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.