Post-Lockdown Day 2: The high of the anticipation of my first non-home-cooked meal in 2 months, turning sharply downwards with a 1am PCR test

Breakfast was my week’s theme of glutinous rice shaomai with a tea egg. And Tabasco.

I had a bit of time at lunchtime, so I decided to cut into my second watermelon. It’s so cute and perfect-looking!

The inside was gorgeous too. I have been very happy with my group buy purchases. This watermelon is of the “8424” variety: according to this article, the number refers to this variety being the 24th developed in the year 1984. I’ve bought this watermelon before from either Aldi or Freshippo/Hema 盒马, and when I check the price now at Freshippo/Hema 盒马, one is 69.9 RMB (US$10.50). While I got my TWO watermelons for 59 RMB (US$8.90), or only 29.50 RMB (US$4.45) each! This group buying thing was something special. With the “return to normal,” I’m not sure if people will continue to group buy, because it’s kind of inconvenient to have to wait to accumulate all of the orders, and then you need to go immediately to the gate when they’re delivered (lest someone takes your order!).

I had leftover paella and my last tea egg for lunch.

It was a nice day, so I took it outside.

I finished with a bowl of that watermelon. Very sweet and juicy, and importantly, a crispy texture.

Later, I also had a mung bean cake 绿豆糕.

Right after work, I wanted to get out and see the world outside the gates! First, the “party triangle” seemed to show signs of life, quite early in the evening. It’s the Thursday evening of a 3-day weekend, so that combined with our newly-found freedom, I think a lot of people were in a “going out” mood.

Sadly, all fo the cars were back. And as you can see below, driving crazily as ever.

This stretch of Julu Road 巨鹿路 was abuzz.

Getting into Jing’an, I could really sense life coming back too.

Throughout lockdown, I’d been kind of craving a nice, charred hamburger. And fried chicken. Things I either didn’t have the ingredients for (hamburger), or were a pain to make myself (fried chicken). So as I passed by the Shake Shack in the JIng’an Kerry Centre, I decided to make Shake Shack my first non-home-cooked meal in 2 months!

Peeking into the dining room, it was piled high with to-go boxes. That’s all they offer now. Takeout and delivery only.

You order on a miniprogram in WeChat.

And there are only a few choices. A set meal with cheeseburger, fries, and chicken nuggets. A set meal with cheeseburger and fries. And hot dog. A couple chicken sandwiches (spicy and regular). For drinks, there were only chocolate and vanilla shakes, and a few sodas. I got the first set meal (almost US$20!)

I guess with a limited menu, they were just cranking out the different items continuously, because my order was ready right away.

On my way back, I passed by another PCR point.

Since it was still nice out, and the breeze helped take care of mosquitos (I think), I had dinner outside. Thanks to my balcony light, I wasn’t eating in darkness, too.

The box seems really made for this particular set meal!

There were 10 nuggets. I had 4 now, and saved 6 for later. These were kind of one-dimensional and salty, in my opinion. I like McDonald’s McNuggets better!

The chicken nuggets and the fries were kind of lukewarm, so I heated them up in the toaster. That helped a lot. I didn’t really know what the sauce was… it was kind of milky, and it curdled when I added Tabasco. It wasn’t until later when I looked at the menu again online, that I realized it was supposed to be cheese sauce for the fries. Umm, well it wasn’t very cheesy tasting either. I wish there was more of a tang to it.

So, for my first meal that I didn’t cook myself in 2 months, I had both the hamburger and the fried chicken that I was planning on getting all along. And yet, after eating them, I couldn’t help but feel that maybe I had built them up too much in my mind, and the reality didn’t live up to my dreams.

After all of this fried food, it was refreshing to have watermelon.

Then, shockingly, at 10pm entryway leader lady messaged everyone to say that we were adjacent to high-risk areas, and we would all have to take a PCR test today. Huh?? Today?? It’s already 10pm! Those who took the PCR test already didn’t have to do it again. Now I kicked myself for not taking the test with a friend I bumped into on the street. He got a PCR test right then and there because the PCR point we were next to didn’t have a line. Since I’d just gotten a test yesterday, I decided not to do it.

We had to give them a negative antigen test at the test site. Well, thankfully I have a whole stockpile of those, including that special Mingde 明德 brand, so I didn’t take a new test.

And then we waited.

And waited.

And waited…

Is the test really happening? I decided after midnight that I would go to bed. They really can’t expect people to stay awake this late, with no news!

I got into bed, and suddenly at 12:30am, entryway leader said, for those who are still awake, you can come down now.

I debated whether or not i should go down, but I figured if I did the test now, it would let me be more free tomorrow, because surely we wouldn’t need to test again. Besides, I figured there wouldn’t be so many people in line because it was so late.

Bad miscalculation! Not only were there a lot of people in line - more than I’d ever seen before in our compound.

The line also didn’t move at all! As if they were still setting up.

Finally the line started to move after half an hour. First a lady checked off our names off of a list. She recognized me by now! Then we deposited our antigen tests into the bag of the guy with the flashlight.