No Marching March, Scintillating Scotoma, Thrombosis(?)

And so we begin what I expect to be a very quiet month. No long walks, no fast walks, no lifting heavy things etc. I’m also trying to keep this up to date each day instead of trying to do it all at the end of the month!

March 1^st Spent all day doing last month’s blog entry. I never realised it could take so long.

March 2^nd A short drive around Wuzhishan, mostly visiting furniture shops to try and find a new top for our table. We think we may have succeeded but we’ll have to wait ten days for delivery and see if it all works out.

While Huan was busy paying the deposit I went out and checked out their pets, two friends of the canine variety.

Now the small one was very friendly, tail going like mad and happy to be touched.

The big one was a different kettle of fish. He, (or she), was in a cage. He was enormous, in desperate need of grooming and perhaps a ‘haircut’. He growled and barked if I went anywhere near him. When he stood on his hind legs he was taller than me! As I walked back towards the shop Huan told me that the owner told her that I shouldn’t touch him, she couldn’t go in the cage with him, only her husband could. Added to that he had already bitten someone else. Even though I love dogs I had already decided to keep my hands well away from this one!

Evening time. TOO MANY FIREWORKS. It was almost worse than New Year’s Eve. I had to pause ‘Taggart’ every five minutes or so. For those who may not know the reason why, it’s the 15^th day of Spring Festival, commonly known as ‘Lantern Festival’. For those who want to know more, go here: -

https://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/LanternFestival.htm

That’s what I used to print out and give my students.

March 3^rd Stayed in all day watching Taggart and looking in on Huan now and then to make sure she was still breathing! She had a bout of her ‘morning sickness’ this morning. No, there are no Mini-Bobs on the way; it’s more a menopause thing. I wonder if we’re still allowed to call it that? We had a very short walk in the evening, an obligatory one, to buy the weekend lottery tickets. On the way home we spotted one of those ‘electric’ buses, (remember?) now in operation on the #5 route. We’ll try and give it a go later this month.

March 4^th As I started to write today’s missive I suffered a bout of flashing geometric shapes in my peripheral vision. It’s quite an unnerving thing to happen, not the first time though. I decided to have a quick Google and came up with “Scintillating Scotoma”. Nice name eh? These two pictures give you a rough idea.

Bob’s your teacher once again. You can find out a little more by going to

http://healthwise-everythinghealth.blogspot.hk/2011/10/scintillating-scotoma.html

 or of course Dr Google himself.

Now, back to today. This morning I heard the sweet tones of the ‘Ice Cream Van’. Well, I tell a lie. People in the UK often complain about the noise from said vans, despite them bringing goodies. Our tones come from two sources, one is the road cleaner, our roads are washed twice and sometimes three times a day. I suppose he is gone reasonably quickly. The second source is the rubbish lorry. They took away all the bins on the roadside so now this one comes past two or three times a day as well, slower than the washer lorry. Now these ‘tunes’ are not loud, but they do drive me insane, they are like earworms. Here’s one of the culprits in action.

As I am banned from long walks, after our ‘morning coffee’, we decided a drive in the country was called for. We like to explore at times. Today was over another ‘bridge to nowhere’ and into the countryside.

Of course sometimes, we end up stuck! There was no way through this particular village so a ‘many more than three point’ turn was called for to get out again. I wouldn’t mind but we passed two different groups of locals sitting outside who could have warned us. (PS Spot the butterfly.)

Once we were out of the village we found our way back to the riverside where I spent the next few kilometres explaining to Huan how much easier it would be if only we had a high ground clearance four wheel drive! Deaf ears comes to mind, plus empty wallets. Ah well I can dream.

Coming to the end of the track and seeing that it appeared to narrow in front of us and maybe even deteriorate more, we took the easy way out over a one track bridge. Nice view.

Back on to normal roads again and headed back towards home we spotted this place. It’s on Nán shuǐlù, (南水路) just past the hǎinán shěng nóngkěn shìyàn zhōngxué. (海南省农垦试验中学) We have watched it being constructed over the months and it’s finished now so we popped in for a look. No sign, or any other details outside except this one.

It turns out that it is a real estate office! This is the view looking back out.

It’s called ‘Emerald City’ (aren’t they all) or fěicuì tiānchéng (翡翠天城). I wouldn’t send you to look at houses especially as, in this case, “No, we won’t sell to foreigners, there are enough Chinese people”. However, there’s a small hidden gem inside, an art gallery. How they sell anything I don’t know but if you’re interested, here’s a small sample of the sculptures, definitely to my taste: -

And, not to my taste, but maybe yours, the art.

