Another lazy week, (for me anyway).

September 21^st Is life back to normal? Almost, the nurse wouldn’t let me wear my boots today; she said the skin was still too soft! However casual shoes were fine so we set off for a Changhao countryside walk. The weather was perfect for it and almost immediately we spotted some friends. Isn’t it amazing how they seem to know exactly where they are going?

This route used to be very dusty and noisy but once the roads were finished and they had completed the highway access and exit ramps it quietened down a lot. In fact once we pass the exit ramp it becomes a really nice walk, enough shade and great views.

Passing the driver training ground I ‘guided’ Huan inside and then towards where I had spotted a group of people chatting. I explained to them that I could drive and that it would be so much better for me if Huan could drive too. The man in the group caught on quickly saying that we could drive to Sanya, party on, and then Huan could drive me home!

When Huan caught me up, (I was walking very slowly), I asked what she had learnt. It seems you have to pass the computer test, like our highway code but with a higher pass mark, and have fourteen hours of practice before you can enter for a test. Three times in the past fourteen years I have given Huan the amount of money needed to do this. Each time she has either banked it or used it for something else. The price has now doubled, it is ¥6,000.00 and of course there is no guarantee that you will pass first time. Perhaps I’ll have enough in the bank for her Christmas present and then who knows, she may even go for it.

Before long Caoban village called and we headed further into the countryside. This walk really is one of our favourites, quiet, pleasant and for the most part shaded until we meet up with the main road again. Not a lot of wildlife showed up today though, just one butterfly.

Finally, back on the main road with my eyes peeled for lizards, birds, worms, snakes or anything else, all I could come up with was an empty snail house. Mind you, the owner must have been a pretty big snail when he was in residence.

Our walk was almost ten kilometres today, the first long(ish) one for a while. It left me fairly worn out so one of those OAP naps beckoned me after lunch. Superwoman stayed awake! Today was my turn to be the kitchen boss so for a change it was a ‘sort of roast’. First I popped two whole potatoes, one large bisected carrot, one large bisected onion and a whole garlic each and let them roast for an hour or so. I then added half a precooked duck with some chicken stock and dried orange peel poured over it and left it all for another hour or so. The Royal Party was most impressed and I have to say I was too, maybe next time we’ll take pictures!

September 22^nd I’m writing this with the office door closed; there is some loud caterwauling coming from the living room! Huan is practicing her singing. The ladies had a hulusi practice today for their upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival show so I walked them up to the OAP University. Today I didn’t walk behind them but in front so I caught the as they entered the floor.

With the weather looking rather ominous I stuck to the riverside, there appears to have been some kind of show happening over the last night or two. As usual we knew nothing about it but there were beer adverts everywhere and decorations between the trees.

Some of you may not be aware that we live in the rainforest part of Hainan, a lot of the central region is covered with it and as we enter Wuzhishan from Haikou there is a sign welcoming us to ‘the rainforest park’. What it means for us is that we see clouds being formed on the mountains and ascending into the sky. That’s one reason the weather was worrying today, I could feel drops on my skin even when it wasn’t raining.

Finally for today a couple of four legged friends. The first is one that will come and say hello and allow itself to be tickled but has recently found its voice so likes to bark too. The second one is an unusual one, cats usually steer well clear of us but I think this one must have been hungry. I did wonder if it belonged to Bapman and his wife and of course they are still away.

Walking back through the riverside market I spotted some older ladies practicing deportment. Checking with the choreographer there was going to be another show tonight. Unfortunately, or perhaps not, the rain kept us indoors again.

September 23^rd The rainforest really came into its own today confining me to barracks. Huan still had to go out, singing lessons. When she came home she insisted on taking photos to show you the rain, something that’s not easy to show when you use the camera on auto.

Huan did try a closer one too, in that one you can see some rain, unfortunately with a little glare too. She was outside on the balcony so where the glare came from I have no idea.

That’s the sum total of today’s photos apart from an empty box which is for Huan’s birthday. If the rest comes before her birthday then I’ll show you the box and its contents.

September 24^th Rain stopped play again but this time we can’t blame the rainforest. Instead we can blame typhoon Dianmu which is nowhere near us, in fact it’s heading into Vietnam, but it is the reason for today’s rain.

Huan still had hulusi class this morning so instead of walking her and Yú to Yefeng, I was the unpaid taxi driver. (I prefer to think of myself as the very professional chauffeur.) They did walk home for lunch though; the rain eased off enough for them to do that. Huan came in with the balance of yesterday’s Taobao, the main part of her birthday present. Her birthday is tomorrow but we had to check everything today so that we could let the supplier know that all had been received. Here she is holding her recorder, something to play now and then when she needs a rest from what’s in the box. What’s in there? There are five bamboo flutes, one each in the keys of C, D, E, F and G. I must be a real glutton for punishment!

