Lockdown Day 55: Not so easy! — Pickle Deli Square

For breakfast today, I wanted to use up some of my spinach with chickpeas espinacas con garbanzos, so I stir-fried some up and scrambled an egg with it.

Then this morning, entryway lady came by. She was excited to say, “I’m distributing exit permits!” 我发出门证！You can see with the bags, that it wasn’t just little cards she was distributing.

She also gave me three N95 masks, three clips to clip the ear loops behind (hmmm, I actually thought real N95 masks all have around-the-head elastic?), three pairs of gloves…

…and an explanation sheet. It says

1) One card is distributed per household, and you can go out once per day. You need to show this card, a PCR test within 48 hours, an antigen test report (I don’t actually know what that is), and get your temperature checked.

2) Don’t go to lockdown areas 封控区 or controlled areas 管控区. Only travel by bike or non-motorized transport.

3) “There are many uncontrollable factors when going out, please take good personal protection.” Wear N95 mask, disposable gloves, don’t go to high traffic areas, maintain social distancing, and it si recommended to go out for no more than 3 hours.

4) When returning, “please disinfect the whole body”(!!) Items you buy should be disinfected at the gate, and brought back after sitting for a while.

5) Once a new positive case is reported, the area will become a medium and high risk area, and there will be corresponding control measures.

(The best part:)

The achievements in epidemic prevention and control for more than two months have not come easily, we would like to thank all residents for their joint protection. Let us unite with one heart, unite as one city, and jointly win the overall victory of the Great Shanghai Defense War!

I guess you get the card checked off on the days you use it?

On the back there were some other directions.

Earlier in the morning, entryway leader sent a list of places were we could buy things offline (because other venues might be open, but only for pick-up or delivery). There were only 2 convenience stores, 1 tobacco/liquor store, 1 Lianhua supermarket, a pharmacy, a wet market, and an international supermarket. Note the opening times - only 1-5pm every day, and the international supermarket, only three days a week.

For lunch, I reheated the red lentil soup, and toasted bread, then put the chicken-artichoke-spinach spread on top, and toasted again.

After lunch, I noticed I missed a text message saying that I had a delivery - my water that I ordered on March 27: exactly 2 months ago!

When I was leaving the apartment, I noticed that there were stacks and stacks of cardboard sitting around the kind of run-down area of the neighborhood. I always suspected there were cardboard recyclers in the compound, because sometimes when I left a cardboard box at the trash area, someone would come around immediately to take it away.

The guard seems to finally needing to guard the gate…

Water! Two months delayed, and so happy to have these still. I calculate I have enough bottled water for 4.5 weeks now…

I did my afternoon antigen test as usual.

And then I did a workout of the day (strength training). And for some reason I thought it would be a good time to make okonomiyaki, despite needing to pull an all-nighter tonight. This one I used millet flour, cabbage, just a few slivers of onion (cut open my very last onion for this!), cabbage, enoki mushrooms. And topped it with my re-creation of tonkatsu sauce (oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, miso, sweet potato starch, cooked for a bit in the pan after the okonomiyaki done.