We’re Alive, Luthier Bob (again), Army Tofu, Dentist and Insects

March 2^nd Another omission! I forgot to tell you yesterday that we are both still alive! We did our monthly home tests of Blood Oxygen, Blood Pressure, Temperature, Pulse and Blood Sugar. Looking at the results we decided monthly checks are not necessary, we will go to three monthly checks, synchronised with my PSA tests.

Two of us may have been alive yesterday, this morning it was only one and a half! Yet again I was stricken with some bug or other, affecting my head, sinuses and chest. It could have something to do with being cold in bed last night but being too lazy to get up and do anything about it! No long walks were planned for this morning though, all we had to do was to escort Huan to the OAP school so that she could sign on for Hulusi classes and Chinese Calligraphy classes. Yes, she has found even more to keep herself occupied.

On our way we had to stop and pick up some plants. Remember how lovely our traffic islands were at the beginning of the New Year. Today was clear up day and all the plants were being removed unless people could get in there quick enough to grab some. You can see all three traffic islands in the first photo, all under siege, and you can see Huan in the second photo, if you look carefully, choosing her five ‘takeaways’.

After lunch my weary bones took me to bed where I promptly fell asleep and dreamt of Covid tests. I have no idea what the test really feels like but in my dream, where I wearily lay my head on a very high reception desk after saying I needed a test, the next think I knew was the nurse was round the front in a flash, forced my head back and shoved a long cotton bud up my nose. I remember telling her that as she forced the swab to the back I saw a flash of blue light behind my eyes. Dreams eh? In this case I can identify all the parts and where they came from. The hospital with me nearly fainting came from me being absolutely worn out and a FB chat about my father stopping me from falling when I fainted stirring the morning porridge. The long walk up to the hospital and the swinging around a corner to get my feet on the floor came from our last countryside walk where we had to swing around a blocked bridge. The Covid test probably came from a FB friend, Randy, who seems to have to have many, one of which was mentioned on my feed this morning. I’ll have to ask him why. I am puzzled by the blue flash behind my eyes though; I can’t find the source for that. Do you think Huan bopped me while I was snoozing. Addendum – from Randy – “Day call on set , if I take a day call I have to have Covid test 2 days before, a Covid test on the day of and a Covid test on my last day. Most shows require 3 tests a week. If I’m hopping from show to show I end up getting tested more.” I feel for him!

Life is returning to normal now that the holidays are over so Huan was off to our little square tonight for some dancing, hulusi and maybe even some taodi, who knows. As for me, nothing except this post, my Chinese practice and some Youtube movies.

March 3^rd There was some life back in the old dog this morning! Some people decry Chinese medicine as being all quackery, not me. I don’t believe everything I’m told, but some of it is pretty good. What’s more the pharmacies, (chemist’s shops for us Brits), know what to give you most of the time so no doctors required. Additionally, because Chinese medicine is usually made from all natural ingredients, there are no worrying side effects although some can take longer to ‘fix’ your problem. This is what we have for head and chest colds; you can either chew the contents of the sachet or mix it as I’ve done here.  The dosage is three times a day and after taking it three times yesterday I’m feeling much better, by tomorrow I’ll be 100% again.

Huan was happy that I was well enough for us to do our weekly shop, and also well enough to cook today’s dinner. For a change it was a Western meal, steak with black pepper, garlic and mushroom sauce. I was a little worried about the steaks, they weren’t bought as steaks, I just bought a large piece of beef and chopped some off. The remainder I cut up into cubes for a future curry and a future stew. Huan was impressed with the presentation, hers is first. With mine, I tried to do something different; I must admit I prefer the way Huan’s looked.

No dancing for Huan tonight, no walking for me either, the rain appeared. Huan’s guitar bits and pieces also appeared but I told her I’d start on that tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, the rain will have disappeared by the morning and we can have a walk, even if it’s just around the river.

March 4^th Our plans were dashed again, by the weather this time, rain stopped play. Huan made sure I wasn’t bored though, after NAAFI break she put me to work. With all the parts that arrived yesterday for Huan’s guitar I was a luthier again. Here I am putting it back together.

I was successful so here’s Huan after lunch with a big smile.

Her smile didn’t actually disappear as the afternoon went on but it did become a little more subdued. At one stage she even looked rather serious, I’m not allowed to use that photo! She started to realise that learning the guitar is not quite as easy as it looks, even more so as this guitar is a big one and she only has little arms and hands. However, never put anything past Huan, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s playing better than me in a matter of weeks! I did have a go this afternoon, after my long break, it wasn’t easy. Barring that pesky ‘F’ chord is going to take me quite some more practice again.

