Nicholas Quirke was only just back from a sojourn in the mountains and already he was making preparations on 4 August 2020 to go away again on the 5th of August. It was a 10 day trip to one of the worlds most extraordinary landscapes. It was a desire he had nourished for some time and the reality was now upon him. With only one day between returning from Chengde and the flight to Zangjiajie he was going to have to get a lot of work done, including a new COVID19 test which was his first task. He also needed to do some banking and decided to visit his China bank on the way. Finances sorted and it was onto the Beijing Friendship Hospital for an updated Nucleic Acid Test. He was familiar with the routine now so it was swift and efficient, Back at the apartmentt it was all work. Cooking an asparagus soup, ironing, packing and some writing. That evening Peng has booked to see a chinese animation film, Mr Miao, and as he worked Nicholas watched The Guardian, a previous film by the director. They cycled to Xidan and ate at a restaurant in a mall he surprisingly had not been in before. To his disappointment there were no English subtitles. Whilst the film looked amazing,the depth of its content was lost to him as he tried to work out what was going on and which proved to be an exhausting exercise. He saw some karaoke booths, which he found fascinating. They walked home and then finished the evening with the end of the film they had been watching the night before. It somehow made the Mr Miao failure fade from his mind and allowed him to sleep fitfully.


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