June 22nd A new week, a new day, but not a new schedule, for Huan anyway, she had a singing class this morning. Despite being awake early enough for a ‘long walk’, and being a gentleman (sometimes), I walked Hyacinth to school instead. My first photo was quite a nerve wracking one, every time I tried to get near; the subject seemed to ‘go for me’.
Doing my usual thing and meandering all over the place when I came to walk back down river towards home I decided to stay ‘topside’. That turned out to be a good decision.
Walking along the new ‘food street’, otherwise known as the Saturday market street, some places have started opening. This sign took my fancy; I wonder what exactly they are trying to say. Who knows, it could one day turn into a ‘big time’ multiple outlet business.
Cars were a big thing today, good
job, because there wasn’t much else to see. The first one is a Mini EV from
Chery. Mini EVs are quite popular here in
Should you want to go further then public transport is excellent here, Huan tells me that we will even be getting high speed rail. When we do, it will take only twenty six minutes to get to Sanya with a stop or two on the way.
Larger EVs could work for some people, I saw this one, a BYD, on charge. Wuzhishan doesn’t have many high power chargers but then again we don’t have many larger EVs yet either.
Of course I would prefer to scream up and down the highways and country roads in a gas guzzling beastie, maybe like this one. What’s not to like, it’s a Porsche, it’s a 911 and far more importantly, it’s yellow!
My meander planning worked fairly well, I was at school at just the right time to walk the commander home, and on reaching our place, the distance was exactly ten kilometres. I was all ready to make lunch when Huan told me we had to stop off downstairs and collect some dumplings. No complaints from me, or from her, lunch was fine!
For me, nothing else to report, except shopping. For SWMBO, after dinner it was swimming followed by hulusi practice. I have long ago decided that Chinese people are incapable of relaxing! Mind you, it is a recent thing, Huan used to be able to relax a few years ago.
June 23rd Alone again, naturally! (Well, that just led me into an internet wormhole, Youtube and Wikipedia, learning things about Gilbert O’Sullivan that I never knew before.) Anyway, I wasn’t feeling sour, I walked Huan to the OAP Cultural Centre for her hulusi class and then went for a nice long stroll.
Things to take photos of were sadly missing this morning although I did manage a quick snap of this little creature. It was a very quick snap, only one photo, not too bad though.
In the absence of anything alive to show you I decided a stone bird might do.
Time and distance were fine again today, Huan called me just as she finished and we met up in the town square. Had we gone home from there I would have walked slightly over ten kilometres. However, Huan had a phone call, we had to visit the post office where there was a letter for us, I do appreciate the personal service.
From there we went past the health centre, they had called Huan and told her that we needed to give another urine sample, something about the machine breaking down. They also said it didn’t need to be a fasting sample. While we were there the results came through within minutes and the doctor had a chat with us both. Huan’s fatty liver has definitely gone, but she has some scarring, how and why we do not know. All she has to do is watch her diet and abstain from any alcohol, easy enough for her to do. I of course still have a fatty liver, and high cholesterol etc. The doc did say that my figures were better than last year but told me I still needed to lose weight around my middle. That is what I’ve been trying to do for the last three or four years, it’s an uphill task. He also said I shouldn’t walk so far, it might not be good for my liver! Who do you believe; western doctors recommend lots of walking, whereas here they recommend less. I think I’ll just go on as before but not worry too much about getting the ten kilometres in one go. If I have to go out again in the afternoon or after dinner then that will work too. Today’s walk was 11.7km so no extras needed.
Our letter, which we opened when we got home, was an anniversary card. Now our anniversary is next month, so someone posted early.
You may ask “Why do you say someone? Don’t you know who it’s from?” Unfortunately we don’t whoever it was, while remembering to post early, forgot to put their name. There are at least three siblings whose mail may come through that particular post office. Maybe I should be able to recognise the writing? Maybe others could, but I’m hopeless, besides which, most of my siblings have much better writing than me. FB Messenger will help me! PS It did, we now know who sent it and have expressed our utmost appreciation!
June 24th Admin called this morning, Huan told me that I had to go and get my eyes tested for my driving licence. Off we went to the police station to collect the relevant form, this year it had changed, we had to go straight to the hospital. Arriving there we found a rather large queue to see the doctor, most of whom had some kind of paperwork. Somehow we managed to get in after just three or four patients; I felt rather guilty but just did as I was told. The doctor said that my eyes were good for my age, I wonder if he could see that I was wearing glasses!
