Huan’s Happy, Rigsby’s Smiling, Back to Normality & I Still Hate Banks!

First of all, I have uploaded the photos of the area around our Sanya apartment, should you wish to have a gander, just click here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/GS2qMrxTMAZs8n7j8

October 20^th A good start to the week, there was no rain today! We also had another viewer in the morning, he wanted to rent on his own terms so it didn’t go through, but at least we know something is happening. Mid-morning I had a phone call from my bank, the one that I haven’t closed the account, asking us to go and see them. That bank is in Sanya so I thought we’d sort out any problems within a few minutes. I was wrong, again! Our first problem was getting there, we are on the bus route and the buses are frequent but we weren’t allowed on as we weren’t wearing masks. It seems Sanya has clamped down on the rules again, probably because it is now Snowbird season. We took a taxi instead.

At the bank, we didn’t have to wait as it’s the foreign exchange section, so I got my passport out thinking that’s all they would need. No, that wasn’t the problem. My second pension had been held up for some reason and the bank now wanted my original papers from when I opened the insurance that became a pension. That was twenty seven years ago! I do have that paperwork, in Wuzhishan, and the bank has seen it before so why they need it again I don’t know. I guess it may have something to do with the pension company changing its name yet again and the bank possibly using AI to check for money laundering. You would think that humans would be able to sort it out quickly. At least this time they have agreed to let me email whatever is required.

We walked home, via Sanya bay so we got a few more photos of the beach area.

A long time ago we ate in a food court here in Sanya, we found it again today. It appears that the prices are not as exorbitant as they were, you can see some in these photos from the stall we ate at. We shared the shrimp fried rice you can see at ¥20.00, second from the left.

Huan also chose some shells, these were also ¥20.00, you can see them here.

All in all it was a great, tasty lunch for less than a fiver for both of us, no complaints!

Once home we received another visitor who we had seen before, the lady who works in our ‘breakfast restaurant’ and her husband. They want to rent the apartment, they also have a son, around four or five years old and another on the way. I guess there is enough room between the kitchen and the bedroom for a small single bed.

The price had been a problem the last couple of times they and Huan spoke so I suggested to Huan that she pay the maintenance money and ask for more than they offered but less than Huan wanted. It worked, they have signed the contract. Huan will end up with slightly more rent than last year which had been doubtful up to now. Hopefully nothing will go wrong between now and tomorrow morning.

A celebratory dinner was called for in the evening so I gave Huan her choice. She chose 饺子, (Jiǎozi) or dumplings as you would know them. Here’s her plate of vegetable ones, mine was a little bigger with pork and cabbage ones.

And here’s Huan drinking the very expensive soup, it’s the water the dumplings were boiled in and Chinese people like to drink it. Each to their own!

We walked through the food stalls outside the shopping centre on our way home and found something I wish we had found before we filled ourselves with dumplings. Unfortunately they don’t do breakfasts or we could have tried tomorrow morning.

That’s it for Sanya, it only took us twenty two days to get the job done. All that remains is for me to copy everything on the laptop to the external HDD for uploading to the PC when we get home. I’ll be busy then for a few days.

October 21^st Keys handed over after breakfast and we were back in Wuzhishan, after an uneventful drive, before lunch. There was no rain today either so not a bad day for a drive through the mountains. We managed to park near enough to our building to empty the car and carry everything to the lift. I had meant to take a photo of the car fully loaded but, due to advancing years, forgot all about it.

Once everything was in the house and the washing machine was on for Sanya bedding and ours, it was time for a ‘nice cup of tea’, Lipton’s for Huan and Tetley’s for me. As I now have to start watching my diet until November, when it’s blood test time again, I had my last NATO standard cuppa for a while.

The rest of the day was spent scanning, uploading, sending stuff to the bank etc. It will take me more than a couple of days to finish all. Hopefully the bank is satisfied, they did send me an email thanking me for the info and telling me the money should be in after two or three days. Of course, I can’t check it, there is no branch of that bank here!

We finished the day with a nice simple buffet style dinner, two meat and two veg each, and then went home and relaxed. For me, that meant putting on a vest, my pyjamas and my slippers, it’s cold here!

