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 Although we are still largely confined to our neighbourhood, when we do occasionally venture outside, we are starting to see signs of restaurants, parks and museums reopening. Schools and university are still shut though as are half the shops. But the "Fried dough stick" snack bar down the hill from us opened yesterday, so there are definitely some signs of life returning to normal.
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 One small benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic is the lower pollution levels seen around the world. I also spotted this fascinating graph the other day, showing how Britain's energy mix had changed in the last 100 years. For example, I had no idea how little electricity we get form coal these days. Overall this graph seems pretty encouraging..
  In these difficult times, it's good to read words
of wisdom and encouragement ...I think! JD turned seven today. No chance of a party under the current lockdown, but we did manage a Pizza Hut delivery, half a dozen presents and JD's preferred cake. Happy Birthday, Bug!   A blast from the past last week when one of my ex-students, "Daizzy", sent me a photo of us when I was running a teacher training course in her town, back in 2006. Daizzy is now an English teacher herself and married with two kids!
 Last week in XiShuangBanna (just "down the road") Yunnan, a herd of 14 wild elephants broke into a village looking for corn and food. They stumbled across 30kg of corn whiskey. After drinking the lot, they passed out in a local tea plantation! Glad someone's having fun!   After nearly 8 weeks of self-isolation, we have finally seen the end of the COVID-19 virus in our Yunnan Province (pop: 46m) as the the final two infected people were discharged today. Now we watch as the rest of the world faces their own viral challenge.
JD's exercise regime today consisted of marching, saluting and ambushing passersby with his collection of Nerf guns!
Jiajia's new "toy" - a combined hotpot and grill. Makes for a fun social meal. And a bargain at £20 (200RMB).  It took me about seven months to organise the necessary application paperwork and another five months waiting to see if the the Chinese Government agreed to grant it, but this week I finally got my "Foreigner Permanent Resident ID Card" (aka Green Card).  It not only means that I don't have to get a new visa each year for the next decade but, more importantly, I'm not tied to any one visa-issuing educational institution. I am free to pick and choose whatever jobs I like, since my work visa is already secure. And there are much better paid jobs out there than the one I currently have, so watch this space!
Things are slowly picking up here. We're still supposed to stay at home (or within our neighbourhood at least) but buses and the subway have started up again and there haven't been any new confirmed infections within Yunnan for a few days now. So, maybe some small Advances towards being able to Go out! Meanwhile, JD has been getting homework projects sent through from his school and I've been keeping him busy with Monopoly, making dens and sorting drawers, cupboards and CDs/DVDs.
The last time I tried a jigsaw with JD (a few years ago, to be fair) he got bored after five minutes and we gave up. But this 500-piece map of the UK kept us amused for over an hour, despite four missing pieces [hence the grumpy face below].   We're in our 4th week of self-quarantine. We venture out into our neighbourhood occasionally to pick up food deliveries or do some exercise, but otherwise we are stuck at home waiting for the worst of COVID-19 to be over. Our Province of Yunnan is one of the least affected places in China, but that doesn't stop my good wife worrying about every possible "one in a million" chance of us catching anything! And to be fair, the advice from police, local government, hospitals and my University is also a pretty strict <STAY AT HOME>. So here we are for now, slowly going crazy!  JD/Jiajia painting for school {P.S. Our school entered the above (Jiajia /JD) painting
in a Provincial Competition and, to our surprise, it won!]
An afternoon spent making a chocolate cake which looked better than it tasted to be honest!   JD's daily routine throughout this extended virus outbreak "holiday" involves doing 1½ hours of homework each morning (Maths and English with Daddy) and 1½ hours more each afternoon/evening (Chinese with Mummy). He doesn't like it, but he's getting used to it!
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 About the blogger
Paul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and updates this blog about his life there every other day. Past blog entries
March 2020
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