Storm Damage, University Interview, Dining Out (A Lot).

October 19^th Escape, at last! Huan had a deportment class this morning and the weather was not too bad. Rain was definitely in the air but I was sure a walk could be taken before lunch. I let the ladies go on their own, they walk too slowly for me and I set off around the riverside to check on any damage from the previous rains and typhoon. One hundred and thirty two photos were taken, far too many for here of course, so I trimmed them down to just sixty four. Obviously that is still far too many so I’ll just share a few. The first two show how the vegetation has been destroyed.

The water had been almost as high as the pathway over the last couple of days and at times it may have been higher. Here are the cleaners removing soil and vegetation.

The culvert crossing was totally impassable over the last few days; today the water level had reduced enough for me to walk that way. As you can see the flow is still strong but there is only one gate open at the weir bridge.

On our little island you could see a tide mark showing just how much had been submerged. From the island you could see water all the way to the weir bridge where normally there would be boulders and vegetation. Crossing the island I checked out the not yet completed dam. You can see that the water has caused landslides, all the beautiful landscaping will have to be done again or maybe even raised a metre or two.

The dam is not unscathed either. Despite the water having an easy route to the right of centre it has still piled a lot of debris on top of the left side of the dam.

Carrying on upriver, this is the view back to our house, normally a sedate flow around the boulders and all the various river flora.

Across the other side of the bridge the river cleaners were busy removing all the debris that had been forced downriver. Mind you, they had a small problem; the debris included one of their home made rafts!

Carrying on around the river I could see that a lot of vegetation had become caught up on the balustrades along the pathway, which itself was also covered in mud, definitely not the best place to walk. I stayed up top and snapped the workers down below.

What may not have been obvious in the last photo is just how many of the balustrades have been moved by the force of the water. We have never seen damage like this before.

In Wuzhishan, apart from the rain, the storm (typhoon) was not too bad at all but I guess somewhere upriver it must have been a lot worse. The surrounding mountains protect us from most storms, what we are seeing are secondary effects.

There were many more photos of muddy paths, stuck vegetation and missing balustrades but I think by now you’ve got the idea. I carried on to the last bridge, taking a photo of the cloud on my left on the way. When I took the second picture I was actually getting very wet. I couldn’t see or hear the rain, perhaps I was in the cloud!

This next photo is just to show you the path on the way back past the tea shops. Quite a few times today I almost went a over t, all the surfaces get very slippery after the rains. I will take a few days of sunshine for them to dry out again, some get no sun and therefore take longer. I blame my mother (pick your feet up when you walk Robert!) and the army, (heel first boy)! Local people don’t slip and slide half as much as I do.

Just a little further on I came across the river cleaners again, they had succeeded in getting the damaged raft out of the river. Here are both rafts for you perusal.

Lots more missing balustrades, vegetation and mud photographs were taken but I think we’ll just finish with the approach to home. You can see the dam being constructed on the left and the big hole on the right. For all the damage I’ve seen today the flow of the river must have been far stronger than we’ve seen in the last six years.

The town itself was fine, I didn’t see any real damage at all, I guess we are lucky living where we do. I would lay bets that both Haikou and Sanya were more severely affected as well as other cities and towns on the east coast.

For me, I was pleased to get out again, the air was good, the walk was long enough, seven kilometres, even though it was fairly slow due to me snapping away here there and everywhere. As for the weather, it stayed reasonably OK until after lunch when the rain came back yet again!

October 20^th Life is definitely returning to normal, I just hope I am not speaking too soon. The girls had a hulusi class this morning so I walked them there before going for a meander. Through the town square I went first where I spotted this row of tents, but access was not for the general public. Huan translated when I got home, it was for ex-forces people looking for jobs locally.

As I was leaving the square I heard a strange gurgling noise so I looked around for the cause. It was coming from a telecommunications cubicle and before long smoke followed it. I learnt two very important lessons, first I don’t know the fire service phone number, and second my Chinese would not have been good enough to explain the problem! Luckily another passer by knew who to call and what to say.

