Clumsy Bob, Another Needle and Art.

November 9^th My week started with a text message from Immigration telling me that I have 30 days left on my visa and that I should start preparing. Huan will have to call them and find out if anything has changed since last year, if I have to have a medical etc. I guess it will still be only an eleven month visa.

Yú decided to hide in her flat today, someone has been taken away for quarantine due to possible contact with Covid confirmed people in Haikou. That meant Huan was going to school alone so as the weather was miserable I gave her a lift in the car. I did have an ulterior motive; the UPS was too heavy for me to carry it in to town! Looking at the people today you would not have thought we live on a tropical island, coats were everywhere, and not just thin ones.

The computer shop was happy enough to receive the UPS, I suppose they can always butcher it for spare parts if they don’t fancy repairing it. They could sell me a new one but it would have to come from Haikou and I wouldn’t be able to check it out first. It looks like a replacement, if we decide to buy one, will have to come from Taobao again.

Arriving home I found ‘my’ parking space had been nicked. Yes, when the snowbirds return a lot bring their cars with them and parking gets very bad. One of them has even brought a caravan with him this year. Feeling generous I decided to give Huan a lift home too. Sat waiting for her I opened the sunroof shade and discovered that our sunroof was open, not completely but tilted. Neither of us have any idea how long it’s been like that. I’m just hoping no rats, snakes or other creepy crawlies have found their way inside!

No walks were taken this morning, we planned an afternoon one but one of us, and this time it wasn’t me, had a long afternoon sleep. It must be the weather! Anyway, we managed an after dinner one instead, first of all checking on the progress of our damaged road. Answer = zero!

Chatting to a friend who repairs motorbikes we spotted what has now become an unusual sight.

We took the pleasant route intending to come back along the other side of the river.

Unfortunately the river crossing was under water so that was out of the question, we also couldn’t continue on our side; that was blocked too. We had to retrace our steps so to get a bit of distance we went through the town.

My parents always thought I was clumsy; it’s a word that Huan has learnt how to use when describing me now. I don’t know how many times I tripped over (slightly raised) paving stones, kerbstones, manhole covers etc, but it seemed to be more than usual. This was the worst one, and I’d really like to know how I managed to hit this with my right big toe and not my sandal!

Huan almost heard some choice expletives deleted. Afterwards she told me that she didn’t mind if I let my language lapse on such occasions, I reminded her that there’s a time and a place! Such incidents always remind me of my first father-in-law, who on the way to the pub one night came out with some really bad language. My chin must have dropped to the floor; I’d never heard him swear once before. He noticed my expression and reminded me that he was a coal miner and that, just like me, an army guy, he could swear with the best of them. Also like me, he preferred to keep that kind of language away from ladies and children.

I do have something just a little strange to add to today’s diary. With it being November I have started looking for Christmas goodies, mints, chocolates, cakes etc. Immediately a problem raised its head, none of my bookmarked pages from last year worked, all those Taobao stores have either closed down or stopped supplying the goods I want. The strange part came when I was searching for Christmas puddings, I don’t remember if it was in English or Chinese, but I ended up with pages of snuff! Explanations on a postcard please.

November 10^th Chaperone duties called me again today, so I dutifully answered the call. You know I read a load of garbage about China in my FB feed and on the internet in general so now and then I’ll post some stuff to show you what it’s really like. This photo shows a government owned housing block, the whole outside is being replaced. This has come about because central government has decreed that old housing stock should not be needlessly demolished just so that developers can make money, instead it should all be refurbished. This is quite a common site these days and the results look pretty good.

Dropping Huan off at the OAP School she instructed me to stay away from all my doggie friends today. This was why; these are not tooth marks on my arm but claw marks from a boisterous young puppy. I’m afraid to say selective deafness set in and I didn’t hear a word!

More car stickers today, I had to Google again to find out what it was all about. I thought it would be something to do with the war with Japan, or more generally the Second World War, and China. I was wrong, check here - http://die-cast-army.over-blog.com/article-3508783.html

And here - https://www.axishistory.com/books/153-germany-heer/heer-other-units/4507-schwere-panzer-abteilung-505

Huan was disappointed when she saw today’s photos, there were even more birds in the river today, at least ten. Perhaps this is one family group. Hopefully they will decide to make our little river a regular spot on their migratory route.

Meanwhile, further up the river, they have repaired most of the damaged walkways now.

My chaperoning duties led me back to school where I picked up the lovely lady to walk her home. We both loved this scene as we arrived.

With Yú still hiding herself away Huan was free for an after dinner walk today, she is spoiling me! We did have an ulterior motive which was to get our Covid booster shots. That plan fell by the wayside because although we had been told the clinic would be open until half past eight, the hours changed yesterday afternoon and it closed before six. Still, it gave us an excuse to have a look down by the riverside and see how food street is coming on. There is a lot more happening than on previous visits, I guess in a week or two with even more migrants from the North and if we try a little later it will be very busy.

November 11^th Today is “Singles Day” here in China, that’s a big shopping day, much bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. It started in 2009 as a counterpart to Valentine’s Day, the ‘singles’ being denoted by 11/11. In the UK of course, it’s Remembrance Day, which I would be commemorating if I could find somewhere to buy a poppy. For readers who are not aware of it, check here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day

A busy morning was on the cards for today, our first stop was the bap market, Huan had phoned last night and ordered twenty. Success, baps placed into the cool box in the back of the car and on to our second stop, the hospital. Today was ‘booster’ day, not something I was looking forward to. Blood pressure measurements had to be taken first, as usual Huan was near perfect. Here I am with my right arm being pumped up, the nurse then said my BP was too high and used my left arm instead. It was still high but I was through the first hurdle.

