April 7th Housebound again this morning but we did escape for a few minutes. Huan wanted me to see some internal doors in building one. They were pretty good, much better than our existing doors. I’m sure you don’t need to see photos of doors though, so I’ll just show you what I thought was a lovely view from their balcony.
We bumped into Window Man on the way home; he told us that he is still unpacking the windows in the freight company, something that he said he was doing yesterday. He also told us that someone would come today, to start demolishing the kitchen balcony wall and removing the bedroom balcony fence. He told us that yesterday too.
So I did my Chinese lessons and watched an Australian TV series, Huan did some sewing to modify some of her clothes. We definitely weren’t bored. As for today’s lunch, well here it is being prepared yesterday evening. The sausages and egg are not ours.
And here it is today, micro-waved and with tomatoes, whole for Huan and halved for me.
Half way through the afternoon Huan had a call from
I decided that I should treat Huan to a nice fishy dinner. That plan fell by the wayside as the restaurant had no air conditioning working and with the temperature still at 35⁰C we felt that it was a necessity. Instead we went to the Lanzhou Beef Noodle restaurant, somewhere we have been before and where good food is guaranteed.
I was still trying to avoid carbs for dinner so I had ‘Cold Beef Salad’ with a fried egg on top and ‘Cold Radish Salad’. I removed the obvious peppers meaning it was only a little spicy. We asked the chef what the yellow things were and she told us that they were Xinjiang radish. The vegetables have been pre-soaked in vinegar with a little sugar. For me a very enjoyable dinner.
Huan had one of the signature beef noodle dishes, a very big bowl, also very enjoyable.
Would you believe that at the tender age of 76 I had never tasted yellow water melon? We bought some on the way home to remedy that omission. It is slightly sweeter than the red water melon but just like the red, I can take it or leave it. For me, honey dew melon reigns supreme.
April 8th Every cloud has a silver lining, or so they say. If Window Man does not turn up then we can get out for a bus‘n’walk. We decided to have a look at the cultural farm/village in Nansheng so a #5 bus it was. Huan’s first find was outside the nurses’ college.
This shot was supposed to be the beginning of a video!
We got some lovely photos in the cultural village but they didn’t meet our expectations. I guess that as a tourist destination it hasn’t begun operating yet.
Huan did manage to find another lizard before we gave up on our plan.
We found our way out trough the back of the village and thence to the back entrance of the place with the swans, the Shuiyunju Hotel
Initially we thought the swans were not there, they hadn’t been during our last visit. However, the work around the lake has been completed and there they were!
What were those last two looking at? Well, me of course!
If we had known we were coming here we may well have brought some food. It certainly would have made this one happy.
This place is worth visiting we think, despite some parts being a little run down. It has a long water slide and as well as the normal hotel rooms it has lakeside rooms too. Here you can see the water slide terminus; we were not going to walk up that hill today. The second photo is the ‘door’ side of the lake view rooms, very nice indeed.
There is a rather nice, clean swimming pool.
As you can see the views are lovely, all around.
And across the water I espied someone who may well have brought food with him. I didn’t see him feeding the swans but they were out of the water.
What I was really looking for though was the view.
And then it was Huan’s turn to be on the other side of the moon. She was pretending to be the goddess of the moon Chang'e, along with the Jade Rabbit. For more details about the story you can go to this link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e
And to finish our wrong way round route here is the front entrance of the hotel.
Back down where we got off the bus I had a bit of hobnobbing with a high level local!
We walked back as far as Nansheng to catch the bus and bought our take away lunch there too.
Back home, here is a pic of Huan’s lunch, mine already had a bite out of it!
Naps were required, seven kilometres in the hot sun was enough for us. We stayed local for dinner in the evening again. As usual, the one sans rice is mine.
April 9th At last, some good news, not on the window side but on the diet side. The restrictions have been lifted and I can now have spicy food, sour foods (vinegar), alcohol, (not that I drink much these days), tea and of course coffee. Boy have I missed my morning coffee for the last few weeks. Because the kitchen is still off limits I had what we for our trips.
I then spent half the morning trying to get something sorted out so that I can still keep in touch with my family. It took a long time but I now have WhatsApp as well as Bluesky. I’d be much happier I could have Facebook and Instagram back but beggars can’t be choosers!
On the window side of things we had another wasted day. Yesterday we had bought instant noodles just in case the workmen came. They didn’t, but we ate them anyway. Each tub had an added cheapo sliced sausage and an egg mixed in for extra protein.
Nobody came in the afternoon either! Dinner was taken at the same restaurant we went to on Thursday last week, they had a nice assortment.
And these were our choices.
Almost home, and as we were passing this young fellow, his homework table collapsed taking him down with it. Maybe his legs had caught the bracing bars or something. I got the table back up for him and sorted him out before we continued our journey home.
April 10th Window Man called, something will happen this afternoon; we are free to go out this morning. It’s a long time since we did a full riverside walk and we were early enough so we went for it. On our way to the far end Huan managed to find five lizards!
This was the view at the far end, nice and sunny.
This one I just had to take, I ‘heart’ Wuzhishan.
Here’s someone else I ‘heart’, showing off her new hat. This one has a circular air vent just below the top. Huan is pleased on two points, it’s cool and it was cheap, only £1.00.
On our way back, we only managed one little bird.
Here we are taking a short cut on the lookout for takeaway lunch.
Both of the places we were heading for were still closed after the last holiday. Maybe they are taking two holidays together; there is another on 17th April. Luckily for us though, Eagle Eyes spotted a hole in the wall place that had ròu jiā mó, sometimes known as Chinese burgers.
