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!