February 23rd First a PS, I forgot something yesterday, I had two Taobao deliveries yesterday evening. First, I’m running out of socks so I ordered ten pairs for ¥20.00, second I’m going to start my guitar practice again, I think my wrist has had enough rest, so I ordered five sets of ‘finger plectrums’. The socks were supposed to fit up to size 44; they don’t fit me so Huan now has ten new pairs of socks. With my hands, the finger plectrums were also too small for me; I’ll have to keep strumming for a while.
Retirement has its pros and cons, pros, you don’t have to do anything, cons, you don’t have to do anything! This morning we were supposed to go for a nice long walk but I felt completely washed out so we stayed in. In retrospect, the walk would have done me a world of good.
I wasn’t completely lazy though, I did cook tonight’s dinner, another noodle soup. Here it is cooking and the finished result with the noodles added at dinner time.
Just in case you want to repeat
that masterpiece the ingredients are: - Onions, Garlic, Ginger, (Olive Oil),
then Octopus Tentacle, Yellow Pepper, Celery, Some Green Leaf whose name I
don’t know, Mushrooms with long legs, Bamboo shoots julienne style, Diced
normal tomato, Quartered cherry tomatoes, a little salt, Oyster sauce and
enough hot water to simmer. Noodles were cooked separately just before dinner
and added while the soup was being reheated. The head chef was suitably
impressed. Me, on the other hand, I had to visit the throne room a few times
after dinner so maybe you shouldn’t try this recipe! PS It may have been an
apple that was going bad and not my cooking!)
February 24th This morning was much the same as yesterday but not for the same reasons. The boss had to go to a committee meeting so I stayed home and cooked, just like yesterday. Take the same ingredients as above but substitute marinated (a little soya sauce and red chilli pepper powder) minced pork for the octopus tentacle, red pepper for the yellow pepper, add a couple of small diced green peppers, skip the oyster sauce et voila, chilli a la Bob. I was going to show you two photos again but the cooking one is almost the same, just more red and no yellow.
Huan was home fairly early, the meeting was only to confirm that fifteen names had been chosen from which the eleven new committee members will be selected. The fifteen were chosen by voting amongst the residents. The eleven will be chosen by the local government office that deals with title deeds and housing. I have no idea why it’s done like this but it seems to work.
After lunch it was bath time for me with Huan giving me the exfoliation treatment. I don’t like it very much, with all my lumps and bumps, moles and stuff, it hurts! Every now and then though I relent and let her have her way.
Dinner was good, even though I say it myself. I thought I had done myself proud here and Huan was pretty impressed too. It obviously looks a lot different on the plate to yesterday’s.
An after dinner walk was definitely needed today, for both of us. The first thing we noticed was that the weather is definitely getting warmer now; soon it will be shorts in the evening as well as the daytime. The second thing we noticed was the crowds; there were throngs of people everywhere, most of them sounded like northerners. Huan thought they were all coming here instead of Sanya but I think it’s down to two reasons, one being a reluctance to travel back up north for the holidays and two being more people have now retired and taken up residency in their winter abodes.
The moon looked good tonight so I took a lot of photos at X1, X5, X10 and X50 zoom. None of them were any good. All I have to show you is an apartment block nicely lit up, probably for the holidays, maybe to sell more while the snowbirds are here.
February 25th We were up early enough this morning, in fact I was far too early. Having no clock in the bedroom last night I left Huan sleeping and went to check the living room clock when I woke up, quarter to six, too early for me but too late to go back to bed. At least it meant we were able to do our postponed Sanyue San 3 walk, this is where it starts, and the first village on the way.
On our left there used to be only farmland when we walked this way before, the builders have been busy and this is what it looks like now.
Looking ahead, you can see what it used to be like and hopefully how the road ahead will stay. You can also catch a glimpse of the highway bridge that passes this way, that’s all completed now although not in use just yet.
Under the ‘legs’ of the highway we met these not so gentle creatures, all of whom were far to scared to come anywhere near me.
On our way back down again we passed a couple of ordinary cows that we had seen on the way up. The calf was fine, not averse to being touched at all, but check the mother looking backwards. When I tried the same with her she almost head butted me, I just stepped sideways quickly enough. Huan missed that shot!
