June 29th Singing for Huan this morning so I walked her to school, meeting one of her classmates as we arrived.
One of the reasons I walked with Huan today was to enquire about the pool. It seems it is available to ‘outsiders’ but it is only open from three o’clock in the afternoon. Bang went my idea of having a swimming session while Huan was having a singing one.
I took a detour behind one of the buildings and found a secluded garden. “Great” I thought, “I’ve found my topic for today”.
That was nearly the end of my morning ramble, there was no ten kilometre plan today. In fact the plan was to do a little shopping, bread for lunch and tofu for dinner, and then get home early. My ‘old’ FB profile, which I have decided to keep, is keeping me busy; I have to upload all the drama photos again and there are just over a thousand.
After lunch, my ‘work’ was interrupted by ‘other work’, the diva needed a chauffeur to take her to ‘Rendishan Rest & Recuperate Centre’, you may remember that from earlier this month. She wasn’t going for a rest but for another rehearsal, they are going to perform their hulusi act there tomorrow. Needless to say I was not allowed to go home, I had to stay and take yet another video. That was an almost impossible job; there was a huge display screen behind the performers, which acted like an enormous backlight. The last few seconds of the hulusi team wasn’t too bad, they actually switched some spotlights on.
As usual, I was less than impressed by the organisation, no one knew what time they would be called, there seemed to be numerous ‘directors’ and the usual sound and light problems. It’s not difficult to organise an event like this but I suspect this could very well have been a last minute one. Huan certainly didn’t find out until after the last show was over.
My plan had been to have another walk after dinner but we were home too late for that, and I was in charge of catering again today. Mind you, I had planned a very simple meal, soup noodles to finish off the last of the meatballs. All I used was garlic, spring onions, some kind of cabbage, the tofu I had bought this morning, the meatballs and some noodles. It came together very well.
By the time I went to bed I had uploaded eleven years worth, from 1987 to 1998, only another nine years worth to go, up to 2007. Mind you, there are more photos in the second batch!
June 30th With Huan having her show tonight a slow stroll was on the cards for this morning, looking for some more of those secluded gardens. To start with we weren’t so successful, we kept finding pop up farms instead.
That was it for our pleasant morning ramble, home for lunch, a sleep and then relaxation for Huan (by order of me), and more FB work for me. I managed to complete the upload of all the drama photos, one less thing to worry about. I’ll still keep two profiles for a short while longer though, the new one has things the old one doesn’t.
Evening came and with it our trip to Rensdishan for Huan’s final show before the summer. Like all shows at the moment it was being held to celebrate the founding of the CPC. Tonight I had a reserved seat complete with my name, water and fruit. (PS The second character of my name is the wrong one, but I can’t write them anyway!)
All in all it wasn’t a bad show, the Rendishan staff did a fairly good job of putting it altogether. Our only problem was getting out after the show. Because the complex is still not complete we had to access via the back (construction) gate and when we came to leave it was locked. Frantic phone calls from Huan and Yú and thence to the ‘boss’ eventually worked and home we went. It was another late night for me, trying to sort out photos and videos for Huan and to upload and file everything in the correct place.
July 1st With all the work I’ve been doing on my FB drama album, this month we’ll choose two theatre related persona. The first, Charles Laughton, was born on this day (1899) in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. (PS I spent my first honeymoon there.) His films included “Mutiny on the Bounty”, 1935 and he left us in 1962. Second, Anton Chekhov died on this day in 1904, (Old style calendar, new style calendar 14th July). He was a famous playwright and short story writer, I have had the pleasure of both acting and directing in a couple of his short plays. Finally, because of where I am, Hong Kong was handed back to China on this day in 1997. (Details from Penguin Pocket Reference ISBN0-141-02715-0)
We’re on the road again! Our Sanya tenant had decided she wanted to move out and Huan had agreed; her ‘monthly contract’ ended yesterday. Never again, we’ll stick to annual contract from now on. As arranged, we were in Sanya, outside the apartment by eleven o’clock. Delay number one, they would not be able to move out before half past twelve. No problem, off we went for lunch and a four kilometre walk. Come twelve thirty and delay number two, her husband couldn’t get a car until half past two. I could see the way Huan was thinking and I said no, we were not going to help her move her stuff. Unusually, we had a parking spot very near the apartment and the car was not going to move from there until we were ready to go back north! We went off for another four kilometre walk and while we didn’t exactly find secluded gardens we did find these lovely areas)
By the time we got back our departing tenants were almost done. I left Huan with the financial side of things, returning the deposit etc, while I had a good look around. I was pleasantly surprised, it was nowhere near as bad as I had expected. Maybe I should have more faith in people. We did have to buy a new broom, dustpan, bin, bucket and mop, and we did have to throw away some cheap items, nothing bad enough to effect the return of the deposit.
Once they had gone the cleanup started, it looked as though the floor hadn’t been swept for months. It could be the wind over the last few days though, houses are not sealed well here. Once we had cleaned and mopped the floor, we put the furniture back in its original position before going downstairs for a burger dinner.
