Nicholas Quirke was reviewing his options for the day on 2 June 20202, once he had posted Happy Birthdays to his erstwhile Daughter in Law, Grace and his friend Emily and he decided he would cycle, do a little parking experiment with his updated GoPro con ‘steadicam’ and sit in a tea house and catch up with his blog which had got out of synch again. This resolve was severely hampered by a complete failure of the internet. Nothing worked. Even Siri could not tell him the temperature Which felt very, very hot. After trying all the obvious checks and nothing happened he contacted Peng who called his provider who did a check and discovered there was an ‘abnormal fibreoptical’ which meant they needed to send an engineer round. As a result he had to wait in and neither could he do any work as there was no internet when the engineer arrived and solved the problem. Out of synch with the blog and now himself he decided to test his GoPro and despite the heat headed out to the Lotus Market at Shichahai and attempt for a third time to experience what had been known for its Beijing snack bars and antiques stalls. The traffic had been erratic and his journey there and back was hampered by cars parked in the bike lanes and obstructing the flow of cycles. This was good, he believed, for his experiment with the camera. He had cycled the 4.5 miles there only to discover it was still shut and all he could do was look at the Shichahai river and its banks and observe the locals, flying kites, playing music and courting. He had experienced this slice of life before and charming as it was the lure was going into the lotus market. He lingered for thirty minutes and then headed home. He was not sure, was it the heat, had the exertions of the weekend caught up with him but he was overwhelmed with fatigue again and after supper all he could do was sit and watch another movie which was an alien invasion story set in the 1950’s. It had its charm but it was all talk and very little action and it was ultimately preparing him for bed where he headed the moment it had finished.