September 25^th Another lazy morning for yours truly and I can’t even blame the rain today. By the time I woke up Huan had already gone out for her hulusi practice, I hadn’t heard her moving around or making a noise at all. Once breakfast and coffee was done with it was too late to really go anywhere so binged more Fast & Furious.

The weather was supposed to deteriorate after lunch but I went out for a walk anyway. Being the weekend I had to buy the lottery tickets and I fancied some more moon cakes. On the way to town I decided to try a couple of macro shots with the phone, I’d left the Fuji at home just in case the rain showed up. Ants look quite scary when they’re bigger, don’t you think?

When I reached the outdoor gymnasium nobody was around, a good time for a walk it seems, so I had a little bit of extra exercise. The outdoor treadmill was fine, doing ‘the twist’ wasn’t so bad, pulling the chain went well enough; I skipped the sit-ups and then discovered that I couldn’t even do one pull-up. Since I did my wrist in with the guitar I haven’t been doing any weight training exercises at all, I think I may have to start again, slowly.

Me being me, I did manage to get caught in the rain before I got home but as I hadn’t strayed far from town it wasn’t too big a problem. We were out in the evening again to celebrate Huan’s birthday, no I won’t tell you how old she is! For a change we visited our one and only Western style restaurant in Wuzhishan, you can see more here - https://youtu.be/IbkQhAKd20M

September 26^th Ooops, I did it again! The bed didn’t let me out until after nine o’clock this morning, I have no idea why. Huan was still home but just like yesterday, by the time breakfast and coffee was over and done with it was too late for walkies. Never mind, I cooked our two day weekend stew instead and we planned an afternoon walk.

Would you believe it, rain stopped play in the afternoon! Luckily it went away after dinner so we were able to have quite a pleasant walk but only around the river.

On our way across to the island park we almost stopped of for a Jacuzzi!

Then I almost became a murderer but my eyes redirected my feet at the last minute. For some reason I was reminded of being a child in Singapore where we were terrified of creatures with many legs and what they supposedly could do to us.

We haven’t seen any ‘secret’ cars for a while but we found this one hiding down a side street today. The camouflage is pretty good but it doesn’t hide the red flash down the bonnet and they forgot to remove the logo from the front wheel. It is another 红旗Hóngqí or ‘Red Flag.

From secret cars we move to car shows. I spotted this little group of cars as we were walking down the main street so of course had to drag Huan, kicking and screaming, across the road for a look. We only had a close look at one, the one on the left, made by BYD. It is a hybrid so range anxiety is not a problem at all, in fact it can do 1,200 kilometres on a full tank and charge. That is more than enough for us to get to the cheese shop and back! Huan told me to dream on…

September 27^th The bodyguard had a day off today, Huan and Yú had a rehearsal this morning but they started very early, before eight. That meant a nice pleasant solo walk for me, nice weather, smiling locals, good feeling. I tried one of those elusive birds again.

My route took me across the island park so I took a couple of views that you haven’t seen before.

The sky was nice and clear so I also tried a couple of moon shots.

Walking along the riverside I spotted the local fire service. Their full name is Fire and Rescue and today they were obviously practicing the rescue part.

On my way home I spotted one of our feathered friends again. One of these days I’ll get close enough for you to see more details.

On the final stretch I had to stop and chat with one of my four legged friends. She was lazy today and came and sat by my side and immediately rolled over for a tummy tickle.

That was it for my day, Huan was out again in the afternoon for another rehearsal, an OAP nap and the rain kept me in. Another week comes to an end, not a very exciting week I’m afraid. With a little luck the weather will improve next week, Huan will be less busy, I might be allowed to wear my boots and we may get out into the countryside again. Until the next time, it’s goodbye from both of us, take care all.

Empty Bob, R & R and Bone Idle Bob

September 14^th Today was another of those rain stopped play days, morning, afternoon and evening. Huan did go out this morning, for another deportment class. I got stuck with Facebook Watch instead of doing something more constructive. The afternoon saw us doing our weekly shop, and so that you wouldn’t be bereft of pictures today I took some photos of the signs. They are not exactly Chinglish because you can fairly easily understand the meaning but the spelling leaves a lot to be desired.

