November 3rd Hello again! I was rather hoping for something a little different as the thumbnail for a change but we ended up going out late again due to wifey’s admin work.
All we had time to do was walk around town and eat dinner at lunchtime. When I was young though, dinner was always eaten in the middle of the day; tea was eaten in the evening. On the way Huan and I both discovered this one at the same time.
We went by the sports hotel swimming pool which used to be used by
the local schools. It is empty and out of use. People here don’t seem to want
to pay to use swimming pools. I don’t know what it’s like in the
Huan needed to visit her bank so I walked up to a spot where I could take two different photos of the main road through town, just for a change.
Just before going into the restaurant for dinner Huan popped into the snack shop for something. I followed for a browse and saw “Avocado Coffee Milk”. Now I am not at all an avocado fan but I thought I would give this a try along with the first fag of the month. It wasn’t bad at all; my only complaint would be that it was a little too mild for my taste.
As for our dinners, well we both had rice for a change. Mine was鱼香肉丝, Yú xiāng ròu sī or ‘fish flavoured shredded pork’. Huan’s was called猪脚饭, zhū jiǎo fàn or ‘pork trotter rice’. Both of these are not literal names, they both have a history that leads to their present day names. Both were very good although mine was a tad spicy.
Here’s an old friend with a new friend. The old one is fine, likes to be fussed a little and is always pleased to see us. His new friend is very young and would like to chew absolutely anything he can get his teeth into, including your hands if you’re not careful!
Huan’s day was made by finding yet another lizard, this time outside the nurses’ college.
We walked home passed Window Man’s shop where Mrs Window Man was in residence. She assured Huan that our door was in Wuzhishan and that it would be delivered upstairs to our floor this afternoon. I went out for a look just before I started this post, no sign of any door!
November 4th SWMBO had admin duties again this morning so we decided to keep it short and just go downriver to the sewage works, abattoir and gas works. Cats and dogs are our first subjects, well one of each anyway. The cat wanted its head bumping; I don’t think the dog was even aware of my presence.
Here’s the view downriver. Many moons ago we actually carried on walking down the left side of what you can see. In those days we were young(er) and far more foolish. Nowadays we know better and avoid putting ourselves in harms way.
Huan found a lizard which I took a terrible photo of.
Remember the Mansions on the Hill? This is what they look like from across the river.
I found some steps and left Huan on the high road while I went down to the low one.
Of course there was no easy way back up!
We couldn’t get to the viewing point that we would normally use, the path had been washed away. We did find a tiny butterfly though and some ever so distant egrets and then a further butterfly. Some straining of the eyeballs may be needed to see the birds!
Looking across the river we would certainly have some problems if we decided to go that way. Quite a lot of the pathways and in fact the bank itself have been washed away.
Before arriving home for lunch we did spot one more high flyer.
Being a landlady is a pain in the proverbial as Huan keeps learning. She was busy again this afternoon, the business premises had a leak from somewhere up above. Much liaising between all the different parties was needed.
For dinner we went to a new place.
At first we thought it was a little expensive but then when we included our free fried rice, not shown in this photo, our free drinks and Huan’s free Qīng bǔ liáng. We will go back.
Some photos of the wall decorations for you.
Finally we have Huan posing because although the Chinese characters are different, the name of the girl has the same pronunciation and the same pinyin spelling as Huan.
November 5th Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and
plot! I guess they don’t teach that in schools anymore, not since Halloween
became another imported holiday. Anyway, back to our lives. As you can probably
surmise, there was no delivery yesterday, again. We went on a turkey hunt for a
change. First we had to go through
We went past the one legged man’s little house before rejoining the new road.
Before this road was just soil but it did have the benefit of some shade. However, even with no shade we really enjoyed the stroll. It is a bypass around the village to a new, still as yet unused, housing complex a little further on. It’s not busy so there was some wildlife.
We kept on turning left until we were off the bypass and back on the high road of the village.
More wildlife was found, not all beautiful!
And then Huan found her turkeys, she was happy.
I tried another panorama with the Huawei, it’s not bad. However, I think I need to be a little faster and smoother with my transition; there is still some banding in the sky.
At the other turkey plot we only found chickens, a cat and a goose.
Soon we were heading back home on the road to somewhere. This road
has a name, the Western Ring Road, maybe one day it will join the
We headed through a little village very near home whose name we still don’t know. I found a perfectly posed dragonfly but it stayed only for one rushed photograph.
To Huan’s surprise, and to mine, I managed to get a photo of a little bird in the trees. It was flitting around all over the place, sticking its beak into the little flowers. The hardest part is refocusing your eyes from normal view to camera viewfinder view. I got it though!
