Good Hair Day, Insects, Proof of Life

April 21^st As promised, a picture of Huan’s newly coloured hair today. She had to send a front and back view to her niece so I’m giving you the same, although I don’t know which two photos Huan chose. What a beautiful lady!

Today was a trip to the bank for Huan and it was also an insect day. The first one was this little creature scooting across our path at a fair rate of knots. I almost missed it but eagle eyed Huan spotted it and ordered me to ‘take a picture’.

Next up we found a few clinging to the trees. We weren’t sure what they were at all.

A few trees further down we found one that had matured a little further. I wonder if it is a cricket? It is certainly turning green and sprouting wings, and not very pretty at this stage.

Do you remember my friend, who likes jumping up and having a fuss made? Well today he, or she, was sharing a leash post with another friend. That other friend is usually not bad but today he kept going for me, even chomped the side of my hand. Luckily the skin wasn’t broken. The guilty one is at the front!

I was actually spoilt for “friends” today, we met many and with the exception of the one above, all welcomed me with wagging tales and slobbery chops. A couple had to climb on to my knee and be cuddled, the last one made me go for a run with him, me holding the leash. That’s not as easy as it used to be, I can tell you!

Our morning walk, as planned, wasn’t too long, only five kilometres. After a lovely lunch of Huan’s flatbread, (similar to a pancake but a little thicker), with fresh mango and a little dash of yoghurt, it was time for a wee rest. That was only until it was time for our TV Walk, which today I started alone. Huan had disappeared somewhere but she did join me after the warm up period. It’s getting warmer outside so we were both sopping wet today. On the plus side, we are slowly getting better and should be able to make a video soon.

Evening time brought a little bit of normality back into Huan’s life, the ‘girls’ are starting their dama dancing again. She’ll certainly be fit enough for it! However, she had to take a detour to the dentist first, some more treatment following her last visit.

April 22^nd It seems that Wuzhishan is well on its way back to normal. Wearers of masks, of which we still remain, are now most definitely in the minority. Snowbirds have begun to move back up North for the summer, although some are still stuck due to recurring lock-downs in their own cities. For us, it was out first walk around our mountain park for quite some time and it was a great day for it, nice and sunny, but a bit of a breeze, gorgeous when under the trees. When we reached the bridge to begin coming back down the other side I was so delighted with the view that I had to take a huge panorama, here it is.

Before we started on our way down Huan spotted another lizard, as usual a lot of photos were taken, but unusually, this is one taken by Huan. Maybe I should consider handing over the duties of photographer to her and promote myself to director!

We did see some Snowbirds on our way round but we could tell that there were fewer than there were at the beginning of the year. They are not unwelcome at all, in fact we often stop and chat with them, but as this was our first walk up and down the hill for a while, scenes like this were immensely pleasing and relaxing. The breeze under the trees helped too.

Normality was there for the rest of the day too, naps and routine.

April 23^rd Lazy this morning and the PC had forecast a rainy day. I got on with Blogger work while Huan had a chat with her sister in Dalian. Technology is a wonderful thing, face to face calls with no charge because we’re using the house Wi-Fi.

April 24^th Miserable weather, we are both confined to barracks.

April 25^th Another day of miserable ‘English’ weather, but at least it’s not too cold! We had to find our way through the escape tunnel today though, lottery tickets needed to be bought. As we were going out we noticed that the sluice gates had been opened again, a sure sign that it’s raining upriver from  us. A worrying sight however, in the middle of the river, were a pair of goats, surrounded by the rapidly rising water. It’s not one of my best photos, in fact far from it, but you can see the goats in the centre of the picture.

A few minutes afterwards, sighs of relief all round from us and I daresay from the goats too, as the sluice gates were closed again. Every time they open them work has to stop on the island park thus delaying the project even more. It was supposed to be completed before the end of last year, then by the New Year, then by April and then of course Covid-19 happened. There has been no update on the predicted completion date but I doubt if it will be this year!

After our ‘winning’ tickets had been bought, (positive thinking), we had to come home via the post office where another letter was waiting for me. On the way we passed the little pet shop where today, for a change, the birds decided to speak in the presence of both of us. Huan was suitably impressed and very happy to hear them. I took a video but the screen shots are not so good. Here he is giving me a good old screech before getting into “nǐ hǎo”.

