June 1st “June is bustin’ out all over!” (Rodgers
& Hammerstein). Their song of course was about sunshine and the onset of
good weather etc. Well here, it is the rain that is bustin’ out all over. We had
just about gone one kilometre from home when it started. We persevered, walking
under shop awnings and the like but of course we ended up wet, again! The Nikon
was wet too but we did manage one almost clean screenshot.
Almost
home, after a few hundred metre detour to make sure we got at least five kilometres
today, and we came across another ‘impression’ of what the island in front of
our house is supposed to look like by the end of this year. I can’t quite see
it myself unless they build a better dam just downriver from us. What’s more
worrying though is the potential noise that will come from there. There is a
park near our place in Ledong and the noise often goes on until after midnight.
Just in case you wondered, yes, our bedroom does face the island. Oh, and the
finished island will not be ‘stretched’ as it is in this impression!
Just to spite us, for a change, it
didn’t rain in the afternoon today. Of course that’s also the hottest time of
the day so no walk then. Even worse is that it came back in the evening, but
not for long enough to keep us in. This meant Huan went dancing and I had to go
walkies!
In addition, I spent
most of the afternoon and the evening trying to get communication from my PC
sorted out. The people who help are reasonably good but not always so easy to
contact. After speaking to two of their ‘agents’ the problem was sorted, or so
I thought. After dinner I lost the connection again and couldn’t remake it.
June 2nd We were caught by the weather again today,
thinking the rain was going to come early. We waited, and when it didn’t come
we went out around nine o’clock. We were doing well and then seven kilometres
out the rain came. It didn’t make much difference by then, we were already
drenched in sweat. At least the rain here is not too cold! So, what photos do
we have for you today? Well the first is someone who was markedly slower than
us. Do you think he knew he was having his photo taken?
The second is a blaze of
colour. Huan didn’t like it at all; she said it made her feel sick. Can you
guess what it is?
Staying with the animal
kingdom, the third and last photo was this little chick. It was alone, no idea
if it had any siblings or where its parents may have been.
Today’s photos don’t quite seem as good as usual but that may be
because I am not using the Fuji
Anyway, once home we decided the ‘full English’ could wait until
dinner time and we had mangoes followed by iced coffee for lunch instead. After
this morning’s walk, fourteen kilometres, I stayed in while Huan went dancing.
I spent the evening with ‘no connectivity’ again and not much sign of when the
problem would be sorted.
June 3rd Monday, which means rest day, no walking, just
shopping. We did have a few Taobao deliveries today though and it was my duty
to go down each time and collect the parcels. Easy job, nobody could get it
wrong, eh? To be fair, I didn’t actually get it wrong, my flip flops did. The
right one decided to ‘slide on ahead’ which caused me to go into splits mode,
(almost), and the left one turned up underneath my foot, in the process,
pushing my toes down into the concrete. I doubt there will be any fast walking,
or boots, tomorrow!
Needless to say, when Huan went
out for her dancing time, I didn’t go with her. I stayed home, with, lucky for
me, a ‘connection resumed’ to the rest of the world. That kept me amused for a
while and I did my Yoyo Chinese of course.
June 4th As mentioned yesterday, no boots today, not a
fast walk and not a long one either. Just our luck as well, the rain has not
turned up today! Huan was happy with not being out too long, it meant she could
use three of her Taobao packages. As well as dancing and singing she has now
decided to try and learn how to play the keyboard. We already had one of those
but no stand, no stool and no power supply. All those arrived yesterday so this
is Huan today, (happy as a pig in ****), in the gif that I uploaded to
Facebook!
The rain stayed away so when Huan
went dancing I went walking, just to make sure I got my ten kilometres in today.
I didn’t make it. However, I did talk to seven of my local friends, six Labradors , or mixes thereof, (four golden, one black and
one white) and then a husky.
June 5th Another beautiful day today, not a sign of
rain anywhere. I was alone again because Huan was at her singing lessons. I
kept my pace fairly slow, around four kilometres an hour and stayed out for two
hours. That’s your maths homework for today. My toe is getting better. Last
night we stopped in at the pharmacy, chemists or as we call it, the medicine
shop. Just like the UK
Usual evening, dancing for Huan
and a little stroll for me, I did manage to reach the magic total of ten
kilometres today.
