Three Little Maids, Lonely Bob, Marmite Restaurant

September 21^st A late start today, one of us was late getting up. “Guilty as charged your Honour!” Both of us were also still feeling washed out, probably me more than Huan, so no strenuous hills or mountains today. Instead we took a very leisurely stroll around the river and the farmer’s market. No photos were taken but I did make a little video which I may upload to YouTube, not sure yet. Anyway, here’s the first screenshot, two cheeky little ducks, I wonder if they were asking me to rescue them.

The second screenshot shows a lamp post. Well, it does have a sign on it; the workers were changing the signs as we were walking round. I made sure I got this in because Huan was having a little trouble translating it for me. 不忘初心, 牢记使命, (Bù wàng chūxīn, láojì shǐmìng). Google wasn’t a great deal of help, “Do not forget the initial heart, Keep in mind the mission”. I believe it may have a more cultural and patriotic meaning that is not so easy to translate, something to do with not forgetting to keep China in your heart and remember to keep following the correct path.

And the last screenshot is when we were almost home. I had made sure I had the camera filming when I met my little buddies. This is ‘Mum’ who was all over me today; ‘Baby’ did come out but no good shots of him. Maybe I should hand the camera over to the ‘director’ next time, give her something else to do!

I had planned to cook ‘brunch’ today, not a full English, but poached eggs on toast with beans, using our English egg poaching pan. Guess what? The pan is made of aluminium so it doesn’t work with an induction hob. So, I made the toast and the beans, Huan made the eggs, we still enjoyed it. In fact, it was a pleasant change from the usual weekend fry-ups.

Dinner was an unusual Chinese one. We had dumplings, but instead of the usual fillings, pork and vegetable, or just vegetable, we had chicken and vegetable The last time Huan was making some to freeze she had no minced pork so I suggested shredded chicken. To her surprise, not mine of course, it worked very well. They were “tasty, tasty, very very tasty”!

September 22^nd Today was another Fuji day, the weather was brilliant albeit a bit on the warm side. We decided to do our mountain (hill), village walk contraflow to what we would normally do so that we could avoid being bereft of shade at the worst time. As it’s a Fuji day I took far too many photos as usual, here’s one from the river. Hopefully they will forget about landscaping and just let the sides grow; it would then be far more beautiful, well in my eyes anyway.

Let’s follow that with a nice little bit of Chinglish shall we. Why, oh why, won’t they ask a native speaker to ‘proof read’ signs before they’re made?

There were no warning signs here so Huan got the fright of her life when she tried to pull this plant out to take it home for our balcony. In this photo there are already less ants than the armies that came out and scared her. I told her she was lucky it wasn’t a great big snake!

Lots more photos were taken but we’ll just show you another panorama. This one was made by taking five photographs with the Fuji and then stitching them with Microsoft’s “Image Composite Editor”. It’s free, very good and simple to use, even your Granny could do it!

Lunch, or brunch, was another English variation, this time scrambled eggs and beans on toast. Luckily the milk pan works well on the induction hob. The ‘old man’ had to have another kip this afternoon, well, it had been another long walk, fourteen kilometres. However, the ‘young lady’ stayed awake, frightened that she wouldn’t sleep tonight.

More dumplings this evening were followed by each of us doing our music lessons. In fact, while I write this I can still hear Huan singing something in the living room, using the Chinese version of the ‘sol-fah’ scale. I’m not sure if she is singing something she will later sing, or something she will play. As for me, well I wonder if this is normal after three weeks trying to learn the guitar. I need them to harden up quickly so that I can practice more than ten to fifteen minutes a day. PS Some focal zoom was added with Picasa so you can’t steal my fingerprints!

Oh, I almost forgot, SWMBO gave me a pedicure, half a manicure, (I do my ‘chord’ hand) and also cut my hair. I’ll be very weak tomorrow!

September 23^rd Another Monday, another shopping day so nothing really to report. I did spend some time doing something I haven’t done for years though. I read an English newspaper, the Sunday Times, left here by #1 son. Unfortunately, he didn’t leave it all so when I reached the end of page 72, half way through the obituaries, there was no page 73!

