February 16th It’s just like Sundays used to be, lazy. No walks this morning, just bath time for Huan and movies for me. With all the news about Gina Carano and what she is supposed to have said, I thought I should do a Google. Politics aside I decided to watch the two movies that came up, both available on Youtube, ‘Haywire’ and ‘In The Blood’. They weren’t anything special I suppose but lots of action without too much gore, certainly kept me amused all morning.
After lunch it was bath time for me followed by more Youtube movies. It’s amazing what gets suggested once you have found one full movie. Again, nothing special, only more of the same, action thrillers. I’m easy to please.
After dinner the laziness set in even further. Our planned walk went by the wayside; we just ate New Year treats and sat on our big fat backsides!
February 17th Out for a countryside walk today, through the villages of Zali Cun and Zabian Cun. Our first job was to cross the river which we did via our new park island bridge, even spotting some wildlife on the way. I particularly like the dragonfly photograph which I was able to crop a lot and still see the detail. The other insect was just a little too far away.
Our next job was to find the latest route (track) around the new ring road up to the country lanes.
The new track is pedestrians only, before bikes and three wheelers could pass. Once through we took a panorama, you can see the new road right of centre just this side of the river.
As you can see we had lovely weather for it today but at least we were out in the morning. These little creatures obviously like sunny weather too; they look like midges only white and bigger.
This is quite a sunny route, not one to be done during ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’ time. What’s good about it though is the lack of any steep hills.
I can’t find any traditions about when farmers start planting after the New Year but there was certainly a lot of it going on today. We saw whole families in the fields.
It’s a long way since we walked
this way so we could see that fields that used to have rice now have some other
crop and vice versa. Cue me telling Huan what little I know of crop rotation.
It’s amazing what you sometimes remember from your school days!
In her usual way, Huan was being the director and pointing out subjects that I really should take pictures of, despite me having loads already. First it was chickens and their chicks, I obliged of course but won’t bother sharing them here. Next it was a turkey strutting its stuff, notice the ‘extended foot’ and spot the decorations hanging from the nearby plants.
After Zabian Cun we crossed the river to walk back downstream towards home. From this side we could see where the new road would be going and how many villagers would have to be rehoused. We had seen new houses being built as we walked through the village.
That panorama was created from ten 16:9 photos, perhaps one day I’ll get the hang of not having a bend in the nearside middle! As ‘Freddy’ was doing all the photography today I decided to try his panorama mode, which I’ve never really succeeded with before. It took me four attempts, each time I got the message “Error, you need to move the camera faster” or something like that. So I tried again and moved much faster, this was the result. PS It was meant to be B&W.
Just in case you thought I was alone on this ramble, I did an upside down over my head shot to catch Huan walking behind me. In fact I took three but only one is half good enough for here.
As you can see we are back on the main road there, almost into Wuzhishan. Just up ahead I spotted a truck selling something at the side of the road but I couldn’t make out what it was. Normally it’s fruit and vegetables of some sort or other but this appeared to have some blue colour in it too. As we got nearer, things became clearer. Huan became more interested too, even asking ‘how much’. Between the seller and I, we managed to convince Huan that these were not really for adults to play, but for children to play with!
Approaching home, with no bread out of the freezer, I decided to treat Huan to lunch. No prizes for guessing which one is mine. In fact I bought six pieces of chicken; the other four will go into the freezer for future sandwiches.
Well, I failed today! Last week
because we were still testing Sprog, a lot of photographs were taken. I had
every intention of taking less this week. I haven’t started well have I?
An afternoon OAP kip was needed by both of us, I wish I hadn’t bothered, I woke with a stinking headache. By mutual agreement there would be no after dinner walk, thank God for that.
February 18th Well, we haven’t got a clue what the weather is playing at. This morning it was all overcast again with a forecast of rain so we stayed in. After lunch it was clearer, the sun came out to play now and then, so we set off to walk the Sanyue San turning 1-2-3 route, to take us up to a little village in the mountains. First we had to pass the fire station and the first small village just off the main road. Some people have nice houses.
Before long we reached the turn off, a welcome sight, if we carried on walking to the right we would end up at the landfill after first going up a very steep hill.
This route is much less work and one of our more pleasant walks. It was made even more so today because there was no sound of construction or pneumatic drills to be heard from the town at all, due to the holidays. These two photos will show you why we like walking this way. It does look a bit different this year; it almost looks like winter in Europe with all the bare trees.
This route brings us out at a restaurant, the Cha Gu Shi Farm Restaurant. In the past it has been nothing much to look at, and has never been open. All that has changed, it now holds wedding parties, has an outside juice bar and a lovely terrace.
It also has numerous smaller rooms that seat twelve people; they even have western style loos in those rooms! It’s a place that’s definitely worth a future visit when we have more time on our hands, and then we’ll show you more of the rooms and of course the food.