June 6th Still in sandals, toe getting better but calf
is painful, possibly because of walking strangely with my toe. We walked around
the town and river for eight kilometres though which means I should reach ten
easily enough today. The only photo from today was this little critter. There
was one of him going for my feet but that didn’t turn out so well.
Huan’s
singing class is in the afternoon on a Thursday and for a change, I went out
with her. Once I had walked her and her singing partner there I carried on
walking, for yet another eight kilometres. That means of course that I easily
made the ten. Are you suitably impressed? I know I am. Sometimes walking around
the town we can find little gems, like this one, a beautiful water feature in
front of someone’s apartment block. Even better, it’s not all dried out as they
often are.
They
also had some nice places to sit down but you don’t need to see them. I will
show you this next picture though, a building named after me!
Well,
not quite. It would appear that someone got the English wrong, especially the spelling.
Here’s the inside of the “building”! Do you think they meant “Body Building
Having
done my target today I let Huan go dancing alone and stayed home for Yoyo
Chinese, Facebook and watching Youtube.
June 7th Another beautiful day in our little corner of
the world and another walk around the countryside. Our first job was to be good
Samaritans again, this time for a little gecko minus its tail. It was on the
path and seemed to have no idea where to go, perhaps it was a baby. Huan picked
it up and put it in the grass verge. I took a couple of photos but they didn’t
turn out so well. Later on we came across a bunch of villagers harvesting their
fish. Today is the first day of Duanwu Festival (端午节) more commonly known as
the ‘Dragon Boat Festival’ and the village was going to have a communal feast
this evening. We watched them go ‘one way’ and filmed it after which they were
going to do a return run to get some more.
Heading
back towards home we came across this. Never mind that it’s a road, it seems
like a perfect place to put your crops to dry. Huan told me she thought this
was black rice.
The afternoon was difficult, I
could hardly keep my eyes open. Huan had decided that we shouldn’t have a nap
today. What she didn’t tell me was that while I was struggling in the office
she would be flat out on the sofa making zzzzs.
Having done nine
kilometres this morning not too many were needed this evening but I went out
before Huan’s dancing practice and got another six in anyway. No dogs today but
for a change, a cat. We see cats around but more often than not they won’t come
anywhere near us. This one did, and let me make a fuss of it, although getting
its picture wasn’t so easy.
Today,
apart from being the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival was also the first
day of this year’s Gaokao examinations. This is the hardest test that Chinese
students ever have to take and it lasts two or three days. If you’d like to
know more, Wikipedia has this -
This year, ten million students will
sit it. Our little town is no exception of course and the local government does
their bit to help. They block the roads off near the school where the exams are
held, and if you should have to go that way, because you live there, they also
forbid the use of horns. Here’s a couple of the road signs which will be put
back in place again tomorrow morning.
June 8th Well, aren’t we blessed, another wonderful
day with not a drop of rain in sight. My plan today was to walk eighteen
kilometres and get the electric bus back. Unfortunately, after just over six
kilometres the commander in chief insisted we walk back home which meant we
only got just over thirteen kilometres in. Still, I shouldn’t complain, that’s
more than the target ten per day isn’t it? Somebody was terribly British today
though, socks and sandals. For some reason these sandals have been chafing my feet,
none of the previous five or seven pairs have. Never mind, no Brits here to
extract the Michael!
Having done all that exercise in
the morning I had a restful day, not even going out for an evening walk. I let
Huan go dancing on her own while I did my Chinese lessons and then played with
my Ultrasonic bath. I wonder if they could make human size ones that would make
all these layers of fat disappear!
June 9th It looked like it was going to be a scorcher
today but luckily for us the sun hid behind the clouds for most of our walk,
ten kilometres for Huan, fourteen for me. My outside legs were good for more,
but my inside leg told me to go home, quickly! As we were walking so fast not
many pictures were taken today. We did see this specimen, which unfortunately,
or fortunately as the case may be, had already popped its clogs. It would have
been good to see it mobile, from a respectable distance of course.
Tomorrow we have to take a
drive again so today we had another trip to the tyre shop as the ‘onboard
computer’ keeps telling me my front right tyre has low pressure. This time they
decided that the computer is still reacting to the wrong wheel from when two of
the tyres were rotated in the past. The rear left tyre had a nail in it and
that was the cause of the problem. I think I need to study how these things
actually work. Remember I said it looked like it would be a scorcher today?