Amendment to above, I went home, Huan was ambushed by a returning snowbird and ended up playing the drums. I was feeling terrible so went home and put my jammies on!

October 22^nd Normality strikes, and so does another dose of some bug or other. It must be all this moving around between different micro-climates, Wuzhishan feels a lot like the UK in late autumn at the moment. I know, it doesn’t get that cold here, but we feel it sometimes. Huan has me back on Chinese medicine for a couple of days to try and sort me out, again!

Being away for so long the fridge needed filling so a trip to the supermarket was called for. Our timing must have been perfect today, there were not many customers and no queues at the tills. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen many people or much traffic since we came back. Maybe they all know something we don’t.

Back at our building, before going inside, Huan went looking for our neighbour’s potted plants. He grows a lot, in beds but also in pots and Huan wondered where they had gone. She found them and called me to take photos.

He was obviously running out of space though because he had found three thrones to use as well. When Chinese people move into an apartment, they will often change the toilet, back to a squatter, or just to another toilet that nobody else’s bum has sat on. I hope our Sanya loo is safe! Anyway, here are his extra pots.

Huan was out drumming and playing the Hulusi in the evening while I moped at home, still not feeling too good, and searched Taobao for a new cheap laptop.

October 23^rd “The sun has got his hat on, Hip hip hip hooray, The sun has got his hat on and he’s coming out to play.” Given the choice, and with enough money, and with a change in the property buying laws, I would quite happily move to Sanya, buy a villa or a nice apartment with car parking, with a nice sea view! (Dreamland) Wuzhishan will do us for now though and waking up to this view is far better than waking up to the Sanya apartment view that we had for the last three weeks.

More admin today, first off a visit to the “bapman”. We had sent him a WeChat message last night and were off this morning to collect twenty. On the way we tried to find a car wash that wasn’t busy, unsuccessfully. We tried again afterwards on the way to fill up Donald, he was a little thirsty after all the driving of the last week or two. Again we failed, but two out of three jobs will do us for today.

I caught up on FB and then spent most of the day searching Taobao again, eventually making a decision just before Huan began cooking dinner, fish again. We’ll have to wait for the laptop to arrive to be sure but I think the software may not be ‘quite right’. In the meantime we checked another site on Taobao for Windows 10, he assured us it was genuine and had English options. We may be back to him after the laptop arrives.

Huan was out again and I still felt all washed out so I relaxed with “Stingers”, an Australian police show about undercover work. Tomorrow I promised myself that I must get back to the guitar and the Chinese again, no matter how rough I feel.

October 24^th Well, that didn’t last long; the sun took his hat off and disappeared! In fact the forecast for today and the next week is rain, everyday. The sky looked like rain too today so I left Freddie at home and went off to reacquaint myself with the river and the Saturday market. Here’s the river not far from the house, spot the lesser spotted red plastic bag bird.

The market was quite full; I guess a lot of snowbirds have returned since I last checked in a month ago. Here are the ‘in’ and the ‘out’ photos.

There wasn’t much new that I could show, nothing much different from my previous visits, but this caught my eye. It was the colours that first attracted me, the carving when I got nearer. There are certainly some talented people around.

Next up, some clouds to show you why at this point I was about to cross the river and return home, followed by the reason I had to do a u-turn on the other side before going back up to the top footpath adding more than a hundred metres to my walk!

My walk this morning was a ‘solo’, Huan was back to normal and back to her choir practice. It was my job to cook the weekend stew when I got home, with a little less meat then normal due to next month’s tests.

Her ladyship was out again this afternoon, banging on drums and playing her Hulusi, not at the same time of course. She should have been out again this evening but rain stopped play. I like her company and like it when she’s around in the evenings, but today I was cursing the rain. I got Huan to go onto Taobao again and order me a pair of headphones, ostensibly for use with the new laptop when it arrives. In reality, I will use them at home as well, there’s been so much singing, Hulusi, keyboard and listening to videos on WeChat today that my head is splitting. In fact, my headache was so bad, that both guitar and Chinese had to be delayed yet again.