See what I did there? PS The clock had stopped. After our delays on the way up and looking around the restaurant, we decided that the walk to the village would be postponed to another time. For today, we’ll leave you with the view from nearer the road.
February 19th What’s wrong with us two? It was nearly nine o’clock by the time I dragged myself out of bed this morning despite the fact that I felt that I slept well. Perhaps we are very much out of practice at long walks! We certainly didn’t have one this morning. Instead, for me, it was back to house maintenance, tightening the retaining nut on the kitchen tap. I don’t remember ever having to do this in other countries; but this is the third time here since 2015 when the sink was installed. Even when we check the taps in the local plumbing shops they always seem loose. Here are the progress pictures, preparing, tools of the trade, tightening and done.
No walks in the afternoon, Huan wanted to cook so we had to wait until after dinner. Our first stop was the bap man, he wasn’t there but his wife was. Unfortunately we were too late; maybe we’ll be luckier tomorrow. Still we got some of the other necessities, Aspirin for me, doctor’s orders you know, and sunflower seeds for Huan. For the life of me I can’t see what pleasure anyone gets from eating those, all that fighting to get in for one tiny nut. I’d much rather tuck into some meat, maybe duck, like this. I did ask the little girl if I could eat them, luckily she seemed to understand that I wasn’t serious.
I dropped Huan off at the square
for a gossip with her friends; she needed it after a few days stuck alone with
me!
February 20th That’s funny, today didn’t feel any different to any other day, despite me now being ancient, I am now officially in my eighth decade. Only just of course, I reached 71 today. Huan marked the occasion by making me a longevity dish of noodle soup with an egg.
Being Saturday we thought we would check out how the Saturday market is doing under its new roofed area. The market wasn’t there, I guess the farmers are making the most of the traditional fifteen day holiday. Half the roofs had been completed though, I wonder if you can spot what I consider to be glaring, (or deliberate), errors in the final result.
Did you spot them? The
corrugations go from front to back, the drain is between each roof, the
corrugations will allow a lot of the water to flow from front to back
completely missing the drain and soaking whatever, or whoever, is below.
Bapman was next on our list, before him we bumped into the Xinjiang bread man, so I ended up walking home carrying half a bakery with me!
Old age doesn’t just creep up does it, it accelerates every day! Once again an OAP kip was required after lunch, for both of us.
Being my birthday today, dinner was out, for a change we didn’t just go for cheapo buffet food. I insisted we had somewhere where I could at least have a beer. We settled on 多喜爱, Duō xǐ'ài, which translates as “Much Love”. Here we are with the beer and the birthday toast.
And here’s our lovely grub. Huan’s is the spicy fish on the left and mine is the curry on the right. I’m sure I’ve had curry in this restaurant before when it was under another name; mind you it was a long time ago. Both of us enjoyed our meals, each of us had chosen just right, I had a little of Huan’s, she had a little of mine, but the major portion of each was eaten individually! I do miss going out for something different, it’s not so easy in China and even more difficult when you live in a smaller city. However, today’s feast was wonderful!
Being a bit on the bloated side,
we took a long roundabout route home, a pleasant end to a pleasant day. PS I
got a red envelope this morning too!
February 21st All dressed up with nowhere to go. This morning a car was supposed to pick us up to go and visit one of Huan’s singing classmates at her villa, possibly something to do with her offering massages but we’re not sure. Anyway, the car never turned up so I spent the morning preparing another two day stew, haven’t done that for a while, and Huan spent it practicing her hulusi.
Both of us felt like a walk after lunch so once the stew was complete off we went, across the river and downstream.
On the way we passed Porky the pig, remember him, or her? I would guess it’s a sow but it will never move to enable us to get a closer look. I feel sorry for her really. I was telling Huan that the family next door in the Philippines kept a very large sow underneath their bamboo hut. However, they would put it on a lead and take it for a walk every evening; this poor old porker never seems to get out at all. After passing the obligatory goats we came across this, I thought it looked like some kind of snake appearing out of the ground, as did Huan. Look closely and you can see what looks like an eye. On the PC I guess it looks more like a turtle’s head or some sort of glove puppet. Check out the trees on the left, Huan thinks they look like feet.
Now I’m going to show you a field. “Just a field?” I hear you ask. Yes, just a field, Huan suggested that we walk down the right hand side of said field and see where it led us. Despite not having my boots on, (snake worries you know), I agreed.
We ended up having to backtrack a little and then walk on the raised parts at the side of the fields that the farmers use. We hadn’t gone far when one of the cows in the field decided to jump in front of us and another decided to pop up behind us. Look at the size of the track, not much room to manoeuvre.
The one in front seemed to know me so we asked the farmer where the cows ‘lived’. They are the ones we usually see in the pen that we would have passed had we not taken this diversion. The cow, in this case a bull, had no problems with me touching him at all, in fact he was even nuzzling my leg again. We wondered just how long we would have to stand there, marooned between the two of them. Suddenly the front one decided he would pass me, I had visions of me toppling into the field which, like all cow fields, would not have been a pleasant sight. Luckily I managed to hang on! Huan didn’t manage to get a photo but it was just after this one.