I did have another walk around part of the riverside, today I could walk nearer the bank, but I think you saw enough yesterday. There were a couple of photos though, the first one a lizard looking very puzzled and wondering where his house has gone, or maybe even wondering if he drank too much last night and got lost on the way home!

The second photo is another little creature, this time a mouse, quite a cute looking fellow isn’t he. He had been rifling around in that rubbish bag then popped up allowing this snap. Unfortunately he was off into the bushes before I could get any nearer.

And that was me for the day; the girls were out again this afternoon, another deportment class. The teacher decided that as they’d missed one because of the typhoon they should make it up.

October 21^st Another beautiful day for walking today and we could have had a nice long one; if we hadn’t been so lazy and if we had started out sooner. Never mind, we got out and that’s the main thing. I thought we’d start with birds again today.

A mantis was next but no matter how hard we tried we couldn’t get this one to walk on either my hand or Huan’s, very unusual.

Snowbirds are multiplying again, albeit slowly. Here are a couple making music.

We passed my little four legged friends in the market next, but as you’ve recently seen them there are no photos here. I did take some of course; they’re on my PC and backed up so that at the end of the month my children can be bored stiff by them! Finally, would this, or its English equivalent be allowed in the UK. Many drivers voluntarily display a sticker with the last two characters on, it means novice driver, someone who’s passed the test but needs more experience. This sign, with the warning and the added character means “Danger! Female Novice Driver!”

After lunch my first job was to cut Huan’s hair and her first job was to cut mine. I also needed to get rid of a couple of weeks worth of facial fuzz. Why did I need to be clean and smart, and even wore a shirt? I had an interview with a university, not a local one but a British one. Am I getting off my bum to study again? No such luck even though a few years in London would be nice. No, the university wanted to interview me for their “Grown Up Children from Military Families Project”. I was very happy to help with their research; perhaps their findings will benefit other “pad brats” or even “expat brats” in the future.

October 22^nd We had a slow start today, or at least I did. The ladies had a hulusi class, I stayed home and did my Chinese lesson before heading off to join them for lunch. Zōushūxián returned from Jilin yesterday so Huan invited her out, along with the rest of the committee of course. She felt that it was our turn to be the hosts and rather than trying to fit them all around our dining room table and cook everything on one hob, she chose a restaurant. I arrived to find Huan and Yú serenading the other ladies with their hulusis so along with the other men I waited outside! Being the hosts we were responsible for the “refreshments’, you can see the two bottles Huan bought and my little bit in front of me in the first collage. I didn’t manage to get away with such a small amount of Báijiǔ though, someone made sure my glass was filled.

Being a Friday I could have done our weekly video today, apart from one small problem. This particular restaurant has already been featured. I must say that the ladies, Huan, Zōushūxián and Yú did a much better job of ordering this time, it was all I could do not to eat the table clean!

Here they all are, well lubricated, with the exception of Huan and the lady on her right. I need to add her name to my list, at the moment I know her only as ‘bridge lady’; she’s a retired bridge engineer. As you can see, getting them all to look the same way at the same time was not easy.

Huan took the car provided by the restaurant along with our guests, I walked back along the river. I needed to try and walk some of that food off. Unusually, I spotted three egrets, not far from our house, but just as usual, I could not get close enough for a decent photo. The rest of my day was wasted trying to recover from an overindulgence of both food and drink.

October 23^rd Huan was free today, the weather was not bad today, it was the riverside market today, “let’s go there” said the boss. It had been a while since she had had a wander around and I enjoy it too so off we went. It’s getting busier down there although the snowbird count is still a little low for this time of year. This week’s market picture is something we haven’t seen for a while, and something I don’t think I would try, an outdoor dentist!

