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End of Quarantine!

I am just receiving last "release" paperwork I need as I write this!!! (there I can understand only my name and numbers.... for the rest, some mandarin lessons will be required!)

Today is the 14th day since I arrived to Shanghai. So any time after 14:40 I will be asked to leave the room.

The packing is done, I am ready to meet my love 😍 💓 💕  – he should be waiting for me in front  of the hotel. You can imagine, how excited and happy I am!

What experience brought me the time in quarantine?

I am grateful for:

  • I was finally able to board the plane in Frankfurt 15 days ago!
    • There are many things that could not work in my favour. Like if I would be tested positive a day before the flight! Not to mention all the process (not only on the regulations China is having for foreign workers) that delayed my departure for about 3-4 months.
  • good sized room
  • 2 beds in the room (remember – no room service!)
  • bathtub, besides the shower, in the bathroom (for my spa days 🙂 )
  • super delicious food (especially dinners and lunches, but breakfast was also very interesting)
  • big window (so that I was able to enjoy the view to the outside world)
  • Having time to do my art!
  • Learning something new – WordPress, so you are able to read this lines!
    • I did not have time to start learning Mandarin – this will be my next BIG project! I am very humble…. And hope I will be able to start communicate with local people at least a little bit in due time!
  • Finding the new yoga teacher (just a day before my half time here). I just love the flow he is putting together in his sessions.

What could be better:

  • No quarantine!
    • Of course, this is not in my hands. But it would be awesome!
  • Balcony! And some green plants. (If course this is all depending, which hotel you are sent to – again, nothing one can influence.) 
  • Window in my room was stuck and could not be opened. (I really missed a bit of the “fresh” air. Even though at this time here is rainy season and often very humid, but I do not mind humidity.) Note that, if not REALLY urgent, no-one is entering your room while you are in quarantine. And in this case, my air con was working perfectly fine, so no urgency.
  • Hot water was now and then not reaching my floor. Just for a minute or so (probably when many were using hot water on the same vertical water installation), but the first time this happened, I just shampooed my hair under the shower. You are familiar with Mr. Kneipp or? So this hotel is offering the hot/cold water treatment for free ;-)! It was actually very refreshing and my hairdresser always washes off my hair with cold water anyway. So nothing too dramatic (typically I finish my showering with cold water anyway!).
  • Oh, I nearly forgot :), you cannot get any cleaning appliances to the room. I was asking for a vacuum cleaner, but could not get it. Therefore I ordered some tape online (ok, a Chinese friend did it!) and it did the work quite well  (ok, I did the work!) 🙂
  • Anything else??? I thought I will have more, but actually – I was quite happy here all in all.

What should you bring to a quarantine (in case you need to do it!):

Positive attitude! 

Feeling sorry for yourself and being bored does not help.
14 days are 14 days.
It is your own choice, how you will spend the time.

Something you like to do
… and then do it 🙂

Think of something you ‘never have time to do’ but deep down, you always wanted to do… 14 days are all yours! Maybe if you want to build a boat, you are a bit limited… but, maybe you can build just a little one? Or make a plan, how you will build it, when you will have the adequate space and tools? You get my point here, don’t you! (I was switching from oil painting to watercolour for this reason.)

For me:

  • … it was painting and
  • setting up the internet page (which I wanted to do already some years ago, but never really set down and did it!)
  • I had an idea to study mandarin and drawing the signs (and having them hanged around the room to remember them), but I did not do it at the end, as I was completely “absorbed” with the painting and www page, so I did not have much more free time to do a lot of other things.
  • I had brought also some sewing with me – you know, the stuff that is collecting on a pile somewhere in the house throughout the year (in my case in the washroom in the basement)
  • something a bit “crazy” – like my “spa days” is also an option (I am sure also men can have some version of “me time” :)! )

A knife

…and cutlery, if you do not want to eat with the chopsticks all the time, or you would need a spoon to stir something you are bringing with you

Sports ‘equipment’

I brought a thin yoga mat (traveling friendly) and the jumping rope (which I never used!)

Dish soap. (And a sponge)

If you want to clean your cups now and then. Nothing comes with the room!

