and at the main gate of the community to have your temperature taken but I can understand this more than I can understand about events in Australia currently. For some reasons, unbeknown to myself, Australians are buying as much toilet paper as they possibly can and it seems that supermarkets are running low and sometimes running out, getting caught short as it were. I was unaware that the Corona Virus had any effect on your bowels but apparently most Australians know otherwise and must have knowledge that it also causes “Diarrhoea” It looks like the shit is about to hit the fan in more ways than one.

Australians are nuts

There is no “I” in team, isn’t that what they say? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the world came together for other important causes as it is trying to do at the moment because of the Coranavirus outbreak in China? To try and stem the spread they have cancelled flights, stepped up Bio Security and implemented many measures to try and contain or control it.

Why is there such a response to this potential disaster when the world has been facing many other ongoing problems? I think the short answer to both questions is “Money and Greed” The difference with this particular problem is that it could kill you now, today or tomorrow…………………..the threat is imminent or could be and if you are not here anymore you cannot make any money or spend it for that matter.

Climate Change is always at the top of the agenda and these days everything from the price of coffee to whether I got a good night’s sleep is blamed on it………..and it is real. I have lived in Australia for many years and I have seen the seasons change over the 30 years that I have been there. In Queensland I get summer and winter, that’s it. Of course in Australia the sun shines nearly 300 days a year at my home and many in government are still pushing for good old coal and ripping up good pasture and arable land to sell sell sell and to make a few dollars along the way. I invested in Solar Power years ago and I haven’t paid an electricity bill in years, I usually make a few dollars. The sun could provide a fair amount of Australia’s power but the naysayers have too much invested in the fossil fuels and so change happens at a snail’s pace. It’s the same in many countries.

Very little money has been allocated for “Green Energy”, coal still gets subsidised. Last year in Australia they had severe bushfires, drought and floods. They are using ground water for mining operations while farmers and towns run out of water. Adani corporation from India has been given an opportunity to build a huge mine that will bring jobs in the short term and rape the land in the long term………….the money that Australia will make from this venture will be very little and the environmental impact will last for generations. Money money money it’s at the forefront of any decision, oh and re-election of course. And again this is happening in many countries.

Plastics are killing the planet. It’s now in the food chain and many animals are dying from ingesting plastics and then we ingest the animal and we get the plastics to, albeit a very small quantity. We are slowly killing the natural world, we pollute it with many things, and plastic is just one thing. Right now we have a fuckwit in the White House that is slowly rolling back environmental regulations so that his country can make more money and of course so he can get re-elected. His latest trick of course is to make some “Landmines” legal to use again. He is a real good example of what we don’t need at the moment. He is “Greed and Stupidity” personified and has someone once said “he has the launch codes” But of course the American economy is a “War economy” and if it’s not causing trouble or supplying arms to someone then it’s economy will begin to slow down………..so there will never be peace in the world because the American’s will suffer and we can’t have that.

And so as you look around the world it just seems to be doom and gloom and yet in some parts of the world things are getting done, but it is usually individuals or small enterprises trying to move forward in a more sustainable way, trying to force their governments to sit up and take notice. There are not many governments that are actually being proactive, implementing plans for generations to come rather than look forward to the next election. In most democracies around the world it is really difficult to find any leaders with foresight and thinking beyond their lifetime or time in office.

Costa Rica is one country that has done away with its army and allocated those resources to becoming a green economy and looking after the natural world and although it is still a work in progress it is a good example of what is achievable.

So instead of fighting all the time maybe if the leaders of the world thought a bit more about consequences of their actions and inactions and thought less about lining their own pockets to increase their wealth. They use fear to justify many of the decisions they make but this time Mother Nature has come up with a problem that currently has no answer and she has scared the shit out of many around the world, apart from many of the medical companies that see good times ahead.

If we just picked one problem that the world is facing, say homelessness and every government focused on this rather than delegating this to the private sector because when they do this it then becomes a means to print money. In the UK last year very little was spent on public housing but instead private companies are filling this gap and taking millions of pounds from government while supplying substandard and unsafe housing solutions.