On our way out Huan’s classmate, the retired doctor, had called her again and asked if we were free for lunch. Getting my people mixed up I said yes.
What’s that? That’s a glass of Baijiu, fierce Chinese alcohol, I always agree to one glass just to show willing. After that I stick to beer. What a mixed bunch we had, Huan’s classmate, Huan and I, another classmate with her neighbour, a retired army doctor on my left, a government man responsible for business licences and a late arrival, the manager of some serviced apartments.
Within minutes the retired army doctor was trying to convince us that what he wanted to use on us would be highly beneficial and, because Huan had said she was a little tired after our 8km walk, would revitalize us. We managed to say no. Before long lunch was served, most of which you can see in this collage. There is a dish of stewed yams missing, I got it out of focus!
However, during lunch, the sales pitch continued, this time for Huan’s classmate’s future residential clinic. There would be a shop where Huan would be able to work, (for free), while I walked around the grounds just talking English to people now and then. For this, they would put us up in one of the villas, supposedly rent free. Now Huan, as you may have read before, is, like a lot of Chinese people, very gullible and an ad-man’s dream. She was quite convinced this was a good idea. Slowly I will have to try and point out some of the disadvantages and hopefully change her mind.
Later on, the conversation turned to skin colour, Huan is not as ‘white’ as many people think she should be. One suggestion came from the government man. “Shave your head, your hair will then grow back thicker and blacker, more luxurious. At the same time, you can use certain creams to whiten your face.” Luckily, on this occasion, Huan didn’t listen to what was being said. Whether her face is brown or white doesn’t matter to me, but trying to chemically change the colour is not something I would agree with at all.
By the time we were all getting ready to leave, and Huan foolishly saying that she felt ready for a good rest, the retired army doctor suddenly reached across me and managed to rub both of Huan’s temples with his roll-on medicament. It was all I could do to stop him trying to get it on my temples too! We needed a nice walk home to relax ourselves.
February 26th Ah, spring, when a young woman’s fancy turns to romance, a young man’s turns to rumpy pumpy and us two geriatrics wondered what to do today! Today is not the first day of spring, not even in Chinese solar terms. Just so that you know, here’s the last two solar terms and the next one, (for the year 2021) The Beginning of Spring (Li Chun), Feb. 3rd, Spring begins, Rain Water (Yu Shui), Feb. 18th, It begins to rain, The Waking of Insects (Jing Zhe), Mar. 5th, Hibernating animals come to sense. For us, today was ‘Lantern Festival”, a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar. Usually falling in February or early March on the Gregorian calendar, it marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. That meant breakfast had to be sticky rice dumplings, Huan had a plateful, I had only four, I’m not a big fan but I do like to follow tradition.
After breakfast we decided that the reservoir we had planned to visit was probably just a bit too far to get back in time for lunch so we set off for the countryside instead. Not only is that route a little shorter, just over 8km, but there are no hills involved. We headed off past these two signs, the first one shows the ‘road to the bridge to nowhere’, (L), ‘road ahead, not yet built’, (R) and ‘mountain village road, (S) which we would obviously turn off before we reached any mountains. The second sign, or stone, shows where we turned off.
This next hoarding amused me, there were three or four in total, I chose only this one to take a picture of and got Huan to translate the title for me. “养猪科普技术知识 - Yǎng zhū kēpǔ jìshù zhīshì - Technical knowledge of pig breeding.” The ‘cartoons’ are quite amusing and I’m sure get the message across but I’m afraid you’ll have to ask a Chinese friend to translate all the captions for you.
Before long we decided to go off the road and walk along the farmer’s raised pathways. Yet again I was banned from making a gif of Huan so this will have to do.
From the fields we went through the woods, in this case fairly passable.
Next we passed some villagers
‘fish herding’, we’ve taken a lot of photos here before, on the same Chinese
day two or three years ago. We will have to try and remember this next year and
go and get a good video of it. That time they did two or three sweeps, today
they only did one and had finished that just before we arrived. They told us
they had scooped up a few hundred fish, I guess there’ll be a big feast in the
village tonight.
Having Freddy on photographic duty today I decided to experiment a little. I took three panoramas covering 360º and then used the computer to stitch them together. You may need to click and enlarge to see the result, possibly even in another tab.
