Hello! This is my first blog post. And it’s going to be on anything and everything going on in my life in China. So let’s set the scene a little first.
Firstly my fiancée already has a blog so some of what has been covered will be mentioned here, she has requested this be listed as a ‘spin off’ of her current blog anything and everything. I have to agree otherwise I go to the naughty corner.
Why start now? Well we are in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak and China controls virtually all the information being spouted to their own people and other countries. So this gives a little insight to our life and also what is actually happening!
Okay so, I have a beautiful fiancée who I moved to China with around 5 months ago. Her name is Emily and she’ll probably come up quite a lot. This is her:
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Now I admit this isn’t the best photo of her but it makes me happy. And you will see many more but I may need to take a quick punch in the throat from her for posting it!
When we arrived in China we adopted a kitten called Zeus. Now Em has already written about him but here’s my turn. We got him and he was small and cute and shy. We called him a dog because he loved cuddles and and was so placid. Well now he has turned into a typical cat, a wanker. He will knock stuff off and stare at you for no reason. Meow at you to come to him then walk off. Jump on your shoulders to have you walk him to his food. For all extensive purposes I am a glorified butler to him. But nonetheless love him with all my heart.
Okay so now we get to Lola. The first dog we got. Lola was looking for a new home because her family could not look after her. She is the apple of our eye. However, very much a mummy’s girl. The reason we rescued her was because dogs in China who don’t get home end up on the streets and they had been looking and looking with no luck. And well we just couldn’t say no to that face. She is trouble. She is so so clever that it’s actually slightly annoying. She knows how to get her way. Whether it’s doing a little wee when we tell her off or talking to us when our other dog Bella takes her toys! She is definitely the boss of the house and has somehow wormed her way in to our bed!
Our next rescue is Bella. She was a special case. In China they have the back market places where dogs can be bought for next to nothing for meat or for god knows what else. They are taken from their mother’s at about a month old and some don’t survive. Well I saw Bella and told Emily we had to have her and so Emily said “go on then” (as much as it pains me to say it Emily most definitely is the boss). Now we have nursed her for almost two months and after lots of medication and love and no going outside until recently she has come out of her shell so much! However she is very much a daddy’s girl. She is capable of jumping on the bed and sofa but she will always come to me and go on two legs for me to pick her up and just curl up on my chest. To her I’m mum.
Now that you know the family, an update. We are on day 14 of the coronavirus, for lack of a better work “pandemic”. Now I have seen so many posts about the “truth” of this and how it isn’t that serious. Well this is day 14 and yesterday our neighbour who was a healthy 30 year old was taken away. The doctor who discovered this had no underlying medical conditions has passed away after contracting it. Its not as black and white as targeting the weak. However I am currently sitting in the top 1% of being at risk as I have asthma.
Our current situation is that our neighbour has the virus and has been taken. And that means we now have limited contact. On top of me being being prone to it so limiting time out that we are allowed anyway. I’m not going to sugarcoat it and say me and Em have prevailed easily because it hasn’t been easy. There have been arguments and disagreements. The main reason being we are both very active and love going to the gym, but now there is very little to do. Next to nothing is open. The gyms are shut. And we have no real routine. So it is very tough. I mean coupled with the fear of an apocalypse. Coupled with the fact we had the most amazing holiday in Thailand where we could do whatever we wanted, coming back to almost prison like circumstances is not ideal. However we are both completely devoted to each other and neither of us could do this without the other.
Why aren’t you leaving? Now the main reason is the animals. There have been rumours spreading from the Chinese that dogs spread the virus. This is not true in any form at all. But it means they have been banned from flights. It means they have been killed and poisoned. So if we were going to leave we would need to leave the animals something I’m not prepared to do as they are family. Which led to a conversation about what we would do if this got out of control and I said I would stay here with the pets and Emily could leave because as long as she is okay I wouldn’t mind. We disagreed because although she loves our pets, she really isn’t an animal lover. We have been brought up differently which is fine, we have got past it and we are staying here until we can find a solution.
Our actual building has a small plot and we walk the dogs there. However as mentioned in Emily’s blog. They are now not happy with us having dogs and don’t want us taking them outside or on walks. Which as you can imagine is absolutely bonkers. There are also these dogs which have been killed and poisoned so all in all not good and you can see why we don’t want to leave them. Now interestingly China leave out bins with meats in which are not being used and dogs have been getting sick off it when usually it is fine. As well as this Chinese people who see us walking the dogs now shout at us and follow us around until we go back inside our little building. It’s very unsettling and just quite unpleasant. But I digress.
Now the next thing is how China control information. What you need to understand is that in China there are two types. There are those who are westernised and admire foreign culture and have a vpn to get Google etc and there are those who blindly follow the Chinese government no matter what. Now the government have already admitted they hid evidence and kept people quiet about the virus to prevent panic which is why it has become so big. They are giving out updates and saying it is not so bad. But not everyone believes this. People are seeing increases in cases and deaths every day. And the more westernised people are telling us the government are playing it down to prevent riots and that more people are dead than is being let on. But our school blindly believes what the government tells them, that cases in our province are going down even though numbers point to the contrary.
Now with all that’s going on here it does not help I am currently ill. I am constantly worrying about what it would be but take the correct measures to ensure I’m as safe as possible. But when your neighbour has been taken. Your friends have seen others in the neighbourhood taken. It doesn’t fill you with confidence. I am very lucky I have Emily and how supportive she has been of me.
So.. That is the situation and I apologise for the length of the first post. And lack of structure. But trying to fit in 14 days in one post was perhaps a little overconfident. Thank you for taking the time to read it and I will continue to post as and when I can.
Also for reference here is a more accurate photo of Emily.
Life in China 