Back to the police station we went to hand over the paperwork only
to find out that we couldn’t. We were too early and have to go back in August
which is the renewal date of my licence here in
Neither of us did much for the rest of the day, only relaxed. Oh, how I revelled in it!
June 25th Bonus walking day, Huan was free this morning. We kept if fairly slow though, I know Huan is not so keen on my long walks, she comes along to keep me company. The first photo could require a Google from you. Are they ‘beadlocks’ or ‘streetlocks’?
Back to nature for the second one; although this one does look like some armoured machine from a science fiction film.
Heading into the countryside, Huan’s choice but I was happy with it, we went off the road and across the fields. The second photo is me trying to find a way up to the trees which we could then walk under. Our progress would be cooler and easier.
Before too long, but with a lot of superficial damage to my legs, I found a way and in no time at all we were busy taking photos of each other!
The RSM then had us walk along a new road to a small reservoir we could see, she thought there would be another way round from there. I thought otherwise but meekly led the way, to this.
There was another road up to the reservoir but not from where we were. Still, we did have a nice view on the way back down and as you can see, it wasn’t a bad walking day. Cloud cover was abundant enough to cool us down now and then. Our only problem was tiredness, probably because we were both up by quarter past six this morning.
Here we are, me going bananas about something and Huan doing whatever she’s doing!
These next four characters amused both of us. I’m sure you know that geese can be very vociferous when they want to. These four wanted, but they had a small problem, they couldn’t really extend their necks in our direction because of where they were. Consequently, the sounds were quite muted but we behaved, we didn’t say ‘boo’ to them.
Another panorama comes next; we thought you might like to share in what we see. Some of you may wonder why we never go to the tops of the surrounding mountains. Well you see, once you get past the limit of the farms, the trees and the undergrowth grow far too closely together so unless someone has previously made a path, it’s not really possible.
We did manage to snap another little butterfly; I doubt if it’s related to the armoured caterpillar you saw earlier though.
Our route home took us along another new road. We have walked this route many times, hundreds of times, maybe even thousands, but it was never a ‘real road’ before. There is a lot of farm road construction going on and of course it’s very good for the farms. It makes their lives much easier and their farming more efficient. We still prefer tracks to roads though!
Our last picture for today is a blocked road. We could pass but cars couldn’t. Two weeks ago week I mentioned the Gaokao, well this week it was the turn of the Middle School students. They have to sit an exam to decide which high school they will go to, you can learn more here - https://www.chinaeducation.info/standardised-tests/k12-tests/zhong-kao-examination.html
Today we have a postscript, when Huan went out for her hulusi practice this evening this lady was coming in with her friend. All we have to do now is work on a photo op so that he, or she, can sit on my shoulder!
June 26th These days come round so fast! It’s Saturday again, Huan went off singing and I went to check the market. The first thing I saw was a man under a bridge.
What was he doing? Cleaning the river of course! In fact there were many people, they even had a chain going to take the baskets of floating vegetation and put them in the back of a rubbish lorry. We’ve seen them clean the river before but never seen them use a truck like this.
The market let me down today, not a great deal to see except curly cucumbers, dirty carrots and all the other stuff that you’ve seen a thousand times. Instead I had to resort to taking photos of signs for you. First up is a Wuzhishan lamppost.
You read this one top to bottom
and right to left, 绿水青山, 就是, 金山 银山, (Green Water and Green Mountains, That is,
Again top to bottom and right to
left, 文明海南, 礼仪琼州, (Civilized Hainan, Etiquette Qiongzhou). Qiongzhou is another name for
As before, 手牵手共建和谐城, 心连心同做文明人, (Hand In Hand To Build A Harmonious City, Be A Civilized Person With Heart To Heart). Whether people take any notice of them or not, I can’t say, but you can’t help but agree with the sentiments.
This next sign, in one of our local loos, which are well looked after and very clean, is a little harder to understand.
This one is read normally, from left to right and from top to bottom, as Chinese usually is these days, 小小一张纸, 细菌传千里, (A Small Piece Of Paper, Bacteria Spread Thousands Of Miles). Is it advising you to use less, or more paper, to throw it or what?
The last bit of Chinese for the day comes from the local supermarket.
环保袋发放机, (Environmental Bag Issuing Machine). If you scan the QR code with your phone, using Wechat, you get two free bags. I think that’s a pretty good idea, don’t you agree? However, there is one glaring problem, the machine is located after you have passed through the tills where you have more than likely just bought some environmentally safe bags!