September 24^th “Three little maids from school are we”, with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan. Yes, the leader of the pack has returned, a.k.a. the dance teacher, so the gang is now complete. I guess I’ll be seeing a lot less of Huan. Here they are posing for a ‘class photo’.

They were all off to their singing class so I went for a nice long walk. Today, as it has been a while, I walked up to the reservoir. Here’s a lovely reflection on the river near the start.

Because it had been such a long time since we went up to the reservoir I took the Fuji with me. Unfortunately, not a lot of wildlife was to be seen so you’ll have to make do with a couple of construction photos where they are re-routing the road over a new bridge. The old one was in danger of sliding down the hill.

It was a great walk for me though. Apart from the construction work, there were hardly any other people on the road at all. The snowbirds must not all have returned yet. Once past the road works I had the pleasure of trees providing me shade until I reached the top and the sounds of insects and birds to keep me company. It took longer than usual to get from home to the top though, an hour and thirty nine minutes, but only an hour and twenty minutes to get home. The weather was so good to me I only needed one ‘small bottle of water’ stop.

I arrived back at our gates at the same time as the ladies where I was told, they will now be singing every week day, twice at the OAP centre and three times elsewhere. Lonely times have begun, poor me! Ah well, more long walks will have to be undertaken.

In the afternoon Huan was off to court along with the leaders of the ‘eleven’. It was about our gas supply yet again. When she got home she told me that the outcome was that we will probably have gas again within a month. I’ll believe it when I see it!

September 25th For me it was yet another Fuji day. Huan was off early, this time to a real singing class where they give them exercises and teach them how to use their mouths and their diaphragms. I may well join her for those lessons, get my voice back into shape.

So where did I go? I decided on the landfill route or rubbish mountain as we call it, (垃圾山, lā jī shān). It has been a while so I thought I’d check the highway progress on this route too, where it will cross the road to Changhao village. It’s coming on well.

Mornings aren’t really the best time for this route, even though I was earlier than usual. There is not a lot of shade at the beginning.

Still, it is not quite as steep as the road to the reservoir and the ‘peak’ of the walk is 150 metres lower as well. I might give it a miss for a while again, as the trucks were back in force along with the dustbin lorries so there was a lot of dust. It did give me this nice photograph though; you probably wouldn’t know it was road dust unless I told you.

Once down at the bottom on the other side I took my usual water stop where I was grilled by the old lady, and her daughter. They both wanted to know where my wife was. I spent a little time with them explaining and then set off to get another hill in. I walked through the town and took the anti-clockwise route around our scenic mountain park walk. It is slightly harder than going the way we usually go and I didn’t much care for the stairs but I got there. It was so relieving to arrive at the bridge to go down the other side. I even spent a few minutes taking a few pictures to stitch together as another panorama for you.

Not a lot of wildlife was seen again today although I did spot a couple of pigs on the way up the first mountain. Unfortunately, the sun was in the wrong place for me to get a picture. Mind you, I met some more when I was almost home, these were on the way to market and none too pleased about it at all. I’ve never heard so much arguing!

It had been a beautiful day this morning but, from out of nowhere, the rain appeared this afternoon. Never mind, I didn’t need to go out again anyway, not after walking sixteen and a half kilometres this morning. It only took me three hours and forty minutes, not bad for an old codger eh?

For me the afternoon was spent chatting with my VPN’s technical support, it’s now nearly two days since I was able to access anything the other side of the great wall. It seems we are all in the same boat and I just have to wait and hope.

Evening time I hopped into the bath, my legs have already started to stiffen up. I must remember to order some more bubble bath. Huan’s not a fan of baths but I like one now and then. While I was in there, busy soaking myself and reading another volume of Carl Hiassen’s Florida tales Huan had a phone call from the ‘dancing teacher’ and that was it, she was off to the town square for some more practice. Facebook was back on for a short while so she missed all her birthday greetings from my family. Despite my tutoring and the fact we’ve been together over fifteen years she still doesn’t ‘get’ foreign families.