Huan, being smaller than me, and of course much more lithe, managed to stay on the small path without too much trouble although the camera almost disappeared as she handed it to me. After that the going wasn’t too difficult.
Wildlife is still pretty scarce, we haven’t seen any lizards for a few months now, no snakes either, but that is not a problem. Even the dragonflies were too far away today but we did manage something, a freshwater crab.
Now you know we are always trying to snap pictures of birds, well today we succeeded! Nothing exotic mind you, but I did like the cropped version of pigeons here, I only left one in.
And then a little further on chickens popped into the frame. Well actually, the big one was behind the fence, the chick popped out of the frame. I did try and grab it for another photo-op but it scarpered back inside pretty sharpish.
You almost got another Gif this week, but SWMBO said I wasn’t allowed to make it. It would have showed her swaying like a pirate walking up this hill.
That little hill led us to this little path which joined a little road that had a little speed limit!
Once through the gap I the trees I thought I would try another Freddy panorama, I’m getting the hang of it now. It’s still in black and white but I now know why. I had the camera set to go to Acros B&W whenever I went off Auto and I suppose Pano is off Auto. Anyway, here it is.
Today we found out where the bridge to nowhere, near our house, will eventually end up. They have begun the construction now. They are also building some government apartments down at the front left, slightly out of shot, for all the farmers they will have to rehouse.
And for the first time we’ve seen a map of where the bypass will go. The map is far from accurate, it shows an island in the river between the two bridges and no island in front of our house, but it does show us the planned route in much more detail. (Our house is approximately where K0+000 is on the map.)
Lots more photos were taken today, far too many of me, too many of Huan, too many of our bovine friends, etc. I had not intended to do that, but sometimes you just forget and keep pushing that shutter button. As it is, I whittled them down from 143 (+ 8 videos) to 53 (+ 5 videos) and only included 18 in this post. I’ll try harder next week, I promise!
February 22nd What a morning that was! Huan’s classmate had phoned again yesterday afternoon, rearranging our planned trip, so we set off to meet her this morning. The meeting time was nine, we were about ten minutes late but still had to wait for the car. Conveniently, the meeting place was a shop selling medicinal teas.
Huan of course believed every word and we came away with some tea that’s guaranteed to fix our fatty livers and to fight cancer. I can’t complain, it was very cheap. The cars then arrived, there were a few of us, and we were taken to a residential complex on the road to Nancheng village. We have walked around the outside before but we weren’t allowed in. Today we were waved through like royalty. Why were we here? It would appear that they wanted to show us round a villa, 300 square metres, but only three bedrooms. There was a lot of wasted space inside, a bit like some of the villas in
How much would it have cost? Well, unfinished it would have been ¥5,000,000.00 and finished, like the one above ¥7,000,000.00. I have to admit that the flooring, electrics and plumbing seemed quite good but the fitted units were no better than IKEA. At today’s rates that price in sterling is £771,681.10. I’m fairly sure we could find something better in the
We were then taken a little further up the hill to see the property that Huan’s classmate is looking to rent after the landlord has spent oodles of money doing it up. She wants to have some kind of medical retreat; she used to be a doctor before she retired. First you see the view from outside, it doesn’t look too bad, the second view is the swimming pool, not too good! The inside also has quite a bit of water damage, a lot of work would be required by the owner.
A lot of the time I was lost by
the conversation going on around me, for example, one of the threads was that
people may want someone to talk English to. No actual request was made though.
I also got the impression that they may have been looking for investors.
From there they took us back past our house and down the road towards Changhao village. We turned off ten metres from where Huan and I turned off last week, and went up a small hill to a construction site. This small mountain used to be covered in lychee plants but like many places around here it will be developed. While we were chatting to the owners, yes there are two, not one, from the same family; we showed them where we walk quite regularly.
Somewhere in past Blog posts you will have seen the construction in progress for this next photo. They took us into the conference room for some rest from the sun and some water. As you can see, the model is covered in dust, making me think once again that there may be a money problem and they are looking for investors. Once more nothing was said though.
They then showed us the glossy
books pointing out where the hotel would be, the shops down by the main road,
the swimming pool behind and some more villas. With the projector screen down I
thought we were in for the sales pitch at long last. Surprisingly, it still didn’t
come. Huan tells me that the owners bought the land a while ago and with the
latest rules in
After all that we were dropped off at home again, just in time for lunch. We had planned to go for an afternoon walk but both of us felt exhausted after a morning of not really doing anything. Instead we did our weekly shop, and I loved every minute of it! Parking at the supermarket was easy, shopping was relaxed, hardly any customers and then when I took Huan to the fish market I immediately found a parking space right outside. No headaches at all!
And on that note, I will leave you, relaxing as we are I hope, and pop off for a drink and a fag before bedtime. I’ll be back – next week.
