Leap Year, Sausages & Baps, Driving Licence Renewal (NOT), Aye Aye!

February 25^th NTR, just the usual routine for a self isolation day.

February 26^th Our walk today was planned to go via the police station, as I have now reached the ripe old age of seventy and my driving licence needs changing. We were too early, a whole day too early in fact. They should be open tomorrow, but according to the gentleman who spoke to us through the open window, they won’t be doing ‘all work’.

We came to a parting of the ways not long after that, Huan wanted to be home by ten to join her WeChat classmates. I was happy to walk a little while longer, give my ears a rest. Here I am posing for a selfie, but not taken with the selfie camera, and for some reason I am looking the wrong way! Never mind, you can still see me.

I also had an ulterior motive and that was to check on sausages and baps. When I got to the apartment complex concerned I couldn’t go inside through the main gate, all the other gates were sealed off and the side road looked like this.

Dejectedly walking away, along with a couple of other OAPs I was hailed by someone coming towards me. For me, that can be a little worrying when Huan is not with me, I don’t always recognise or remember everyone and it’s even worse when they’re all wearing masks. Luck was with me today though; it was the bread lady, the maker of Wuzhishan’s best baps. Somehow we managed to communicate with each other and an order for ten was put in, all I had to do was go back and wait at the fence. When she appeared through the main gate to go up to her place of business I asked about the ‘sausage man’. I’m not sure I was getting through but once again luck was with me and she pointed at the gentleman in question just coming through the gate on his three wheeled chariot of delight.

After checking whether or not we could freeze the sausages I bought six, cost approximately £2.00 each, and most importantly, exchanged phone numbers. He is now in my phone as “Sausage Man so next time, an advance call is all that will be required.

Just as we were completing the transaction, the bread lady returned so I went through the same process with her. I bought ten baps, cost approximately £1.20 for all, and exchanged phone numbers. We’ll be OK for bread for a while now.

So, a very happy Bob walked home with a spring in his step, I’m fairly sure I got some strange looks. I know for sure that the sausages got some strange looks, there is only the one man that sells then in Wuzhishan to my knowledge so Many people will not have seen them locally.

We haven’t had any change in advice, no “All Clear” signal has been given but it seems as if people are slowly venturing out again. This morning I spotted a group doing Tai Chi in a public space, not many of them and not too close together, the same for some dancers. Quite a few singers were out but as individuals and not as part of a group. And the outdoor hairdressers were back in action.

As you can see they are quite busy and there’s a reason for that. According to Chinese tradition, it's bad luck to cut hair during the first lunar month. So, people usually cut their hair before the first lunar month and then wait for the “Dragon Heads-raising Day” before they cut it again. The legend goes “二月二, 龙抬头 (èr yuè èr, lóng táitóu)” which means ‘On the second day of the second lunar month, the dragon raises its head’. This year it fell on February 24^th. Needless to say, I was not in the queue! After this day, spring is coming and there will be more and more rains. Guess what? It’s raining as I write this.

February 27^th Well, we had to go out again today, aren’t we the lucky ones. We took another trip to the police station. However, we couldn’t get inside; they had a barrier across the entrance. Huan had a chat with them and I’m not exactly sure what went on. According to my existing licence, at the age of 70, I am due to be downgraded. Here’s the back of my existing licence, with the Chinese replaced by a, probably not very good, Google translation.

Presently, I have C1E, which allows me also to drive C2 and C3. We were told that after 70 I would not be allowed to drive a manual car, hence down to C2, and would not be allowed to drive motorbikes over 50cc, hence down to F. Today, we think we were told that the rules have changed for cars and I may still be C1, but that I must not drive motorbikes. My licence has not been amended though; we couldn’t go in as this is a “special time”. I suppose special sounds a lot better than ‘problematic’! They advised us to come back in April.

Of course all of this kerfuffle with renewing my licence is still far better than the UK. I have had a ‘paper’ licence there for aeons, but have been unable to convert it to a ‘plastic’ licence due to not having a permanent address in the UK. That ‘paper’ licence was valid until I reached 70. What that means of course is that I will have a hell of a job renting a car if we ever come back to the UK. I believe in fact that it will be impossible. China, unfortunately, neither recognises or issues IDPs, (International Driving Permits).

Just like yesterday, Huan traipsed along with me for a short while before she headed home for her electronic singing class. I made the most of my freedom by getting loads of fresh air by the riverside. I spotted some cows again today. Now I know you have seen many photos of cows, but, I have never seen them ‘grooming each other’ before. These two were giving each other a good lick around the head, the face, the nose, the ears and the neck. It’s either some kind of cleaning process or else some kind of mating ritual!