This sign is in a new burger place in the supermarket building. For the life of me I could not work out what they were trying to say. There was no sign of a Chinese name anywhere so we asked the sole member of staff who was present. He said the restaurant is called 好多肉, Hǎoduō ròu, which according to Google translates as “a lot of meat”. The face, in case you were wondering, has nothing to do with the food; it’s the logo and is the face of a cheeky little cat.

September 15^th No activities at all today, Huan’s Hulusi teacher’s child was ill so her class was cancelled. As for me, well after having a ‘multicolour yawn’ last night, also known in the army as a ‘full kit check’ or ‘talking to God on the big white telephone’, plus a few dashes to the bathroom with the trots, I was in no fit state to do anything or go anywhere. In fact I spent most of the day in bed, feeling weak and worn out.

September 16^th Only R & R. Isn’t the human body amazing? Yesterday I could barely put one foot in front of the other. Today, even after starving myself all day yesterday I had a lot more life in me. However, I decided to rest for another day, just to be sure!

September 17^th Perhaps I spoke too soon, I was awake too late this morning to walk the student to school. Listening to my body I stayed home all morning then listened a bit more and stayed home all afternoon too. We almost went out after dinner but rain stopped play!

September 18^th Today was a beautiful day so instead of listening to my body I listened to my brain, and my heart, which both said “Get your ***e out of the house!” Huan had a singing class today so I walked her and Yú there before heading off down the main road. My intention was to go round the river lizard hunting. On the way I heard a strange noise which of course I had to investigate. Wuzhishan is hardly ever short of the noise of pile drivers when they are preparing the foundations for new buildings but this was different. It turned out to be more like a very powerful electric drill, in a big hole, preparing said foundations.

Passing the three legged pooch, who as always, was pleased to see me and come for a cuddle, I headed off around the river. Not a single lizard was spotted on the way. In fact, no life of any type, human or otherwise was spotted. I guess the snowbirds have not quite got round to returning yet. The weather was very nice though.

The market was a little busier than last week but there were still gaps between stalls and nowhere near enough snowbirds. The locals were celebrating the harvest though and had a little show going on, people were ‘winning’ Wuzhishan red tea. If you didn’t win there was always the chance to buy at the side.

Having enough time in hand I decided to collect the ladies and walk them home. They were late out, probably put in detention for being naughty girls! Actually, they have a show coming up and they were rehearsing for it. I found a place to sit and wait and would you believe it, they walked right past me! This was despite Huan knowing I was waiting for her. They were so lost in their own world that I was able to walk all the way home behind them without them noticing.

This evening should have been another episode of “Eating Out In China”, delayed by one day due to my fragile belly. We decided to cancel for this week due to having lots of vegetables still in the fridge. We’ll try and make sure we get it right next week!

September 19^th We managed another walk today, albeit a slow one and we didn’t go too far, nearly seven kilometres around the town. We didn’t find much to take pictures of either but as usual we tried for another bird, this one let me get quite close.

Next up is a four legged friend that you haven’t seen before plus an extra photo of me.

Next up we found some coral, yes, right here in Wuzhishan. It was in a hotel pond which I doubt very much was salt water. Mind you, there’s every chance the coral was fake. If you look very carefully you might spot a little fishy too.

Finally, at one of our little hardly used shopping centres the outdoor escalator was actually operational today. You can only go up though; you have to come down by the stairs. Here’s Huan on the way up. We took no photos upstairs because, apart from the children’s dance studio nothing else is open yet, or even rented out.

September 20^th Apart from shopping and spending some of my well earned loot on Taobao to buy Huan’s birthday present nothing else to report for today. Our lazy week has come to an end. Hopefully, next week will be an improvement, my body may not be as run down and who knows, I may even be able to get my boots on again. Bye for now, see you next time!

Lots of Rain, Pooh Sticks, Eating Out (Twice), Health Checks, More Bug Bites!

September 7^th First job, edit last week’s post, the fruit Huan bought, and that I ate in Singapore was not lychee, but rambutan. Apart from the skin there’s not a lot of difference though.

Rain stopped play today, the computer was 100% correct. It did ease off enough for us to visit the post office and collect the mail. Here’s Huan holding up her birthday card, from one of my lovely sisters and her husband. This one was posted some time in July.

September 8^th Rain should have stopped play today, the computer said there would be rain and I agreed with the computer. However, the Chief Meteorological Officer said there would be a walk. Bowing down to her vastly superior knowledge, as I usually do, we set off and what do you know, within the first kilometres the rain was already making us wet! We weren’t the only ones out today; it looks as though some of the snowbirds have started making their way back for the winter. Here are a couple on the saxophone, she is the teacher and he is the student.