By the time we reached home we had covered 8.8km and gone all the way around the river without taking a bus. We haven’t done that for a while!
How was our lunch? Not bad at all. We both like ròu jiā mó and as we were eating it at home we could add things. Huan added pickled gherkins and because I was also now allowed vinegary stuff I added pickled red cabbage.
We waited all afternoon but the expected materials delivery never took place. Out for our now regular evening meal we went. We didn’t go too far.
Huan had
On our way home we passed by Window Man’s place. He told Huan that tomorrow afternoon work would definitely start. I just walked off! He then sent Huan a photograph of our (or what could be our) windows. Of course they could also be anybody’s windows! He also told Huan to tell me not to get angry; the work would be finished soon. This is the twenty second day of our home being completely upside down! Anyway, here are said windows.
April 11th Our morning was ours again so we went off to market, as usual. Being early, getting seats on the little bus was not a problem. At the other end I took a photo that I have been meaning to take for a long time. These are our local pandas. The WeChat translation, which may be wrong, is ‘One lake, four gardens, home is in the park. The ideal of life is for an ideal life’.
On our way into the first market we spotted someone who has been squatting in someone’s kitchen extractor phone hose. I guess it may be out of use because he looks very comfortable in there. It was also a bird that we don’t usually see under the building eaves.
Since we were so early we also had a breadstick for breakfast, half for me and half for the boss. This is her second breakfast, and my weekly breakfast!
The main market road by the riverside was still busy but it was very easy to walk along at the side. As the summer months approach it will become even easier.
Huan suggested this one for your delectation and education, corn bread being produced on site.
A young schoolgirl was carrying somebody who was also enjoying the market.
The new place, “Let’s Cheese” is nearly open. When it does open we’ll visit and update you.
At the home of the old man we found a younger and different model. Old man was sleeping behind the counter. It seems this younger model’s prime purpose in life is to prevent people from scanning QR codes, at least according to the owner.
Caution, man at work!
Two more friends for you this morning, one close friend and one mere acquaintance.
After our daily nap the day turned for the worse. First the window workers never appeared, again. Second the air conditioner in our apartment in Ledong needs maintenance or repair. Third we lost our internet, they may come today, they may come tomorrow!
They came for the internet late afternoon, found a problem with the cable on the roof. All fixed again now so I’m reasonably happy. Of course I would be much happier if I had all my FB and Instagram stuff back too. I suppose that is never going to happen.
All that was left was to go out for dinner, nothing special today.
April 12th Huan had a phone call this morning;
the workers would be here this afternoon. I’ll believe it when I see it. In
fact I promised her a nice fish dinner should they actually turn up. This
morning I chose another bus‘n’walk for us, a nice easy and relaxing walk. We
took a walk up to the end of
Now then, is this the great Serengeti migration? Not quite; this is
not the
Here are the views downriver and upriver, today we were heading downriver, along lizard alley.
Today the route lived up to its name.
We stopped to chat to this little man and his Grandma. He was a very polite young man but said that because I was a foreigner he was too shy to speak and English with me.
Soon we were back to lizards again, the first one even had hitch hiking spider.
We interrupt our program on lizards to show you a blowing seed.
And now we resume our programming for one last look for this morning.
We timed it perfectly to get a #2
bus back to the buffet restaurant for lunch. Our main choice was the same for
both of us, squid with snow peas but we chose different vegetables. Also Huan
had rice whereas I had a salty egg. PS Squid in
We had naps, and as I expected, the workers did not turn up. Huan had a frustrating call with Window Man again who said he will come tomorrow morning. He also said that if he has done anything wrong we can take it out of what we still owe him. I spent some time looking for ways to get legal recourse should it become necessary.
We went to a place we know well for dinner, 18 Bowls.
Things appear to have changed since we last visited. Rice is no longer free although free hot tea is provided. The waitresses no longer bring your bowls and utensils; you have to fetch them from the front counter yourself. Here is my head waitress bringing ours.
As for the food, well I guess it is as it always has been. What you see here is mistaken ordering on our part. I suggested Huan’s dish to her, thinking that it had some pork strips in there. All it had was egg plant and green beans. Huan knew that but ordered it anyway. She also had rice. My dish was translated as peas with minced pork which I thought would be fine. Have you ever eaten a whole tin of peas with a couple of teaspoons of minced pork? I do have to say that the peas were wonderfully sweet and it’s given me an idea for a dish at home. However, it will never be ordered again in this restaurant!
April 13th Hallelujah! The workers turned up this morning and began demolishing the kitchen balcony wall. Despite being awake half the night I am still happy to see them. Why was I awake half the night? Well, a little medication called lactulose, you can Google it! From my side, it is not very comfortable but I can recommend it. Anyway, demolition began!
Huan went downstairs to cordon off the area and ask owners to remove their cars. I didn’t think it was wise for me to go downstairs, just in case.
I did ask the workers about safety belts and anchor points, they thought I was crazy.
I had popped downstairs for a brief moment to take that photo, I got Huan at the same time.
Shortly thereafter Huan took this one upstairs. These guys are braver than I am!
I managed to get a photo of the 98% cleared balcony from the office window.
And then I got busy making lunch, cheese sandwiches today.
We had a nap; one of the workers came back in the afternoon to finish the remaining 2%. I went downstairs to by Huan’s lottery tickets and took a final photo of the now empty balcony.
With Huan fresh out of the shower and me frightened to walk too far we ordered burgers for dinner. What we got was not quite what we ordered but it did the job.
So, we come to the end of another week and we still have no new windows. However, at least we have seen some progress. Let’s hope we can show you more next week. Until then we will say au revoir, auf wiedersehen and zàijiàn, hope you all have a good week too!