Also in the pet store were little creatures, I was having great fun with them trying to climb up my fingers. I’m sure every time we stop here Huan is dreading hearing me ask to take one of the inmates home with me!

On we went, to the post office and thence home. After a lunch of salty duck eggs and tomatoes I opened up the letter, from the Netherlands. Guess what it was? It was from the UK Pension Service requesting for “proof of life” again, I suppose it has been a while since the last one. Why can’t they just do it by Skype? Now we have to go through the rigmarole of finding either the same policeman we used before or one who understands and agrees to help. Of course I am sans passport at the moment so that could be a problem. At least this time they have given me sixteen weeks from the date on the form, which was six weeks ago! Ten weeks should be enough, even if I have to wait for my passport!

April 26^th I fancied a black and white day today, not sure why. I’ll do a black and white week in the future where I go out and look for things to photograph. Today we just wanted a stroll around the river to check on the sewage pipe covering process. It’s coming on, but I’m not sure how they will complete the middle bit. How will they divert the water around the lowest part of the river? I guess they know what they’re doing.

We ended up on the upstream side of the island, having passed quite a few fishermen who, believe it or not, were fishing in black and white. Anyway, this is where Huan went to the left, knowing there was an easy way to get out. I carried on straight ahead and ended up having to go out on the right. What a shame that Huan didn’t have her phone, no photos of me!

Shouted messages across the river meant we agreed to meet up on the bridge that you can see in the middle of this ‘small’ panorama. When we got there, I found my way to the the centre of the bridge and took a ‘rather larger’ panorama. This one is made of ten photos, five at the top and five at the bottom.

Disappointed shoppers today, no sausages and no baps. I guess we were a bit too late getting there. We did walk a fair way though, nearly seven kilometres.

Why wasn’t Bob going for ten today? Because we had promised ourselves a TV walk this afternoon and not only that, we had promised ourselves a video of it too. Next month we will be trying the next stage. The video can be found here, if you really want to see it. https://youtu.be/Vk4EorXS5xk This is the two of us showing how sweaty we were at the end. Unfortunately, the camera has not picked up the sweat, and believe me, there was quite a lot. Huan had to mop the floor after!

All that was left for me to do was to combine the two video files with lightworks and convert it to YouTube format and upload it, thus giving you the link you see above.

April 27^th Monday would normally just be our usual shopping day but, “Proof of Life” called. We went off to the police station where they know us very well thinking it would be easy. Of course we were wrong! People seem to find it difficult to believe that they are only signing to “witness that you are you and that the signature is yours”. Eventually the lady in charge told me to sign it in front of her and then, the day after tomorrow the form should be taken to the other police station where someone else will put his name and the police stamp. They do know me there as well. However, Huan has been told to go alone, it’s that ‘scary foreigner’ thing again!

Being a Monday of course, no walks were planned and no indoor exercise was on the cards either. This gave me ample time to get back to working on Blogger. Success, with the upload of this one for this week, I will finally be up to date. I’ll continue posting weekly unless we have touristy things or something special which merit their own posts. See you next week!

OAP Trip, Shenyu Dao, Rabbits, Duck Eggs, Scary Foreigner

April 14^th Miserable weather today, we even had our socks and slippers on in the house. However, we didn’t mind, yesterday had really taken it out on both of us. I took the time to spend all morning doing Blogger work and finished as far as September 2018. I’ve realised that I can’t do dashcam work and Blogger work at the same time, Lightworks takes up far too much system resources. Keeps me busy doesn’t it?

As we were in Haikou yesterday shopping had to be done today. No worries there. In fact we thought we’d show you our toilet paper section just so that you can compare it to yours!

April 15^th Early birds today, I had to set the alarm to make sure we were up before seven. Huan had asked, and I had agreed, that we would join the OAP singing group for a tourist trip to Shenyu Dao. Huan and I, Yu and her husband, walked up to the OAP school and then waited for everyone else. This was not a ‘tourist company’ organised trip so cars were being used. They had asked if we would care to use ours but as we had had some overheating problems on the way back from Haikou I preferred not to. Five of us squashed into a small VW, the other three in the back and me with my knees against the dashboard next to the driver. All the cars missed the turn off and ended up entering the car park through the exit. This is where were headed.