As were leaving we spotted what we thought was an artificial butterfly on the real estate model. Closer inspection showed that it was a real one, dead unfortunately, but very beautiful. Here are views of both its upper and lower sides.

If you do happen to be passing through Wuzhishan, definitely worth a visit!

March 5^th Lazy day, weekly shopping.

March 6^th More shopping, I needed some ‘mange tout’ for this evening’s dinner. Decided to try and get some photos for ‘World Photography’. The main street looked a little less crowded than usual so I was able to get some pics of the ‘closed up’ shops. Not sure when we will find out what the plans are.

Got home to find an email from Endomondo. Not a good summary! I guess I can slowly improve once my ankle gets the all clear but that won’t be until the next doctor’s visit which will be in April.

And finally, the reason for the mange tout, (in case you were wondering, ‘snow peas’), our evening meal. Very healthy this one, no potatoes or rice, “Chicken, Spring Green & Yellow Bean Stir-Fry”. I wasn’t too impressed with the presentation but Huan liked it.

March 7^th Who knows? This could be an interesting month after all. This morning I got a ticket to the sun! Well, not me exactly, but at least my name. I follow NASA on Facebook and through one of their links ended up with this. Well, I did say Wuzhishan was a little too cool in the winter!

Next up, we had a plan! The local museum had reopened. It has been closed ever since we arrived here. In fact we met someone this morning who told us it closed in 2014. The museum has two names, depending which sign you read, but both mean the same thing. It showcases the ethnic minorities of Hainan, in particular, the LI, the Miao and the Hui. It’s on the Haikou side of Wuzhishan, just before the bus station, coming from Sanya of course, just after. Here’s the Sanya side sign and the turn-off.

Once you’re going up the hill keep your eyes open because the next sign is only in Chinese.

It is a well presented museum and also well looked after. There are a substantial number of exhibits but I will only put the entrance hall picture on here.

You can find many more pictures in the album on the forum, the link for that is –

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uS4cUQmKrsVMwgUP7

(I think I need more practice at taking photos through glass or a new camera!) My only (mild) criticism was that although artefacts have their dynasties mentioned, there are no dates. Even Chinese people have trouble remembering those. Of course, as I said to Huan, I’d be lost if she questioned me too closely about our history! Both Huan and I enjoyed our morning very much and we would highly recommend a visit.

March 8^th A lazy day. The sky is overcast for one thing and Huan has been reading Baidu for another. If she had her way I think I would be in traction with my feet up until the next hospital visit! Instead we got down to some home, or furniture maintenance. I started with one of the bar chairs on the balcony which I had to take apart in order to tighten the screws that hold the seat on. They don’t make it easy, I can tell you. However, end result, you can see the bolts holding the base but not the screws holding the seat. Success!

We also decided to sort out the office chairs. We had an ongoing problem with the cover under the chair, merely decorative to hide the workmanship, kept ‘moulting’ onto the office floor. It’s all to do with the climate here. Remember the shoes last month? Anyway, we removed as much as we could, I used our ‘gas jets cleaning brush’ to scrape as much off as I could. Huan then cleaned the wheels and that’s us done. Success again! Two jobs in one day, wow, we are getting good.

March 10^th I wasn’t allowed out yesterday. Orders from Doctor Huan, who had been reading ‘Doctor Baidu’ again! For those who don’t know, ‘Doctor Baidu’ is the Chinese version of ‘Doctor Google’. Today she relented, mostly because it’s the weekend and it’s my turn to buy the lottery tickets. We do two different ones here, the first being the ‘China Welfare Lottery’. Here’s a sample of the ticket and the results. This is played three times a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

The second one is the ‘China Sports Lottery’, their tickets and results are shown here. This is played on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The top prizes are usually around the 5 million Yuan mark; this week saw two much larger prizes. Of course, if we won we probably couldn’t move anywhere else to enjoy our spoils. Even the top prize wouldn’t allow us to buy a house in the UK as well as comfortably live there! Then there is the other problem of course, how to get the money out of China! However, both the Minister of Finance and I would be very happy to be very comfortable here! Wish us luck.

March 11^th The Prime Minister and Chief Medical Officer banned me from going out today, at least in the daytime. We will be eating out this evening. I tried some learning Chinese using “memrise.com”, one that I haven’t used for about three years. First of all of course I had to go back to the beginning. It’s a good way of learning characters if you are so inclined. I would prefer to use “yoyochinese.com” but I’m still waiting for them to have Aliped! I got bored after a while and decided to try and make some biscuits instead, ginger ones. I had to modify the recipe, no golden syrup here so honey had to substitute. I have to say it worked very well and the result was excellent. In fact the quality controller, (Huan, of course), decided that they were much better than shop bought ones we’d had in the past. Success!