Huan beat me home today, I had to go and buy some mushrooms for today’s dinner. We didn’t buy them on Monday, we didn’t want them to go off in the fridge. Would you believe that the same mushrooms were not available today at all, in any of the supermarkets. There were other mushrooms available so a substitution was made. Why did I need mushrooms? This weekend I was making us my version of Shepherd’s Pie, minced pork with onion and garlic, carrot, celery mushrooms and tomato, seasoned with soya sauce, salt and parika, topped off with mashed potato and some Kerrygold Dubliner cheese. This was yet another difficult one due to having no gas and not wanting to run the induction hob at the same time as the oven. I also had to rush because Madame Le Chef was going out swimming after dinner. Consequently, the top didn’t brown as much as I would have liked although it was still very tasty. It got a great big thumbs up from both of us.
June 27th I do like plans, don’t you? They’re even better when they’re well thought out and well communicated. We were up nice and early this morning as I was to be ‘Le Chauffeur’ and take the ladies to a rehearsal for yet another show. I should have stayed in bed, the plan was changed, they had to be there by nine! This was the place we headed off to after a leisurely breakfast.
Having dropped the ladies off I set off to walk up the mountain to the village, planning to buy some water there and walk back. I was told I had an hour. To my surprise Yú’s husband, zhào dé, decided he would walk with me. It was quite a pleasant walk, me pointing out things to him and him to me, managing to communicate with my not so hot Chinese, it worked reasonably well. My first spot was this little moo, zhào dé spotted a family of chicks on the wall but they scooted before I could take a snap.
Arriving at the village we found that a feast was being prepared.
I wonder if this one knew that it was ‘in the queue’.
Another little piggy must have previously been despatched.
Sometimes wedding parties will be held in villages so I thought this was going to be one. Whenever I asked someone though, they seemed to just ignore me. Even zhào dé, asking the same question, got the same response. It was only when we saw some women with white bands around their heads that we realised what was happening. I should say I had an idea but zhào dé knew for sure. It was the Chinese equivalent of a wake, some poor soul had shuffled off this mortal coil. No wonder they were ignoring me!
With the village shops all being closed there were no refreshments so we headed back downhill. Another type of cow was spotted next, we call them water buffalo, the Chinese call them water cows. They are far less predictable than ordinary cows and it’s best to keep your distance.
As if to prove a point here’s Mum giving me the evil eye.
Before we rejoined the ladies I thought some proof of zhào dé’s perambulation would be a good idea, so I took three terrible photos of us with the camera. I would have been better off using my phone. Here’s the best of the three.
When we did get back the ladies were having another practice, in the entrance that you saw earlier. They had a lovely backdrop for their performance.
Zhào dé was quite proud of his walk, three kilometres in fifty five minutes. I must say it was a pleasure to walk with him and not alone for a change.
After lunch Huan said she would join me for another walk, she knew I needed a few more kilometres today. Her choice was the mountain scenic walk, very hot to start with but OK once we got under the trees. There wasn’t much to see, but we did like this little view. As you can see, everything is a little dry again, we definitely need more rain.
We did notice on the way down that someone has been busy labelling the trees. Our nephew likes plants so we took a number of photos, too many to share here though. Instead we created some collages; if you want larger copies just let me know.
I had good news from Yoyo Chinese, I am now a lifetime member with access to all present and future content. Hopefully I will improve in speaking and especially listening and who knows, even reading in the future. I must emphasise the word future! For anyone interested head over to their website at https://yoyochinese.com/.
June 28th Just for a change we had a normal Monday, we haven’t had one of them for some time. Huan had no music school today and no rehearsal so we fell back on our Monday routine, laze around doing not a lot until ten and then go shopping. Even that was easier than usual.
Our afternoon was just as lazy although Huan did have to cook. Being slobs, just like Onslow and Daisy, we didn’t even go out after dinner. Oh how I revelled in it! Mind you, I wasn’t completely lazy, I did do some admin on the small external HDD, printed out some stuff for Huan, and checked the little red laptop. You won’t believe what happened, I didn’t believe it even though I could see it was real. While checking the laptop, which was fine, and then transferring various data files I need when we travel, I decided to give my old FB profile a try. I wasn’t expecting anything different to the multiple previous attempts from my PC, from Huan’s PC and from the little red laptop. Lo and behold! I received an authentication SMS and was able to access my old profile again. Later in the evening, I switched the laptop off and tried again from my PC which of course gave me the “you have two factor authentication enabled, please enter the code received on your phone”. Three cheers for FB, I received an SMS again and I was able to log in. All I have to do now is decide which profile to keep.
On that happy note, I will say goodbye from me, and goodbye from her. Tune in next week where you may well read about the return of Rigsby!
