Nicholas Quirke was the other side of the world, yet the inefficiencies of Customer Services in the UK were frustrating him on 6 March 2020 and causing him to reveal to Peng an unpleasant aspect of his personality. To get a visa to come to China, he had to give proof that he was leaving the country and had booked a flight From Shanghai, where he had intended to be, to Hong Kong and then a flight onto the Philippines to see his friends Pete and Jaz Obligado. If he travelled to Shanghai, he would find himself in quarantine again and the Philippines were not accepting flights from China, therefore the flights had to be cancelled. He tried to do this online and was being sent from pillar to post and round in circles. Three times Opodo put him back to speaking to a bot!. The system was deeply flawed for such a simple operation. And to make matters worse he found he had been charged a car insurance renewal of £1000 without ever confirming he wanted to. Thus, Nicholas found himself in an administrative nightmare which led him to display an outburst of profanity and temper. His host was not impressed. It was all the more frustrating as he had gone through his first Mandarin lesson that morning and was feeling very pleased with himself. With practice he could now say hello, introduce himself, identify nationality and some job roles and ask after health and well being. He really liked the sounds of the Chinese words in his mouth. He would have his second lesson on Monday. Despite the frustration he did feel lucky to have the efficient, technologically able and calm Peng to help and guide him through the morass. Not one of the tasks though were completed and in the end he called upon the skills of his sister to help try and clear up the problems. This left little time for other pastimes, other than eating lunch, making Hummus for their supper, his daily exercise routine and finally seeing the end of Parasite, and a short Tai Chi session. It was smoothies and bread with hummus and guacamole for supper. The tiredness he had felt the day before caught up with him and he couldn’t even watch television before retiring for the night