March 12^th I was allowed out today! Only to drive the car for the weekly shopping though. My turn to cook again, how about this, taste 10/10, presentation only 7/10. Hoisin Duck with Leek & Stir-Fried Cabbage.

March 13^th Stuck indoors all day again so I decided to scan all my diving log books. I dived while I was in the army, between 1969 and 1973 and then again after I left between 1980 and 1985. Here’s a sample with the proof that you can get stung by a Lion Fish and live!

And I guess not many people can claim to have dived in a ‘well’. Well, (pun intended), we did! I only wish we had had more cameras in those days.

March 14^th Not such a bad day after all. It started with one of the irregular phone calls to Huan from the local police. They do that now and then, just to check if I’m still here! The weather was miserable but we had to go out today, lottery ticket day! The sales lady tried to convince Huan to buy a scratchcard. Now those of you that know Huan will also know that while she is not a ‘big meany’, she does like to look after money, so was quite reluctant. I decided a treat was in order so I paid for one. What do you know? It cost me 10¥ for the ticket and Huan won 300¥! That eventually went down again but the final total was 240¥. I told Huan that this was good practice for the big one! Fingers crossed! Evening time, and as another treat for Huan, a ‘Vegetable Stir-Fry’ with no meat and even some tofu!

March 15^th Car wash day. As always I was looking forward to my Foshan coffee while they washed the car. However, I was disappointed. The staff haven’t turned up for work since the pavement outside was renewed. I had to make do with a bottle of coffee across the road. It was nice sitting in the sun though.

We went for a little drive afterwards, just to keep the battery in tip top condition and came across this new, for us, development.

I was amazed. It has a ‘Nostalgia Cinema’, a restaurant serving both ‘Western and Chinese’ food, an on site shop and pharmacy and who knows what else! The finish is far better than what we usually see; electronic locks on all the doors, what look to be good electrical fuse-boxes and switches, good bathroom fittings, fully furnished too. It turns out that they are like ‘serviced’ apartments in the west, but not for rent, for sale. The monthly service charge is 400 RMB. We looked at the biggest ones, two bedrooms only, with a great wrap-around balcony though.

Now where we live is not known for being the luxury part of Hainan but the price for this two bed-roomed apartment was 1.8 million RMB. Even the 'studio’ next door, (which we would have to buy as well to have enough room) was 700 thousand RMB!

The sales lady, who we knew as she used to be our downstairs neighbour, explained that even if we did buy one, we could never have the ‘house book’ as already own property here. If we didn’t, we would still have to wait two years before getting the book. When we compared the prices to UK she asked if she could go there. I told her that she could walk in with the money and buy whatever she wanted whereas here in China, at least in Wuzhishan, everything has to belong to Huan!

March 16^th, 17^th 18^th Boring! Stuck indoors, binge watching ‘The Bill’ on YouTube and trying to memorise more Chinese characters. I never realised just how much Huan and I enjoyed our ‘little’ walks!

March 19^th Our table top has arrived in Wuzhishan, hooray! The first job was to go and measure it so that we could have a wooden top fitted for the stone to sit on. This was just to make sure that the ‘dummy’, (who isn’t Huan), doesn’t break it by standing on it again! Once that was done off we went to find the wood. Who would have thought it could be so difficult. The first place had closed down. The second place couldn’t do any cutting before 8 o’clock tonight. (I don’t really like that place anyway, the owner is a miserable woman and never really seems to want to do any business when we go there.) The third place couldn’t cut until ‘Shīfù’ came back, sometime later. The fourth place couldn’t cut at all. Our friends, just down the road from the fourth place, run a metal workshop so we decided to ask them if they could cut wood for us. Result! Not only could they cut wood, they could provide us with the wood as well, and for a cheaper price! Lunch time called so we went home for a while. While there, I got a piece of paper and started writing down the measurements so that Huan could wash her hands. Yes, she had written them there! Panic then set in. She had written them down wrongly. That meant another trip to the table top shop, stopping on the way to make sure our friends hadn’t started cutting yet. All’s well that ends well though. Once we got the correct measurements they cut the table for us and we took it home balanced on the headrests in the car! Here’s me fixing it in place ready to receive the stone top tomorrow.

March 20^th Delivery of the table top was a little later than expected; in fact we had to delay dinner time. The top is not quite the same colour as the one I broke and the quality is not quite so good either. However, it is 20 cm longer and 10 cm wider as planned so that there is more room for Huan’s ‘big’ dinners. We’re pleased enough with the result and here it is.