September 26^th I think I’ve worked it out now, Tuesdays and Thursdays are not singing classes, more like choir practices, whereas the new Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are actual singing classes. Anyway, today being Thursday it was ‘choir’ practice for Huan.

A long walk is what I had planned for myself but in the end I just let my feet go at a speed they thought was ‘happy’. I did get my ten kilometres in for the day but it took me nearly three hours. I can blame the camera for some of that, I was messing about with the controls, trying to wean myself off ‘automatic’. I think it will take a bit longer. I took so many photos today I don’t know where to start. You could say ‘the beginning’ and finish at ‘the end’ but that would be sixty eight photos, too many even for my little blog. Let’s start with the fauna shall we, I’ve never seen ducks in the irrigation canal before and to be honest I thought it would be a little dangerous if the opened the sluice gates at the end. I did notice large grills on them today which would at least stop the ducks disappearing into the hydro-electric turbines. On the other hand, it’s also a good way to catch your dinner!

Next up was one of my friends peeping over the wall. Mind you, I couldn’t get any of them to come to the gate today, must be deodorant!

Chickens followed, then a cat, totally surprised by seeing me while it was stalking something. After that it was pigeons on a village rooftop and then a creature in a waterlogged rut that I believe was a shrimp. That particular photo is not good enough for you to help me out or I’d share it with you. I was heading for the old medicine factory at the time so I stopped and took a few more photos to ‘stitch’. Here’s the result, this one’s long enough to go on the longest wall in your house!

Just after I’d left the factory, I came upon a gander strutting his stuff. He then did something I thought was very weird, rub the under part of his neck on the ground.

No sooner had I walked past him than he started chasing me, neck lowered and really moving. I didn’t stop to argue!

And I think we’ll leave it there for today’s pics. There are more but nothing unusual, nothing that you haven’t really seen before. I took a fair number of black and white photos today as well, especially of the old buildings. One must practice one’s art you know!

Speaking of practicing your art, Huan’s dance teacher came round this afternoon to deliver some black mushrooms and have a gossip. I pointed out the amplifier sitting in the corner of the living room and before I knew it, they were both at it, with a microphone apiece. She does have a very good voice though, which is why she doesn’t go to the three singing lessons weekly, only the choir practices.

September 27^th Today was a perfect day for sitting in the garden, reading a newspaper and drinking a nice margarita. Of course, we don’t have a garden and I didn’t have the newspaper or the margarita either! On top of that I had promised Huan I would go to ‘voice training’ with her. It seems they have to arrive early and go through some meditation type exercises first. Here they are holding up an imaginary ball.

The class itself wasn’t too bad although I don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon. I didn’t understand a great deal of what the teacher was saying, my Chinese isn’t good enough yet. That meant Huan had to try and translate on the hoof which took away some of her enjoyment. Much better she goes alone I think.

Huan went to visit ‘Bridge Lady’ in the afternoon. No, she doesn’t play cards, she’s a retired bridge engineer and she is also learning to play the keyboard. She’s teaching herself too but has been doing it a little longer then Huan. It would appear that Huan didn’t get into the classes she wanted to, as we haven’t heard anything from the school. Ah well, maybe next year. As for me, I did some Taobao searching; my electric toothbrush gave up the ghost this morning. Would you believe it, a well known brand name in China, but they no longer make the toothbrushes. In the end I decided on a cheaper version then if it does break down after eighteen months like the first one, nothing really lost.

Laziness had set in by the time dinner was over so no walking today, only guitar and Chinese. Huan of course was out again, Dama dancing.

September 28th Today being Saturday, Huan wanted to walk through the farmer’s market. That meant it was another Fuji day for me, and sandals, not boots. The market was a lot busier than last week, that would be because the National Day Holiday is coming up. I took a few ‘crowd’ photos, some ‘still life’ ones of fruit and believe it or not, animal heads. Pig’s face is quite a delicacy it seems, and not so cheap either. The other heads, (don’t worry, I won’t show them to you), were from this little creature. Unfortunately, the bars on the cage prevented me from getting a better picture. According to the Chinese name, it’s a ‘Fruit Raccoon’, according to me it’s either a ‘Raccoon Dog’ or a ‘Chinese Ferret-Badger’. Answers on a postcard please.