Washing detergent

Unless you pack enough for the full time, you maybe need to wash a thing or two in 14 days…I packed plenty (did I mentioned my overweight suitcases already?!?!) – washing detergent including but did not need to use it. If anything will be missing for the next 9 days of Shanghai – I will be able to get it washed in some laundry facility.

Something you like to drink (tea, coffee, multivitamin tablets…) 

The room is having a water heater and cups (I have 2 cups and 2 glasses in the bathroom) – and that’s it. You get a pack e.g. 20 à 1/2 litre of bottled water.  My room did not have a refrigerator, but to be honest, I did not miss it. I decided not to have coffee during my quarantine (as I drink it always with milk – and milk is a tricky thing to bring with you, if you are not fond of dehydrated options or creamers), so I packed tea with me and it worked perfectly well.

Did I mention positive attitude already??

“You do your best and you forget the rest!”

The Qube in FengXiang, you were a good quarantine host!
Thanks, XieXie, for having me.

This view from my window was taken yesterday morning – a beautiful sunrise was greeting me as I woke up really early. Simply beautiful.

I hope you enjoyed my ‘diary from the quarantine’… 

Looking very much forward to reading your comments!

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“Me time” – Spa in Quarantine

The “Me time” was planned from the beginning on! I packed everything what I need (and a bit more, I think!)! Yes, another reason for my heavy luggage!

Let’s go through it:

Mani(cure) and pedi(cure)

I managed to put some nail polish on my nails already in Frankfurt – to match the hotel deco?

Of course, the normal nail polish does not hold very long on my nails, so after few days in quarantine I already needed to put it off.

But now, just before leaving the hotel, I am doing the more permanent option – should hold the full rest of the stay in Shanghai! I decided for blue :). I hope I do not break any tomorrow while packing the suitcases!

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Facial retreat

I also had some facial masks with me – I typically NEVER do this at home, so it was a treat and experiment at the same time. All of them were some type of hydrating type of mask… to be honest: I did not really noticed, what was the benefit. Maybe I need to buy the expensive ones next time :-). Or (maybe a better option?): doing it on the regular basis!

Blackheads – who needs them!

Another thing I needed to try (not loosing more words on it – pictures say it all!):

  • me with the black nose 🙂
  • Interesting result!

But on the nose itself…. I do not really see much difference…

This is a cool feature to compare before an after situation I think. The pictures are not 100% same, but the effect is good anyway. Do you like it as well?

Makeup break time

Otherwise, I did not do any makeup nor hairstyling the whole time – which I typically DO. The daily minimum is the hairstyle; and most days in my normal life the makeup is done as well.Even while in home office (ok, on some days I did not do much).
My skin and hair had a 14-day rest, I would say.

Pampering the legs and feet

  • bubble bath
  • feet mask
  • happy happy!

Indulging in the bubble bath was the fist thing I did after the breakfast on my last full day in quarantine. Then a luxury treatment was offered to my feet, and the skin afterwards was really very soft and beautifully hydrated. 

New hairdresser?

I am a bit concerned about finding a new and reliable hairstylist. With short hair, you need one quite often and cutting the hair needs some skills – so that it does not look good only first week or two after visiting the hair salon.

Massage in quarantine!

You wish!
But admit: it would be great, wouldn’t be!

But now: It is time to go “back to (new) normal”

I am actually looking very much forward getting again THE very qualitative manicure and pedicure here. My expectations are high, as the service in Singapore few years ago was superb. Let’s see what Beijing has to offer….

I also have high hopes I can find some good options for the massage in Beijing. And then the stiffness in the shoulders and neck disappear miraculously! What a great relief for the body and soul.

p.s. Last art from quarantine

I made my last art creations in the quarantine today and you can check them in Art Gallery. (Tomorrow I am packing my belongings back to the suitcases in the morning  and I am leaving the hotel after lunch 🙂 ).

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Art Day in Quarantine

So…. how is my quarantine ‘Art Day’ looking like?

Nothing very extravagant actually.
After yoga and breakfast, I clean my table, setup all the papers and paints and look for inspiration for the day, scrolling the photos I saved (I do that whenever I see something that might be a motive for painting one day).
And then, with a bit of luck, I can not stop painting until it is getting dark :-).

