November 2nd Another 8km today but I’m sure you don’t need to see maps and proof every time I have a little walk. This was a nice one in the countryside with no real hills. We met a farmer using a harvester which is quite rare around here. Most of the time we see people reaping by hand. I tried to get him to look our way and give us a way but to no avail.
This was his crop which Huan assured me was rice. So much for my knowledge, I had no idea and thought it was wheat of some kind.
This month may well be hard
on my legs with all the walking I have planned. My ‘target’ says 100 kilometres
but I intend to do more, just not advertise it in advance. However, one of the
many blessings is the scenery, here’s a panorama of where we went today.
November 3rd My first ‘hard’ walk, up to the reservoir “Tai Ping Shui Ku”. It’s about
7k from our house up to the top, and then of course back down again. Here’s the
analysis.
And here’s what I looked
like when I reached the top. Although I say it myself I don’t look too
knackered, do I?
November 4th For the first
time we managed to be in the right place at the right time for the “Tour Of
Hainan” race. I should say for the start of the Wuzhishan to Lingshui leg. It
seems that this particular race is not part of the ‘world series’ yet, the
organisers want to ‘get it right’ in their own time. Well they seem to be doing
fairly well so perhaps in the not too distant future we may see some really
well known names. Just a few pictures here of some of the teams.
And of course we must have
the mascot, (whose name I don’t know)!
November 5th This was another
walk, 10.78k. Weather forecast, rain, rain and more rain. In fact it was
supposed to be raining when we left the house! Home now, and it hasn't started
yet. Decided to stick around town just in case the rain came down so no real
hills today. Still quite a strenuous walk though, maybe not for you spring
chickens but definitely for me. First km slow, with Huan, 10th km slow,
shopping (for ciggies) the rest not too bad.
November 6th and 7th The forecast came true and it rained, so no walkies!
November 8th Two days off doesn't help much! Monday is our, or should I say my,
usual day off, no morning exercise, no walks, shopping instead. Yesterday the
weather was too bad. I had Huan with me today so I tried a little walking ahead
and then coming back to her to try and increase my pace a little. I like
that ‘Endomondo’ has a 'hare' to mark such stretches. It also has a 'tortoise'
and today that marked the stretch where the road was covered with mounds of
soil for construction of a new road. Overall not bad though and living where we
do, the scenery makes it all worth while!
November 9th This our weekly
drive day so no photos!
November 10th Endomondo
upload to PC failed and said I was still ‘on a walk’ when I had in fact
finished. I debated with myself whether to add this one to my Movember page or
not but as I felt it was hard work, and it was 9 kilometres, I decided to
anyway. Here's my list of excuses as to why it was hard work:-
1)
I started at 12:50, (Mad
dogs and Englishmen) which meant I had already had lunch, plus breakfast,
morning coffee, cigarettes etc! Being the middle of the day it was also over
26°C so I was soaked before I had completed 1 km.
2)
I had “shin splints” for
the first one and a half kilometres. Used to get them a lot when I was younger,
supposedly growing pains. Do you think I’m growing again?
3)
The first 5 km was uphill,
in the sun.
4)
The first 3 km of the
downhill portion was the “scenic route” which means trails under the trees so
at least I was in the shade. However, there are lots of steps, up and down, and
at my age, I wasn’t exactly speeding over those stretches, especially wearing
my “fake” army boots. See picture. They are far lighter and more comfortable
than “Boots DMS” and of course, I don’t have to "bull” them! I don’t think
I would ever run up the stairs again, well, unless Huan was waiting with my
birthday present!!
5)
No more excuses, I did try
and speed up for the last two kms, honestly.
November 11th Another warm one, it was 24 C when we got home. I 'sped' off in front
of Huan and then walked back to meet her, so I'd gone 6 km when she reached 5.
She thinks she's not strong, but for her it was almost 11 km in the same time I
did the 12.06 so I reckon she's doing very well! We may have a rest tomorrow,
or a more gentle walk! No photos today, I did take one of Huan when I met up
with her, but it was rubbish. Photographer's fault!
November 12th Well, today we had only planned a recce to the spot on the river where
we used to cross to do our 'medicine factory' round trip before the two
'bridges' were swept away by a typhoon in August. Imagine our surprise when we
found they had actually 'joined up' the new highway supports and we could walk.
Madam boss suggested we carry on so we did. It turned out to be quite a relaxed
walk and the weather was actually good for it today. Here’s a picture of one of
the washed away bridges as well as the future highway.
And here's a picture of the 'medicine factory', probably in the
middle of the forest because it was Chinese medicine. As you can see, it's
mostly dead now.
