Well, I do seem to have lost my blogging mojo of late but I need to catch up, I know that. I’ve been thinking of how to write about what I’ve been doing and it seems really odd for someone who has done so little of note in the last few weeks to write about how overwhelming it is to do so little. Thoughts have whirled in my head for weeks but where does one even start?

John is still stuck at home in the UK, subject to Hong Kong’s CovidZero country ban on people flying directly from the UK, his flights all cancelled and not quite sure what to do next. I think some people were optimistic that HK would lift the initial two-week ban but they had clearly not kept track of HK’s record on this sort of thing. The last country ban for the UK was renewed every two weeks for six months, and then replaced by a three week hotel quarantine.

As of yesterday the option remains for him to do a two week washout in a country that isn’t in the Dirty 8 group but we wait to hear whether he can negotiate that with work or whether he’ll have to take it as yet more of his annual holiday allowance. In any case, what would have been five weeks away, including hotel quarantine, has turned into ten, eleven, who on earth knows?

In the meantime, ZeroCovid Hong Kong now blatantly isn’t. There’s so much to write about on that subject. First it was the whole of Cathay Pacific to blame, then all hamsters and other pets imported from the Netherlands for Christmas and stored in a warehouse here. There is still no conclusive proof that hamsters transmit the disease to humans and only a tiny proportion of the little furry creatures culled has tested motive for the virus or been suspected of passing it on.

Meanwhile, there’s been a further tightening of rules. Everything closes here at 6pm now, though the initial spread of the cluster took place at a breakfast and a lunch. Clearly the virus comes out at night, though not at the mask-less Karaoke parties attended by the political elite here. Nope. It feels like a pall of gloom has descended again over this city and I have too much time to ruminate on it.

The hamster thing is probably the last straw for me. It’s just a short step to seizing and  killing all pets for fear that they carry the virus and I know it’s irrational but I just want to get my boys out of here. I’m currently looking into ways of flying them home, something that’s preyed on my mind since the stories of vast price rises of pet transportation appeared  about 18 months ago. I’m talking to all sorts of people about this and all of those options are confusing me. There are plenty of people touting for passengers but as yet few concrete plans have materialised.

Oscar has rallied, however, which is cheering. Having been very concerned that he might not survive long after Christmas, we are delighted to see him now able to stand up by himself (most of the time), wagging his tale and being interested in cadging food from the kitchen island. We even had a an argument about him eating tissues again when I took him out for his daily playground sit last night. Part of this recovery is that he has regained his appetite after we stopped his Gabapentin zombiness but I think that taking him out for a stroll in his buggy most days has lifted his spirits too. Spending days and nights in a narrow stairwell would be depressing for anyone but he’s now making new friends while out and about, notably the moved-to-tears young people in the new pet shop down the road who shower him with attention and treats and, memorably, refused to let me pay for a new blanket on a particularly bleak day. Of course I now feel obliged to go and buy their expensive dog goodies so it’s good marketing on their part. 

I took him to have his paw checked out this week, and the vet removed a growth that’s currently being analysed. Initially they have found no MAST cancer cells so it might just have been inflamed scar tissue. We removed the bandage yesterday and, with stitches, he’s walking unbandaged without bleeding for the first time in weeks and I’m wishing that I’d taken him to the vet sooner. The three vet practices looking after Oscar are all coordinating their various expertise and knowledge with such efficiency and I’m so grateful to all of these wonderful women for their devoted care.

I’ve now fixed a date to re-start singing lessons and I think I’ve finally got my head around that nemesis bar of the Handel aria. The HK choirs don’t start again until after Lunar New Year, but I’m setting my alarm for 3.15 on Thursday mornings to spend a couple of hours rehearsing the St John Passion with the Bromley choir in the hope of singing it in April.

What else is new? Ah yes. I’m managing very well to be vegetarian for a month. I’d toyed with the idea of remedying my animal-related hypocrisy for some time and the last straw was being confronted by a slice of grey nondescript flesh in hotel quarantine and knowing that some poor, intensively-reared animal lived a miserable life just in order that I could have a slice of it in a cornflour and salt sauce as my dinner.

I started the new regime after I’d finished my New Year’s porchetta so I’ll continue until the first week of February to compensate but I’ll probably carry on after that, possibly with the occasional piece of humanely-reared chicken or something. Being vegetarian has been much easier with John away as MsJ doesn’t feel obliged to present meat or fish every night. 

I decided against going the full Veganuary, though. Veganism is too much of a while lifestyle change for me at present and not just about the food, and my shoes are leather, my jumpers wool and cashmere. Knowing that my dairy consumption adds to the misery toll isn’t great but I think that getting used to oat milk in my tea and vegetarian life without cheese will take longer than a month. Nothing in life is perfect, I suppose. The veggie, lowish carb diet has helped shift my Christmas and Mirena weight and now I’m making inroads into the Canada and quarantine weight. Workouts are becoming more intense and satisfying and I love using Apple Fitness+.

That’s my update for now. There will be more to come.