Details of admission can be found in the album, “Shenyu Dao” by following this link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pZEDR5xH3DuZSFBV7

You can also see a brief description, a pictorial map and all the photos we took on the way round. I will put just a few here.

Before long we spotted our first bit of Chinglish.

As always of course, Huan and I, and probably everyone else, had no idea what was really going on and so we just followed our leaders. After a brief stop in front of the (not yet completed) hotel we set off, looking forward to a relaxing day of walking. We had been told there were no hills and no steps, this is a photo of some of those “no” steps we just climbed.

I do have to say, that despite my knees complaining a lot, it was definitely worth it. This was the view from the “Lucky Stairway”.

From there we thought we were going to take the aerial walkway but we were wrong. Instead we hiked off through the undergrowth to start with and then on to a slightly better track.

Our destination was an organic farm where we were to have lunch before heading back to the start point. The weather stayed good for us and soon we were there.

Before lunch though it seems the ladies, and those men who either wanted to join them or were ‘told’ to join them were going off to pick tea. I didn’t need browbeating, fresh country air and walking were good enough for me.

I wanted to take a picture of the two large boulders in the picture above so stood to one side to let the ladies past and promptly fell off the straight and narrow into the irrigation ditch! On we went, for quite some way until we reached the plantation and the ladies got down to picking their tea, which was free by the way. I got some lovely shots of Huan which you can see in the album, here she is right on the edge of the panorama showing the fields.

And here’s a farm worker showing how it should be done!

Eventually they all came home with their baskets full, some of the men also carrying sugar cane, and it was lunch time.

We were fed very well indeed, far more than we really needed. I don’t know about the rest of the gang but Huan and I were bloated. No wonder they had a planned rest time. After a short while some of the group started singing, I thought a little too loudly for where we were, and a handful also danced. A few, myself included, had some archery practice. In my case, as you can probably tell by the photo, a lot more practice is needed!

Before too long we were on our way back to the Lucky Stairway and then down all those stairs again to the resort area. Near the Lucky Stairway I managed to fall off the straight and narrow yet again, not too bad though, the stairway must have saved me. Back at the “Coffee” and “Bar” we found they had not much in the way of cold drinks, in fact they didn’t even have a drinks refrigerator. Maybe that will change in the future. Water was good enough for me though!

“What’s happening now?” I asked Huan. “We’re waiting.” she replied. Perhaps we were waiting for the boatman to finish his lunch or maybe his nap. I suppose it gave us time to take a few more pictures. You can see them in the album, here I’ll put大禹聖像, (Dà yǔ shèng xiàng), Icon of Dayu, usually referred to as Yu the Great. Don’t ask me what he’s holding though, it looks like a huge tuning fork but knowing what he was famous for, it’s probably a ditch digging implement. More information on him can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_the_Great

Soon we were off on our boat. I think the tourist boats are all electric.

The boat dropped us on the Buddah island with instructions to follow the path and keep turning right. It’s interesting that even though this is a tourist walkway there are still security cameras dotted about here and there.

It didn’t take too long before we were once again approaching the coffee shop, this time from a different direction

Another ‘wait’ was called for here, especially as most of our party had still not returned. Of course when they got back, they blamed their delay on searching for us! I followed Yu’s husband’s example and had a nap on one of the benches.

Once the wanderers had returned it was time for dinner. It seemed like the family from the farm had come down en masse to prepare our dinner for us. It was called芭蕉叶簸萁餐, (Bājiāo yè bǒ qí cān) which according to Google is “Banana Leaf Dust Meal”. Bing translates it with “Bump” instead of “Dust” and Baidu gets it all wrong starting with “Azerbaijan”. Whatever, it is food served on a bed of banana leaves, in a round tray, (made of bamboo I think) and each tray served four people. It was delicious and more than enough.

And so ended our second long day of the week. If you’d like to see more, there’s a nice long video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD_xs15owcc&list=PLrm74YBD3qG5hMSefKtpaGIH2okgNoBLN&index=2&t=0s

April 16^th Neither of us wanted to go out today or to do a TV walk either so we stayed home. I was kept busy all day.