Back home, it was hulusi time for Huan, yes even here she likes to assail my ears!I took a shower and then while I was there cleaned the bathroom walls, the floor, the shelves and the toilet. Now there’s a picture for you, naked Bob with his hand down the toilet bowl! Don’t worry, Huan was far too busy. All is nice and clean now though.
My evening was spent updating the blog for the last two days and making sure I have all the files I need on the laptop. I think I remembered everything bar my excel smoking file. Oh, I just remembered, I forgot my Chinese Excel file too, the one where I keep a record of my revision.
July 2nd Walkies for Huan and workies for me today. She went off to find public notice boards to put up the ‘for rent’ signs. I stayed home and cleaned the kitchen. While our tenants didn’t destroy anything, they didn’t clean anything either. The worst part was the gas hob and extractor hood, there was oil everywhere. By the time Huan returned, exhausted and warm, I still hadn’t finished. She brought lunch home with here, I carried on after eating. Once the kitchen was done I got stuck into the bathroom sink and that was all the cleaning finished. Less than a day to get an aprtment ready for rent must be a record for us.
I left Huan in recumbent mode and set off for the bank, time to change some more sterling and refill my wallet with some renminbi. It was a warm walk, I had forgotten just how far it was, nearly four and a half kilometres the way I went. Today’s photos started with topiary, heading towards the sea from our place, a couple of deer.
Arriving at the bank I donned my
mask and headed for the machines, you can normally do everything you need
without joining a queue. Updating my passbook was fine, the next step was to change
some money. You can do this using the card or passbook, the assistant asked me
to use my card. Problem! “Since you have not used your card for a while, and in
line with government regulations, you must either scan your ID (hukou) or see
the cashier” or words to that effect anyway. So, I had to take a number and
join the queue after all. Luckily it wasn’t too busy and once the counterclerk
had verified my passport, my visa and we had overcome the language barrier
every thing went smotthly enough. I called Huan, told her which way I was going
to walk back and suggested we meet near the ‘lover’s bridge’.
On my way I spotted this building which neither of us had seen before. It looks very much like a church but it isn’t. It appears to be just a normal commercial building. It makes a change to the usual square blocks though, I like it.
Huan was waiting in the shade on
the other bank, off we went for some dinner before returning home for a much
needed rest for both of us. I hadn’t reached my daily target but with the heat and
the work at home I considered that I had done enough for the day!
July 3rd We slept with the A/C on last night, still not a good sleep for me but much better than being dripping wet all night. Being ‘tourists’ in Sanya breakfast was taken outside, at this small restaurant. We like to vary the places.
Of course our breakfast doesn’t vary very much, fried noodles for me with a fried egg on top, and soup noodles for Huan.
Our tour guide, aka SWMBO, suggested we visit a nearby park, “It’s just down the end of the of the road, turn left and walk a little bit.” More boats were seen which I was happy about.
This was not the same anchorage as the one I saw yesterday, this one is on the road towards Dadonghai, still a great view though.
On the way we briefly passed another park, it’s called Egret Island. I thought this was to be our final destination, and I would have enjoyed an hour or two here.
I was wrong of course, our final destination was to be临春岭森林公园, (Lín chūn lǐng sēnlín gōngyuán), in English, . Linchunling Forest Park. Five kilometres later we arrived there! “Well it only took five minutes in the car” said the boss. There followed a lecture from me about the car going five kilometres in five minutes whereas together we take nearer one hundred minutes.
Not only was it not very near our place, it was also a mountain park. Had we started from the bottom it wouldn’t have been so bad, but walking five kilometres before we even arrived, the old man was not finding it so easy.
After a lot of schimpfing and muttering we eventually reached the watchtower, and climbing to the top, didn’t throw ourselves off! Well I have to admit it was me grumbling all the way, not Huan. She also had a grumble at the top mind you, none of the tourist binoculars worked.
Having had our little moan, the views from the top did make it all worthwhile. The whole of Sanya was laid out before us, beside us and behind us. Here are the four panoramic views from the top of the tower.
And just in case you want to see the whole 360°, I stitched all the panoramas together for you. You will need a big screen and lots of magnification though.
Back down the mountain we went, took a different route home, that was only four kilometres, and stopped for lunch once we reached a suitable place. I should say Huan had lunch, I had a bottle of iced coffee, I was already too full of water to eat anything.
On our way home we thought we would show you one of the few things we don’t like about living in China. Very often, there is not a great deal of distance between buildings, our apartment here has less than two metres between us and the neighbours. They are putting in a new building here, just look how narrow it will be, and how the visibility of the adjacent buildings and the one behind will be affected.
We had walked over eleven kilometres by the time we arrived home; both of us needed an OAP nap, even before we thought about having showers! That was our day apart from a walk to a very nearby restaurant for dinner, duck’s intestines (I think) for Huan, chicken hearts and drumsticks for me. We did both have rice and vegetables as well, must stay healthy after all!