October 25th Rain stopped play again, at least it did for me. Musician Huan was still able to go out for a practice, in the nearby building. Of course the rain didn’t stop work, Doctor Bob was busy this morning. As you can see the ‘patient’ on the operating table had to be bisected before the operation to replace part of its innards could be done. One screw kept coming loose and interfering with the rotation of the seat. No ‘Loctite’ available so glue was used on the bottom side of the screw head with the hope that it will stay tight longer this time.

October 26^th As you might well have guessed, it was raining yet again this morning. No problems for Huan, her practice was nearby again. It seems they are practicing for our tenants annual show, not sure of the date yet. Last year they coerced me into doing something on the guitar. I have the video but you will never get to see it, I was not at all impressed with my performance. Knowing that the same will happen this year I tried to select a few songs that I may be able to play, only one or two with the dreaded ‘F’ barre chord. I’m getting better at it but still don’t always manage to barre it correctly. I’ll practice only these songs for the next few weeks and then let Huan decide which ones I should use. After a month of no guitar, I wasn’t as bad as I thought I would be but my fingertips need hardening again!

Being a Monday, it was a shopping day of course, I’m cooking four days this week and Huan’s cooking three. Hers are all fish, leading up to the next round of blood tests. Fish is fine, I like fish, I would even eat a lot more, if it wasn’t for the bones!

Lots more Chinese homework in the evening and then, lo and behold, uploaded this post, on time for a change. Don’t forget to subscribe for weekly updates. You can even have a look at my You Tube channel, there’s a clickable link for that too.

Take care all, remember to socially distance and wash your hands! See you next time.

Rigsby’s Still Despondent, Huan’s Still Worrying

October 13^th A new week, and a much better me this morning, I must have done something right yesterday. Noodle soup for breakfast went down well, the fly screen from the bedroom was delivered for repair and the door installer arrived. We thought that they would give us a nice finish as they had done for the front door but it seems this time we need to make it all nice ourselves. He did a good job for us though, here’s the new door, from both sides, but with the outside wall not yet filled, sanded and painted.

Once the doorman had gone and we had cleaned up the mess he left behind we set out for lunch and to try and find a local tile shop to ‘finish’ the floor under the new door. What a farce that turned out to be. Our doorman told us where to find a shop, we didn’t go there first, instead we prowled our local streets. Typhoon Nangka is about to attack Hainan so there was a lot of rain. I bought Huan a new brolly, I got soaked! We found nothing around our streets so went to where the doorman told us to go, guess what, there was nothing there either. “Let’s try across the river” we thought, still getting wet as we went, well me anyway. Someone told us which street to find a tile shop on, much later on we still hadn’t found that street and weren’t even sure it existed. Finally someone pointed us in the right direction, we took a taxi there and I thought our day would end happily. Once again, I was wrong! I had convinced Huan that it would be better to replace the whole toilet floor than just repair the door sill. The area we found the tile shops in had plenty, big ones, small ones, all sorts of assorted sizes. There was a problem though. Not one of them was willing to take on the job of a bathroom floor, not enough money in it for them. We couldn’t even find one to cut one tile for us if we bought one from them. In the end we gave up and decided to talk to the hardware man tomorrow. Having walked we think at least fifteen kilometres today, well over four hours anyway, we took another taxi back home.

Tonight’s dinner, with no argument from either of us, was from the burger shop downstairs. We shared a whole chicken and some chips, makes us sound greedy doesn’t it? I included Huan’s ‘small’ hand in the photo so that you can see our eyes were not bigger than our bellies!

October 14^th Rain stopped early this morning, not too long before we raised ourselves for another day, and easier one today though. Typhoon Nangka has now passed over Hainan and is on its way towards Vietnam. So far, there is no sign of the other two ‘promised’ typhoons, maybe they’ll fizzle out before they start.

I only had two little jobs this morning, the first was putting some cable cleats back on the internet wire that Huan had managed to knock off, the second was installing an edging strip to cover where the previous tenants had managed to destroy the tile corners in the kitchen. Huan likes it, I’m not so impressed.

After lunch the hardware store man returned to install the cooker extractor fan and a new sink. He tried to sell us an expensive extractor fan but knowing how Chinese tenants look after things we stuck to the cheap version. That was not too difficult to do. I know there’s dust everywhere, these photos are not the ‘advertising’ versions.

