March 24th Another gorgeous day but SWMBO said we would most definitely not be
walking a long way today! I sneakily still got us nine kilometres though. Our
route was the usual when we don’t want to go too far, up the river to the last
bridge and back again and somewhere along the way I decided a few black and
white photos would be a good idea. Here’s the first, which is the bridge that
carries the main road through the town, third one up from our house.
This next one was Huan’s
choice because there’s a woman fishing. In fact we saw a lot of fishermen today
and more than one fisherwoman.
And here’s a chap who’s
definitely doing better than me at snapping the birds. We stopped and had a
chat with him and that is what he was doing. His camera is some kind of Canon
and the lens, which is fixed, not zoom, was 600mm. I bet he can’t walk as far
as us though!
And our last black and
white is yours truly, on the return route, posing above his birth year, with
the Chinese army below. Perhaps Hainan was a year later than China
We passed another snake on this side of the river, not a Green one
this time, and it was dead. We saw it where they are removing the floating
vegetation that comes downstream. Perhaps it came down the river dead and was
hauled out with the vegetation, or perhaps they killed it when it came out
alive. Anyway, you don’t need to see it.
Going back towards home we went under the bridge
you saw earlier, and just as you can see in many bridges around the world,
there is graffiti. Here’s a sample. Don’t ask me what it means, I haven’t got a
clue.
Next up, a restaurant, one
that I wonder what its future is. There have been some proposals about what
kinds of food people will be allowed to eat under the new law the government is
proposing. One article I saw, possibly from Shenzhen, didn’t include frogs on
the allowed list and as you can probably surmise, this is a fish and frog
restaurant.
Coming back home we were
able to get a closer look at the posters that were being put up as we left this
morning. The right hand one is encouraging you to keep your home clean, maybe
people will listen, maybe they won’t. The left hand one encourages you to keep
the area clean and use the recommended bins. We don’t have any such bins in our
area!
And that’s our Tuesday for this week. We had planned a TV walk for
this afternoon but I received a nice long Skype call from one of my brothers so
I was conveniently able to forget that!
March 25th Once again a small walk was the order of the day, with a planned TV
walk in the afternoon. Our first stop was the lottery shop once again, to buy
our tickets for Wednesday and Thursday and to collect Huan’s winnings from the
last two days. She’s doing well, another ¥100.00 this time. Here’s the lottery
terminals, not such a great photo I’m afraid, I was ducking and diving between
Huan and the ticket seller.
I took us past the pet shop
today, I like to pop in and say hello to the little critters.
And then we got to say
hello to one of my favourite kitties. This time he, or she, condescended to be
petted but would not even consider smiling for the camera.
And our last photo of the
day, a little bit of Chinglish. With half the world now being under lockdown
and many people in quarantine I thought it was quite apt. I believe it should
have a ‘G’ at the beginning instead of the ‘Q’, thus spelling ‘Guaranteed’.
And our afternoon TV walk? I’m afraid an OAP nap claimed us today
and it kept me chained down for two and a half hours! Ah well, there’s always
another day.
March 26th Today’s plan was almost identical to
yesterday’s but without a visit to the lottery shop and only coming home along
the riverside. Leaving our complex we passed two enormous chickens strutting
about behind the restaurant. I don’t know if any of you are aware, but chickens
can be quite tame and unafraid of humans, Huan told me she used to play with
them when she was small. These two will of course end up in the restaurant pot.
I got a good head and shoulders of one of them, he really was huge!
On
our way along the main street we passed a handful of musicians and singers,
usually in trios, two musicians and one
singer. One lady told us they were doing 京剧, (Jīngjù), Beijing Opera. We saw one group using a violin and an 二胡, (Èrhú) but most of
the others were using the Èrhú and the中阮, (zhōngruǎn). In this photo the Èrhú is on the left and the zhōngruǎn
on the right.
Next up is Huan blatantly disregarding all
social distancing rules and hanging on this chap’s arm. Luckily for me, both he
and his wife were unmoved by all the fuss!
We returned home along the riverside but
strangely there were no saxophone players out today. We saw some dancers and
singers aplenty, maybe even some of Huan’s singing groups but we couldn’t tell
for sure. They were packing up to go home for lunch as we passed by.
No stopping for shopping today, there’s a poem
in there somewhere! After lunch I managed to avoid an OAP nap today while Huan
succumbed on the sofa. Still, we did both manage to do our TV walk. It’s one of
those things that is very easy to put off for another day but if you actually
get down to doing it, it’s over in no time.