Wildlife was noisy but for the most part invisible, we could hear frogs and birds, spring was definitely in the air. Huan spotted a lizard but it darted away before I could see it, mostly what we saw were chickens, geese and ducks. Passing one field though I decided to get nearer to snap a picture of the noisemakers, not too near though! I wasn’t sure if they were wasps or bees, Huan said bees, which I always thought were fatter and rounder. A quick Google search turned up almost the same picture in the “People’s Daily” as a bee in love with rape flowers so Huan was right. It seems Hainan also has some stingless bees but I was taking no chances!
Wherever we went today the farmers, and their wives, or maybe even the farmers, and their husbands, were out in droves, it’s definitely springtime in Hainan.
This next view took my fancy, mostly because of the shape and the utilisation of the land. We see a lot of farms tucked away like this.
We walked down the left hand side and, out of shot, behind the trees on the right; we could see a bridge on the main road. It looked as though we could walk in front of the trees in the centre of the picture but Huan asked a local just to be sure. He told us that we could go that way; it was a little bit further than going back through the fields in the left side of the picture. Off we went and within no time we came up against a fenced in chicken farm with no way round near the ‘bowl’ of the farm. I left Huan and went on a quick recce, this is what I found, I guess our friendly local has not been this way in a while. Huan may have been able to squeeze herself through, although I think that’s doubtful, I wouldn’t, I’d have been permanently stuck between two trees!
After a bit more paddy field hopping, we crossed the main road and set off down another track that we know takes us home. Coming across this next view, there were two local lady farmers sat having a rest so I had a quick chat with them, Huan translating as necessary. They were of the same opinion as me; it looked a lot better before. We used to walk where the top end of the construction is, on our way to the old medicine factory. The building on the right is supposed to have been an old airport and the last time we were there, the caretaker told us that apartment buildings were going to be built in that area. It’s sad, there’s really no need for them.
OK, enough schimpfing and muttering for the day. (Schimpfing, by the way, is an old army term, derived from the German word “schimpfen” which means to grumble, to complain etc.) Let’s leave you with yet another panorama, this time to show you that even though the fields are full of crops to sell, even smaller spaces are planted with other crops either for family use or selling locally. They can be seen at the front of this photo.
Somehow we both managed to stay
awake after lunch but I’m sure if either of us had suggested a nap the other
would have agreed in an instant. All I did was the usual whittling down of
photos from over 120 to 65, you don’t realise until you get home just how many
you’ve taken. Nothing changes though, I used to take far too many even when we
had to pay to develop them!
February 27th Another kitchen morning, boiling the pork before cooking the weekend stew and then adding the pork, sans fat. We’re still doing this on one electric induction hob of course, no idea when, if ever, we will get our gas back.
After lunch, our plans, as so often happens, went awry. Part of this was Huan’s doing, she found a new toy and had me printing instructions and songs. Part of it was my doing, I follow a Youtube channel where a British guitarist, Fil, aka ‘Wings of Pegasus, analyses various artists for their singing, their playing and their performance, not just guitarists. Today he played someone called ‘Junior Brown’ so I immediately thought of the son of James Brown perhaps. I was completely wrong. However, I was very impressed with the performance I saw, so much so that I had to find some Junior Brown to add to my collection.
We did manage to get out after dinner and the first photo shows Huan having a play with her new toy, it’s called a Taodi, not to be confused with a Xun. It is similar to an Ocarina in that it has a ‘fipple’ mouthpiece which the Xun doesn’t. Where did Huan get it from? She stole it from my bookcase; it was a prop for a Halloween costume of mine in Harbin, when I was playing a Chinese hungry ghost.
Why is Huan playing it outside? Well, after our walk she will join the other ladies in our little square for some dama dancing, some hulusi and now some taodi too.
Our new park is certainly getting some use, off the island as well as on it. Huan thought it looked like a day at the seaside this evening. I guess as the holidays are now officially over, work will start on Monday, tomorrow for some, this is their last chance to have fun.
Today’s last photo was taken in town just after we left the lottery shop with our (positive thinking) winning tickets. Are turtles lucky? I don’t think so and these two certainly weren’t. The gentleman ‘selling’ them told us they were fresh water turtles and only needed feeding twice a week. Once he realised we weren’t potential buyers he tried to stop me taking any more photos, I was trying to get both looking at me at the same time.