After dinner we forced ourselves to go out, partly because we needed it and partly because the Post Office had called. We stopped there first and found a birthday card from one of my brothers, only two weeks late. It was posted on 22^nd January but apart from the travelling time Huan tells me that all incoming ‘stuff’ from overseas has to go into quarantine for a month where it is sprayed just in case! Our next stop was to pick up some good old Xinjiang naan bread, or as they call it here, 新疆馕 Xīnjiāng náng. Since we are doing some translating, here’s a bit more. On our way back along the riverside I told Huan the ‘army tofu’ crowd were back, that’s what I call them. It’s a big crowd, much bigger than you see in the photo; they were also across the road by the riverside. They are all exercising and chanting and when I first heard it I thought it sounded like army tofu. The chant in Chinese is actually, 南无阿弥陀佛 Ná mó ēmítuófó but the ‘ēmí’ sounds like ami with a long a. One day we’ll stand with the people at the back and join in, it will be very relaxing. There will be no photos on that day though. Why don’t you Check the chant out on Youtube, you can relax too.

March 5th Bang went our plans yet again! One of us, i.e. me, slept very badly last night with toothache keeping me awake most of the night. Anyone who knows me knows that despite being 71, I have, like many people, an irrational fear of dentists. I decided to go in the morning but then woke up with a throat full of phlegm so decided I should go back on the medicine and wait a couple of days. Lunch forced me to change my mind! After a top up of medicine around half past one we set off to the dentist to arrive around two thirty, after their lunch break.

We were early and had to phone the dentist, this was our view whilst waiting. Being straight after their lunch break, nobody was hanging around on drips today though.

British people, turn away here! It’s OK, there are no photos, I did give my phone to Huan but she was too busy grilling the dentist and talking to the next customer. The pain in the upper right rear of my mouth is probably just a minor abscess, so that only needed a little medicine forcing under my gums. The lower right rear was a different matter, every time the dentist asked if it hurt I almost shot out of the chair. He had to remove an old filling so that he could check to see what was wrong. That required drilling of course, more pain. Did I tell you that Chinese dentists don’t really like to use anaesthesia? Apart from drilling he was also using tiny needles to get to the nerve endings and by golly, did I know when he got there. He probably thinks all British people are big babies now. When he’d finished rooting around he gave me something to kill the nerve endings and some temporary packing with instructions to go back on Sunday afternoon. “Do I have to?|” is what I was thinking but within an hour or so I was definitely feeling better. The other thing you would notice about Chinese dentists is that there is no private surgery. This means that apart from the dentist observing the depths of your oral orifice, there’s also the wife, Huan of course, and one of the next customers. She was a student from a mainland university, I forget which, who spoke exceptionally good English and was also having a good ogle at the dentist’s work. More people to see that I’m really just a big baby at heart!

The walk home did me a world of good and we arrived just in time for me to finish cooking dinner. I had started in the morning and cooked the thick mung bean soup, comprising of mung beans, (obviously), onions, garlic, mushroom, ginger, tomato, and a couple of small chillies. That needed heating through while Huan’s rice was in the microwave. Her rice was a mix of four, white, black, red and brown, (I think). All that remained to do then was a quick fry in hot oil of the dried fish, here’s the result on the table, ready to eat. PS We cheated and used spoons instead of the chopsticks.

March 6th Rain stopped play this morning which was just as well as we were both up late. By the time breakfast was finished, a fry up for me, (to use the leftover beans), and noodle soup for Huan, to use the leftover dried fish, it was NAAFI break. A lazy morning followed.

The weather cleared up after lunch and we were able to have a round the river walk. We were lucky today and saw signs of life, no lizards though. First was this little pooch who didn’t stop barking until we were well away, he even barked when we gave other dogs attention.

Pigeons were next, I thought I was going to get close enough to touch the first one, I was wrong. This was the only grey one, the rest were all white.

Next up was a Praying Mantis, just sitting on one of the wall pillars, not scared at all. I decided to lend a hand.

While I was busy with it and with my camera, Huan was busy with her phone. Here’s her photo of me and my photo of the mantis.

Whether it was happy or not I have no idea but I took it across the path and put it in the trees. It did seem a little unsteady on its legs, not sure why, but we left it making its way up the branches. Another audience were busy with their phones by then.

