Back to Normal, Pareidolia, Books, Philanthropy, Chinese Cars

November 3^rd Sometimes your plans get changed as mine were today. Black skies surrounded us but I had to go out and collect the baps I ordered so I took the car. Now Donald, who is, as you may remember, the car, was incredibly filthy and as I was driving up the road I noticed that the car wash was free, not free of charge but free of customers. I dropped Donald off there and walked to get the baps, trusty umbrella in my hand. Luckily for me the rain didn’t come. Freddy was absent which was a shame because I found a bird that wasn’t black for a change.

And here are my baps still warm from the oven. We even got a free gift today of a large vegetable filled flat bread. We had it for lunch with cheese, tomato and cucumber.

All that was left was to pick up Donald and he was ready and waiting, he’d even had his shoes cleaned. I have no idea of UK prices these days but this cost less than a fiver.

Back home then to carry out my chief cook and bottle washer duties, oh there’s definitely no peace for the wicked, or me come to that.

After lunch I got to work on the old laptop, removing all the data and software that I had installed. It was left with only Windows 7 by the time I finished. I checked with Huan’s son on whether or not we should consider repairing it and he advised against it, unless we wanted it just for movies, storing files or as a server. We don’t need it for movies, Huan has her TV and a desktop and I have my PC, files are stored on mine, backed up on my external HDD and Huan’s PC and photos are sent to my children every month. As for using it as a server, well I guess I could work out how to do that, but not why.

Guitar and Chinese were not forgotten today; in fact I even tried translating a song into Chinese for the resident’s show. I discovered that it’s not very easy!

November 4^th I was graced with Huan’s company this morning, she has decided to give morning drum practices a miss. It seems there is some bickering between two of the ladies as to who should play what and neither are happy if the leader (saxophone player) makes the decision. Huan has just been playing whatever she was asked to but has decided that an ‘atmosphere’ twice a day is just too much, she will stick to afternoons. Their evening sessions are just fun so those stay too.

Because I had Huan with me I thought we would take one of her favourite routes, the scenic mountain walk. As we came towards the edge of the town where we would start going uphill, in front of us were ominous black clouds so we changed our minds and headed back into town. Of course the weather picked up again didn’t it so we took the anti-clockwise route for a while. It was nice to see some of the scenery again.

Don’t let the empty path fool you, the snowbirds are now back in force, and as we reached the usual congregation place they were there dancing, doing tai-chi, using the outdoor gym, cracking their whips etc. No singing was heard though. As if to keep us from going any further, those foreboding black clouds were back so backtracked again and headed off around the river. It made a very pleasant change for me to have Huan back at my side; life was back to normal again. We saw the usual groups of singers and a lot of people fishing. Of course not everyone was full of life; this one in his RV was having a slow day.

We were both fascinated by a red flower today, from below we could only see the red ‘spikes’ but by bending the stalks we could see the white seeds. I didn’t want to take a photo like that, so we moved on. However, a few metres further along the footpath we found just one flower, on a tree. Whether the wind had blown it there, or someone had put it there, we don’t know, but, it gave me the chance of a photo.

Despite our convoluted unplanned walk we ended up doing a lot more than we would have going around the mountain walk. That is about nine kilometres door to door and we finished with nearly eleven and a half. That’s the longest for some time and I had to have an OAP nap after lunch. I was the chef again today, shrimp and noodle soup, very nice it was too.

Huan’s afternoon was hulusi and her evening was drums. She ‘gave me a job’ before she left, “Just scan and print a few pages from the hulusi school book.” A few pages turned out to be thirty four and of course I can’t damage the book so I rebelled, a little. I said I would do it tomorrow! Yu is already a member of the hulusi class and Huan has the chance to join next week, if she can adapt to their level. They’ve been playing a few months with a teacher as opposed to Huan’s few weeks alone. Fingers crossed but I think she should be fine.

November 5th We were confined to barracks yet again due to inclement weather, although Huan did manage to fit her morning choir practice in. My entertainment consisted of watching the workmen repaving the pavement across the road yet again. Sometimes I think the Wuzhishan local government has been taking lessons from UK local councils. The pavement has been dug up and re-laid numerous times in the last couple of years. The most recent occasion was just a few months ago after which trees were planted alongside the road, very forward thinking. Two weeks ago they pruned all the trees, presumably to allow for thicker growth of the trunks before the foliage spread again. They then painted the bottoms of all the trunks white, there can be many reasons for this but the answer, for China, that I found on Quora states “Painting tree trunks white is a time honoured method of young tree protection often found in orchards and tree farms. There are several purposes but chief among them is to prevent cracking and splitting of the tender new bark, which can allow introduction of disease, insects and fungus.” So far so good. However, last week they took up all the paving stones and in the process removed all the trees. I think they knocked one or two down by accident and then decided it would be better to remove them all. New paving has nearly been completed now, using bricks rather than paving slabs, and room has been left for the trees to come back. It all sort of reminds me of Bernard Cribbins (Right Said Fred) and Flanders & Swann (The Gasman Cometh). You can listen to the latter here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1dvAxA9ib0&ab_channel=NancyDeHaven

Our other spot of entertainment was going out for dinner. The couple who we took to the port before summer set in have returned and insisted on treating us. We tried to refuse, after all we had to go to Haikou anyway and they had already sent us some expensive salted duck eggs. They wouldn’t have it and we felt obliged to go, that was my pre-hospital diet of the window for one night. I did manage to limit myself to three small glasses of beer though.

I did try and take a selfie of us all but my arms were not quite long enough.