I have been on the planet for nearly 60 years and we have had the best years of the planet so far and we have destroyed more of the planet in my lifetime than at any other time in history. We have to be optimistic about the future but it is hard to be optimistic when you look around the world and see who is in charge and pulling the strings.

As a nation I do not like America, it’s politics, it’s destruction of the natural world and the fact that religion is playing more and more in the decision making of government fuelling it’s crusades. Church and state should be kept separate. They have caused wars to help their economy, the last major boost of course was the George Bush WMD fabrication where most of the top officials in government were benefitting directly from that confrontation and it continues today with the current administration using the government to create wealth for themselves and of course they also have one of the most corrupt and dishonest presidents in history.

And so maybe Covid19 might make a few of them sit up and take notice, Mother Nature is fighting back and will cull a few of these pesky humans but we can only hope that she manages to get hold of some of the ones causing the most amount of damage such as the big “Orange” in the White House.

Yesterday morning I did not go to the park due to my old war wound playing up and so I didn’t venture out until later in the morning. However Sissi and I went for a walk in the evening around 6 pm and the rush hour was on, there were cars everywhere and it looked like life was returning to some kind of normality. And so this morning I ventured out to the park and sure enough the roads were heavy with traffic but not quite the same quantity as before the virus appeared.

After the park I wandered around the city centre and nothing has changed there, everything is still closed, the coffee shops and restaurants. But there are signs of life as many people begin to return to work. The main Suzhou centre shopping centre is apparently opening its doors once more although I can’t confirm that.

There were more people in the park when I arrived around 9 am and a few were workers making their way through the park but we still had our quota of walkers, however I noticed that many were not wearing masks and the park security were giving them a telling off. Mind you I had to drop my mask a few times when I was exercising because I was beginning to overheat.

I’ve spoken to some friends in the last few days because I hope to catch up with them before I leave and they seem to think that this will all be over within a week or two, I feel that it will go on for months and some folk may become complacent which in turn may add to the amount of people infected. After all there are many parts of the world just beginning their Covid19 journey.

This morning felt almost tropical. I looked at the gas water heater and it said 12C, this is the room temperature of course, but its two degrees warmer than yesterday but it does feel a lot warmer. This also could be because it has been sunny the last few days and the house is not feeling so cold and damp, maybe spring is on the way and the so the Corona Virus will leave us soon.

I went to the park around 10 this morning, I’ve been getting later and later because there are very few people in the park no matter what time I go and it is also a little bit warmer. It looks like I have chilblains on two of my fingers due to the very cold mornings last week. In the park there were a few families playing badminton and some were having picnics, albeit KFC. It has only being selling takeaway for the last month, in fact almost no restaurant is open where you can go in and have a meal but takeaways are permitted. There is one Starbucks open but again you can only get a takeaway. Thankfully I have a large supply of coffee and I have been experimenting mixing some of the more bitter ones with the milder and making my own blends. I am trying to keep to two coffees a day, any more than that I cannot sleep so well.

To go into the local supermarket you must now register your phone and enter your details and then you will have your temperature taken before being allowed in. The guys on the door have a full Bio Hazard suit on and double plastic gloves; mind you they will have close contact with many people throughout the day so I think that this is perfectly acceptable.

So three weeks today I have my flight from Pudong Airport which is over two hours away from my home. There are a few ways of getting there but at the moment I am still unsure of how I will get there. The Airport bus has been cancelled till further notice. I also heard that a Suzhou registered car may not go to Shanghai and so a taxi is out of the equation. So at the moment the only option is to get the high speed train to Shanghai and then fight public transport for about 3 hours which I am not looking forward to, but if that is the only option I will take it as I’m ready to leave this place I have called home for nearly three years.

