‘Time flies when you’re having fun.’ That may be true but time almost stands still in isolation. We’re on day 15 here and I would be lying if I said we weren’t getting a little weird.
Sitting next to each other all too often me and Emily will ask each other questions like, ‘if I were burnt all over my body with just my nose to recognise, would you be able to recognise me?’ bthwre are so many pointless questions one can endure until you feel like why you’re living with a toddler.
Today has been slow. So slow in fact that after being ill for the past few days I got out of bed and took the dog out for a wee. I know, aren’t I just the best fiancée helping out. Truth is on top of being ill I’m (and Emily to) struggling mentally. Having to do the same mundane things over and over again with very little contact from anyone anywhere. All the while the coronavirus is lurking behind bins, but also rats lurking behind bins the size of Bella. I mean they’re literally huge. I went up to a bin about a month ago thinking there was a cat or something stuck in the bin from the rustling and it was a rat. But it looked more like the rat from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles it was that big. I swear to god if Lola hadn’t scared it away it would have karate chopped me in the face. But I digress. The only creative outlet really is this. Very few friends check in, which is fair, I mean people have their own things going on and I respect that. But it’s a hard pill to take when you message people who don’t bother replying. But anyway.
I played on the ps4 for a little bit. I have recently taken up basketball (recently being about 7/8 months ago). Now I’m relatively sporty and take to things quite quickly but my god it is hard work. I played rugby for years but unfortunately after so many bad injuries I have retired (with the exception of sevens tournaments). I was left paralysed after a rugby accident unsure whether I’d walk again, but I returned to the pitch to play again, but aside from that, a broken knee, torn MCL, dislocated both shoulders multiple times, broken both middle fingers, arthritis in my shoulder, multiple concussions (too many to count), broken toes, broken shoulder. Reconstruction of my right shoulder, my knee and elbow have both had operations. So it was probably wise to call it a day to some extent. Anyway, I very much have an addictive personality so I find myself either not bothering with something or completely surrounding myself with something. Basketball has been the latter. And unfortunately For Emily (she also plays and played age grade for GBR and England) I spend most my spare time watching basketball highlights, games, reading about plays, trades, and the most recent news in the leagues. So I spend my time saying ‘babe come look at this’ or ‘babe did you know that..’ which has become a little tedious for Emily! Poor woman.
Emily also tried to make pancakes today.. Now Emily can cook well, but she has her limitations. Trying to make banana pancakes without weighing things was definitely a step too far. It tastes like a soggy sponge with flour. But bless her she tried and has been making me smile during my time of man flu.
On to the animals! More precisely Bella. I noticed that she actually has a lump at the top of her back / lower of her neck. Having had a feel of it, used Google, and taking into account she’s only 3 months, the most likely thing is that it’s a fatty tumour but because of the size I do want it checked out.. But of course we can’t do that because of this mother clucking (that’s right this blog is PG friendly) coronavirus.
There isn’t too much to update in terms of the virus really. 80 more dead.. Probably more as the government doesn’t want panic. Chinese are being told a cure is being worked on and it could come soon. But we know that actually it would take about a year to get one. The weird thing is all of our Chinese friends have stopped talking to us. And this happened right after the Chinese government sent out a message on wechat (wechat is like WhatsApp on steroids, they pay for everything, their rent, shopping, you can order food, message people, they have instram esque stories etc) saying that foreign nationals (ourselves and other foreigners working in China) have been talking too much on wechat about the virus. And that groups will be shut down, our wechat will be shut down and our lay suspended and take away as well as a time of ‘incarceration’ for spreading panic. Now this comes as no surprise after we found out that the doctor who discovered the virus was kept quiet by the police and threatened by the government. Again I’m not sure how much of this has made it to foreign shores so I’m sorry if this is regurgitated information. So it makes sense they wouldn’t want people talking about how bad it it has got to anyone else. The way they are ‘preventing’ the spread of the virus makes no sense either. They are making people where masks at all times, when it isn’t airborne, so that means unless someone touches, sneezes or coughs on you then you’re OK. Then they spray disinfectant all over the streets, out of like fire trucks. Again crazy when it’s transferred person to person. But anyway. It’s not all that surprising. The market in Wuhan was terrible yes, the conditions and the animals sold there. In Guiyang those animals aren’t sold here (with the exception of frogs and turtles) but the conditions are just as bad. Dead fish in a box left out on the floor next to frogs which are alive. Meat refrigerated. Partner this with the fact that Chinese people coug without covering their mouths, they spit in restaurants, in work, outside. It isn’t surprising a virus has spread this quickly.
Other than that I really don’t have too much more to add today. Day 15 has been boring and it’s almost 4, I may write something small later if something else happens but what are the chances.. Next to zero.
Life in China 