We passed by the other market, where we used to buy our baps, and found the ‘new’ stall. If we want some we will have to phone and order, I think we can do that! For a change we took the back road out of that area.

Further on I conned Huan into exercising knowing full well that I was going to create a gif when I returned home. Do you think we should rename this outdoor gym “Flushing Meadows”?

An inspection of damage control followed, we wanted to see how the repairs were coming on and if anything different would be done to prevent future occurrences of the same. It looks very much as if the stones and rails will be reinstalled in exactly the same way so we can expect similar damage in the future.

The egrets had bred since yesterday and there were at least half a dozen around the weir bridge this morning. The director was giving me instructions like wildfire, all for shots that were too far away. Across the road where I was I managed a much closer shot, unfortunately it was an aerial shot so you still can’t see too much.

Not having made the weekly food video yesterday I planned to do it this evening. As is often the case, SWMBO interfered with my plans but although she didn’t eat so much I still managed. You can find the video here - https://youtu.be/t3CWmBcMB_0

October 24^th No long walks today, instead almost a mirror image of Friday. We were out for lunch, with the same people, at the same restaurant, but with somebody else paying. I’ll only show you one dish because I quite liked it. The squeamish among us would probably not even try it but I will usually try anything once. This dish is large intestines, surprisingly tasty and with a texture that felt good to eat.

Breaking from my tradition of only having the one glass of Báijiǔ to show willing, for some reason today I decided to show the ‘men’ that I was more than capable of keeping up with them. After quite a few glasses, many “bottoms up” and a terrible rendition of Charlie Rich’s ‘The Most Beautiful Girl’ they decided that I had “rù xiāng suí tǔ” which basically means “come to the homeland”. On our walk home I knew that I had overdone it ‘just a little’. However, Huan managed to keep me on the straight and narrow. Surprisingly she was more amused than expected; it has been a long time since I’ve been a little tipsy!

October 25^th No weekly shop required today, we had enough doggy bags from yesterday’s lunch and other stuff left in the fridge. Huan needed fish though so we did have a stroll to the market. Have you ever wondered which shops appear to ‘go down’ and which ones always seem to succeed? This one across the road from us is yet another alcohol shop having a grand opening. Unfortunately they have neither tequila nor Jameson's!

Next up a soft drinks shop, the Chinese equivalent of a café, but using mostly powdered drinks. Most of these do not last long either, but I got Huan to pose with their teddy.

Another mouse, or rat, joins us this week, but in this case I only got it disappearing.

Going into the market we spotted these creatures next. They are locusts, minus their wings so it seems, but still alive. Huan was telling me that when she was younger they lost a lot of crops to swarms of these so had to eat them instead. Some people still do that.

Arriving home we found our maintenance company busy building a motorbike shed so that people can keep their bikes outside instead of bringing them into our downstairs foyer. They also plan to install electrical points for the electric versions.

After lunch the ladies were out again for their deportment class so while we were waiting for Yú I got Huan to pose again.

Having dropped the ladies off I had a nice quiet walk down by the riverside.

Coming back up to street level I managed a sneaky photo of a bunch of snowbirds.

And that was my walk, apart from an empty swimming pool that you’ve seen before. I decided to pass by the supermarket and buy some milk, the only thing that we may run out of before we decide to do another shop. Sods law struck, there I was with no basket, three cartons of milk, some ‘ugly’ oranges and a cheapo can of spam stuck behind three ladies in the checkout. There was only one checkout in operation and the three ladies, who were together, appeared to be buying enough either for a small hotel or a house they had just moved in to. One day we will get my phone sorted out so that I can use it for shopping!

So another week bites the dust, the new week weather started off well but more rain is forecast from tomorrow onwards. I guess that is sods law again. Hopefully mornings will be clear enough for me to go rambling while Huan goes gallivanting, (she calls it school)! Take care of yourselves and each other; see you soon!