Still not sure if I will be back. I have felt that I have been falling into a bit of a rut again and so I will consider what to do before I head to the UK later in the year. I would like to live in the UK for a few months but then it comes down to money at the end of the day so I plan to buy a Euro-millions ticket and win first prize to make things easier. After I have the money I will buy my Bottle Green Range Rover and head off on another big adventure and maybe make my way back to China, who knows?

I’ve tried not to collect too much while I have been here but my wardrobe seems to be getting smaller lately and so I have started to whittle down the contents. There is a clothes recycle bin in the complex but I have been giving most of my things to the old cleaning lady that looks after our block, some things she keeps but I like to give her first pick. I had an old phone had a pair of headphones that I gave her too. Mind you I have been doing a little bit of shopping on Taobao ( Chinese Ebay) for a few small items. 50% cheaper here than Australia.

I was thinking the other day, why did I book my flight so far out because I found a couple of flights for the same price, but a bit sooner and I’m ready to go but then I remembered. The other day Australia extended its travel ban for flights from China for another week and this is the real reason I delayed my flight, I was hoping that by the middle of March things might start to return to normal. I’m glad my subconscious is smarter than me.

I didn’t sleep too well last night, had a bit of a nightmare but for some reason I was talking to Donald Trump and someone else and the last thing I said before I woke up was “Fuck off” to Donald Trump. We were in some high rise because I could see the city below through the windows and the other thing I remember was that his face was very flaky as if his skin was peeling, all in all very strange indeed.

The sun was rising and it was to be another sunny day, the third in a row. Crisp clear skies at night and clear blue skies during the day. Mind you three days ago we had some snow which made the temperature drop suddenly and with it came the wind to make it worse, but today was positively tropical in comparison.

I fired up the washing machine much to the disgust of Sissi’s mother; the look said it all as I stepped out of the laundry, if looks could kill. It totally threw her she did not really know what to do and to make matters worse for her I commandeered it for most of the day but she still had to try and rearrange a few things which I quickly put back, so that cheered me up.

The next thing that cheered me up was that I could finally get access to the outside world once more, my VPN was up and running. I updated all my software on the phone and download a few podcasts and scanned all my apps for news and gossip to see what was going on, not much happening, same shit different day. But I had the choice to go where I wanted which is all important.

I headed to the park for an hour for my morning routine and then came back for a shower and sat outside in the winter sun reading my book. Henning Mankell’s Inspector Wallander, I’m on the fourth book of the four I bought and I will finish it tomorrow but I am really enjoying his style of writing and will try to get more of his books once I leave China. I’m so glad I bought these when I was in Thailand.

So today felt good and a big improvement on the last few days and of course a few days closer to my flight all going well.

PS just as I was uploading this the gates shut on the firewall once more, I guess someone maybe left it open by mistake this morning…….or maybe the bandwidth is just so bad in the evening that everything comes to a halt, either way I’m looking forward to leaving here soon and not having this problem.

Not having a good day, in fact I wish I could board a plane today and get the hell out of this place. Being stuck in the house most of the time is driving me a bit crazy and to compound those feelings I have Sissi’s mother to contend with. As Sissi told me herself, her mother is like many other Chinese of her generation, they only consider what they are doing and not how it will affect others.

The kitchen is an absolute bomb site. She cooks and prepares food and there is not one surface that is clear. There are many containers half filled with food and it can lie there for days before it is finally eaten. I don’t understand this at all. The phone will ring and she will answer it and talk extremely loud, instead of what most people will do which is to retreat to another room as to not disturb others. And of course I have mentioned that she will use her mobile and play it loud even when I am watching the TV or reading a book and she is literally 6 feet away.

It’s taken some time to get her to clean her teeth in the bathroom rather than do it in the kitchen morning and evening which I really find quite disgusting. The mornings and evenings have the same routine. The teeth are cleaned and then the water is used to rinse the mouth and spat out and this is still happening in the kitchen sometimes, which I really fucking hate and can’t get her to stop. She sees no problem with it.  And then there is the god awful noise that’s made when she tries to eject a piece of phlegm the size of a pinhead, the noises made are disgusting and stomach turning and quite frankly make me want to vomit. This morning I counted a dozen such attempts.