What do you do with a new table? Well you baptise it with food of course. Today’s offering was Armenian, “Flatbread, Chicken and Herb Pie”. Very nice indeed! I think those Armenians must be very thin though as the recipe said this was enough to feed six people. We followed it religiously even down to pan sizes and had enough just for the two of us. This was Huan’s half.

March 21^st Another offering to the table gods. Unfortunately I couldn’t make a presentable plate for the photos so there’s only one from the kitchen. This is ‘Toad-and-veggies-in-the-hole.’ The ‘hole’ didn’t rise enough; we think more eggs may be needed next time. It was very tasty when served with Bob’s special herb sauce though!

March 22^nd Electrician in the house! Well actually it was me. I had to replace the extension block in the kitchen as the switch had stopped working. Bits of plastic fell out when I opened it, the bits that held the cable in place and the bits that held the switch in place. Less than three years old! Still I got to use my screwdrivers, pliers, soldering iron and even one of my specialist tools. To take the back off the old extension I needed the 2.3 you can see in the front row. It’s good when I can use the tools I bought, especially those that had Huan wondering what I would ever need them for!

March 23^rd to 27^th Still mostly housebound, short walks into town only. Did cook on the 27^th though, “Bob’s Garlic and Herb Chicken Noodles”, no cookbook needed!

March 28^th Getting cheesed off with staying in so decided to go for a trip on the #5 Electric Bus, We got on at the WC terminus, handy if you have to wait, here’s the bus from inside this time.

It wasn’t a bad ride really, quiet as expected, but probably no smoother than your average rural bus. The video I took was all over the place. Route #5 goes to Nancheng village and then returns. We decided to have a little walk around. They do have a reasonable market, probably a little cheaper than town. Do you fancy getting your eggs and chicken at the same time? I wonder what the people in UK would think of this.

Or even what they would think of these. They look like snakes but they are some kind of fish. They inflate their cheeks to bring their heads out of the water which gives them the snake look. With the saleslady egging me on I handled them, they have an almost velvet feel, not like a fish at all. I might have been brave to do that but if I had seen one in the water I’d have been off in a flash, probably en route to a heart attack!

We took a different bus back, still a #5 and still electric. It made a change and we both noticed how much more you see when you take a bus. Partly because of the height of course, but for me, also because I’m free to look around more.

Evening time was cooking time for me again, this time it was “Bob’s Noodle Bolognaise”. Looks good doesn’t it? Very tasty it was too and yet again without any cookbooks!

March 29^th They say everything happens in threes don’t they. Well if you remember, the first was my ribs, the second was my Achilles and now the third one has arrived. Much pain in my left leg last night and this morning so a visit to the hospital was called for. Once again I was in the Ultrasound department.

The results showed that I may have thrombosis in my lower left leg. Google translate is not always the best tool but necessary because Huan doesn’t understand the medical terminology. As to treatment, well the doctor here, not my favourite, could only say that I have to go to Haikou. He did give a hospital name but no department, no specialist etc. That in effect would mean starting again I presume! So, I decided that I should take Patrick Quinn’s advice and try and book an appointment with Dr Tim Stephens. Sods law working to full effect at the moment. He could fit us in on Monday 2^nd April, not good for us as we have to see our tenants out of Ledong. I suggested later in the week, not possible, it’s Qing Ming! I guess I will have to wait another week and just hope all remains well until then.

We also had to visit the local police station today. Her Majesty’s Government decided they want to know if I am still alive so that I can continue drawing my pension. Of course they do it the very old fashioned way, send me a letter; that takes six weeks to arrive, advising me to fill in the form and return it before the deadline or my pension would be stopped. At least this year is better than two years ago and they have seen the error of their ways and extended the deadline date. The usual kerfuffle ensued in the police station. Despite the police officer knowing who I am, she is one of the ones who recently visited our house to check up on us, she was reluctant to sign. Eventually, after a phone call to “someone higher up” she agreed and we got the job done. The post office was the next port of call to send the proof back to the UK by EMS. Regular mail could stand the choice of missing the deadline or just being completely lost. As usual, the staff had no idea what to do with EMS packages being sent to foreign countries. We think we got it done, let’s see how the tracking goes. You would think that in these days of high speed internet and communication that there would be a better way. Huan can now prove she’s alive using QQ!

Well, we’ve come to the end of a far busier month than expected. Who knows what the future will bring? We’ll let you know next month what happens in Haikou with my leg. Wish me luck!