My first job was trying to narrow down yesterday’s photos from 371 to something more manageable. I ended up with 216 on my computer but when we get to upload the album that number will go down again. Blogger was next and is now finished for 2018, we’re getting there slowly. Third was a guitar practice, I’ve been very remiss this week! Last was Chinese, I’m still doing fine and I haven’t broken my ‘streak’ for April yet. There is still more work to be done, all the Keymission videos from yesterday need combining and uploading to YouTube. Combining is an overnight job for Lightworks.

April 17^th Another early morning, an accidental one to be fair, and not an unwelcome one. After our overheating problems with the car last week, we decided that today would be a ‘service’ day. Ledong calls next week, that’s probably about forty or fifty kilometres on the highway, so the car needs to be tip top before then. Mind you, driving about one hundred and twenty kilometres to the service centre, via the twisting mountain roads, while worrying about possible overheating does get your mind working. Mine was working so hard I missed the turn off!

Our little baby was booked in and then we went off to find a bank. The service staff were good enough to provide instructions from their phones. Their instructions worked, and we found the bank with no problems. Unfortunately, being a smaller branch, they didn’t have the capability of changing my pension pounds into Chinese Renminbi. Still, it gave us a walk we wouldn’t have had today, six kilometres worth in fact. No wonder I was nodding off on the drive home. I digress a little, we thought you might like this, not sure how it would go down in the UK though. The sticker is obvious, the Chinese above it asks whether the logo scares you or not!

The bank was not far from a place called Mangrove Tree, which looked very interesting indeed, nice restaurants, cafes, a water park and a jungle playground. We weren’t prepared for swimming but we thought we’d take a look for future reference. First off, just to give you an idea of what’s to come, one very faded sign and one not quite so faded.

You guessed it, it’s all closed down. Initially we thought it was due to the virus scare, most public places were shut down for that, but the more we walked round the more we saw how dilapidated everything was. It looked like another story of the owners going for the cheapest bids. Here’s a view of one of the many pool areas, note the colour of the water.

Back to the garage where everyone had gone on a lunch break so we took one too. I had planned on taking Huan to the Italian Job in Mangrove Tree but like everything else it was locked and bolted. This is what we had instead, not bad for ¥37.00, and very tasty to boot!

Back once more to the garage where we were informed that the computer can find nothing wrong at all but that they had cleaned the radiator fan. With all the usual fluid top ups our grand total service price was ¥1150.00, not too bad, so we paid up and went our merry way.

Driving home was not so easy, I was ready to fall asleep at the wheel more than once. Memo to self, when servicing the car, do not go for a six kilometre walk in the hot sun!

April 18^th Another slowish day, some dashcam work, some Blogger and a short trip around the town, mostly to buy the weekend’s tickets. The owner of the shop with the rabbits waylaid me on our way past and insisted I held one.

I found out afterwards that he actually wanted me to buy one. I never heard that part of the conversation but Huan did and gave him an emphatic NO!

Neither of us fancied doing a TV walk in the afternoon but because we’ve had such a busy few days and not had the exercise we should have, we went for it anyway. Surprisingly, neither of os found it too hard and in fact, we both enjoyed it.

April 19^th An unexpected day in was the order of the day. I woke up to an email from #1 son with some files attached. He had taken my Super8 movie reels back to the UK with him and got them digitised for me so the attachments were actually DVD files. I spent most of the morning converting them into mp4 files. Once I had done that I began to share some of them on Facebook and the very first one garnered me my first FB copyright warning! So the afternoon was spent replacing all the soundtracks. I think I desperately need to grow my copyright free music library, I need more choices to suit the movie content. Anyway, the videos were well received by friends and family so a job well done by me, because of a job well done by #1.

You may remember that last week we took our neighbours to the port in Haikou so that they could return up North. We had refused any payment because we had to go to Haikou anyway. This afternoon, this arrived from them.

I know Easter has just finished but these are not Easter Eggs. These are salted duck eggs and arrived here very well packed in a large polystyrene egg carton, there were twenty of them. Huan is not a big fan but will eat them, I love them!

April 20^th On the road again today, Huan had to go to Ledong and pay the internet bill for our tenants there for the next year. We parked at the shopping centre and decided to do everything on foot. There seem to be less people wearing masks in Ledong but also more people wary of the ‘large white foreigner’. While Huan went into the shop I went and found myself a coffee before going back to join her. The man serving her had no problems but the woman in the shop asked many questions about where we’d come from, had we been out of China and such like. Even though we haven’t been out since 2012 she still disappeared into the back room and came back wearing a mask and keeping her distance.

Once done there we set off to our apartment to let the tenants know their internet would be fine, and to let them take a picture of the receipt should they need to call the company with any problems. This is as far as I got.

Despite the fact that we are the property owners the security guards would not let us in. Huan argued for a while and she got in, but me, as a foreigner, no way! It’s a good job our tenants are not leaving yet. By the sounds of it, some work will be needed when they do eventually leave. The old man fell into the (glass) bathroom door so that needs replacing. He’s fine though. There is black coming through the outside wall of the living room, which it appears, many other apartments also have. The building owner’s office have said the outside walls will be sorted out. When that happens, we’ll still probably have to remove the plaster inside to sort it out.

Thankfully, the supermarket staff were not averse to foreigners entering so we did our weekly shop there for a change. The small walking street was busier than we’ve ever seen it before and luckily for us, there was no aversion to foreigners there either. I had a lovely lunch.

Back to Wuzhishan and our wet market so that Huan could buy fish, duck, chiken and pork. We didn’t fancy the car and cool box smelling of fish so we didn’t buy in Ledong. Home then for another blitz on the PC, bringing the Blog up to date and doing some more Blogger work.

As for Huan, she spent the afternoon in the bathroom dyeing her hair with some French product sent down from Dalian by her niece. In the evening she went through the final part of the process. I promised her we would take a photo tomorrow!

Another Burn, The Tree with a Hand, Dinosaur Feet

April 7^th A quick trip to the shops was called for today, to try and buy a new SD card for the Nikon and to replenish our gauze pads in the medicine cabinet. Yesterday I managed to burn myself again! I was getting Huan’s bap out of the microwave after freshening it up for her and I did two things wrong. First I had put the timer on a minute and a half where thirty seconds probably would have been enough. Second, as I got hold of the plastic bag to remove it some steam escaped. It felt like superheated steam and went straight between the pinky and ring finger of my right hand. Huan used our last gauze dressing to sort me out before we went out. Mind you, it has taken us a long time to use what we had. There was no Chinese writing on the packet at all, (Johnson & Johnson), in fact Huan says it came over in our boxes in 2007.

So off we went to our usual pharmacy where we found that they don’t stock such things. She did try and sell us what looked like a plaster bandage but that would have been overkill. Another pharmacy sorted us out with a small pack for ¥1.00 which I found amusing as the price on the pack we finished was 1.00 but whether that was pounds, dollars or dirhams I don’t know. As for the SD card, well we failed there too. Nobody had a 64GB card and none of what they did have appeared to be of a fast enough speed. Taobao to the rescue again I suppose.

Of course burning my hand again gave me a guitar practice problem. Still, it was only my strumming hand so at least I could do some slow chord practicing, trying to make sure all the strings were ringing out loud and clear. Here’s how my hand looked, first with the burn medicine and then with my ‘outside’ dressing.

The burn, because it was on my hand, didn’t stop us doing our TV walk today. Damn! Note to self: “Burn feet next time”. We’re getting better but still not up to video standard yet.

The dressing came off after our exercises as I had said I would cook today, and cook I did! It was a Philippine dish called Ginisang Togue and was not bad at all. Once again the boss was very happy and once again there was enough for an encore tomorrow.

April 8^th We woke up to a miserable day so I decided to bite the bullet and start transferring my Blog from where it is now to Google’s Blogger. The URL is easy enough to remember as no one else had chosen my name of HainanBob, it’s https://hainanbob.blogspot.com/. Mind you, if you are reading this you will already know that, what a dummy I am!

We risked a walk in the afternoon, mostly because it was lottery ticket buying day, you can’t buy in advance here as you can in other countries. You can only buy for the next one and that’s the same for both lotteries, the ‘Welfare’ and the ‘Sports’. Our risk was worthwhile, just, the rain started when we were less than ten metres away from home so we got home dry. It then proceeded to bucket down for the rest of the evening. Not many photos today, in fact only one. This is a gentleman who appears to be a little selfish. He is stringing a net all the way across the river thus ensuring that those poor souls downstream get nothing at all!

