A worrying week begins. I really feel I should have gone to hospital
in Haikou , if
only to ease my mind, but circumstances prevent it for a few days. Still have a
lot of pain in my left leg. Anyway, chin up, as they say!
April 1st Same as March 1st,
lazy day, updated blog, learnt some more Chinese characters.
April 2nd A short walk, bought the lottery tickets, and took a photo for Jake’s
World Street Photography Facebook page. Huan was wondering how such slender stalks
could hold such heavy fruit. I certainly wouldn’t want to be underneath when
they come crashing down. They look beautiful, shame about the smell when you
open them!
April 3rd A very busy day today. Up at 5 o’clock. We set the clock radio for
then, it switched on, but with no music. I guess they don’t start that early.
Luckily enough, the light woke Huan. Off to Ledong after breakfast to see the
old tenants out. Traffic was very easy so we arrived early, far too early. We
went up the roof for a look round, bit of a hazy day but some great views.
Plenty of memories for me
too, the Air Force were practicing, probably ‘circuits and bumps’ so every few
minutes there was a roar of fighter jets as two of them flew over. My sibling
would also have loved it, we grew up on RAF bases. I did try and get some
pictures, with very little success though. Probably just as well!
Still with plenty of time
to waste we went for a stroll around the city. It is much bigger than Wuzhishan
and we saw a lot we hadn’t seen before. In fact I think we may have stumbled
across the original Ledong village in the middle of the city.
We spotted one of the
earlier Chinese modes of transport. I saw many of these in 1986 on my first
visit to Pingdingshan. We often see them when we drive around the rural areas
of Hainan but very rarely have the chance to
take photos. Well, here’s one now.
Another thing we often see
is ‘ducks in bags’! These little chappies weren’t too happy about me getting
too near but I did snap their pic.
All too soon of course, our leisurely stroll had to come to an end
and work had to start. The first thing was tile replacement. The tenants had
not taken care and the kitchen door had slammed causing two tiles to fall off.
We got them fixed, not quite a match but fine if you don’t look too closely.
Message to all potential house owners; make sure you keep spare tiles!
Now these tenants had only been in residence for four months and we
left them with a brand new gas hob. What a mess it was to clean! They even had
a housemaid but I guess her job was mostly ‘the twins’! The bathroom is a mess
too but I told Huan I would clean that next time. In the five or six years that
we have rented the apartment out, we have never returned to a toilet bowl yellow
on the outside and a toilet seat with the beginnings of black mould!
I guess we should be grateful that almost everything was still
there.
Much worse for us was the holes had begun to
reappear in the walls that we repaired last time.
Well, I argued with Huan this time and said we would have to have
the job done properly. (I hope that’s possible in China .) We needed to have the walls
sealed before trying any repairs again. The man who fixed the tiles was in
agreement with me, luckily. Of course, he may have just been seeing dollar
signs in his eyes! He advised us to clear all the plastering off up to where it
was no longer easy to remove. I didn’t think any of it was that easy! It seemed
we would have to purchase a hammer, according to him and Huan, so off they went
to the shop while I had a coffee and a fag.
Huan returned with their version of a hammer,
which in my words, is a metal axe. It still wasn’t so easy but we did what we
could. Here’s Huan giving it a ‘bit of welly’!
It became obvious to me
after a while that we would not be able to get enough off to satisfy the ‘tile
man’ who would be coming back to do the next job so off we went to the tool
shop. I thought I would be able to find something to put on the end of my
drill. No success there. The lady offered to sell us a tool that would do the
job, I was reluctant as I would probably never use it again. Knowing us from
before, she graciously allowed us to borrow one from the shop. We bought three
brushes and off we went. What we had borrowed was an angle grinder. Thank God I
didn’t buy one. Years ago I was blasted by a sandstorm in the desert, this was
worse! I sent Huan out to buy a water spray and a couple of masks. Huan
couldn’t stay anywhere near me to get a photo while I was actually using it but
here I am just after a few minutes break going in for another attack.
Eventually we called back
the tile man, and to our great relief he said we had done enough. He then got
on with his job. Here; he is, working on the kitchen wall, earning his loot.
And here’s his finished
work on the bedroom wall,
The house was in such a
mess now, and we knew we had to wait three days for this ‘sealant’ to dry out
properly before any plastering could be done, so we decided to go back to
Wuzhishan. That would also allow me to try and make an appointment with Dr. Tim
as soon as possible after Qing Ming. We got home around half past eight in the
evening I suppose, both of us in dire need of a shower. Being the gentleman, as
always, I let Huan go first. I also knew that it would take me much longer than
her due to having about three tons of plaster, brick and cement dust all over
me and in my hair, ears, nose and even some in my eyes! Apart from all the
aches and pains we had from the work we had done, which was quite a lot for a
couple of OAPs, my hands had also been badly affected by the use of the tools,
in particular the grinder. The dreaded lurgy was back in force along with
blisters to keep it company!
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