Despite the fact that we have heard nothing official about the relaxation of the rules there were quite a lot of people out and about today, some with masks and some without. I spotted three Èrhú players, sat a metre away from each other, all playing something different. (The Èrhú, is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a Southern Fiddle, and sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin or a Chinese two-stringed fiddle. It is used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles and large orchestras.) Also seen were four or five saxophone players, all sat a little apart from each other, and all playing something different. I guess this means that they are not gathering in groups! A few solo singers were spotted too, mostly down by the riverside.

That’s the route I took home, right down by the riverside, which on my side, had hardly any people at all. Taking my mask off and inhaling the fresh air was absolutely wonderful.

Even the tea shops along the riverside had begun to open up. I don’t normally take photos of them; they are the ones usually surreptitiously taking photos of me with their phones while not so surreptitiously talking about me. I didn’t notice until I got home that they all had their masks with them and one appeared to sneakily replace his when he realised I was taking his picture.

On the other hand, most of the restaurants were still closed, just a couple of smaller ones were beginning to allow customers inside. I guess they need to make money again after the enforced closures. Medicine shops still had a table at the door to prevent customers going inside. Maybe the staff feel that will keep any bad bugs out and thus away from them. Other shops are opening too although there are still many with their shutters down. They could of course belong to people who travelled up North for the holiday and as yet, are unable to return.

I arrived home just in time for lunch after which Huan had a new song. They were speaking the words and then correcting each other. You probably know that China has one main language which you know as Mandarin, and we know as普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà), and you may also know that China has multiple other ethnic languages. I think we have two or three in Hainan. What you may not know, is that just like in the UK, they have differing regional dialects. I found it hilarious listening to them correcting Huan, she has a Dàlián dialect. One of the things that is very different is the pronunciation of ‘s’ vs. ‘sh’ and ‘z’ vs. ‘zh’ and in fact is the main reason I can’t get Huan to teach me. In daily life it’s not a problem of course, they all understand each other, probably far more than some of us do in the UK. When it comes to choral singing though, they all have to be ‘on the same page’. At least for most of the day my ears were saved from the onslaught of the single song of the last week or so!

February 28^th Another day indoors, with the windows open for fresh air! The only problem with that is that traffic outside our house is beginning to pick up again, albeit slowly. I haven’t seen any inter-city buses yet but I have seen village buses and trucks. I think it will still be some time before the traffic is up to previous levels though.

And what were doing indoors? Well, I had the office door closed so I could do some extra guitar work while Huan had the kitchen door closed for extra singing practice. Do you think we need a bigger house? If so, please send money, lots of it!

Being indoors also meant it was ‘exercise video’ day again. Is it doing us any good? Who knows, it could be months before my waistline recedes! It certainly gets us sweating and increases our heart rates; mine today more than last time. The instructor uses weighted wrist bands; she starts off with a pound on each wrist, then goes up to three before removing all for the final part. We don’t have weighted wrist bands so we’ve been using our ‘real’ weights. During previous exercise sessions we both held a half a kilo weight in each hand, roughly a pound, or near enough anyway. Today Huan did the same and I tried using the next size up that we have, 2.25kg. I will not be trying that again for a while!

February 29^th It’s four years since we had this day last and at that time I wasn’t blogging. I did do a backdated blog, starting in 2017 and including material from 2007 but I checked, there’s nothing for February 29^th in 2016. I also checked my photo albums, and I didn’t take any on that day, I suppose that’s unusual in itself!

Anyway, here are in 2020, back on the Leap Day again. Being a Saturday it was one of our walking days and as Huan hasn’t seen the landfill route since 2018, we decided to go that way. Our first concern was whether the police would stop us when we reached the end of the highway, even more so as neither of us had any form of identification with us. I had forgotten my wallet and Huan had left both her Hukou card and phone at home. We needn’t have worried; the ‘temperature checkpoint’ had vanished.

We were also surmising that work will not have recommenced on the highway yet and so the dust will be less. We did see three garbage trucks on the way to, or returning from the landfill but the dust was less and we both had our face masks with us. The first job of course was to show Huan the highway progress, with a panorama, she was quite impressed.

We were struggling for photos today, you’ve seen most of this area, and although for us it was better than usual, cleaner, more bird noises, there was nothing for you. And then we came upon these plants which we’ve seen before but not looked closely. Do you know what they are?

If you said pepper, you’d be right. Hainan is quite well known for its white pepper and this must be one of the farms. They train the plants to climb what appear to be concrete poles. This is the first time we’ve seen the pepper ‘berries’, the first photo shows nearly all unripe berries and the second ‘arty’ photo shows various stages of ripeness on one stalk. Perhaps I should try adding some Hainan white pepper into my cuisine instead of always using black.