November 14th This was my
next walking day, yesterday was Monday and of course, Monday is shopping day! (Public)
Target reached! We always thought that the village of Changhao
November 15th 2 km less than yesterday in a few minutes more! However, we did go
uphill for the first five kms. Endomondo failed to upload correctly again but
these photos, taken between 4 km and 5 km points will show you what we had to
put up with. PS That particular km took us over 16 minutes!
November 16th was our usual
weekly drive; we planned for a nice walk the next day.
November 17th Well, the plan got
scrapped. No walking. Instead I had to try and be first in the queue for the
dentist. I broke a tooth eating some chocolate last night, from the fridge.
It's left me with an exposed nerve. I guess that means yet another cap. I
really shouldn't have opened all those beer bottles with my teeth over the
years! So off we went. First we went to the 'new' dentist in town. He decided
that I would need an X-ray to find out more so we had to go the main town
hospital. Pay to take a ticket, pay for a record book, (because we left the
last one at home), hang around a while and then go into the dental surgery with
5 chairs side by side! I am not one of the best patients a dentist can have; I
am terrified, even at the age of 67. By the time I got in the chair it was all
dry mouth, sweaty palms and bad feelings in the pit of my stomach. However,
with Huan as my translator, and with a dentist who didn't instil any more fear,
we were out of there in a very short time. The dentist decided that as the root
of the tooth was fine she would just excavate a little and then 're-build'. It
worked. Of course Huan was there saying "and what about this one? So I
ended up with another filling too! Total cost was RMB 219.00 which at today's
rates is almost 25 pounds. I suppose that's not bad, although, being a tight
git, I thought it was a little expensive. Have to go back next week for another
drill and fill and then a clean the week after. It seems there are two types of
cleaning, one is RMB 100 which I would guess is the normal 'clean and scrape'.
The other is RMB 600 which, according to Huan's translation, is "more
comfortable". Not quite sure what that means. Anyway, all's well that ends
well! Aren’t you lucky there’s no photos!
Also today, on the brighter side, we had our first “Christmas
Delivery” from Taobao. Last year we had to cancel two deliveries because,
despite ordering t the beginning of December, we were not going to get them
anywhere near Christmas time, in fact probably not before the New Year.
Anywhere, here are the usual Christmas drinks.
November 18th No walk again! We had to go to the ‘Residents Committee’ lunch, (Huan
is on the committee). I decided that ‘longs’ would be better than ‘shorts’ and
also wore a shirt I haven’t worn for a long time. I was pleasantly surprised
with the result, it used to bulge enormously at the front and look very tight.
This is what it looks like now.
Now I can’t say I’m a big fan of Baijiu before noon, but after I had done one “1-2-3-Gambay!” the requests fell off dramatically. Nobody else had been draining their glasses! The food was good though as was the company. I only wish I could understand more!
November 19th The plan was for both of us to go for a long walk because we missed
three days. Thursday - Weekly Drive, Friday - Dentist, Saturday - Residents
Committee Lunch, Just before we left Huan remembered that there was another
meeting of the committee at 9 am, so I went off alone. It was hard work! Our
recce had showed approx 30 km on the car, Endomondo gave me the figure below
and to be honest, when I reached 28 km and could see the house and knew I
wasn't going to get to 29, I slowed down!
I had a nine year old girl
tag along for about fifteen minutes after I passed through her village. I
couldn't get her to go home! Eventually, she flagged and I was telling her I
wasn't going to slow down, so I offered her what was left of my water and got
her to agree to go home. Of course, that meant I was just a 'little thirsty'
until I reached the main road again. It's a long time since I walked that far
and that fast! As always, the scenery helps. In this case I will show you the
‘soldiers’ that I saw when I walked through the now deserted army camp.
First up is Lei Xiang Qun.
Second is Su Ning
Third is Lei Feng, (the only one I had heard about before)
And at number 4 it’s Qiu
Shao Yun
Fifth in our roll of honour is Huang Ji Guang
Sixth is Dong Chun Ri (I
had to go back and take his picture on another walk)
And last but I’m sure not least Jiang Si De
I forgot to tell you that while my little friend was tagging along,
we spotted a snake, in front of us. She didn't seem too worried. I tried my
hardest to get my phone out of my pocket to take a photo but I'm afraid I was
too slow. For all you herpetologists out there all I can tell you is that it
was about 30-40 cm long and brown in colour, maybe a "Mock Viper".
Also on the 19th was our second
Christmas delivery, the sweeties. Last year we had none so I ordered four
different ‘tins’ this year and lo and behold, we got them all.
November 21st we managed 7k,
no real worries.
November 22nd 10k. I sent Huan round in the opposite direction to me so that she
didn’t have to try and keep up with me when I went ‘up the hill’!