February 28th Today’s walking plan had to be temporarily
delayed, but not by too long. There is this viral thing that concerns Weetabix
and Baked Beans, and I was challenged to have a go at eating it. If you want to
see, check it out here - https://youtu.be/H57hQlBevBE
If you know about Foodtribe you can also see it on there.
As it happens my camera operator was in superb form and we still managed to get out just after eight-thirty. Our route was the long planned fourth turn off on Sanyue San Road leading up to the fish farm. Turn right just after the army barracks and head away from this traffic sign towards the first village where, as you can probably see, we have to veer left.
As you can see the weather was a little overcast and made a perfect day for walking, just as well because it was a thirteen and half kilometre round trip. As usual, I took over a hundred photos, then pruned them down to fifty four for us, and now I have to prune even further for you. Being a serial chatterer that’s not always easy. I sometimes consider writing a Blog similar to being on the radio. Sitting alone in the studio in Abu Dhabi you never really knew if anyone was listening but it made you happy just to think they were. Anyway, on with the photos, here is where I suggested to Huan that I take the high road and she take the low road and meet up later. She said no, she’d probably get lost! I must admit the low road is more difficult whereas the high road leads you straight to the destination.
We had a surprise not far up the road from here and before the new highway construction; we were approached by a pig, lots of chickens and some geese. I still couldn’t quite get near enough to touch any of them though. We wondered if it was near feeding time.
Soon afterwards we passed under the highway, it’s looking like the end of March or April could see us trying it out. This shows it coming from the north (approximately) and disappearing into the mountain heading south, approximately).
Just after the next village we spotted a new sign on a lamppost showing us where we were going to. It looks very nice in the picture.
Needless to say it doesn’t actually look that good in reality although it has improved since our last visit. The first thing we saw today was a “cream, a dole, a dule, a flock, a gang, a posse, a raffle, a raft, a rafter,” (Choose which collective noun you prefer) of turkeys.
You probably think that’s enough pictures of turkeys but I had to include this next one, even though the ‘photo bomber’ is not quite in focus.
There were a couple of gents near the pontoons, if that’s what you call them, so we asked if there was any chance of a cup of tea. It turned out that they were visitors from Harbin staying there and the boss had gone out for a while but they made us a pot of tea anyway. Here we are relaxing whilst waiting.
On our way home Huan had me taking even more photos of chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks but I suspect you’ve seen enough. Instead, here’s a panorama of our way back, on the ‘low road’, which as you can see is not a road, but a track by the fields.
We ended our ramble with me playing at dirty old men and taking a surreptitious photo of myself outside the local conveniences!
On our way out this morning, Huan spotted an old guitar at the top of the stairs with some other rubbish, cardboard boxes and bottles, to be collected by the cleaners. Before you could say “Bob’s your Uncle”, which I am of course, the guitar was safely ensconced in our living room awaiting our return. I did try and explain that I would be busy with videos and photos all day, to no avail. I ended working as a luthier until dinner time.
As you can see from the photos, everything was removed, well, nearly everything. Three strings were already missing, (actually broken and stored inside the giuitar), so only three had to be taken out. The ‘saddles’ also needed replacing as did the ‘tuning pegs’, they had no effect on the strings at all. Could I rest then? Absolutely not! After dinner it was Taobao time again to order all the pieces we need to hopefully get Huan a working guitar. In addition to strings, tuning pegs and saddles we ordered a ‘nut’, a ‘bridge’ and a ‘String Ruler’. All I can hope now is that the frets are not too badly damaged.
PS I tried ordering socks again!
March 1st Happy Saint David’s Day to all you Welsh folk out there! Also on this day, Frédéric Chopin (1810), Glenn Miller (1904), and Roger Daltry (1944) were born and the world was better for all of them. (Penguin Pocket Reference ISBN0-141-02715-0)
Today we decided a nice easy walk was the order of the day, past the lottery shop and then up to the bap and sausage men before coming home. At each stop in the market I told the stallholders that Huan was the boss and I was the donkey!
And that, would you believe, is
the only photo for today. We did take another one of us both but that was a
special request for a FB friend who wants photos for her Mum’s seventieth
birthday, not one to be shared on here.
Another month has begun, along with another week, we’re both older, I’m nearly seventy two now! We’ll be back next Monday, see you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment