Well I’m in bed and listening to radio 2 and I’m happy on a few counts. It’s my last night, my vpn is working, my flight tomorrow is still on schedule which is very important and so as I go to sleep all seems to be well in my world.

I’ve spent the day at home with Sissi and we have listened to music, chatted and solved the world’s problems, but we haven’t figured out what we will do next or where we will go. It’s always a sad time when we leave friends and especially when we don’t know when we will see each other again but at the end of the day I feel in my water that it’s time to move on and of course my visa is up too but I think that even if it wasn’t I’d still want to leave, but the expiration of my visa makes it easier.

Travel will become more and more difficult in the short term and while I’m in China I’m just treading water, so to return to Australia at this time makes a bit more sense. I can re-evaluate my plans and decide what to do next, try to figure out which horizon to head to.

Time to change to radio four I think and then it’s lights oot.

On the 20^th of March 2018 I arrived in Suzhou and stayed at the FX Hotel at Leqiao in the west of the SIP. I was only there for two days as I just wanted somewhere to rest after my flight. This hotel is near to the metro station and so it was easy to get there. It is a three star hotel and a little bit tired but at least I could rest my weary bones.

My next plan of attack was to find more permanent accommodation and so for that I needed more time, so I got a place on Airbnb and because of this my world changed forever. On the 22^nd of March I booked an Airbnb with Sissi for a week. She met me near one of the stations and took me through the labyrinth of the old city to my digs for the next few days. First impressions were of a lovely young bubbly girl with so much enthusiasm and she was so friendly. We hit it off and we talked and talked as if we had known each other for years.

Sissi asked me how long I intended staying in Suzhou and I told her I was not sure but maybe as long as two years and then she asked me would I like to share an apartment with her in the SIP, which is the city centre of Suzhou and the apartment would be 5 mins from Central Park………I said “YES”.

Sissi wanted to set up a new Airbnb apartment in the SIP, which for most people is a better location. We moved into Orchard Manors which is one of the most sought after addresses in Suzhou. A four bedroom apartment, about 170 m2 and on the 4^th floor. It was absolutely brilliant and I still had to pinch myself because I could not believe my luck. I had only been in Suzhou for three days and one of my biggest headaches had been cured by this wonderful young lady called Sissi. The only downside that I could see was that I was now living in an Airbnb house and to be honest some of the people that walked through the front door were certainly challenging and I have had many times where I have been unhappy with this situation especially in the early days of living here while Sissi and I were still getting to know each other. But on the other hand I have also met some really wonderful and inspiring young people too, far more than the guests that have been a complete and utter pain in the arse which I would have happily thrown over the balcony without hesitation. It has been an insight to the behaviours of everyday Chinese folk and the ignorance of foreigners which have been culturally inept and some of them have had very dubious behaviours.

Over the last two years Sissi has become a great friend and confidant and I have great love and respect for this tenacious young lady that has had to deal with many ups and downs over the last two years and yet she always has a smile for her guests and everyone for that matter and she always tries to do the right thing, however some of the guests have been complete and utter bastards and have taken advantage of her kind nature which would make my blood boil. I just wish that my level of Chinese had been higher so that I could tell them to Fuck off in no uncertain terms, but then again, saying it in English gets the desired effect too sometimes.

It turns out that we are both similar creatures in many ways even although we are separated by culture and age and I find that quite interesting. I admire and respect what she does to build a future for herself and I know for a fact that I would never take on three Airbnb houses, and after seeing the amount of work involved and some of the bullshit she has had to deal with, I know it’s not for me.

And so tomorrow I have a flight back to Australia and in a few weeks time Sissi will move to Nanjing to start a new chapter of life. Our time together has come to an end for now which is sad, but we are both ready to move on to something else. I don’t know what that is yet but Sissi has plans to go into the Hotel business with a young guy and I wish her all the best and I know that I will see her when I return to China, but maybe not in Suzhou. But I know one thing for sure my life was changed for the better on that day two years ago when I met the amazing and wonderful Sissi.

Thursday and all is well, well apart from the sunburn or windburn that I received yesterday. I went for a walk around the lake yesterday which is around 14km. I walked anti-clockwise, heading east and so the sun was on my back until I reached the end of the lake. It’s still a cool day but with the sun on my back I soon warmed up and it felt marvellous.

When I crossed the “Ren Bridge 人桥” or “People’s Bridge” I came across one of the new stations of the new metro line and because of this I was unable to continue along the path around the lake and the detour was quite far, so I jumped on one of the free Suzhou Green bikes. I haven’t been on one of these bikes for ages and it was great to get back on me bike, so to speak. I found one of the older bikes; they are slightly larger than the new ones. The saddles just don’t go high enough on the new bikes and so when you peddle you end up putting too much pressure on your knees.