This was the top of the
hill which I can tell you I was very pleased to see!
And this was me having a
nice ‘soak’ later on. Maybe I need to order some ‘Radox’ salts.
November 24th Today's walkies was 13.53 km in 2 hrs 31 min and 50 secs. One km in
particular took 22 minutes! Check the photos and you may see why. Average speed
still 5.35 kph so not too bad. Spot wifey on the stairs. On the flat or even on
the hills she has to work very hard to keep up with me whereas on the stairs it
seems the other way round! My excuse is that she is 12 years younger than me
and she doesn't smoke!
And here we are at the top
before starting on our way down, not down the steps, but down the road!
November 25th 18.27 km today. Huan thought that as I had done 28 km last Sunday she
would try the outgoing stage of 18 km. It wasn't easy for her at all. I guess
she only has little legs compared to mine. She did well though arriving just a
few minutes after me. I took longer this week making sure Huan was OK. She
doesn't want to do it again, not at my 'trying to lose weight speed' anyway. We
took the bus back home!
November 27th Only 10k today but not too
bad a time, just less than one and a half hours. Remember, it's hiking, not
running.
And look how tall I am Mummy!
November 28th Our fourth, and
thankfully last visit to the Post Office. First visit, on 26th,
there was nobody who knew what to do with ‘international mail’, “Come back
tomorrow morning”. Second visit, 27th in the morning, “Sorry, we
don’t have enough stamps, come back this afternoon”. Third visit, yesterday
afternoon, “We still don’t have enough stamps and it’s better if you come back
tomorrow”. This morning, success at last, after a fashion. Ten ‘Christmas Cards’
had to have five stamps on each one (3 x 2, 1 x 1 and 1 x 0.8) and five had to
have seven stamps (5 x 1.2, 1 x 1 and 1 x 0.8). All the cards weighed the same
but even after three visits they didn’t have enough of the same value stamps.
In fact, if anyone else goes, I think they’re out of luck; it looked like we
used up all their stock. By the way, the other Post Office in Wuzhishan has no
stock either. How can you have a Post Office without stamps? Still, all is done
now, let’s just hope they do actually get sent air mail and maybe arrive in
time for Christmas!
Luckily we hadn’t planned a walk today, (my personal target has been
reached). We hadn’t been home long before the police called. This is the
department that deals with foreigners, and I’m their only ‘case’. Could they
come round and check where we actually lived, (to make sure I do live here),
and could they have copies of our title deeds (again), my passport and visa
(again), and our ‘marriage books’ (again)! So they arrived, three policewomen!
I printed out all the necessary copies, too many as it happened; they didn’t
need Huan’s ‘marriage book’. Once they were happy with that, the ‘boss’, (not Huan,
the police lady boss), asked one of her two colleagues to sit one at my side on
the sofa, with Huan on my right and her other colleague on Huan’s right so that
she could take pictures of them ‘at work’. If I’d known, I may have dressed a
little better!
November 29th I had a plan! Let's walk on the highway again, a little past the
medicine factory, and then make our way home. It would have taken two and a
half to three hours. The 'commander' said "I feel I want to know where it
goes", (the highway). I told her, but it fell on deaf ears.
We ended up walking 25.47
kilometres.
Being a highway under
construction there are no shops of course! Also, as it crosses the mountains,
there was no shade! Luckily at 18k we came across a labourer's camp, they sold
us two bottles of water.
By the time we reached 25k
we were on the Ledong to Maoyang road so were able to buy more water and find a
bus back to Wuzhishan.
I don't think either of us
would have fancied another five hour hike home! No cooking for Huan tonight,
she was exhausted, so the burger place it was!
November 30th Last day of the Movember ‘Move’ Challenge. I didn’t really feel like
it, my legs were killing me after yesterday but I decided I had to try one more
day. The last time I had walked up to the reservoir it had taken me 77 minutes
for the 7k, today it took 73 so a slight improvement. The road up is quite
hard, I took loads of photos but many of them were a little blurred, I didn't
want to lose the momentum!
Selfie at the top
and then the scenic route
down to the hotel, and some much needed water, before another few kilometres on
the hard stuff (road, not alcohol!) to make sure I reached my personal
challenge. No photos taken after the hotel.
Of course the end of the
month also meant the end of the ‘Movember Moustache Challenge’. Here’s my
result, first off the full beard. Not much call for Father Christmas here in
Wuzhishan or I may have kept it.
Next is the ‘not so good’
Hulk Hogan impression
And finally the ‘normal
tache’ which the ‘prime minister says I have to keep for a short while.
Once again we come to the
end of another lovely month here in Wuzhishan. Join me again next month for
another update.
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