April 9^th This month my visa comes up for renewal so today we tried calling the visa office but the phone was never answered. Huan suggested we go to the office in town that deals with such matters to see if they could help. It seems that the office in Haikou has moved. Since sometime in February all visa business has been taken over by another office in another location. At a guess, I would say this has been done because of the Covid-19 problems. Anyway, we’re OK to go two weeks early, on my needle day, instead of waiting until the end of the month.

As we scarcely had a walk this morning Huan suggested a TV walk this afternoon. I wonder if I would have suggested it if she hadn’t, probably not. Still, we needed it and we are still slowly improving. Watch this space for video screenshots, maybe next week.

Back to Blogger in the evening for me, and I managed to complete August 2017. As I wrote on my Facebook timeline, “Boy, it’s hard work!”

April 10^th Huan slept very badly last night and I had my usual disturbed rest so a long walk was cancelled for today. Once around the town was enough, buying lottery tickets and insect spray on the way. Yes, we found ants outside the kitchen balcony window. I do wonder why they make the trek to the seventh floor and maybe even higher. A couple of days ago a cockroach frightened the life out of me in the office, appearing from behind the door of all places. We think that the flat above us and the one below us is probably the cause of such pests.

So, our first picture from today had us both trying to describe it while we were out. Huan thought it looked like a snake, I thought a snake or a swan’ head. Looking at the picture at home on the computer it actually looks more like the tree has a hand, you can see the opposing finger and thumb. The question is “Is the tree giving, or taking?”

Next up, right outside the ticket shop, was this little creature. We’ve never seen one in the town before but as there are a lot of old trees around there I guess it’s not so surprising.

Much further along, just before we tirned for home, we spotted this car, so took a few spy shots. The camouflage is pretty unique. I can’t work out what manufacturer it is but you can see the logo on the back wheel. A Google image search didn’t help me though.

And our last one for today is two pairs of dinosaur feet. These belong to two chickens, the ones living around the local restaurant until it’s their turn for the pot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such big feet on a chicken before!

More Blogger work for me, I have now completed as far as November 2017, it’s a laborious process. All my previous posts are saved on my PC so it’s a matter of copy and pasting the text into Blogger which is easy enough. The hard part is putting the correct photographs in. Most of the time I can locate them easily enough because of my filing system but if they are screen shots, or photos taken on a different date to the Blog post, it can take some time. They also have to be resized which I do using MS Paint. It is possible to import Blogs into Blogger, but as my previous Blog server has gone offline, that’s not an option.

Yoyo Chinese has a ‘streak’ month going for April, this means that if you do a test every day, without missing a day, you can win free courses or discounts. My evening was taken up ensuring that our laptop still works just in case we have to stay in Haikou this week.

April 11^th Executive decision taken this morning, with the approval of Her Majesty of course. We will not walk far today, we will not exercise today. Tomorrow we will not walk and we will do two TV Walks, the one mile and the two mile, with a break between them. Why? Because we have to be up early on Monday to go to Haikou.

Huan’s WeChat said that the Saturday market was back so we headed off in that general direction. On the way we were waylaid by the small farm shop to come and see their new rabbits. They were only five days old and their eyes were still shut but he still insisted that Huan held one.

Off we toddled then down to the riverside. Lo and behold, there was no sign of any market anywhere. I guess the powers that be told Joe Public but forgot to tell the farmers and the other assorted stallholders. Never mind, we still managed a useful ramble by popping into the bread lady’s apartment complex, it’s not locked down anymore, and came away with ten fresh baps.

Blogger took the rest of my day and I am now up to the end of March 2018! Huan asked me tonight if I thought I could finish it all before we go to Haikou on Monday. Poor soul, she is lost as far as computers go although she’s a dab hand at Taobao!

April 12^th No photos today but a busy day at home instead. We did our first TV Walk, the one mile, before breakfast. Both of us worked up a sweat but both of us also found it easier than before. After breakfast, it was Blogger for me and phone for Huan until it was time for the two mile TV Walk. Huan didn’t have too many problems but I kept getting the timing all wrong! Guitar practice for me then while Huan took a shower, she can’t hear the noise so well in the bathroom! Back to even more Blogger before lunch and normal TV for Huan.