This was the temperature when we went out.
Nice relaxing evening for me, a soak in the bath, some Chinese and
some ‘Bill’ while Huan went out for some more exercise, dancing.
June 10th Awake most of the night, or at least it felt
like it. We had set the phone alarm for half past three in order to get to the
hospital early enough for the car park. Maybe we were worried about
oversleeping? The longest stretch I had seemed to be from quarter to three
until half past. Anyway, we were up on time and out on the road just after
four. There was no queue for the car park and we were in by just after half
past six allowing us to go and have breakfast before joining the inside queues.
This was the queue for the downstairs cash desk at twenty past seven, ten
minutes before they opened.
We were queuing up on the second
floor which was a little easier. The first queue is to arrange and pay for your
doctor’s appointment. You then go the relevant department and queue again there
to actually see him. Because mine is a repeat prescription we managed to get
through a little quicker. After that, you return to the cash desk and join the
queue again to pay for your medication. Once that is done you go to yet another
window, give them your prescription plus proof of payment, and wait again. The
last hurdle is to take your medication downstairs again to the nurse who will
treat you, not much of a queue there. Of course, for me, this is the worst
part. It was a different nurse this time, with a different method, and it hurt
more! Most of that is my fear of needles though. I said to Huan that maybe next
month she can take a video of it; I still haven’t seen the needle yet!
Being so early has its benefits,
we were out of the hospital before nine o’clock and could get on with the more
pressing matter of shopping. First stop was the wholesale market for some more
sausages and bacon. Second stop was ‘Corner’s Deli’ for cream, cheese, butter
etc. They are refurbishing the store so many of the things we like were not
available. Hopefully they’ll be done by next month. Last stop was ‘RT
Supermarket’ for some of their wonderful sliced bread. Back on the road home
than, stopping at Tungshan rest stop for Huan to have some lunch, I didn’t feel
like it, too many drinks this morning. Getting back in the car the temperature
was even hotter than the picture you’ve already seen, this time 43ºC.
We thought our luck
was changing a little later on. There was this enormous noise and then the
windscreen was covered in what looked like bird poo. We English think that’s a
lucky omen, the Chinese think the opposite. As it happens it wasn’t birds at
all but we didn’t know that until I stepped through the video frame by frame.
We must have gone straight through an insect migration and travelling over
100kph we didn’t see them. You can get an idea from this picture though, and
the windscreen was a right mess after. It was in fact a ‘cluster’ or ‘flight’
of dragonflies. (PS I had to Google the collective noun.)
Evening was a very short walk for
‘dinner out’ and then dancing for Huan, dashcam for me.
June 11th Well we both slept well last night! Tuesday today but as we were absent
from Wuzhishan yesterday, today became shopping day. Another day’s rest with no
walking, I wasn’t complaining. In fact I still had to take an afternoon nap!
June 12th Wednesday today so singing lessons for Huan and a solo walk for me. My
plan was to walk almost eighteen kilometres but somewhere along the way I took
a wrong turning. I realised when after seventeen kilometres I was going uphill
and not finding it easy going at all. I had to retrace my steps which meant I
had done twenty and a half kilometres when I reached the ‘electric bus’ stop.
Lots of cold water needed on the way including an extra bottle at the bus stop
to pour over my head! No photos taken today, I was going too fast but I did get
a couple of short videos. The first was a wedding procession, note how the most
expensive cars are at the front.
The second was a herd of
cows with the farmer and a car trying to pass them. Spot the cow giving me the
eye. He, or she, made sure to give me a very wide berth after.
Walking home from the bus stop was not very easy I can tell you.
Restful afternoon with a nap followed by a long soak in the bath. Needless to
say, I did not accompany Huan to her dama dancing in the evening!
June 13th Another solo walk today, Huan was off
to court, along with two other members of the ‘committee of eleven”. We left
the house together and it was worth it just to see the face of the leader of
the eleven. I’m not sure what she was more worried about, me going with them,
how to fit me in the car or the fact that I was dressed for walking complete
with obligatory boots, hat and Keymission camera! Huan explained and she
visibly relaxed.
So, after yesterdays long, fairly fast walk, I
decided a more local one was needed today and just went up the scenic walk in
town. Here I am, at the bridge, just before crossing and coming down again. I
was walking slower, but still sweating cobblers!