We’ve still had no news on if and when Huan’s singing and dancing will
start again. Schools will be starting next month so perhaps the OAP school will
start then too. The other singing group is more difficult as it was in another
residential compound. Now, all around Wuzhishan, only the people who live in
compounds are allowed in. As for the dancing in the evenings, their dance
teacher has gone up north with her husband and may or may not be down again at
the end of the year. Her husband has a severe case of diabetes and may need
amputation, at least according to what Huan tells me. Maybe someone else will
step up as the leader, we’ll wait and see.
March 27th All alone am I, ever since your goodbye, well actually, it was my
goodbye. Huan had a headache last night and a runny nose this morning so I had
to walk alone. I was also under explicit instructions not to tell anyone who
asked that Huan was ill, only that she was resting.
Statues feature again
today, this one always makes me wonder just who these people are supposed to
represent. They don’t appear to have either the shapes or the features of
southern, or northern Chinese. The location is also rather odd; I suspect that
the main road through town used to pass by here and that the present bridge
carrying the main road is newer.
And
next is yet another bovine friend. As I was approaching, from a distance,
because of the skin markings, I thought I was going to see a horse. It was of
course a cow. Just after I walked past it gave a low moo, (see what I did
there?). I turned back and, much to the surprise of a young lady walking past,
it came towards me and allowed me to stroke its head.
Not much else to see today I’m
afraid. Coming back I stopped off to buy some things for Huan. Like many
Chinese people she likes nibbling on sunflower seeds, why, I don’t know. It’s a
lot of trouble to eat nearly nothing. Anyway, I bought her a pile of them, some
water melon, which she loves and I will tolerate, not very keen myself, I
prefer honeydew melon. When I arrived home Huan was both pleased and feeling
better.
Yet again an OAP nap
was needed in the afternoon, what is happening to us? As usual, Huan was awake
after an hour and I was forty five minutes later. As I joined Huan in the
living room her sister called her on WeChat, today was the day they interred
their mother. Knowing that the call would take a while I debated skipping the
TV walk again but saw the error of my ways. So, I did it alone, in my
shreddies! (If you don’t know, you can either Google or ask me.) I was safe
enough as nobody can see into our living room. If anyone lived in 704 and leant
right into their window they could but no tenants there equals no problem.
March 28th It certainly appears that Wuzhishan is just about back to normal.
Traffic outside our house isn’t back to pre-virus levels yet and intercity
coaches are still in frequent but it is picking up. Quite a lot of people are
not wearing masks but that may well be because they are scarce again. We know
of at least two pharmacies that have run out of stock.
So today, another fairly lazy day,
a walk around the town to buy a new USB cable for my phone and a new charger
and cable for Huan’s. Some of my canine acquaintances were around, the ones
that don’t actually let me get very near and then another one who decided to
come and sit next to me and rest his head in my lap. Huan was too slow with the
camera!
While we were out we
saw the postman who told us we had mail waiting for us in the post office so we
stopped there on the way round. Here’s where they keep my mail. It’s quite easy
for them, I’m the only foreigner in the city.
And the mail? One was from
my pension provider giving me an update along with a little booklet on managing
your finances in retirement. I could have done with that twenty years ago! The
letter is dated 12th December 2019 but there is no UK China
My turn to cook again today, we had too many vegetables left so it
was a two or three day stew again. Huan says she really enjoys them. Of course,
she might just be saying that because she doesn’t have to cook for two or three
days! While the stew was merrily bubbling away I made sure we both did our TV
walk today. It was a bit like a competition to see who could sweat the most. I
won, probably because I have a lot more lard around my middle!
March 29th Not quite the day we’d planned, for which I take
full blame. We were going to do the scenic mountain walk today, avoiding the
new route we found because that is where ‘the snake’ probably went downhill
from. I spent too long on FB so we were late going out. Our first photo is a
choral group, I took it so we could look more closely when we got home and see
if any of Huan’s cohorts were there. They weren’t, hopefully she will hear
something soon. If you look closely, you can see one woman wearing a mask.
Today was a fortuitous day, as we didn’t go up the hills, we went
around the river and checked the apartment complex with baps and sausages.
Entry was once again allowed so we came home fully loaded.
Other than that, all I have to offer you is some
pretty flowers.
March 30th Admin day today and I made a list. Exercises, Guitar, Shave, Shower,
Shopping, Guitar, Blog, Chinese. Yes, I did a solitary TV walk again this
morning, Huan was busy on the keyboard. I decided I needed to do it because
next month’s appears to be much harder! I had to do two guitar practices today
because I was too lazy yesterday! Shopping, I’m pleased to saw, was no problem
whatsoever. There were hardly any cars in the car park, hardly any customers to
speak of and no shortages of anything at all. I even found dried mint leaves
which I wanted for a curry side dish this week. Maybe I’ll manage to photo that
for you. The rest of the admin was synchronising directories between Huan’s PC
and mine.
So, that’s it, another
week in paradise over, see you next time.
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