In between I have lunch, and 2 x temperature measurement, and on the days like today, another PCR test – the last one before I leave this hotel for another hotel for another 7 days here in Shanghai. Actually it will be 9 days as on July 1st the celebration for 100 years of Communist Party takes place in Beijing and restrictions in (street, air) traffic is expected!

I make photos of the day’s creations with my phone (when the outside light is still good enough to do so!) and upload them to the computer.
On the computer I make some adjustments (cropping only), export them (a bit smaller then original) to png (it looks like this is a good enough format for the purpose of presenting them on these pages- at least I think so)…
I saw, that some of the exports were done too small, so I adjusted the size to be a bit bigger today. I keep the quality relatively restrictive, not to use too much space on the server.

Afterwards the work in WordPress starts:

  • upload of the photos to the media library
  • for each photo, set the metadata
  • create one page per painting and save it
  • the new paintings are added to the art gallery page
  • write the post – like this one or something else to announce new paintings

In the Art Gallery you can find this ones added today:

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The Red One (3)

The Red One (3)

The Red One (2)

The Red One (2)

The Red One (1)

The Red One (1)

Blue and Violet

Blue and Violet

Blue and Green

Blue and Green

Corals

Corals

Blue with Dots

Blue with Dots

Yellow and Green

Yellow and Green

When all this is done on my www pages, then I typically make a post on FB and instagram… I am not using the tweeter or other social platforms… I guess I need to start using the WeChat now :-)!
I did one announcement on LinkedIn – but am not doing it regularly, as I do not think that is the appropriate media (probably one more when I will do the last post about the quarantine).

How do you like it so far?
You are welcome to rate/ leave some comment.
I am looking forward to it!

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Art Gallery is set up :-)

Sunday was the day for research: how to create a nice looking art gallery.

Main criteria:

  • adding another template (look and feel of a web page):
    • to try how it works, if you have more than 1 template and
    • to have a different design – more artistic – for Art Gallery menu
  • rating option should be available (and working!)
  • nice looking gallery layout
    • below is one example, which I could not use for my Art Gallery menu, as the link functionality does not work – it only goes to a ‘picture only page’ and it’s predefined… I did not yet start to code (to adjust the templates), not is my intention to do so, unless really urgent. I rather paint 🙂
  • clicking on the picture in the gallery should allow you to jump on the page, where picture is presented. This page needs to be generated by me (so I determine, what you see and what not), with the possibility to rate the picture and leave a comment if you wish to do so.
  • I need to have a “painting page template” – as the structure for each painting page needs to be the same
  • and of course, all plugins need to be free of charge – at least for now. If I start selling my paintings like crazy, then I might buy some :)!

As a WordPress beginner, I needed quite some time to find all the plugins needed for all peaces to work together… a day+ of try & error experience! Quarantine time is the perfect opportunity for something like that!

What you see now on the Art Gallery menu is the result.

p.s. 3 new paintings are there:

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Spiral Green Nature

Spiral Green Nature

Home Garden

Home Garden

Fine Floating Fish Flock

Fine Floating Fish Flock

For now I am pleased with the result… if I will find something better, I will let you know :).
If you see something that does not work, and/or does not look good, please do let me know!

p.s. Rating on mobile phones seems to work in two steps, after clicking, a drop-down menu is opened, on other devices clicking on the stars should be working without any problem.

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Dinner is served

I left you wondering what was for dinner after I arrived to the hotel last Thursday. Well, I wanted to give you a bit more thorough report about the food served here – more than just one dinner!

Most important information first: food is very tasty and freshly made, various and plenty.

For sitting in a room – more than a grown person needs, I would say. I think I would gain weight if I would eat everything what is served. I typically leave out the rice – the whole portion!

Before I continue – I did not see the difference in what is served for dinner or for lunch, so here are the meals served on both times (remember? at 11-12 and at 17-18).