November 6^th Would you believe it, yet another day locked indoors, this time Huan as well, she had no practice today. Of course she more than made up for it in the house, I even managed nearly two hours on the guitar. It’s a good job we have no people living above or below us! I also had a go at servicing Freddy; it’s amazing how much help you can find on the internet for almost any problem. The solution I found seemed to work, we’ll see more tomorrow.

November 7^th Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day…The sun was shining, Freddy had a new “Soft Shutter Release” fitted, something that came with the camera but that I never used because I thought it was just ornamental! Huan went off to choir practice and I went off round the river via the Saturday market which was a lot bigger than last week. It had expanded at both ends and there were a lot more people.

I didn’t find anything special to show you this week, mostly because I can’t remember what you’ve already seen! It is a farmer’s market but also has all the usual bric-a-brac stalls, even battery operated toys for the kids today. Remember those toys that used to go round in circles, dogs that barked etc? I’m sure some children will still love them, given the chance, if their parents don’t buy them iPads too early on. I did spot one very happy young boy; his Mum had just bought him a kitten. I suppose you think I mean a cat, well I don’t, I mean a rabbit. I do have to confess though that I had to look up the name for baby rabbits.

Despite all the crowds at the market, there was only a smattering of people down by the riverside.

I did find a lone saxophone player up near the bridge you can see in the distance in the first photo. He had his music hanging from a tree, if you enlarge it you will see that they don’t use staves as we do but instead use a numbering system. Huan uses the same for singing and hulusi, whether it’s easier or not I couldn’t tell you. I do know that I find it more difficult.

This is the view the other side of the river, just starting on my way back, not many people here either. Maybe they were all in the market today.

The only wildlife I saw today was a very small butterfly. If I had got any closer it could have spat in my eye!

On this side I did find signs of life of the human kind though, singers, fishermen and a gentleman playing the Er Hu. I only photographed the last two.

Just before reaching home I decided to make a panorama for you, hope you like it.

And the last picture from today’s walk, taken at the request of the subject. I’m not sure why he asked, after all, he won’t get a copy, but here he is making a new entrance to our riverside walk.

Arriving home I found that our water was off, they were cleaning the rooftop tank. Making dinner would have to wait. Still, it gave me a chance to catch up the Blog, I hadn’t actually written anything since Wednesday.

November 8^th Graced with Huan’s company again today we tried the clockwise route around the mountain scenic walk again, we were lucky, the weather stayed good for us. One reason for going was to check on the progress of the road refurbishment, it’s still not finished.

As you can see from the angle of the shot, I was walking above the road which was fine until I reached the end and to drop down six feet back to the road. At times like that I know I’m getting old! The road further up was just like it had always been.

Although this is a concrete road it is not a busy one, it only leads to the hotel at the top. That’s one of the reasons we enjoy it, the other is the scenery at the sides. Here’s a view stitched from six photos, as you can see, good walking weather today.

You’ve seen the bridge where we cross to go down before, this is the view the other way, stitched from six photos again.

Some of the rubber trees were in action today and using Freddy, I was able to catch a drop. Of course if I knew the camera as well as I should I may have done a better job.

This chap was much easier to photograph although what he was doing in the rubber collecting cup we don’t know. Can you see him?

Our canine friend wasn’t so friendly today. She did come running when I whistled and clapped my hands, and was happy to see us until she realised we had no food. I really ought to buy some dog biscuits for her.

Snowbirds were out in force today, some of the early ones coming down as we were going up but some going our way too. One asked me if I was Russian so I asked if he was Korean. He then asked if I was French, for some reason, so I asked if he was Japanese. I stopped there but he carried on, German, Australian, Kiwi, American and finally British. At least he took my responses in good humour. Despite all the snowbirds we did manage to take a lot of photos without any of them showing up. Here’s another stitch up of the bamboo grove which usually has quite a few people exercising, empty today.

Finally, on our way home we passed the town square and there was a book sale in progress. The sign said “Buy two, get five” so after confirming that you actually got seven books for the price of two we dived in. You pay for the two most expensive books, which in our case was ¥75.00 and ¥34.00. Huan was not too happy about paying ¥75.00 for one book but she got the point eventually, I think! Here’s the haul, Huan’s three at the front, my four at the back. Buying English books here is not easy so almost anything will do.

We were both worn out when we got home; it’s a long time since we walked up hills and steps, so an OAP kip was called for. I slept for just over two hours and, unusually for Huan, she slept an hour and a half. It’s a good job we didn’t have to cook today!

November 9^th I had bad news from Shure microphones this week, neither of my wireless ones are on frequencies used in China. Mine are both VHF and here they use UHF. Today was disposal day for them and for the laptop.

The first stop was the computer shop where they have a small workshop. Unfortunately, the technician was not in so I had to deal with the sales lady. Communication was not so easy but eventually another customer got the point before she did. I was not trying to sell them the laptop or to ask for it to be repaired; I was trying to give it to the technician who may be able to use it for parts.

No such problems were encountered at the ‘repair everything’ shop; the gentleman there had big smiles when he saw the two microphones. I pointed out the frequencies for him and explained that the government forbids the use of these in China. Hopefully he understood, I wouldn’t like to see him hauled off to jail.

Never let people tell you that Chinese made products are not up to standard, I mean, look at this, it even says ‘High Quality’ on it. It’s got four wheels, four seats, four doors and runs on electric, what more could you possibly need? Don’t laugh, that could be our car in a few years time!

If you’re wondering why there’s no shopping today, after all it is Monday, it’s because we are off to Haikou tomorrow for tests and needles. Hopefully all will be OK, you can find out in next week’s episode, see you then!