After lunch it was more of the same before I took a nice salty bath, finished another book, and Huan did the washing. Dinner was our third day of Bob’s chicken stew, still very tasty. Guess what I did then? Well more Blogger of course! I have now completed up to the end of June 2018. That means of course there is still a lot more to go!

Finished the day with my routine Chinese lesson and another episode of Midsomer Murders. I’ve never seen this series before but I can see why it had a reputation for the sheer number of murders carried out, especially in a small, sleepy English county.

April 13th I’m getting too old for all this palaver! Up at twenty past four this morning to go to Haikou for my monthly needle, giving some neighbours a lift to the port on the way. Here they are waiting to be picked up, not such a good picture, it’s a dashcam screenshot.

After we had dropped them off we found a place to park near the beach to eat the breakfast they had kindly provided for us, tea eggs and some kind of sweet fried bread. Quite a few people were out for a morning walk and one chap seemed to be taking pictures of the waves.

Both of us needed the ‘loo’ and as luck would have it, we were parked not too far from one. Huan came back and told it they were clean, she was right, they were spotless, gleaming even! I did like this sign though and wondered exactly what it was supposed to mean. Huan translated it along the lines of “Leave the toilets as you would expect to find them”.

From there we had to find our way to the visa office which has moved since we last had to visit them. Before it was easy, now it’s not! They have moved to the main Haikou government offices where the parking is abysmal. We found our way to an underground car park and were just reversing into a slot when we were ‘moved on’. “This car park is not for the public” we were told! When we finally got parked we then tried to find the office. The first hurdle was getting into the building, easy for Huan, not so easy for me. It seems foreigners have to be booked in and a form filled in. The guard on the door disappeared for a few minutes because he had none of the required paperwork on his desk. Once in we then had to find the ‘new’ office. It turned out to be a desk in a corridor on the second floor, and that seemed to be the Chinese version of ‘Social Services’. The sign behind the desk, obviously not changed yet, said “Comprehensive Acceptance Area for Special Matters’. Our problems still weren’t over, they couldn’t find me registered as living in Wuzhishan at all. It took a phone call to the department in Wuzhishan to clarify that for them. Then there were the usual questions such as when I first came to China, all details which should already be on their computer system. I even had to produce my old passport so that they could verify when I last left the country and came back in, the dates of which precede my new passport and the visa I have now! My last visa was a three year one, this time I will get one year, or if I’m lucky two. They did suggest we go to Dalian and get a longer visa from there, (Huan’s Hukou is registered there), provided I could provide a certificate of no criminal record from the UK police. It works out cheaper and more convenient just to go along with whatever they decide locally. So, I am now sans passport for the next three or four weeks.

Onwards then to the hospital where at least luck was on our side and we were able to get all done before the doctors stopped for lunch. It doesn’t get any better for me, I’m still putting my fingers in my ears and screwing up my eyes before the nurse does the dastardly deed. Today I thought I felt a burning sensation, something like a hot liquid, but the nurse and Huan assured me that it was just the normal pain!

Off to the grocery we went then and life became better. Huan insisted on buying (cheapo) foie gras, canned tuna, lots of butter, cheese, beetroot, red cabbage, some decent marmalade and I put some Bratwurst in just for a treat. Lunch was had in a local restaurant where you pay ¥15.00 each for as much as you can eat. It was a busy little place and I’m pretty sure some of the younger customers were filling up here so that they wouldn’t have to cook once they got home. Huan tried her best to imitate them, I just took enough for a small lunch.

And then, thank God, we were back on the road again on our way home to Wuzhishan. Neither of us fancied staying in a hotel at the moment, we’re not sure how well they will be cleaning after one occupant leaves and before another takes the room! Being Monday, it was Huan’s turn to buy our (winning) lottery tickets and then we ate out in a burger shop.

At home, I caught up on Facebook, with great difficulty; my eyes kept ‘falling down’. Eventually I decided to do this post, do another month of Blogger and do a Chinese test. That was more than enough for one day. As I said at the beginning, I’m getting too old for all this palaver, a more than three hundred kilometer return trip in one day, with all the hassle at the other end!