Hiding when the rain was too heavy we did manage about three kilometres before the sun showed its face again. The two kilometre walk home was much better although we still needed hot showers when we eventually arrived there. On the way I stopped to chat to a friend, Huan is always amazed at the way he stands up and nestles his head on my lap. You’ve seen him before, but here he is again looking for a little love.

September 9^th The weather was absolutely glorious this morning so we didn’t check phones or computers just set off for a little countryside walk. I still can’t wear my boots yet so ‘off road’ would not be allowed. I tried to snap a few butterflies on our little island in the river but they were moving so fast today there was no chance. Our route took us along the irrigation canal, a route we have used many times, but recently it appears to have become more overgrown. Here is the (not quite so intrepid explorer) waving goodbye to his team leader.

Something that was moving slowly enough to photograph, apart from me, was this creature.

And here’s our hero again, going deeper and deeper into the unknown!

A little further on I was lucky enough to catch two butterflies that were not quite as fast as their island siblings. This looked to be a courting couple.

After the canal we headed for the village of Konglu to avoid going the long way round via the mansions on the hill. Our way was blocked, the ‘road to nowhere’ is growing and all access to the village from this side, the track to the left and the road to the right, had disappeared.

So off via the mansions on the hill we proceeded. The first thing that struck us, both of us, on the road, was face pareidolia, can you spot the GI leaning against the tree?

The mansions on the hill had Covid restrictions so we had to skirt around the outside. There we spotted quite a few snails on the wall. The first picture caught my eye because of the shadow and the second was me trying to get a head on view with the light in the wrong place.

Huan was happy, she found a baby lizard.

Crossing the irrigation canal again we decided to have a game of Poohsticks. Here we are watching our sticks reappearing, Huan’s won, but mine overtook hers soon after.

My bovine friends were absent today, out in the fields somewhere I guess; all they left behind was this chicken as a look out.

We took a detour down a little track but decided at the end that it wasn’t a place to explore today, I need my boots for this route.

Heading back towards home we found that the route for the bypass, from the bridge to nowhere, had some more construction going on. I thought the road would be built up on pillars but it looks as though they will just raise the level of the ground. Here they are putting a reinforced covering over another irrigation canal.

Passing by what used to be a fish farm restaurant we spotted a lone goose on sentry duty. Huan thought the first photo was like someone ‘fishing’ for the goose. The second one is the warning hiss of course and the third one shows just what the goose was guarding.

Our last picture of the day, courtesy of Huan’s phone, shows a wet Bob sheltering under a tree. Yes, we got caught in the rain again; it started about nine hundred metres from home. Still, that’s a marked improvement on yesterday.

September 10^th Rain stopped play, well to be exact, the thirteenth typhoon of the year stopped play. I’ve realised that they count the number of typhoons not by how many actually hit Hainan but by how many originate in the NW Pacific Ocean. The present one is called Conson and is nowhere near us; it is heading for the coast of Vietnam and has been downgraded to a tropical storm. Of course that still means lots of rain for us! We did go out though, to a Teacher’s Day lunch, held in honour of the teacher of Huan’s singing class. He deserves it; he had a full lung transplant after which he taught himself to sing to aid his recovery. Now to ‘pay it back’ he teaches others to sing. I did video the lunch but it’s not a very good video. I initially wasn’t going to upload it but then I thought you may as well see all sides of our life here. As usual, if you want to see it, go here - https://youtu.be/9hYKG4oXkNQ

September 11^th Clear skies greeted us this morning which was not what we expected having checked the tropical storm warnings last night. We took advantage of what we saw, or at least I did anyway. First I had to take the returning student to class, yes, Huan was back at singing class today. I decided to see if there was a back way out of the Yefeng complex. If I had my boots on there could possibly have been a way but with sandals I wasn’t going to risk it.

It seems that we are definitely going to have a fast train through the centre of Hainan. This hoarding tells us that the central highway has already been completed, the central railway will be starting soon and that Wuzhishan is advancing rapidly. What they are really doing of course is trying to market their properties!

Being a Saturday I took the riverside market route but found nothing to photograph for you. It looked very much as if half the stallholders and half the customers had decided the weather was not going to be good today and as a result had stayed home. Coming back via tea street I did spot a change, one of the large overhanging trees has been pruned, (or maybe pollarded). That is the only tree that now has new growth, but not of new bits of tree, instead various fungi. I didn’t bother picking any!

And the last picture is a bug, which I didn’t know until I got home. I could see something on the floor; I thought it was something being moved by other little creatures. Luckily it seemed to be unable to fly or I might have got stung on my nose!

September 12^th “What’s the recipe today Jim?” (One for all you oldies out there.) Today’s recipe, or plan, was to drag Bob off for a medical; Huan had received a call yesterday saying we were due some more tests. At our age it’s not so easy to ‘hold your wee until you get there’! As it happened they only took our blood pressure and tested our blood sugar.

Are we fit? Huan’s blood sugar was 6.3 and her blood pressure 123/86, no problems there. My blood sugar was lower, 5.9, no problems there either. My blood pressure, on the other hand, was unlike any results I’ve had before, 117/100. A quick check on Google shows that Huan is in the prehypertension zone and I am on the border of hypertension stage 1. Huan’s reaction was to ask the nurse if I could have tablets and then to ask me if I wanted them. A firm ‘NO’ was my answer. The nurse then told us that my readings were probably affected by me not being relaxed and talking too much, (I was trying to record the results on my phone as we went).

Being out so early we had missed breakfast so found a new place to try before we went walkies. Huan had dumplings and rice soup while I had fried noodles with an extra fried egg. It’s not very near our house but we will definitely remember it for future reference, it was a good breakfast.

Weren’t we the lucky ones today? As well as eating out for breakfast we also ate out for lunch.  Zhào dé and yú guì lán’s daughter was visiting from Guangzhou, she’s a dentist ‘up there’ and she had invited us all out for lunch. That gave me a good excuse to make another ‘eating out’ video, you can see it here - https://youtu.be/gCjOTys9pf8

September 13^th “Come quickly! There’s something on our window, look!” while waving her phone under my nose as I was blearily opening my eyes. Dutifully I went to the living room and, holding the camera outside managed to grab a snap. Fancy choosing our house to do their canoodling!

Having gone out to lunch yesterday we still had dinner in the fridge for today so we skipped shopping and went for a walk instead. I still can’t put my boots on yet but casuals were fine so off to the countryside we headed, to stay on the roads of course. I found a new way on to our little island, some steps I had never seen before.

Passing in front of the new Chun He hotel we went to see if there were any fish in their ponds. There weren’t but we did spot a very beautiful dragonfly.

Soon we were diverted by Magellan, the famous navigator, otherwise known as SWMBO and headed through a small village towards a new apartment complex. At least it gave me a couple more photo opportunities on the way, the first a flower we don’t think we’ve seen, or noticed before. Google wasn’t much help; I’ll have to ask my horticultural nephew.

Sometimes views jump out at you as this one did. I had to creep in under the undergrowth a little and then straddle the irrigation canal but I think it was worth it.

Now if you’re a ‘Brit’ you will know all about allotments. Well, some of the new housing complexes here have allotments attached. Usually they are free to use until the developer gets permission to expand their construction. We do know of a few that have been in use for twelve years or more. This one is a new one.

Just after this is where our journey took an unexpected turn although in this case I can’t really blame Huan, it was a joint decision. We decide that instead of retracing our steps to the road through the village we would head off through the trees and hopefully reach the road at the other side of the village.

You can’t tell from the pictures but we got bitten all over our legs again, thankfully only by plants, ants and mosquitoes this time, not those nasty blood sucking leeches. We knew we were heading in the right direction when we saw this.

Yes, it is a lift; we guess it’s for the residents to get down to their allotments. We had seen it ‘up above’ but it’s not operational yet. Leaving the lift and following the path out of the allotments we came to the next view, no problems getting through there we thought.

Of course we were wrong, again, and got ourselves tangled up in the undergrowth before finding a stream too wide to cross. Perseverance is the word so we did just that and found a farm.

And here’s one of the farmers busy chopping down an old crop in preparation for planting a new one. There’s no “off season” for farmers in Hainan!

To Huan’s surprise my sense of direction had not let me down at all and coming out of the other side of the farm this was our vista. I knew from the blue buildings that we were in the right place, pointing out to Huan the traffic on the road eased her mind too.

Before too long we were on the road where we decided that having wasted too much time in the jungle, again, we should make our way home. From behind us we heard the toot of a horn and shouted greetings, no it wasn’t a lift, just people being friendly. Besides, there was no room in the back for us!

No afternoon sleeps today, although I did do a nodding dog impression once or twice. Huan had to go out, to another class. Their hulusi teacher has asked them to take a few of the Qipao fashion parade lessons, I guess you could call them deportment lessons, so that they are able to walk on and off stage in a more ladylike manner the next time they have show.

And that’s it, another day, another week; see you next Monday hopefully having received no more bites this week! Take care and be good!