Knobcottage in China

At the moment I am going stare crazy, however I decided to do dsomething about it!  Over the road from me is the undertakers.  Everynight for the last few nights there has been music and singing.  I use the term music and singing lightly, you'll see why later!  Anyway, I picked up some chestnuts, dressed for cold weather and headed down.  I was invited to sit down straight away, hospitality rather than respect for my age!  Haha!  And I was given oranges and sunflower seeds.  You'll notice no one is wearing a surgical mask.  Most people feel safe here, from the virus, especially the old ones.  It is the younger ones who tend to wear masks, although parents often give them to their young kids.  To be honest they are not very practical socailly!  It's not easy to talk to others and, for me,  my glasses steam up! the guys over the road from my apartment. Two sets of cymbols and one gong complete with sugar cane drumstick! the kids came for a look too! The guys play

Well, I suppose anyone who knows that I am here is wondering about the 'dreaded' coronavirus that has already killed forty plus people and has resulted in he lockdown of several Chinese cities.  Firstly I am absolutley fine.  The government advice has been for eceryone to stay indoors unless you need to make essential trips such as to buy groceries etc.  So this morning I went out to buy groceries.  Jiangkou was like a ghost town.  The only places that were open were the supermarkets and small food stores.  It seems that everyone is carefully following the government advice.  I reckon it is good advice.  Further to that the latset advice is if you think you have the symptoms of the virus, then stay at home and call for someone to assess you there.  If you are assessed as positive you will be dealt with as appropriate, if you are assessed as negative then you can remain at home.  In this way the virus should be contained.  Furthermore, all public sightseeing places etc. are clo

Social media has been quite dead recently, but I have been intouch with a few people.  On Saturday a freind invited me for tea! I havent seen him for ages and thought it would be a good time to catch up on stuff.  He runs a hotel in town.  We arranged to meet at noon.  I went to his hotel.  I waited a nohour but he did not manage to get out of bed!  I kind of get used to this in China but was a little bit annoyed all the same.  Anyway, on teh way there I was having a text conversation with a woman I know and got myself invited to her house to try her dumplings (not a euphemism).  So the next day I wandered over to the area she lives and she met me and took me to ehr house.  She introduced me to her family.  It was Spring Festival, so nearly all of her family were there.  Her husband, two daugheters, one of whom had two children and the other had one.  One of their husbands.  I m\ke that eight in all.  I arrived and straight away got given dumplings.  They all watched to see if I could

I went to the supermarket the other day to buy some stuff.  For a change, I thought I'd buy some duck eggs.  I got it wrong.  On the outside they looked like duck eggs, but on the inside, it was a different story! The pictures show you what I got!  I have had these before, and wasn't too keen on them then.  They are quite sticky and chewy and have a definite ammonia taste!  However, as I'd bought them I'd better eat them! The 'new' market It is spring break in Jiangkou and the place is heaving, just like Christmas in the UK.  However, most of the trade seems to be concentrated on the food markets rather than the main shopping street.  Food shops are putting up tents outside their shops to store their stock, which mainly seem to consist of can of tea, each shop seems to have a couple of hundred boxes of it! And amongst all of this, Jiangkou us changing...rapidly.  Today I followed a new road which a few months ago was waste ground and

Drips for trees As I've mentioned before, whenever anyone is I'll inJiangkou, they get put on a drip.  Even if it's only a cold.  When I was in hospital, I was on a drip almost continually.  Today, I again noticed that even the trees were on drips!  Maybe they have got a cold! The 'live meat' market The 'live meat' market has to be seen to be believed.   At the far end are the water based animals.  Next is the birds.  Last is the meat.  At the far end the water based animals are alive, as are the birds.  At the meat end, the animals are dead or being killed and cooked.  The cooking consists of using a blue torch to char the meat.  Today there were pigs heads and trotters, various birds and one guy blue torching the remaining flesh from what I guess was a cow pelt. Another guy was charring a pigs head with a blowtorch.  Nobody seemed to mind me watching or filming, so I took a few videos. The videos are hosted offsite. http

Yesterday, the today of this writing, I had a lazy day (again).  I got up late and made my own breakfast, then decided to go to town to eat.  I then went for a wander because it is Spring Break, everyone is somewhere else, and with no school it gets a bit lonely...even I need to meet people occasionally!  No sooner had I started to walk around then Wan Yi rang me.  I am not sure why because we don't understand each other!  However, I asked him where he was and he told me he was at the library and invited me over.  Why not!?  He, and a few friends erdoing some calligraphy on what looked like red new year banners.  Wan Yi Previously completed banners and the calligraphy teacher Previously completed banners, and left to right: One of Wan Yi's friends and the calligraphy teacher. This time I wasn't asked to participate, not a surprise really as this looked fairly official, however he managed to harass a passing child into making me some tea! Right to left:M