Only a Few Photos, A Lot of Rain, Being Tourists

October 12^th A little more normality returned again this morning, Huan and Yú had another class learning how to deport themselves. That is a correct usage of the word by the way, I checked up the etymology. I escorted them again, only carrying my phone due to the ominous cloudy skies. Here are some pretty flowers for you.

And now for something different, at least for any youngsters reading this, oldies may well remember seeing such things when they were young. Most new multi-storeyed buildings have an underground facility that can be used for car parking but that will also double up for “Air Defence”. We don’t have one; we just have the siren on the roof!

Taking a detour I went to see if our little goat was still there, it was. Not only that, it seemed to remember me and came bounding up to greet me.

The little kid wasn’t lonely today, it had geese and goats to keep it company. Whether the other goats were its parents or not I have no idea but neither they nor the geese would let me anywhere near them.

Finally for today I spotted a strange yellow machine from a distance so I had to go closer for a look. It turned out to be men at work although I couldn’t actually see the one man who was doing the work. He was under the bridge somewhere.

Did I manage to miss the rain today? Yes, and so did Huan. It did come back a little in the afternoon and a bit more in the evening. “Rain, rain, go away, come back another day!” There’s not much chance of that, we both had messages on our phones tonight, typhoon Kompasu will make landfall probably tomorrow evening.

October 13^th Confined to barracks! No worries, I started binge watching “Line of Duty” while Huan got on with her music. Google sent me my monthly analytics email; I now have over 100 subscribers! Over 10,000 people viewed “Needle in my Belly” last month bringing the total to well over 54,000 up to date. Why would so many people want to watch a fifteen second video? I have absolutely no idea. In other news, I had to put my track suit and slippers on in the house!

October 14^th NTR, CTB luckily no ROPs.

October 15^th The day started with preparation of the travelling IT bag, making sure all necessary chargers were packed, making sure the external HDD had all the files I would need and that the laptop was still functional. Once that was done, and our clothes were packed we were on our way, a nice long journey to an OAP tourist trip. It took us all of ten minutes to get there! Huan had booked us into Rendishan Resort; it goes under many different names. Not many photos were taken although a lot of videos were made with the Keymission 170. Here is a part of my ID card that I would need to carry around for the duration of our stay.

Once we were safely ensconced in our room / studio apartment, it was time for lunch. Should you wish to see more, click here - https://youtu.be/ArWOkwNazhc

After lunch we had a guided tour of some of the available facilities but before that, a sales visit to the show apartments. We saw a studio, priced at ¥1,100,000.00 and a two bedroom priced at ¥2,000,000.00. That does seem expensive and we are not sure how many of the facilities you would be able to use as a resident, either free of charge or at a substantial discount.

As we were passing various posters on the wall the sales patter was more about the location of Rendishan, here in Wuzhishan, the clean mountain air, the surrounding amenities, hiking, rafting, rain forests, markets, trips to Sanya, generally an overview. There was also a poster showing the longevity of Hainan people, there are many over a hundred years old.

There is a daily exercise schedule that everyone is free to join in if they so wish. Sessions include body exercises, Nordic hiking, (if it’s raining exercises using the Nordic walking sticks are substituted here), tai chi, individual softball, ‘beat your body’ etc.

There are various function rooms, a library, a meditation room, (with instructors), a small old style cinema, individual herbal steam baths, acupuncture, cupping, massage, reflexology, communal salt saunas etc. That led us to an Ethnic (Miao if I remember rightly) hospital. It’s a place I wouldn’t mind staying in, I told Huan that’s where I want to go if I’m ill!

I left Huan and everyone else sitting on Mugwort Steam Chairs being lectured to and made my way back to the room, passing some more optional facilities on the way. There are pool tables, table tennis tables, multi gyms and of course badminton.