I soon turned a corner and headed west back towards home and then I was running parallel to the lake once more. I took off me beanie because of the heat and I wasn’t wearing a mask either but instead enjoying the fresh air as I cycled home. I was cycling into the sun and into a bit of a head wind but I made good time and got home for a well deserved coffee on the balcony.

When I got up home my face felt like I was on fire and when I went into the bathroom I could see the reason why, my face was Scarlet O’Hara and I felt that I was running a temperature which is not the kind of thing you want to do in China at the moment, especially when I hope to leave the country in two days time. I also felt knackered and quite rightly so because I had walked over 20,000 steps, cycled 10km and I had also gone to the park in the morning. By 9pm I was tucked up in bed.

This morning I got up after 7am and after breakfast went back to bed. My face still felt warm but it wasn’t quite the beacon it seemed to be last night. I had a shower and then applied some cream to try and take the colour away. I can’t believe I managed to get sun burn at this time of the year, I mean the UV is not that high so I rarely use sun cream. So hopefully by Saturday it will have gone back to normal or maybe I might start to look a bit “flaky” by then.

After lunch I went to the Suzhou Bus Station to enquire about the airport bus, but alas it ain’t running yet. I have a train ticket for Saturday to get me part of the way but I really don’t fancy fighting my way to the airport with two cases and a backpack so I have decided to go by taxi which is costing 400 rmb which is about $90 which is quite a lot but at this time with the virus an all I thought that I would be safer in a car by myself and it means that I don’t have to fight with my luggage trying to get to the airport. This is the normal price for one car, usually I pay 100 when I share the car so on this occasion which may be my last trip out of China for a while, well Shanghai, I thought what the hell. This would still be way cheaper than getting a taxi in Brisbane back to my house and it would only take around 40 mins instead of the 2 hours that it will take on Saturday to get from home to the airport, so it is comparatively cheap.

I have packed my big case and it is a fraction under 23kg. My smaller case and my pack back are not ready yet. I have too many things and although getting to Sydney with everything is no problem, it’s when I get on the second regional flight that they might be picky if I am overweight so I am trying to keep the weight of my back pack and second case to around 8kg each which should keep me about right but you never know what the reaction will be when you go to the check in counter. Sometimes they surprise you and hardly give you a glance and just process your booking but this being Australia I don’t feel that I will have that kind of luck.

So I will leave one case here with some odds and sods and if I don’t see again it will be no great loss. As I said before I really don’t think that I will be back here in a hurry. I feel that my two years in Suzhou have been quite amazing and I have done so many things I would have never dreamed of experiencing and so now this chapter of my life has come to an end. So many stories to tell and I’m glad that I have kept this blog going for that time because I will be able to look back over the good times and the not so good. I’ll miss a few of the really good friends that I have met here and they have made my life here enjoyable, interesting and privileged. I have been a VIP guest at more occasions than I could ever have dreamed of, given speeches and presentations and even learned a bit about Chinese life and culture along the way. Had more free meals than I can remember, I’ve been the guest of honour, I’ve been to a state banquet and made videos, had interviews with TV stations and other local media. I have been very lucky but at this point I want to get off this merry go round and go back to the west for a bit but maybe in a month or more I will be wanting to run away again, who can tell………..only time will tell.

But of course being in China during this Covid 19 outbreak has been boring and yet interesting and confronting. Interesting to see how the Chinese people deal with such a situation, how they just follow the rules with no complaints and how their faith in the government is astounding, Xi Jing Ping can do no wrong on the surface but there has been a bit of a surprising backlash from many on social media but the internet censorship pulls down such messages as quick as they are put up. Your phone keeps track of you everywhere here. Every movement logged and collated. At the supermarket, on the bus, the metro, the train and just by moving through the city you are constantly bombarded with government propaganda about keeping the community safe and you are encouraged to shop anyone that is not doing the right thing.

And so I will leave this all behind for a while and yet I will miss the convenience of using my phone for almost everything, not having to use physical money is great. I’ll miss the food most I think; I love the local Muslim restaurant food and now I will have to make my own food once which I’m not looking forward to. However there are some things that I will not miss and that is the noises made while eating and some of the other terrible habits that many Chinese possess.

Going back to a less populated place is also a good thing. Suzhou has a population of 11 million and so when I go back to Australia I will be going to Armidale which I think has a population of around 35.000 so it will be a wee bit different and of course there are no skyscrapers as we have here. It will be good to look out the window and not look into someone else’s house and of course it will be good not to be looked at by someone else all the time. So as you may have gathered I am ready for a wee change but I will be back at some time to visit some places in the North West of China at a later time. But until then it’s time for a change.

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.