Another post by Katy. Tom said he wanted to write this but has fallen asleep so thought I would as wanted to keep going with the daily updates. I feel it helps with keeping my thoughts in order.
Both of us are finding ways to occupy ourselves. Tom with his warhammer which is nothing new and me with a jigsaw that has a fiendish amount of dark blue.
Tom also spent today tidying the kitchen cupboards.
Generally quarantine gives you time to do things you have been putting off!
Hector asked to go out for the first time today. Luckily he was distracted by some colouring but who knows how long that will last.
Today’s major challenge has been food delivery. We are not allowed to have delivery people come to our door. Instead they are supposed to put it on a shelf for our building manager to deliver. For days this system has been going wrong. We get frequent calls in chinese asking where to put the food. Unfortunately we understand enough to listen but not to reply! When food arrives it is cold or lukewarm if we’re lucky. We ordered groceries so we could cook instead of ordering takeout but they didn’t arrive. Our manager even changed our address but we still didn’t get our dinner until at least an hour late. She has kindly offered to let us use her phone number for the remainder of our quarantine. Our lovely colleague Yifang also helped us out by bringing us food that she had cooked herself.. You are completely reliant on the kindness of your community in this situation but there are always people willing to help. We are really well supported by our colleague Jasmine in HR who will always come to our defence when things are going wrong.
Since writing yesterday I am relieved to see that the UK has started introducing social distancing. The biggest problem with these measures is that as it is advice many companies cannot claim any compensation as they are choosing to close. It is hard to see how many small businesses will survive in this climate. As I write this Laura Ashley has gone into administration. I have the news on with the hope that there might be some helpful financial policies to those businesses but I’m not holding my breath. On the plus side it’s a step in the right direction. My belief is that things will get worse forcing further measures which I hope won’t be too late.
To end on a lighter note this was sent to me in a WeChat group and is too true to not be reposted. Stay safe!
The Hopkins of Hangzhou 