Dinner came next and very nice it was too. Click here for more - https://youtu.be/PljEbucsECs

Still more activities after dinner, for Huan anyway. I didn’t fancy joining her because it was raining a little and, having eaten too much, my belly was bloated. The steam sauna was the first port of call but she soon got bored with that and moved outside to the spa pools. There are nine or ten pools of varying temperatures, we’re not sure if they have anything in them. Huan tried a few of those before going back inside to steam herself this time for a good fifteen minutes.

Back to the room, end of day one, upload all the videos, charge all the batteries etc.

October 16^th An early start, breakfast at seven followed by a Nordic mountain hike at eight. At least that was the plan. You can see breakfast here - https://youtu.be/ww35ykK5Q3g

Disappointingly the mountain walk was cancelled; they read the weather better than we do. Instead group indoor activities were put in their place, most people joined in, some didn’t. I was in the latter category, blaming my full belly again. They had stretching, Nordic stick exercises, individual softball exercises, then I missed some by taking a walk outside. I came back to find them doing a ‘chicken dance’ so went to watch some pool for a while. They moved on to even more exercises before finishing off with some tai chi. We came then to the reason why this trip was so cheap, the mandatory sales lecture. I didn’t attend this as it would have all gone way over my head anyway. I spotted a few other guests ‘running away’ too.

I had a little more exploration of the grounds, found the shop, which was closed, explored the cinema etc. Around half past nine the rain came down, the organisers did well to call off our walk; we would probably have been just about to turn back! So back to the room for me, upload this morning’s videos and other mundane stuff.

Huan’s lecture lasted over two hours; Chinese people can be very patient at times, when they want to be. I actually went looking for her so that she didn’t have to go upstairs before lunch. That was similar to yesterday’s; click here to see - https://youtu.be/-eCA5YLUOhI

Check out followed, I left Huan while I went to find the car, drove back up to collect her with the windows open and Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song blaring out on (almost) full volume. “Straight home M’lady?” I asked. Nope, we had to visit various express delivery places to collect items ordered from Taobao that had been delayed due to the typhoon. Once home we were both exhausted, Huan had a reason, I didn’t. My day was then spent transferring data from the external HDD to the desktop and uploading to the internet. The complete video of the trip is far too long though at nearly two hours so that will probably stay local.

Without many photos, how can you decide if you want to visit? Well Rendishan has a website, the landing page is http://www.wzsrds.com/ This next link shows you where we were - http://www.wzsrds.com/About.php?id=13 Other links will show you our beautiful island, our county and city. Browse away and enjoy! PS Ask in the comments if you want to know more.

October 17^th Lazy day, something wrong with my belly, doesn’t seem to be food related. Huan’s worried, I’m pretending not to be.

October 18^th Yet more rain is falling on us today, it started yesterday evening and hasn’t stopped since. The lovely lawn and path they created across the river is now all underwater. That rather begs the question will it be permanently under water when the dam is complete?

The worse thing about rain here is not so much the rain, it’s the fact that buildings are not built for it. There are no such things as cavity walls here and neither the outsides nor the insides ever appear to be waterproofed in any way. This is our office wall. Believe it or not, it used to be even worse; this is after a fairly costly repair. Now if we lived in a house we could treat the whole of the outside but living in an apartment building that’s not an option.

We had to go out, you know why, it’s Monday, and the fridge is empty again. There have been some shortages of various foodstuffs due to the typhoon but nothing really to worry us. The only thing we couldn’t find today was cucumber for our sandwiches. Lots of our Taobao stuff was also delayed because of the typhoon so a detour to the local baker was required.

With not having a lot of photos this week I thought I would entertain you with another from the supermarket. You know about chicken feet, you can see some at the back of this photo, but I bet you didn’t know about pig’s noses. I certainly didn’t, even Huan has never seen them before!

So as I finish off this week’s missive the rain is still pouring, the river has gone down a little though and our wall is not getting any worse. Hopefully we will have a few breaks in the rain over the next week so that we can get our little legs moving again. Until next time then, look after you and yours, be good, and if you can’t be good, be careful! Bye!