A New Year Begins

And so the saga of the old people in Wuzhishan continues, and as promised, we come slowly up to date. I’m not sure I can keep you all interested in the often boring life of an old git retired to a city with no other old gits, or even any young ones, to keep him company but we’ll see what we can do. I think I’ll post one per month for this year unless there’s anything specific which will be marked as such. As is our wont, we often walk around Wuzhishan and just take random pictures of what takes our fancy. These were taken just off beside the main road.

Night times can sometimes be a little noisy, if the frogs in the river are feeling a little randy! Here’s one who appears to be just a little lost. He’s quite lucky that I didn’t have a recipe for frogs’ legs, and also that if I actually had to kill my own food I would probably be a vegetarian!

And on the subject of food, a subject that is very close to my heart, (well that and my stomach are both somewhere in the middle of me), I decided to prove to wifey that us mere foreigners can also cook fish full of bones!

Earlier I mentioned the lack of company in these parts. It can be a little boring at times. Luckily for me, I do relish my wife’s company. On or jaunts though I bump into ‘friends’, at least I call them my friends. They are always pleased to see me and I them.

One thing that Huan and I can never say is that our food is boring. She not only cooks Chinese food but does some mean western stuff too. She’s become a dab hand at pizzas and most run of the mill dishes you’d find on an English dinner table. I like to experiment a little more and one I hadn’t tried before is Coronation Chicken. For those not in the know it’s like a cold curry and should be served on a bed of rice and peas. We couldn’t find peas, so used cucumber and raisins. Not a five minute job this one, but very tasty.

January brought Chinese New Year with it this year, which in Wuzhishan means all the New Year stuff is sold along the bank of the river. The other side sells fireworks, but for some reason I have no photos from there, maybe next year.

And what would New Year be without food. Despite there being only two of us Huan always insists on turning out a feast on this occasion. I have tried arguing against it, but she loves the tradition and, what can I say, I love the grub!

If you look closely, you can see the wine, it’s a very special one. I like to tell people that it was commissioned especially for me!

Of course, after all that wonderful food, a walk was definitely needed. It took three days to get out but we did it. There are times when Wuzhishan city can be positively beautiful and luckily for us, this was one of those days.

And there we are, the New Year has begun. It finds Huan and I in the best of health, usually in the best of spirits too, (not the alcoholic type) and looking forward to a peaceful retirement. We hope you are all feeling good too!