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!