Now ye're talking - to an Irishman in China

cee_jay wrote: »

There is a new hot pot restaurant on Marlborough St in Dublin called Kitchen 85. It is mainly Cantonese cuisine, really good! But I've never been to China so don't know how it compares to the real thing.

What do you normally cook for yourself at home, especially now when you've been home for so long? Do you tend to stick to Chinese cuisine, or can you get ingredients for Italian, Mexican, etc?

I cook pretty much everything; Italian, Indian, Mexican, comfort food etc. You can get pretty much anything online here so I've built up a decent pantry full of ingredients. Usually just need to get meat, veg and a couple of other things. I don't cook Chinese food that often as it's everywhere, and cheap. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC54SLBnD5k5U3Q6N__UjbAw/videos this is a good youtube channel for 'real' Chinese food if you want to give it a bash. Once you have all the staple ingredients you can make plenty of dishes. But like I said I'm literally surrounded by dozens of restaurants so I tend to cook other things. I made chicken balls and curry sauce the other day if that counts :pac: Good to hear about the hotpot restaurant.

up for anything wrote: »

What is the difference between locked in and sealed in? Are you locked in or something less? Sealed in sounds ominous - like if everyone outside died you wouldn't be able to free yourself. :eek:

What happens if you don't have money to pay for grocery delivery? Is there some sort of government welfare to cover this eventuality or if you don't have money to pay upfront or at all for medical care in the hospital?

Some apartment blocks have literally been sealed with chains, nobody in or out except someone delivering you some groceries every couple of days. I've also seen a few videos of people being sealed in their apartment in Wuhan. That's a bit mad. From comments on Weibo the videos are real, but obviously I can't be sure.

Honestly I have no idea what happens in regards to people not having enough money for food or medical care. I'm sure there are some provisions in place at the moment for that, given the circumstances. I've heard the government will cover all treatment for coronavirus patients, but not sure if that is just Hubei or countrywide. Regarding medical costs outside of this period, people usually have to save up money for treatment if they can't afford it straight up.

up for anything wrote: »

Does anyone conjecture as to why some are chained or sealed in and most not?

Are you still allowed out every couple of days?

In most (all?) cases it's because there had been 1 or more confirmed cases in a particular building. As I mentioned before I know British girl whose apartment block was fully quarantined for 2 weeks, they delivered her food (vegetables) every second day. There are still some apartment blocks in my city that padlock the front entrance at 10pm every night, one of my colleagues only noticed when he ran out of water at midnight one night and tried to go to the shop.

We're allowed out pretty much whenever we want now, no more 'every two days'. The problem is there is still not much open, so go where? Supermarket is really as far as we go, though we usually go the long way for the walk. I'm not really comfortable just yet going to a park (which are probably packed) or something like that. Still checks going in and out of the apartment complex and when entering the supermarket.

I've been informed that I'll likely be working from home until the end of March/start of April. Hooray :rolleyes: Hope you guys don't have to endure this sh**e, but if you can (and are willing to) work from home, short term of course, I would highly suggest it. Ireland is not going to be able to contain this like China has. I've never seen anything like it and will never again (I hope).

up for anything wrote: »

How're things now? Are you back to work? Have the personal liberty restrictions been lifted? What did you do to celebrate Paddy's Day? Is there any noticeable difference between people before Covid-19 and now? Have you met or spoken to anyone who had it and recovered, yet? So many questions. Please don't disappear on us. I'll need someone to talk to during lockdown because as it is, I've fallen out with 90% of the people online and 100% of my nuclear family in the last three days of self-isolation.

Things are continuing to improve. More things are opening up and free to go outside whenever you want. They've started letting people enter other peoples apartment complexes, so we've had a couple of friends around. Everyone has a personal QR code on their phone (with their personal info) which you need to show entering most places. That's how they're tracking people in case anyone new gets the virus. Interesting approach. Most (foreign) people still not back to the workplace, including me. Though I've been working the whole time so makes no difference, as have a lot of the teachers with online classes. Schools will begin to open the end of the month (staggered), so probably back to the office then. To open a workplace you have to apply to the government. My whole office can work from home so they won't let us go back yet.

A LOT more people roaming about now. I would say the streets are probably at 80%, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Actually went to the mall a few days ago for a stroll, it was pretty empty though. Everyone still wearing masks, so no difference there. Though I will say that Trump's comments on the 'China virus' has roiled up some of the folk here. Had the security guards outside asking if I'm American. They were fine when I told them I was Irish, one of them mentioned Whiskey lol. Have heard of a couple of foreigners being turned away from restaurants and public buses, though that's more to do with fear of people bringing the virus back into China. Hence why anyone arriving from abroad is to be quarantined for 2 weeks.

No I still don't know of anyone who has had it. I guess with 1.4 billion people and approx 80k cases (can't remember), the odds are pretty low on that front.

Yeah the isolation is not fun, hopefully you're keeping yourself busy which is not easy. Anyone (minority I'm sure) who was hoping for everything to close will regret it very very soon. I'm still at home 80% of the time, but it's become pretty much the norm after 9 weeks.

I went to a friends apartment on Paddy's day and had too much Jameson

PMBC wrote: »

Good friend had son working there up to recently teaching English and enjoyed life and was well paid in Irish terms. Came home due to fear of spread some weeks back. Are there opportunities, or were there rather, for this kind of work?
Hope it is still good for you and that you had a happy Paddy's Day.

Tonnes of opportunities and no enough teachers to fill them. With schools opening again soon and thousands of teachers gone home, there's gonna be a huge shortage. Even though China is heading the right direction, people are not going to want to travel or leave their family. I certainly wouldn't if I was at home. Plus, as mentioned above, you gotta spend 2 weeks in a hotel on arrival :pac:

Thanks, I'm going less crazy now so that's a positive. Feel sorry for everyone at home though, looks live it's just the beginning Stay safe.

Gruffalo22 wrote: »

I hear that many people in China cannot get loans or credit cards from the banks. How do they manage? Have you heard of many people using online lending platforms such as Qudian or Laifenqi? I have heard that people may get loans from multiple sites.

Is IQIYI popular in China for streaming?

Loans (and any form of credit in general) are just not popular in China. Most loans are confined to businesses and mortgages. Small personal loans are becoming more popular through companies like the ones you mentioned, probably because Chinese people have more income then they did 10 years ago, so can afford repayments. What the average person did with no work for almost 2 months, I don't really know to be honest. That will be something I'll be asking my colleagues when I go back to work.

IQIYI is very popular, probably the most popular along with Youku. I don't use any of them though, I download everything 100 mbps internet, unlimited download, no piracy laws and the Great Fire Wall...it is what it is.