He also installed a new sink for us which I’m convinced is not the one he showed us! This one necessitated him cutting the stone to make a bigger hole and it had two ‘tap’ holes. Most Chinese kitchens only have cold water in the kitchen, as this apartment does, so a second hole was not required. Still, I’m only the banker on this occasion, Huan decides and I pay! Spot the sealant all around which I had asked not to have, was assured we wouldn’t have, but had to have to keep the sink in place.

Next up the sill between the bathroom and the outer room, he found a tile that fitted, but would not go into all the nooks and crannies and more sealant was used to hold it down. We can use the bathroom today but we mustn’t step on that piece.

Next up, Huan had been going to fill the wall above the bathroom door, she likes doing it and she’s good at it, but somewhere along the way she had agreed to let the hardware man loose on it. According to him, the hole was too deep and a different filler was needed to start with.

For some reason, Huan changed her mind and she decided to fill the hole, first with some black stuff that she cadged from a local building site and then with a tube of ready prepared filler. Here she is doing the tube application. I think she prefers the stuff that you mix up yourself but she couldn’t find the powder locally. Tomorrow will be sanding down, refilling if necessary and then painting, two jobs for me, maybe one for Huan.

No long walks today, we’re both too tired.

October 15^th Mostly a very boring day but at least with some light at the end of the tunnel I suppose. We are waiting for a couple more Taobao deliveries and then we can bring things to a close. Today Huan had me painting again.

I spoke far too early about the rain; it was going all night last night and has been at it for most of today as well. Because of that, dinner was a very small local restaurant.

Was it good? Well Huan chose fish, which was shown on the ‘wall menu’ as a whole one, and I chose pork and garlic legs, or I thought I did. As you can see, Huan’s fish was not exactly whole but at least it was fish. Mine was completely wrong, Huan told me that she had ordered the wrong one, she will insist on not wearing her glasses to read!

October 16^th Alone again, for a few minutes anyway, Huan has gone out to put some adverts up on the public notice boards. More light can be seen at the end of the tunnel, I took the ladder back to the car this morning. Jobs in the apartment were cleaning the bathroom door frame, lubricating the front door locks and hinges with the Chinese equivalent of WD40 etc. Once the cheapo kitchen shelf thing has arrived, I will be able to pack up the tools and move them to the car as well.

We couldn’t go anywhere as we were waiting for Taobao deliveries, the first one turned up just before lunch, two ‘hooks’ to fill two holes in the bathroom wall that were not the right distance apart to be able to replace with something similar to what was there before. Still, the holes got hidden and the new tenants should be able to put their small hand towels on them, or flannels as we would probably call them. Huan tells me that not many Chinese people us large bath towels as we do.

Just before dinner the long awaited bathroom door hooks arrived. Huan had ordered these but I think I would probably have made the same mistake. “What mistake?” some of you will ask while the more observant among you will have noticed that the hooks are on the outside of the bathroom door. Because the bathroom is so small we asked for the door to open outwards but forgot all about that when ordering the hooks. Ah well, at least they have towel hooks near the bathroom, all they have to do is reach round the door.

For dinner we treated ourselves today and went to a麻辣烫 (má là tang) restaurant, which translates as “Spicy Hot”. You can find them all over China and you can select your preferred level of ‘heat’. We both asked for fairly mild today, mine tasted a little like a Thai coconut curry although of course the textures were completely different. You chose what goes into your dish; they weigh it for the cost and then cook it for you. This place had no fresh meat, just a lot of pre-processed stuff, but it was good enough for us today. This is the counter we chose from, as you can see, it can be as healthy or as unhealthy as you make it.

October 17^th More rain, and more forecast, for the next three days at least. Not to worry, we had to stay in waiting for Taobao again. The storage unit arrived and I was suitably unimpressed. I hadn’t expected to like it much; Huan ordered it against my advice. She thought that a ‘metal’ cupboard would be better for Chinese people and wouldn’t get destroyed as easy. It does look metal but all the coloured panelling you can see is just compressed hardboard. I would give it a month or two at most.