And then we were back on the ring road heading home, looking at the mountains on the way.
Dinner was taken at a cheapo restaurant not far from our place. Huan had soup noodles and I had fried noodles. It made a pleasant change.
In the evening, after we had finished our sarnies, (there’s a word
for non-Brits to Google), Huan had another call from
November 6th Today you have a lot of photographs of yours truly. Why? Well it was my monthly bone admin day, fill up my bones and get top up bottle of female hormone tablets. Here I am waiting in the queue to pay to see the doctor.
And in this one I am having my blood pressure taken, not too bad.
Next was the consultation with friendly Dr. Shen.
Another cash desk was next to pay for the required medication.
The final step before they began sticking needles in me was the pharmacy.
Then it was off to the next building, make myself comfortable and get ready to read the book I had remembered this month. It’s an old one from my bookshelf. I have read everything on that shelf many times over the last ten years but as getting new stuff to read is not so easy without doing it online I just keep rereading stuff.
Even though I have to pay the full price it is not bad at all, ¥220.00 for the hormones, the bone filler, the saline solution and the needle. The cost to see Dr. Shen was only ¥19.00. Best of all of course, the whole procedure was over in one day. We had left the house at twenty to nine and by a quarter to eleven we were in Baijiahui doing some shopping.
By half past eleven we were having dinner at lunch time again. Just look at those healthy vegetables. I still can’t lose weight though!
November 7th The day before yesterday, Huan got a message to say that the door would be delivered and installed today. I told her that I didn’t believe a word and that we could visit the market as we usually do on a Saturday. It’s getting busier.
Sometimes for lunch we have sweet potatoes or sweet corn. Here Huan is judging and declining the first offering and accepting the one from the second stall.
Then we have a young boy buying a duck. I thought that his mother had told him that the stall would not sell him one duck. I was wrong. What they said was that he couldn’t have a big box for only one duck. He was a clever little fellow; he understood what I was saying to Huan.
This little girl was smiling because I was telling the chicken to stay away from her, she might eat it. She responded by saying that if people don’t eat their family’s chickens then they will have no money to live themselves. She may well be a budding young entrepreneur.
Although the market is getting busier it was still fairly easy to navigate our way through. We left at the junction after the library.
Our last photo of the day is a reluctant ‘friend of Bob’. He did at one stage quickly scamper up Huan’s arm and under her hat. I didn’t take that photo as I had to get him out quickly.
Lunch was a pork patty for me and a red bean patty for Huan. The plan was to have the same with salad for dinner, for a change. Dinner for Huan was rice soup. She had gone to bed not feeling so well so I did the only thing that I can do in that situation, made the rice soup. As for me, omelette and beans on German bread. It sufficed.
Window Man sent a message to tell us that the door would arrive around two in the afternoon. I am writing this at nine-thirty in the evening and there is still no sign of the door!
November 8th Today was another day in bed for the commander, she still wasn’t feeling well. I kept her fed and watered with rice soup and hot water. By evening time she was well enough to get up and watch some TV. I knew she still wasn’t feeling so good when she left her phone alone all day and only had a skim before going to bed.
November 9th Her Majesty had her last rice soup for breakfast with boiled egg and some olive leaf. After talking to Window Man who now tells us that the door, and the replacement window will arrive on Wednesday, we had a short town walk. For some reason nearly all our photos today were atrocious, either from my phone of from Huan’s. At least my new sandals look OK. This time, at Huan’s suggestion, I ordered a black pair too. I’m glad I did, they look better.
Going over Little Island Huan found two lizards. Her photo was totally unusable, mine were not very much better. Here they are.
The irrigation canal is still out of use so nature is taking it back.
Our route on the other side of the river is still blocked but repairs are moving swiftly.
This one was one of my better photographs today. Maybe my eyes are not working well.
Huan, as usual, took a lot of photos of me with various four legged friends. Most of them didn’t turn out very well at all but here are three for you.
She also tried with a butterfly, they do flutter rather fast.
After
lunch and naps we rotted away until it was dinner time. Suddenly the wind came
up, the temperature went down and the skies blackened. It felt like going out
in late autumn evenings in the
One of these weeks the Blog post will finish with good news about our door. Who knows when that will be? We certainly don’t. Window Man’s wife even suggested today that we give up on him. I would if the windows had been finished off to my satisfaction. As we still owe him money that is our only hope of things actually being completed. Also, if we do give up on him we will have to fork out the full cost of a new door, again! Sometimes I do wonder if that is what he really wants us to do. Anyway, that’s enough from me for this week. Tune in again next week, same channel, same time, we will still be here. Bye for now!