She can’t sit on her arse for a minute and is constantly walking in and out of the house to the balcony where she will often fetch a basin of water which she will then take into the bathroom to use to flush the loo, this is saving water apparently but she has no qualms letting the kitchen tap run like Niagara Falls when washing a cup or plate. This is a common trait with many Chinese and it gets on my tits. So the door is left open and the cold air fills the house once more.

Having to stay home most of the time because of this bloody epidemic is highlighting the many behaviours that she has because normally I would be out and about and I would only come in contact with her in a limited way because I would deliberately style my day as much as possible to avoid her but alas at the moment it is almost impossible. My room is not very big and I can only sit on my bed with the computer or to read a book and so I will go out to the living room but unfortunately it can get busy at times………I miss my privacy which is something that often happens in China.

I really don’t want to be rude and to cause friction and make my last month in China an unpleasant one but I am finding it hard to be civil when she repeats something that I have asked her not to do or at least made her aware of what happens if she does something. She walks around in her own wee world oblivious to others reality. She is younger than me but she shuffles around like an old woman that is in her 70’s.

But I think one of the most difficult things to cope with is the eating. She will eat all through the day at random time’s sooking in air and chewing with the mouth open and it’s really fucking disgusting. Picking at her teeth and making all sorts of noises to dislodge said piece of flotsam. Lunch is at 12 noon and dinner at 6 pm, these are pretty constant although there are times in the past when I have stayed out so that I will miss feeding time at the zoo only to discover to my horror that she is just sitting down to the trough.

You might have gathered by now that I have a very low tolerance for these kinds of noises, other noises I can live with. I love to hear the birds sing, cat’s fighting can be OK too and the steady rumble of a large diesel engine is very comforting but this kind of noise is stomach turning. I wear ear plugs and then I put my headphones on and turn the music up but after a while this is uncomfortable and I just want to be able to sit with my naked ears listening to the tick of the clock, the hum of the fridge or the noise of the wind and rain blowing outside as the cold air descends from the north to fly through Suzhou.

If I could hibernate for the next month I would. I am already sleeping way more than I should be because I’m stuck in the house and now that the vpn is no longer working I have no access to BBC sounds where I can download books, music and podcasts. The last few days have got me thinking of the future and what to do and where to go and I haven’t got an answer yet, however I’m thinking that to return here to continue this life in China may no longer be on the cards. When I go to the UK later in the year I will still apply for the visa but at this moment in time I am also thinking that I may return to civilisation, I might return to my home because as much as I have had many good times in China I don’t have the resources to live the way I would like to live and this may ultimately make my mind up to leave China behind.

I love the food, I really love the food and it’s cheap so I don’t have to cook. The convenience of using my phone to buy online or in the shops or from anywhere really is marvellous. The integration of technology in China is just great. Being anonymous is good although I get recognised quite often now in Suzhou. I like to try to speak Chinese with the locals and this can be quite funny at times and I feel pretty chuffed when I am able to hold a bit of a conversation. As I’ve said before just going to buy bread can be a challenge. But what has happened over the course of the last few weeks with the draconian measures that have been put in place, some of them are really stupid I may add. The whole of China is being treated as if they are children by Mr Xi and his henchmen, of course many of them are but I have seen a taste of what this country can do to enforce law and order. The crackdown maybe necessary but it also shows me what they are capable of and it does not sit well with me, my freedom has been curtailed and I don’t like that one bit. And more importantly I am unable to use the internet; to go where I want…….this is really driving me crazy. It’s that bad that I am forced to use “Bing” as my search engine, I mean how sad and pathetic is that……………………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And so my rant for this evening is coming to an end and I’m sure that tomorrow will bring me some more ammunition which I can transpose into words, to have a vent, to keep me sane, to give me something to do. Four weeks today I will hopefully be at the airport boarding a plane to Australia and to escape this madness.