On the first night I WAS hungry and finished nearly everything (!) as my last meal was the breakfast on the plane (last champagne as well 😉 )

Typically a meal is having:

Main meat

The main dish (the biggest portion on the plate) is always meat or fish. It varies every meal what you will get:

  • pork (most common)
  • fish
  • beef
  • duck
  • chicken

Sometimes the dish is a stir-fry and has some type of vegetable added, on other times it is panfried or oven backed and it is served alone.

The last picture above: the interesting part is the black looking meat with some black small balls. I did not know what that would be (a bit big for an olive, but who knows!). When I tried, it was clear, that those are hard boiled egg yolks – I am not sure if the outside is some special substance/ way of preparing the yolks or it just got like that while cooking with the meat… Anyone knows???

The egg frittata is done in a ravioli way – with the meat (I thing) filling.

I really enjoyed a sweet-sour fried chicken with pineapple as it tasted distinguishably different from the ‘normal’ serving.

The meats are typically a bit saltier, but as the vegetables are prepared in a very plane way, it is a good balance when you eat them combined.

Side meat

A smaller portion of the meat can be very various as well:

  • chicken wings
  • meat balls
  • pork belly
  • duck
  • any other stir-fry that could be served as the main meat

SUPER SIZE shrimps 😉 – they were delicious!!!! and nearly all of them had also ‘caviar’.

p.s. shrimps are actually the 3rd side dish!

2 x side veggies

All veggies are are cooked in some way (no fresh vegetables are served). Leafy greens are so to say always present, the other one can very from green beans to soya beans, from some root vegetable to zucchini & cauliflower, various mushrooms…

3rd side dish

The 4th side dish is then something with scrambled egg, sometimes with veggies sometimes with schrimp tails or meat (3rd time!). But not always the egg is present (e.g. when whole shrimps are served).

What I did not like was, that sometimes 3 out of 4 sides were actually containing meat. My least favourite was the sausage or something that was most similar to “Fleischkäse”. Nothing against it, but if you have other types of more quality meat, I do not need another variant of it.

Remember the special treat we’ve got for the Dragon boat festival (last photo)? And if you think, you see the baked potato on the first photo, you are mistaken 🙂 – like I was. Surprised too, when I took a bite – those are some sort of vegetables… no idea which root it was, but definitely not any kind of potato.

Fruit & yogurt or juice

I like the yogurt. It is always flavoured with some fruit taste, very refreshing and the portion is not too big.

Fruit until now was banana, apple, peach and mango. Not sure, how you can eat mango, if you do not have a knife with you….

When Bobi was doing his quarantine time, he got only 1 fruit per day. I am happy with two and usually I have it later in the evening, as a “night snack” 🙂 or at breakfast. At dinner/lunch time, I only now and then have space for the fruit!

Vegetarians out there, I do not know, if they offer any variations. No-one asked me if I have any special diet, nor I was demanding it – I eat pretty much everything. And I am always curious, what is on the plate. Yes. I am always trying everything. Not everything is to my liking, but with the amount of food served, I am able to select what I liked and also getting full every meal!

I hope you found something you would enjoy as well!

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“Half time quarantine”

Today I woke up before the clock rang and a ‘congratulations Doris’ message from Maria 🙂 was there already! I indeed checked-in today a week ago, but in the evening, so officially I need to spend few more hours till it’s really “the next half”… but as I do not know at which hour exactly I will be released today definitely counts as the half time!

So…. I am early (for the first time here!), I decide to do some yoga before breakfast! I discovered a youTube yoga class to my liking yesterday, so I already know, what I will be doing! I am telling you – I was sweating as if I would have a hot yoga class! (I miss those from Singapore! Yes, you are reading correctly, hot yoga in hot Singapore was my preference. After that class, Singapore’s climate seems just pleasant ;-).)

“You are about half time into your class now,
so this proves,
that time flies
even if you are not having fun!”

@ Yoga online class with Trevis Eliot

I needed to have a laugh at this sentence as I associated it to the fact of having “half time in quarantine” – with one correction: I was enjoying the yoga class, and I am actually coping very well with my quarantine time as well. My neighbour across the corridor “is suffering!” as he admitted, when I kindly asked him, how is he doing (we were having the doors opened during the 2nd PCR test yesterday morning).