We usually meet a few snowbirds on this walk, when we are on our way down the other side, and they are walking up, probably to the village. Today, there were only three, one chap sat in the middle of the road having a rest and then two ladies, complete with small backpacks and enormous walking sticks. They asked us about our route but so far, since 2015, we’ve never met anyone coming down on our side. Our second concern had been the village, but there were no checks there either.

Clouds, blue sky and mountains appeared in my next photo, we do get some wonderful views around Wuzhishan. However, I decided that it was time you saw some of the less salubrious sights. This morning, I was asked to move my car so that the maintenance people could clear the drains. When we went out an army of cockroaches was trying to escape. I missed a photo of them but I did get these photos when we arrived home again.

Every time they do this they have to use a small pneumatic drill to get in. We asked, or rather I got Huan to ask, why the covers are not made of steel, as they are in the UK. Nobody was sure, but the common assumption was that steel covers would not contain the smell.

Dinner today was soup ‘a la Bob’. Huan had vegetables left over in the fridge and was unsure what to make as soup for today and then soup for tomorrow. I took over and made us a soup for two days. What was in it? One whole onion, two cloves of garlic, maybe 250gm of pork, two sweet potatoes, one Chinese white radish, one sprig of celery, one jalapeno pepper, two tomatoes and a good bunch of fresh parsley. This was served with a bap each from the ‘bread lady’ and I have to say that it was very tasty indeed. Her Majesty was well pleased. Unfortunately, as it tasted so good, we failed to take any pictures!

March 1st Your poetry for the month - “Dear March, Come in, How glad I am, I hoped for you before. Put down your Hat, You must have walked, How out of Breath you are. Dear March, how are you, and the Rest, Did you leave Nature well? Oh March, Come right upstairs with me, I have so much to tell.” (Dear March, Come in by Emily Dickinson)

Contrary to plans, I had to go out, Huan stayed in though. I wanted to pay a visit to the medicine shop to see if the ointment I had been given for my hands could also be used for my eyes, they were bad this morning. The answer was yes, as long as I made sure I didn’t get any in my eyes. You may be wondering what was wrong with my eyes, I wish I knew! Cast your mind back to January 3^rd, the day of my laser torture, and you’ll know why I went to the medicine shop and not the hospital. So this is what they looked like this morning, the first picture is my right eye and the second my left. They were also very itchy and a little painful. Dr. Google had me wandering down ‘Paranoia Lane’ again; I just hope this ointment works.

Having had a walk today I could have skived out of the indoor exercise but if I had, Huan probably wouldn’t have done it alone. I don’t know, the sacrifices I make! Perhaps next week we’ll get around to making a video then you’ll be able to see a screenshot, or two.

I then spent the second half of the afternoon in the bath with Tom Sharpe and Grantchester Grind, not a bad read. I’ve no idea where I picked up my eclectic selection of books other than that it was in the UAE. They all have prices on them in Dirhams but I didn’t buy them. I suppose I must have inherited them somehow. Huan often suggest ‘exfoliation’ when I’m in the bath so today, for a change, I agreed. It’s strange that she can remove far more of my dead skin than I can!

March 2^nd Here we are again, another Monday, another shopping day. Following what has now become our usual routine we went at lunch time, and it was an easy day. I hope Huan will agree to continue with this routine when the ‘bug’ has gone away. Despite the supermarket not being full of people there seemed to be a dearth of trolleys downstairs. When we got upstairs we saw why, many of the shelves were being restocked. There was still no Dettol, bleach or kitchen towel though. On the plus side, salad cream had reappeared!

In Hainan they now have a system where your WeChat QR code can be coloured according to your Covid-19 risk factor and yesterday it was opened up for foreigners to use as well. It’s not a bad system although it does rely on the honesty of its participants This afternoon I tried to see if I could activate it on my phone. To do this I first had to download Alipay, (a third-party mobile and online payment platform). Now if you’re not aware of Alipay, it’s enormous, in fact it’s larger than PayPal, and Chinese people use it for almost anything and everything. Of course, me being me, I fell at the first hurdle. You may remember I have a Nokia phone, a Lumia 1020 which runs Windows. Unfortunately, in December, Microsoft killed the ‘store’ and no apps are available anymore. I really don’t want to buy a new phone yet but I feel I am slowly being backed into a corner from which there will be no other choice. Well I guess there will be two choices, iPhone or Android, which in effect means one choice for me, Android. There’s no way I’m going down the Apple road.

Today should of course be upload day but I’m afraid this episode will also be delayed. Don’t worry, all the rubbish I do is safely stored on my computer! Bye for now.