Full English for lunch, cooked by yours truly. We’re not so sure about our new sausages though, the skin is a little odd. We’re going to try boiling them first and then removing their skins, see if that makes any difference. I had to have another OAP sleep this afternoon, don’t know what’s wrong with me. When Huan got up and went for her afternoon sing-along, I fell asleep again. Luckily I managed to drag myself up and drink some coffee before she returned. It was my turn in the kitchen again, but an easy turn. I’ve convinced Huan that as we have a cooked breakfast for lunch at weekends, we should just have sandwiches for ‘tea’. It makes life easier all round. Luckily for me, she loves sandwiches!

September 29^th Both of us slept badly last night, Huan probably worse than me. I suspect that it may be my tossing and turning that disturbs her. I blame it on my female hormone injections, sending me into menopause! Anyway, we decided the scenic mountain route was enough for today and not too fast. Part of the way up and what did we do? Well, we saw some steps that we have never been up before. They look a bit steep don’t they, but we decided to go for it anyway.

On reaching the top, we found it was an electricity sub-station and the steps were for access. However, there was a track the other side so we followed that. It led us to a small irrigation canal which we followed to a small house.

Not long after that there was another small house which took us just above the bridge crossing on our normal route so our luck was with us. The path was a bit thin at times but no brambles, sharp twigs or insects today.

Crossing the bridge put us back on track for a leisurely walk down. Unusually, our ‘pooch’ was not there today, in fact he wasn’t there when I went alone last time either. However, there was something else, a small family of geese. I got quite close before they scuttled up the hill but they didn’t go far. They seemed reluctant to go any further so I got quite a lot of photos of them. Here’s one where I am being watched.

Just a little further on we surprised a lizard who stood still long enough for me to get this picture. It’s a good job I had the Fuji with me today. He’s a handsome fellow with quite a long tail, you can follow it right off the RHS of the picture.

There is a new shopping mall in Wuzhishan, whether it will work or not who knows. The hoardings around it have only just been taken down so we had a wander through and found this restaurant. Huan doesn’t know what the characters are but take a look at the English name. Do you think it will be a ‘love it or hate it’ restaurant?

And our last photo for today, is a ‘stitch’ again, but only of two this time. This is the location of another new shopping centre. Not long after the hole was dug, the owner of the project passed away. Since then, nothing has been done at all so whether a shopping centre will be built here or not remains to be seen. I like it the way it is!

Remember the sausages? I tried boiling them and then removing the skins. They were a little better but the skins were not so easy to remove at all. I wish we could get good old British sausages here, for breakfast of course, and German ones for other times.

The rest of the day was almost the same as yesterday. The only difference being I refreshed my excel skills and produced a file, including a chart, to help with my guitar practice. It’s called “1 Minute Chord Changes” and the idea is to change chords as many times in one minute as possible. You start off with two chords of course, with a single strum, and then as you improve you can add as you please. (You don’t count chords that don’t ‘ring out’ properly.) My first day’s results are not as bad as I thought, others have done better than I have, but some have also done worse.

September 30^th Woke up to a blocked internet again, no Gmail, no YouTube and no Facebook. I guess it could take a while. I got some morning guitar practice instead before we went and did the usual Monday shopping.

After our shopping trip, for a short while, we had connection to the world but then it disappeared again for the rest of the day, and night! Still, it gave me three guitar practice sessions today instead of the usual two. I also cleaned out one of my ‘man drawers’, you know, that draw where you keep all your “it may come in useful one day” stuff. Not only that but I began cleaning up the laptop prior to sending it for repair. I deleting all the data with a ‘three times wipe over’. I had thought about using the D.O.D. approved wipe over but that takes even longer!

So, all in all a boring day for you, dear reader, let’s hope next month improves. Until then, it’s goodbye from Her Majesty and the fool!