Still, once up to the
bridge, the descent is mostly under the trees, so nice and shady. I was doing a
Keymission video again today which probably explains why this photo doesn’t
look as I wanted it to. Memo to self, sort out the Fuji
As expected, I was home long
before Huan today, I only walked twelve kilometres in two and a half hours,
much more relaxing than yesterday. Anyway, when Huan returned I asked about the
news from the court and it seems we are still in the realms of maybes and
possibilities. She thinks the judge will come down on the side of the eleven,
mostly because the maintenance company haven’t had a contract since the
beginning of this year. Of course, we don’t know for certain and now we have to
wait, again…
The afternoon saw Huan out again,
this time for her Thursday singing lesson. I stayed in, did the blog, did some
more Chinese study.
In the evening I decided that as
I had done my ‘ten’ today I wouldn’t accompany Huan to her dancing. To be
honest, I knew that after yesterday’s fast twenty kilometres I would be a bit
stiff today but I hadn’t realised quite how stiff. My calves are fine, probably
due to this morning’s walk but my thighs are not so good. I also have pain in
my lower back and for some strange reason in my shoulders and upper arms. I’m
sure I was only walking and not marching like my army days!
Huan called me from the town square, there was a
show on. China
June 14th Today started off with us both trying to analyse the weather. Looking
at the sky and the clouds we both thought it was going to rain. Huan’s phone
said it would rain today. One of my weather channels said it was raining
already, the other said it would rain by eleven o’clock and that it had rained
on this day 28 out of the last 30 years! We had another look at the sky and
clouds and decided it was worth the risk and what do you know, it was. We made
sure we didn’t stray too far but still walked over seven kilometres around the
town. As I write this (12:37pm), the rain still hasn’t appeared even though all
our weather channels tell us it is raining here now. No photos taken again this
morning, just a short video of a little beastie, I think it was a centipede, which
I made sure I didn’t touch! Screenshots were rubbish!
After dinner the rain still
hadn’t shown itself so when Huan went dancing I went to make sure I got my 10k
in today. Not having taken any photos today I looked for something especially
for you. I found this, on a car bonnet. I have no idea what it is supposed to
represent, only that it is something to do with football. If you know, send
your answers on a postcard please or put them in the comments below.
And here’s an extra, a
screenshot from the little riverside video I made. It’s quite a pleasant walk
although unless you’re walking very slowly, it’s a sweaty one!
June 15th Another solo walk today, Huan was not well, I think it’s her menopausal
problems again. She gets them every two to three months. Leaving Huan in bed I
wondered where I could go for a decent walk but without staying out too long. I
decided on the landfill route again. The continuation of the highway to Haitang
Wan is slowly coming on, a few more bridge legs are visible now. This is the
side you saw before, now with much more to see.
This is the other side of
the road, much lower, you can see I am looking down on the scene. They are
getting the foundations ready for more legs on this side.
The rain held off while I was out but once again I was drenched
anyway, it is all uphill for the first five kilometres. Arriving at the little
shop back down in the village it was another bottle of water over my head and
one inside my belly! Anyway, I was back home in less than two hours to make
sure the boss was OK.
The rains came in the afternoon which in a way was a good thing.
Huan was up by dinner time and made herself some rice soup, (not for me, don’t
really like it). No full English for us today, I had salty duck egg salad
instead. If the rain hadn’t come, Huan would have gone out dancing, much better
that she stayed in and rested. It also meant that I couldn’t reach my 10k today,
I’ll just have to try and do more tomorrow!
June 16th Her Majesty was
feeling better today but didn’t fancy a long walk so once again we kept to the
town, still got seven kilometres in though. As we were getting home we were
arguing as to whether it was raining or not. Huan was convinced it was, I was
convinced it wasn’t. In fact it was less than what we would call ‘spitting with
rain’ in the UK
Having not made my target of ten kilometres per
day, (except for Mondays and hospital days), either yesterday or this morning I
went out before Huan’s dancing to get another five in. That would give me a
total of twenty two for the two days, good enough. I got back just before Huan
finished her dancing and about a minute before the rain did show its face! Only
one photo for you today, the first bridge support to our ‘new island park’. The
walkway will be through the middle, the supporting cables over the top. I still
can’t see it all being done by the end of the year.
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