Next, much nearer to home, came a spider and a seed. It was very difficult to get a good shot of the spider, it was all over the place, but I think you can see enough.

Huan soon found another two, what they are I will leave up to you and Google for a change.

As if that wasn’t enough, Huan also managed to find one in my favourite colour, yellow. As a child Huan was always warned not to touch caterpillars, especially hairy ones, so I made sure I kept my distance too.

We saw that work had started on the dam again but as yet we can’t tell what they are doing. We’ll let you know when we can. Huan then thought that she saw mushrooms growing on cables. I just hope that our internet line doesn’t go through this box, or should I say ‘half a box’.

And that was it, our walk for the day was over, just in time too, the rain started just before we got in. Mind you it wasn’t heavy so we could have stayed out, but I had to cook dinner. As usual, it was a two day stew for the weekend, this time duck. You can see the duck at the back, I boiled half a duck last night then removed the skin and fat. Don’t you just hate cholesterol and doctors! The broth was left in the fridge overnight and was added to the stew after the fat had been skimmed off the top. No picture of the finished product I’m afraid, it’s just stew after all.

My day was finished off with a nice long Skype session with #1 son, something I really enjoy and look forward to. As usual, we put the world to rights!

March 7^th The weather was on our side today so we took another riverside walk, starting over the bridge to nowhere so that we could look down on the dam from the other side and give you a progress report. Well we looked down, and there’s no progress report! After all the bugs we saw yesterday, we saw none today. Even one of my favourite pooch pals didn’t want to come out from under his chair. I did manage to get him to raise his head though.

We passed another big hole in the road on the way home where a lady on a motorbike, who didn’t exactly look very rich, was asking when she would be able to buy business premises. The gate guard told us it would be finished by the end of the year. I laughed that off and told him I didn’t believe there was any chance. Huan told me after who was building it; they’ve done some good work in Wuzhishan so the gate guard may well be right.

Next we saw people cutting trees that were getting a little too close to the overhead electricity lines, you’ve seen the ‘lumberjacks’ in action before so no photo here. Instead, here’s another kind of climber. For some reason food cannot be delivered to the nurses’ college front gate and it’s delivered via the back gate instead.

After lunch it was torture time for me again, another visit to the dentist. Just like last time we were a little early, so I took a photo through the window, yes, people can look in and watch while you are blubbering like a baby! The dentist arrived shortly thereafter so I tried to make myself as comfortable as possible.

Huan excelled herself today and took over forty photographs, I’m fairly sure you don’t need to see all them, even I don’t need to keep that many. I’ll just show you one of the dentist at work and then one of the two of us together. I had been going to ask for one when the work is all done, but he asked if he could have a photo with me today. He also asked Huan to send a few of the ones where he’s working on me.

Today’s visit was over very quickly, just more nerve medicine, I have to go back next Friday. Our short walk after was much needed and much enjoyed. All that was left for me was to warm up today’s stew and then sort out today’s Blog Post.

March 8^th We had a plan, but I changed it, I didn’t feel like walking today, I felt like being lazy instead. There was work to do though, sticking things on Huan’s guitar. I had found on Taobao a set of stickers that supposedly help you remember where the notes are on the fretboard. It only works if your guitar is tuned to EADGBE which ours are. The job was difficult to start with until I worked out that using the sound hole to get the stickers underneath the strings was a good idea.

I doubt if the stickers will stay on a long time but if they help Huan a little they’ll be fine. Here’s the finished project, it only goes up to the 12^th fret because after that the sequence repeats itself. The second photo is me of course, just testing!

If you check my photo carefully you may be able to see which chord I’m playing. I chose a photo without the barred F chord, after so long without practicing that, it’s not so easy. I went through a few of my songs this morning, in between helping Huan now and then and explaining that she really can’t practice more than five or ten minutes a day yet.

No walkies after lunch either, Huan had to go out and make a noise. She was off to the Yefeng housing complex where lessons have started again after the holidays, Monday is drum day. In fact she’s tapping away in the living room while I’m typing this. I had to go out this afternoon as well, the car needed filling up before we go to Haikou tomorrow. Because we are leaving early in the morning I also decided to not park in our usual place and leave it somewhere where I knew I would have no problems getting out.

So, a lazy(ish) day comes to an end, another week comes to an end, unfortunately, visits to the dentist have not come to an end and will continue next week. See you then!