As I am not having Champagne (nor wine) to celebrate this special day, I will make something else:

  • change the bed (I am lucky enough to have 2 beds! Note: there is NO room service during the whole period of quarantine!)
  • move the stuff on the night table (phone & lamp, so that they are on the “other side”)
  • change the towels (I have 2 hand and 2 bath towels, and 1 floor carpet-towel)
  • fresh pyjama

Hmmm – I think that’s it! The rest stays as is 🙂

Happy 2nd half time!

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Message from heaven

Yesterday was a very bright day with good visibility.

My room is facing south, so if the hotel would be on a hill, or if I would be in a room on a very high floor, maybe I could see the sea! Of course, if the visibility would allow. It gets quite hazy during the day, probably because of the heat and humidity. This is one of the better photos I’ve made till today:

I tried to get a nice night shot as well, as some of the buildings are really pretty light up for few hours (nearly) every evening. I am not really pleased with the result but you can get an idea at least… p.s. my window got stuck and can’t be opened again. As the light reflection cannot be 100% avoided – I picked one with “a good reflection” 🙂

Two events from the neighbourhood caught my attention:

I thought there are fireworks. Everyone who knows me, knows that I like fireworks, so I jumped to the window to admire the game of fire.

But they were “only” firecrackers! From a high rise on my left (the smoke in front of the building on the picture)! I think this is a way to announce something important is happening for the family firing them? Can anyone confirm (as I am getting only “Chinese new year” as the reason for firecrackers on internet)? It was happening this Sunday, so a bit too late for the CNY. I was hearing at least 3 occurrences on that day – from 3 different buildings – 3 different families – 3 different reasons???

Or it was because of the Dragon Boat Festival?

Do you see the sports field full of students just between the two lush green tree orchards? The building nearby is obviously a school, the students are all wearing school uniforms. It was a kind of assembly at 8 am. Not sure if they are gathering every morning as I did not notice them yet, or it is only on (wait, which day is today???) Wednesdays, or today was some special occasion, or… It looked like they are all moving in a synchronised way, as if they were doing some morning exercises or preparing some act for a performance? Anyway, after I finished my breakfast, the field was empty again.

But the most impressive night show came yesterday night from the heaven! (Unfortunately you are not getting THE best lighting I saw, as I was too late with starting recording the sky drama, so this one is the best I could get.)

There was just lightning and thunder. No rain. No storm. Magnificent. Mystic.

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The Breakfast

Breakfast is different here.

No coffee. Not sure, if this is a general habit. Maybe some of my Chinese readers can comment on this? For the fact, no beverage but flavoured (blueberry, strawberry …) milk was served. But this I knew already and got used to it, when I packed my Nespresso 2 weeks before the flight already (!) – I was having 2 or 3 Coffees since with the neighbours when I longed for the smell of it in the morning! I was too lazy to go to the backer next door to get one every morning! So, no, I don’t mind not having coffee every morning.

So… what is “served”???

a) Hard boiled egg and pickled cabbage

These two are always there, always the same – at least I did not notice any difference, but the packaging (red, green, blue, yellow – any meaning in it??) of the pickled cabbage, which may include some other veggies as well, I believe.

It is something between pickled cabbage (Sauerkraut) as we know it in Europe and Korean kimchi – spicy and smelly :-).

b) Buns

There are always 2 buns in the breakfast package. And you do not know which one will it be today – which makes it interesting to cut them in half: some are filled with sweet, some with savoury stuffings (spinach was very good, and meat as well), some are empty.

I always got steamed buns, not baked. So, not the consistency of what we know under ‘Brötchen’ in Germany. More sticky and moist.

At least one of them was always white. Sometimes yellowish (corn??) or brownish (wholegrain).

I liked the savoury ones better – I ate them with egg and cabbage.

c) Pancake

mmmm – very delicious!

Never sweet (the way I typically eat pancakes).

Sometimes they look like American pancake (you get 1 think piece). The first time I was surprised, as there is always some type of stuffing in it! Vegetables mostly – I do not remember until now to get a meaty one.

The others were more like french crepes, always with some herbs, once the dough was more fluffy (like pastry).

d) Porridge or congee

I am not really sure if this two words are synonyms – I could not find the “real difference” description yet…

Porridge is actually not really my preferred dish. I met it first time in Singapore already and was not convinced.

I prefer the rise to be cooked in milk, not sweet (I am the one who adds tons of sweetened cacao on the plate, when it’s served!) and it needs to have some consistency – the porridge is just too liquid and overcooked for my taste.

BUT: I must admit, I really liked one version: it seems it was some kind of whole grained rise with red beans (dark looking one on the pic). Num-num!

Oh, I nearly forgot: once I got the White fungus thick soup! I could not detect what I am eating, so my Chinese friend Mengyuan explained what it could be. So cool 🙂

e) Packed sweet biscuit

Well, not to my taste. Maybe with coffee…. and if you have nothing else on the table…. OK, when there was a munch-mallow kind of one – I ate it 🙂 it was goooood 🙂 I needed no coffee!

f) Drink

In my case there was always a pack of flavoured milk. A bit too sweet most of the times. Sometimes the fruit (flavour) was a bit weird combination: I never before had the milk with the taste of an apple… But. New is NEW!

That’s it until today…. If anything will be served even more interesting then what I described here – you’ll find out! Don’t worry!

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A day in the room

Curious?

Time fixed events

  • breakfast is served between 7-8
  • temperature measurement
  • lunch is served between 11-12
  • temperature measurement
  • dinner is served between 17-18

That’s it, pretty much.

I did not hear knocking on the door for breakfast nor dinner, sometimes they knock when the lunch is placed on the table outside the door. You get trained to hear the sound of the plastic bag 🙂 – I remember our cat was responding very enthusiastically when the dried food bag was rustling.

I had a PCR test done in the room on the 3rd day of the stay. I expect at least one more on the day before they will release us from the hotel. So this is the no. 3 since the beginning of the journey to Beijing (1 on both airports, Frankfurt and Shanghai).

What about the rest?

  • On Thursday I arrived to the room late evening and nothing much happened besides what I already described in my first post.
  • Friday felt like “I am only eating the whole time” day. As I was sleeping for nearly 12 hours straight, I woke up at about 9:30 – and the breakfast was of course waiting in front of my room since 7 – so I ate it. I ‘just’ finished eating…. already the lunch was put on the table in front of the door…. I left it stay for a while and ate it between 1 and 2pm. Only few hours later – guess what: dinner. I said to myself: set the clock! Do not postpone the breakfast too much! But it is getting better now as I am getting used to the fixed meal schedule :-).
  • I started to write the blog on Friday as well 🙂
  • Saturday was my “first yoga” practice day.
  • Sunday was a “stay in the bad & in pyjama and watch the series” day. You have to have such day now and then as well and believe me, quarantine time is much better then watching the series up to 2-3 am and having a normal working day the next day!
  • I also had a nice bath and the facial mask on Sunday evening and I made some pictures 🙂 so in a post to follow you might expect something “interesting”.
  • today is a Monday and I pulled out my water-colour sets. Finally. Experimenting a bit, selecting the motives… something to show in a day or two, I hope!
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5th day of the 5th month = Dragon Boat Festival

Today is a holiday!

Well, I wouldn’t notice it actually (as the days are very much alike here in my room), but Bobi has a work free day today. I am also not (yet) watching the Chinese TV here in the room – maybe it would be good to check it a bit today! The festivities organised on the day & weekend are splendid!!

There was one more sign the dragon festival is in town: ZongZi was served!

As Wikipedia explains: “Modern media has printed a version of the legend which says that the locals had rushed out in dragonboats to try retrieve his (poet Qu Yuan) body and threw packets of rice into the river to distract the fish from eating the poet’s body.”

This is a dish I’ve met when we were living in Singapore already. It is made of sticky rise and some kind of a filling (which is optional) – in my case above: red beans. Then it is wrapped in the leaves (many options are possible there) and steamed/ cooked.

For me (already in SG) not something I would crave for, but it is a tradition dish in many asian countries and there are definitely many who really like it!

p.s. The inspiration for the Catching up (Dragon Boat ) painting came from my encounter with the dragon boat festivities in Singapore.

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