July 4th No noodles for breakfast today, Huan fancied a change, she wanted rice soup. The place we found didn’t have much else so it was a sweet sausage roll and two hard boiled eggs for me. A visit to the chemist’s was called for after, just to buy some plasters for a blister on the top of my foot. Seeing the sign on the floor, we slid in as gracefully as we could.
Shopping was today’s plan, T-shirts for me, I hadn’t realised how long we would be in Sanya for. In Harbin there are lots of underground shopping streets, great ways to walk away from the icy cold in winter. Sanya has something similar, somewhere to escape from the heat of the summer into an air conditioned shopper’s paradise.
I don’t recollect Harbin’s underground shopping streets having canals though!
Of course we had to go boating, a tenner for half an hour, cheap enough. There wasn’t far to go though, only up and back. Huan would have had me rowing for the full thirty minutes but there wasn’t that much space to mess around in. I managed to avoid “Just One Cornetto”, any other Italian sounding songs or in fact any songs at all! I wouldn’t have wanted to embarrass the good lady now, would I?
Once out of the canal zone we headed back up to the first level and looked for some more photo opportunities. My ‘direction’ failed a little here, I was trying to be funny with the ‘do not touch sign. That failed so you have Huan and the whole dinosaur and then Huan sat in a throne of sorts. I guess it’s from a movie but I haven’t any idea which one.
We both had our photographs taken with superheroes, although I am not at all sure you would recognise them. I guess the costumes might give you a clue though.
Having reached the end we then retraced our steps looking for the exit to a certain food street, which we didn’t find. T-shirts were problematic too, sizes were almost impossible to find and if we did find them, designs and prices didn’t agree with me. Eventually I settled for a couple of holiday style short sleeved shirts instead.
Huan was not feeling too good by now so we headed back towards home and lunch on the way. It was sticky rice dumplings for Huan but I could tell she didn’t really have much of an appetite. For me it was almost western, chicken strips and chips.
I did take a couple more touristy type photos of my leader but she wouldn’t thank me for sharing them with you. By now she was definitely looking the worse for wear. She thinks it was a combination of yesterday’s walk and today’s air conditioned walk. When we arrived home she went straight to bed and stayed there for most of the day. She did come out with me at dinner time to buy some rice soup to take home. Normally I would sort it out for her, and I should have today, but I misunderstood the place I was to go to. Hopefully she will be back to her normal cheerful self tomorrow.
We had our second prospective tenants visit tonight, the first ones pulled out two days ago, they wanted a sitting room and a bedroom. That’s quite difficult in a studio apartment. Today’s visitors wanted a big reduction in the rent, a small reduction was offered, they went away to have a think about it.
July 5th Last day of the week and we’re still in Sanya! Huan was up and out early today, she was hungry and needed more rice soup. She brought my breakfast home with her, dumplings again. After that we began today’s plan, a walk to Dadonghai to have a look at the sea. With Huan not being so well yesterday I vetoed the idea of swimming in the sun. Our first photo came just down the road, a cat leapt out from a small restaurant into a tree. I think it was a little frightened because it wouldn’t stay still at all, I only managed one clear picture.
I had been hoping to get nearer to some of the boats today but my luck was out. Looking at some of the boats I wouldn’t fancy going too far in them, they look very much as if the bottoms would fall out I guess people leave them idle for far too long.
As we passed the harbour and went towards Dadonghai Huan spotted a sign to another park so we headed off that way, for a short while anyway. When it became obvious that more walking uphill was required I made an executive decision and we turned back, not before taking this photo of the lovely view though.
Before too long we arrived at Dadonghai where I created a not so good panorama of the beach. I think you can see why a swim would have been nice for me today!
The beach was quite empty today, more so than we’ve ever seen it. Not only that, but the hotel that we used to stay in was also empty. #1 son and his wife will be most upset if it’s not back in normal working order by the time they return. Of course no one had any idea of when that will be due to international travel restrictions.
While the hotel is not in such a good state, and some places on the beach are being refurbished, others have been completed and don’t look too bad now. I quite fancied this bar, too early though.
“Never mind” I thought, “we’ll pop into the Dolphin and I can have a Martini espresso.” Wrong again! The bar is still there and by the looks of it still very active, but, just like the beach bar, we were too early!
We have another panorama for you next, a vertical one. This is the entrance to a hotel; the lift is behind the waterfall I guess there must be another entrance on another road somewhere too.
And here is Huan acting out behind the curtain of water.
Almost home, we crossed the road under the bridge where Huan suggested I take a picture, just to see what it would look like. Luckily I did as I was told and therefore had the camera ready when the little fishes started jumping out of the water, probably to escape from bigger ones!
An afternoon siesta was called for, well we are playing at tourists! After that we had a fairly boring day, out for dinner, the same place as yesterday.
And that was the end of our day. At the time of going to press we are sat waiting for another set of prospective tenants to turn up. We have an ‘appointment’ but Huan told me to take that with a pinch of salt, “You know what Chinese people are like”, her words not mine.
Next week’s epistle should be coming to you from Wuzhishan again, until then, have a good one!
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