We had a very short walk out at lunchtime, just to buy a few dumplings, Huan had two and I had one with a leftover moon cake from yesterday. We both slept far too much in the afternoon. In the evening we thought we would try the up-market shopping mall across the main road, maybe eat something a it different. It was a waste of time! The only ‘foreign’ option was KFC. Apart from that it was heaving with masses of humanity, Saturday night and all that. Most of the restaurants were noisy and full and even had queues of people outside waiting for their takeaway number to be called. We escaped and went back through the back streets towards home, on the way finding a decent restaurant, cheaper and more importantly, much quieter. Here’s a picture of Huan through the rainy window and one of me with my pre-dinner beer.

The food as usual bore little resemblance to the menu but it wasn’t too bad. Huan made the better choice with fish; my chicken was fine apart from being too oily.

October 18^th What a miserable day! It poured down from morning to night; too much rain to go anywhere, even dinner was taken at the burger restaurant again. Getting from our door to the restaurant door, only about four or five metres away was quite treacherous, the steps are shiny tiles which get very slippery in the rain. Later on, while I was out on a fag break, the burger shop lady fell out of the shop and down the steps. Luckily, she wasn’t hurt.

Huan wasn’t too happy for other reasons. She did manage a short walk to the real estate office where they told her that rents are down all over Sanya, including in our area. For Sanya in general, Covid 19 is the reason, a lot of Snowbirds are not flocking south this year. In our area we have the added factor of all the local owners deciding to build up their lots from two or three storeys to seven or more. Now these owners have already been recompensed for their land, they were all farmers before, so as long as they get some rent, they are not too worried about how much they get. We may well end up letting the flat out for the same price as last year. If it’s to someone who looks after it, I won’t be too unhappy but the Minister for the Treasury may be.

October 19^th This morning we had a rain free start so we popped off to the bathroom door suppliers, one of the hinges looked wrong. It seems that nothing was really wrong, but the manufacturers sometimes sent a hinge that obviously didn’t pass quality control. He gave us a new hinge, free of charge. Of course while we there, the rain came back, in bucketfuls again.

We drove home a long way round and came back into Sanya on the old beach road from the airport. The rain eased off enough for us to go and look at the sea. Now, you may or may not know that Sanya is the wedding capital of China; couples come here to get married and also to have their wedding photographs taken. Here’s a couple doing the latter.

And here’s Huan looking for shells then showing me what she had found. When she was a young girl, in the summer months, she ran off to the beach everyday after school. In those days she never worried about ‘getting brown’, and today she didn’t have to worry either! It wasn’t raining though; the umbrella was for a photo before.

Of course we had to have a selfie with the beach behind us, I’m not smiling much in this one but this is the better one of Huan.

On our way back into Sanya we kept looking for somewhere different to eat, with somewhere to park the car as well, that’s the difficult part. We found a shopping centre with almost no businesses at all open, just a couple of hotpot restaurants on the ground floor, a French café, and an enormous very successful wedding business on the second floor. Luckily for us, and for a change, there was a Pizza hut! It took a while to find the way in, the ground floor section was all closed, but we found a door on the second floor. There were hardly any customers at all, the staff told us it was the rain, but I seriously doubt that. This mall has three floors and apart from what I’ve already mentioned, the third floor is completely closed off. Anyway, somewhere to have lunch and something different. Huan chose Spanish baked seafood rice for herself and then she chose a plate of ‘snacks’ for me! To be honest, I’m not a fan of big lunches anymore and if we weren’t having pizza than I’d be happy with snacks. Here are the obligatory photos, mine before I tucked in and Huan’s after she had broken the cheesy top layer.

I dropped Huan off at the apartment and then spent nearly an hour going around in circles trying to park the car. Once again, it’s about a kilometre away.

In the evening we were caught out by the menu again, this time because the dishes, when they arrived on our table, looked exactly like the pictures, ginormous! Neither of us could finish what we had ordered, but at least we finished the week on a full stomach. We also managed to finish it dry; it didn’t rain until after we got home.

So, as I said, end of the week, and we’re still not finished. All the work is done but no tenants have been found. Let’s hope next week brings better news. Bye for now!

Rigsby’s Lament or More Trials and Tribulations for the Landlords

October 6^th “Eight Days A Week” the Beatles sang and this is our eighth day of being in Sanya. Will it ever end I ask myself. SWMBO has decided that there is no rest for the wicked and I must get started on the kitchen tiles as soon as possible. First a spray with the degreaser, followed by Jif to remove and extra gunk and finally another spray, a special one, that came with the tile paint.
 
