Rules Are Made to Be Broken

Shanghai Lockdown ‘22: “Rules are made to be broken” Just after sunset.Innocently out of our apartment when we are not supposed to be, Serena & I approached the COVID testing tent site along our compound’s front stretch of road. Directly in front of us is Life Mall, a nice little mall I usually like walking…

A Bartering Society

Shanghai Lockdown ‘22: Return to a bartering society. With neighbors in nearby building whom we don’t really know, we traded 5 bananas for a 1/3 bag of oatmeal. We have a stock of bananas at the moment, while oatmeal we’ve ordered is taking indefinite amount of time to arrive. So, worthwhile deal for both parties…

Shanghai Lockdown Highlights

That little dot to the left of the building, there in the sky—that’s a drone monitoring our neighborhood. April 6thA Few Highlights of Shanghai Lockdown ‘22: ~Thanks to all my Chinese neighbors for showing me outside activities are still possible—after dark, within our large complex. But I feel for the runners and other folks downtown…

Lockdown Comforts

Shanghai Lockdown, Day XII Serena was cookin’ up a storm today. This is the real deal Chinese cooking. All fresh, all homemade. From flour to baozi (steamed buns), completely from scratch, about a 4 hour process! Plus, a nice veggie soup. And homemade banana-chocolate vegan ice cream!

Grocery Options—this ain’t Kroger

How grocery shopping is done here now. Full extent of today’s selections—to be delivered in 2-3 days, if we’re lucky. Measurements in kg. (There was also tuna, cow milk and a Thai beer but I didn’t want to highlight those). We’ve organized ourselves into sub-groups within the compound (apartment complex) to facilitate group orders, using…

Free Food

Free food delivery on Thursday, March 31st, courtesy of the Communist Party of China. Lockdown ‘22!

Not So Fun Anymore

NOW, uncensored blogging: Fuck this. I’m going running later. Back into the shadows. We live in a huge apartment complex, chock full o’ people. You’re tellin’ me we can’t go outside, with sun-wind-tons of open spaces, masks on mind you, because of 2 new infections on other side of the canal? Fuck that. We’ve all…