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Mask do better

29/2/2020

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!]

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Stomach cake

24/2/2020

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An afternoon spent making a chocolate cake
which looked better than it tasted to be honest!

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Home work

22/2/2020

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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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Multiple Marble Machine

18/2/2020

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Two days of junk construction! We have four different routes for the marbles to roll down, all ending in the same collection box. The kids in the neighbourhood loved playing with it once it was finished! This is the sort of thing which happens when you get quarantined for three weeks!!

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Plane and simple

16/2/2020

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Keeping JD occupied and entertained during our weeks of self-quarantine is a strain on the creative juices sometimes! This activity was a board game we made up all about planes and their possible mechanical failures (...JD's current passion!).

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See? Seaplane playing

14/2/2020

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JD's junk seaplane designed and made all by himself!

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Crossing a line

12/2/2020

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Some parts of the city are slowly opening up again after the Spring Festival break and the Coronavirus shutdown - a few restaurants are open, supermarket shelves are being stocked again, more cars on the roads, even lines being painted down the middle of streets!?

But the prevailing feeling among the local Chinese here is that the outbreak will get even worse, that it can be spread in almost any way you can imagine, that businesses will go bust, and that we're all going to die....!!

Among the foreign community, it is a lot more measured - Yunnan is one of the least affected Provinces, the mortality rate is similar to flu, infected numbers are stabilising, businesses will bounce back and the worst is largely over. Trouble is, despite that attitude being based on facts, you really can't say it! You get accused of downplaying the emergency, of being cavalier in your actions and of not understanding the severity of it all. And it's all tied up with the differing cultures too, which is always a tricky one here. As I've said a lot recently, "Fear wins over Facts"!

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Work from home

8/2/2020

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Being largely confined to the house (while Coronavirus apparently rages everywhere outside!) JD had been keeping up 1-2 hours of homework everyday. I usually do some English and Maths with him in the morning, with Jiajia taking over for Chinese in the evening. In between, he's allowed to play! Usually, the homework is using our own workbooks or ideas, but these two were set by his school, to bring in next term (whenever that turns out to be). One was a display on shapes and their properties, while the other was to make up a game involving (fake) money and transactions.

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Viral spiral

2/2/2020

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COVID19 continues to spread through China (and some other parts of the world). Being in Kunming, we are quite far from the worst areas, but we still wear masks outside, have to go hunting for markets selling vegetables, and make do without buses, parks and the subway.

If I'm honest, I think the dangers are being over-exaggerated in our neck of the woods. So far, there have been 70 infected people in our Province of 46,000,000, so the chances of bumping into someone carrying the virus are incredibly small, let alone getting close enough to them to actually catch the infection. But science and facts often take second place to fear and rumors, especially here it seems,

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Needs mask

26/1/2020

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We flew back to China late today. The recent Coronavirus infection is spreading quickly and we had our masks ready as we arrived (as did all the other passengers). Our Province is far from the origin of the outbreak but that hasn't stopped the locals here panicking: supermarkets have been stripped of food, parks are closed, roads are empty and we are getting strident, but largely pointless, texts from JD's school and my University (eg "..if your throat feels dry, drink some water..."!!)

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Forward>>

Mask do better

Stomach cake

Home work

Multiple Marble Machine

Plane and simple

See? Seaplane playing

Crossing a line

Work from home

Viral spiral

Needs mask

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