So much for our new bed, I had a terrible night’s sleep, Huan not much better. I suppose her sleep could have been disturbed by my tossing and turning all night. After breakfast I had a respite from work as we had to pay another visit to the bathroom shop, Huan had decided the accessories and the mirror should be replaced as well, no argument from me. By the time we got back it lunch time, a quick walk to the Xinjiang stall, a couple of samosas each by the river and then home to wait for the toilet to arrive.
 
I fell asleep and slept all the way through the toilet delivery and installation only waking when the accessories were being installed. Here’s the new loo, which we are not allowed to use for twelve hours. That’s something I had to have clarified! We can use it, but we can’t actually sit on it for twelve hours so a #2 is out of the question!

After that we were back to the waiting game, two more deliveries due this afternoon, both in Sanya somewhere, just waiting for the phone to ring. Thank God for the burger shop downstairs, 鱼香肉丝 (Yú xiāng ròu sī, translates as fish like meat), for Huan and咖喱 (gālí) curry for me, with chicken but no crispy coating this time. Then once more to the waiting game, the courier left his depot at four and two hours later we’re still waiting!

Our luck was in today, the courier found his way to our place without returning to the depot for a night, he was here just before seven. The job was completed by twenty to eight, as usual Huan recording all the progress. Here are her results, one of me working and one of the finished job. #1 son and his good lady may recognise these curtains, they used to hang in the spare bedroom in Abu Dhabi.

The second delivery didn’t arrive, not to worry, that’s not important yet, I have to finish my painting job in the kitchen first. While Huan watched TV I busied myself downloading more chords and lyrics to have a go at when we eventually get home. Of course by then my guitar calluses may have completely disappeared!

October 7^th As is often the case, a change in plans this morning, instead of starting on the kitchen I had to take the curtains down in the bedroom and paint the wall there. The workman installing our air conditioner had made a mess of the wall and a big black boot print on the windowsill. Cleaning up his mess and repainting only the bad part of the wall would have made the rest of the wall look worse so the whole thing had to be done. The top of the front door also needed touching up so I did that F.O.C! Huan did try and take photos but I told her not to bother knowing that she would get me again later on anyway.

Later on came and we tried to make sense of the instructions for our tile paint. Spray the wall first with something they call cleaner but is called tile reinforcement on the bottle, leave for five minutes and wipe dry. Repeat, but this time leave for fifteen minutes, and then wipe dry again. Mix the reagent into the paint and start on the tiles, recommended two coats, in our case probably three will be needed. Huan caught me this time.

There is a waiting time of two hours between each coat, nothing to really worry about, but you also have use all the paint within twelve hours or it will ‘go off’. We did, or should I say I did, the second coat before we went out for dinner. Half a chicken for me with some green vegetables and a little rice, we must have asked them a dozen times not to ‘chop chop’ the chicken, just give me a pair of gloves! It went down very fast, all this work Huan is making me do is playing havoc with my appetite, sometimes I don’t want to eat at all and other times, like today, I just wolfed it all down.
 
Two more jobs after dinner, well three, if you include washing my hands with paint thinners. Guess who didn’t use the gloves provided for painting? The first was to put the curtains back up in the bedroom, the second was to put a third coat of paint on the kitchen tiles, yes, two coats weren’t enough. I’ll try and remember to take a photo tomorrow showing the difference between ‘old’ and ‘new’.
 
Because we can’t save the paint I did a first coat on the stone kitchen units, they now look a very badly painted grey. Once we have done the rest of the kitchen wall we will slop a lot more paint on the units to see if we can get them to look any better. Mind you, they already look a darn sight better than they did last week!

October 8^th As promised, the ‘old’ and ‘new’ side by side, just in case you can’t tell, the old is on the left. The new has three coats of tile paint and probably wasn’t prepared as well as it could have been, on top of which there was evidence of water ingress from outside behind some of the tiles. Still, we are reasonably happy with the result and would consider doing it in our own house and recommending it to other people if they have old or non-matching tiles.

