Nicholas Quirke was out of sorts when he woke on 4 January 2020 and an exchange with his sister did not help either as she too was disenchanted in a new house and unable to do anything due to having the virus. He was breaking his fast which had lasted 58 hours but making breakfast seemed a fractious affair and the result was a thick disgusting tasting green smoothie as he seemed to have gone in too heavy with the kale. Whether it was returning to work, or the fact that he also had a lot of admin to do from blogging, sorting out tax return, work for school, studying mandarin, trying to write a CV and the technology not being friendly adding to his burgeoning irritation the feeling of coming down to earth was prevailing. Making a clear Chinese style vegetable soup proved a more soothing experience and he was so pleased with the end product he wrote down the recipe which he had created for future reference. He had agreed with the school that he would do a reading and drama workshop during the first week of their national holidays, and though this was after his expected leaving date the situation in the UK was looking very precarious and it was most likely that he would get a further extension to his permission to stay he had agreed. They were planning on doing Aladdin and so he spent some time working on the structure and what they would need before he set off and fit in a tea before lessons. The tea rooms were very surprised to have a laowai in the store and the customers and staff questioned him before serving him long Jing Liu Cha. He had not seen Yuda and the Twins for a couple of weeks due to a Chinese exam that they’d had but having missed their classes he was catching up on the Monday for a couple of weeks with his usual class quarantined because Jeans mother worked in the Gateway Plaza which, had been shut due to a COVID19 victim having been there. The boys were in good spirits, worked hard and when he asked them to write a letter to him about a family tradition Alexander surpassed himself. He doubted a 9 year old in the UK could write such an eloquent, grammatically correct epistle. Having done all the work on Aladdin he was surprised, dismayed even, when the Head thought it might be too easy for the age group and gave him some other books to look at. He thought Alice in Wonderland would be good. ‘Isn’t that just for girls!’ she said to his horror. On his journey home he became fascinated by the shadows and tried to record some artistic footage. Peng was out for supper with friends so he caught up with messages on his website and attempted to watch a Taiwanese horror. ‘The Rope Curse Two’ but it failed to grip and he would try again on the next opportunity. Satisfied that he had earned an honest day’s pay he took to his bed and sleep