After breakfast I started the rest of the wall, one coat before lunch then one after lunch, just before the first ‘doorman’ came to remove the old bathroom door. I was glad to be of assistance by lending him my drill to drill out the rivets on the hinges. Further assistance was provided by swinging my little axe to help get the old frame out of the doorway. It was fun being a destroyer for a change!

Third coat finished in time for the second, and ‘Chief’ doorman to arrive and fit the door. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anywhere to park his car so today’s installation was cancelled. He suggested tomorrow at five in the afternoon but Her Highness has to go back to Wuzhishan tomorrow so a new date was arranged for next week.

No rest for me though, another two coats on the inside of the kitchen units, nowhere near as ‘professional’ as the walls but hopefully any tenants will not go down on their knees to check. Masking tape was removed from the kitchen walls and the floor cleaned so we could put the washing machine and fridge back in place. Here’s what the units look like after three coats of paint, check back to 29^th September for a comparison. The paint is ‘Bright White’ which the units may not be but they look pretty good to me! We still have one more tin of paint so when we come back next week we’ll decide whether another coat is required.

October 9^th I got back from breakfast shortly after Huan to find the apartment full of people. There was someone Huan knows and a couple of potential tenants. They wanted to pay monthly, which we politely declined, Huan told them the rent was yearly, even if they only wanted to stay for seven or eight months, I agreed. I would prefer this time that we rent to young working people but we’ll see how it goes.

Once they had left I finished off the floor and tried to clean the worktops, not so easy, that covering is difficult to bring back to anywhere near its original condition. Packed up our clothes and the computer, left the ladder and tools and headed back to Wuzhishan for a couple of days. Round two will start on Tuesday.

Leaving Sanya at the time we did meant we had to stop for a lunch break on the way, today was somewhere we hadn’t tried before. We had said no burgers for lunch but we thought that as this one appeared different, we would give it a go. Spot the error in the sign; it was all correct on the door though.

Was it different? I suppose the answer would be yes and no. It had all the usual spicy coated fried chicken stuff but with additions. There are lots roots, chicken feet and other assorted Chinese delicacies too. Huan had a fish burger, covered in spicy coating of course, but not as hot as the usual shops. I had a double beefburger which took me back to my younger days in the 1960s and reminded me of Wimpy burgers. Mine had more sauce on it than the ones in the old days but it was certainly palatable and made a nice change.

Once home work started again, Huan watering the plants first before washing our dirty clothes and bedding from Sanya, and me on the computer. The first job was transferring all the data from my portable HDD to the PC, followed by transferring all the dashcam videos. I could them make a start of fine tuning the photos for last week’s Blog, removing hundreds of bird pictures taken by Huan, with her phone, and making sure I had no rubbish left in mine. After that it was time for a nice hot coffee, only instant, but by golly, it tasted good after more than a week of only bottled stuff. We also felt that we needed it, coming back to Wuzhishan felt like coming back to winter. You’ll all laugh but the temperature had dropped to almost 20ºC and I even had to put a T-shirt on in the house!

PC work continued until dinner time when we went out to a most salubrious establishment. Our plan was to take photos of our dinners for you but we forgot so instead, we took a few of the surroundings. First is their new serving area.

We follow that with the pièce de résistance, the Sistine Chapel style roof, the photos of which took on a new life by using Picasa’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” tool. All you arty types can feel free to chip in with what you think these are and whether or not they’re any good.

Back to the grindstone of dashcam work when I got home with an hour or so break for some much needed guitar practice. It would have been pretty obvious to anyone listening that much more practice is certainly needed!

October 10^th Well that didn’t take long, by the time I went to bed last night I was sneezing like mad, had sinus problems and a sore throat! Huan put me on Chinese medicine straight away. I guess I was pretty run down after our nine days away. I woke up this morning just before she went off to a choir practice and to return her performance dress. The rest of the morning I caught up on my emails and FB and did some more dashcam work. The one I had left running overnight had failed; soon I’ll have to consider a graphics board and additional memory. Luckily for me, the two compilations this morning worked fine.

Out for dinner again this evening and I was wearing a vest, my jeans, a long sleeved shirt and even shoes and socks! It’s not supposed to be this cold and miserable at this time of the year.

We didn’t walk far before dinner but did manage about five kilometres afterwards; both of us are still feeling a bit worn out. Food helped, as it always does, today’s venue was not quite as salubrious as yesterday’s, but the food was fine. As you can see we were both on seafood today and in UK prices, that was around £4.00, exceptionally good value for money.

October 11^th You may be wondering why we are not back off to Sanya today, seeing as how we still have a fair bit to do there. Well, it’s that time of the month again and I have to go and get my belly punctured on Monday. We spent the morning sorting out tenancy contracts, I even made one in English just on the off chance that some foreign teacher would like to live there. Mind you, the advert I made in Sanya has somehow become corrupted so I can’t open it here and the laptop has packed up again, I think I may need a new mouse.

After lunch, everything was packed up and off we set for Haikou, I convinced Huan that it was better to stay a night in a hotel and go to Sanya from the hospital. Her plan had been to have me do the whole lot in one day!

Stopped off in our usual spot for a refill, 92 octane for me and coffee for the car, or was it the other way round? We like this spot, nestled as it is in the hills, on a sunny day it’s very pretty. Here’s what it looked like today.

This was probably the best weather we saw anywhere on our drive up to Haikou but at least when we got there the temperature was ‘nicer’. It was 27°C at around half past five in the evening, should be shorts again tomorrow!

On the way to dinner, and after dinner, we tried to find a new mouse for the laptop, should be easy enough we thought. Nope, not a computer shop in sight anywhere, not even a computer repair shop, but we were eventually successful in a stationery shop. Huan bought one; it cost her ¥38.00, and then saw, in the very next shop, one for ¥20.00, which brought a little chuckle from me, not too loud of course! At least part of the computer is working again.

October 12^th Last night we were given a room on the other side of the hotel, still with access to the enormous balcony for my fag breaks though. Here’s the morning view taken with me trying to hold the camera through the small opening that the window allowed. It’s not the best of views but it’s not so bad.

We had all the usual kerfuffle today with joining queues to pay before seeing the doctor and then afterwards to pay for the monthly drug hit but we were away from there before ten. Fisticuffs in the car again with Huan telling me to listen to the Sat Nav, which may or may not have been right and me wondering why we weren’t in the right place on the displayed map. Eventually we all agreed with each other and found our way to the Eastern Expressway. It was another rainy day, not the best for driving. Lunch was taken on the way, dumplings for Huan and some strange wrap for me. I hadn’t realised that the outside was not pastry but sticky rice covered in a thin layer of seaweed. It was tasty enough but I was bloated for the rest of the day.

In fact by the time we reached Sanya I didn’t feel too well at all, Huan had me on the Chinese medicine again. I guess being run down and having a cold is not the best time to be having hormones stuck in your belly! I would have delayed it if the injection was being done in Wuzhishan but not when it’s such a long drive away in Haikou.

Parking space sorted and bags left in the house we went for a walk, I needed the air. Down by the riverside we spotted lots of birds again so the ‘Director’ was busy. I only had my phone with me but this one’s not bad, the others will appear in the Sanya Apartment Area album when I have enough time to do the work.

We wandered around the shops in the evening, found a mouse pad, Huan insisted, I refused to have one that had the Apple logo on it. We settled on a cheap Microsoft one! Huan found a restaurant where she could eat, at my insistence, my belly felt like I’d eaten a Medicine Ball and my head wasn’t too good either. While she tucked in I had a can of coke, calculating that the extra gas in that may help deal with whatever was in my stomach!

On the way home we decided to check out Sanya’s new underground shopping streets. In Harbin they go shopping underground because it’s so cold above ground so in Sanya they have decided they must have the reverse. First off a bit of Chinglish on the way down, the second sign is fine, not sure who the ‘Land Creep’ is in the first though!

We didn’t stay down there too long today just dipped in to cross the road. We’ll try and do a lot more some time in the future. Here are the views towards both ends of the one we were down from our vantage point half way across the road.

And that was it for today, shower, PC work, ready salted crisps and more coke for me, shower and WeChat for Huan. Good news was received, the bathroom door installers should be arriving by nine in the morning. Fingers crossed.

Being in Sanya, with lousy ‘get over the wall’ abilities, this post will also be uploaded late. Please forgive me! See you next week, again.