At the next stop in the process were advised that foreigners have to pay. No problem, I was more than willing to do just that. Yes problem, the staff had never had to do this before, this was a new edict from central government, and they had to work out how much I had to pay and how I could pay. After what seemed an age, during which time Huan went off to be jabbed, they decided I would have to pay ¥100.00. (A little less than £12.00, great value I think.)

Now came the next problem, how to pay? They do have cashier’s on every floor but it appeared that we couldn’t pay there, (the normal way). Instead we, (Huan was with me by this time), had to visit the accounts office which was up on the fifth floor. I wouldn’t mind working there, look at the lovely view they have.

Receipt in hand we traipsed back down to the first floor again where the nurse giving the vaccination told Huan that she could not take photos of her, only the process. So here I am, shirt sleeve at the ready and then looking away as the needle pierced my tender skin! What a baby, seventy one years old and still terrified of needles!

All that was left then was to wait. You’re not allowed out until you have sat resting for thirty minutes. They give you a lovely little sticker which you have to show on the way out. Taking the sticker off was worse than taking a plaster off, Huan had to give it a sharp yank.

So our whole morning was used up today, no walks. I was just pleased to get home and forget needles for another few months. As for our baps, they were great, a little difficult to slice cleanly but they will more than suffice. Both of us were too lazy for an afternoon walk as well so we just had a saunter around the town in the evening. Do you think this advertising apparition was planted on the pavement just to worry me?

November 12^th School for Huan, with Yú this morning, so I was the chaperone for both. Here they are, the ladies in red. It was quite funny hearing Huan trying to translate the song.

I had dropped them off at Yefeng, and had decided to do the landfill walk, the wrong way round. That meant doing the steep side first, around the back of Yefeng.

To give you an idea of the road I noticed two people walking down below me today.

Today, for some reason, I found going around the wrong way quite easy and before I knew it I was at the peak ready to start down.

On my way down, feeling good because it was down, one of the farms had its gate open so I popped in for a panorama. The ‘watchdogs’ barked and ran away.

Eventually I reached the highway where Huan, on looking at the photographs, spotted a mouse, a rather pugilistic one. Can you see it?

Having gone under the highway, twice, I took a snap of a view you haven’t seen before, because we usually walk the other way. This is the route home when we drive off the highway too.

What do you do as you approach home? Well, you smile of course!

The weather was very pleasant for walking today, but had it been hot and sweaty, there were showers on hand to cool me down.

I didn’t bother collecting the ladies, I had to make sure the butter was out of the fridge, well that was my excuse anyway. By the time I reached home I had walked eight kilometres up hill and down dale, our building was a welcome sight. It’s a good job I wasn’t driving though, just check out the car park.

We were out in the evening, this was what I hoped we were going to eat.

Murphy’s law stated otherwise. Not only did they not have the above, but they didn’t have Huan’s first choice either. We went off in a huff and found a place across the road. As always, there’s a video link - https://youtu.be/u8WQ4LCug3M

We walked home via the bridge to nowhere; there was a show, possible a magic show according to SWMBO. People were leaving as we were arriving, not staying long at all. All we saw was a lot of sales patter to try and get people to buy extension cables, two poor little mutts doing tricks that they didn’t seem to like and a strange rat-like creature in a basket.

November 13th Market day again, a now routine restful day. Hearing music coming from the island we popped across for a look and found our neighbours. They’re actually not doing bad, especially considering that most of them are self taught. I did film a video and thought about uploading it to Youtube, but there’s a good likelihood of the sound being muted!

The market was chock-a-block today, even more snowbirds I suppose.

Huan was trying her hardest to find tings for me to show you, she managed to find some ginger with stalks and a chicken that had laid an egg in its basket.

We did find something different today though, a complete optometry department, tests done and then glasses made while you wait!

Pearls came next, shells, pearls and finished products. Luckily Huan is not a fan.

Music seems to be a great part of many snowbird’s lives, we passed quite a few more groups playing together today. Strangely enough, one of my FB friends shared a post today telling me that “Music has the ability to repair brain damage and return lost memories.” I wonder if the outcome depends on how many brain cells you’ve murdered by alcohol poisoning! Anyway, here’s solo learner, she’s only been learning for two months and seems to be coming on well. The instrument is a 柳琴, liǔqín, and to save you Googling, I can tell you (from Wikipedia) that it is a three, four or five stringed Chinese mandolin with a pear-shaped body. The range of its voice is much higher than the pipa, and it has its own special place in Chinese music, whether in orchestral music or in solo pieces.

The last photo of the day is one of those ladies in red, it’s Huan. I just loved the way she strode down the path and through the trees.

Any plans for the rest of the day disappeared when I realised that I hadn’t completed the Blog for yesterday, also had today’s to do and a load of Christmas music to sort out and convert. Yes, it’s that time of the year again; the Christmas SD card will be going in on 1^st December. Think yourself lucky you are not a passenger!

November 14^th “Let’s have a farm side walk today” suggested the boss, so I agreed. Off we went across the bridge to nowhere and then down to the riverside.

The farmer was in residence today, feeding the sow. The angle made it impossible to snap a photo of her but we did manage to snap the little piglets. For some reason they were all huddled in the corner, very wary of us and maybe the farmer too. He told us that they were still on ‘mother’s milk’ so the sow had the trough all to herself.

The goats were out en masse, maybe marching to their daily grazing area.

Away from the river and passing under a small bridge towards the irrigation canal I spotted two works of art so when I got home, I framed them for you.

After the allotments we came to the byre where I gave my usual greeting bellow. Sure enough a pair of eyes tried to spot me over the wall and then at the gate there was a melee, they all wanted to say hello. I must try and get Huan to take some photos there one day.

Another piece of art for you here. If you can, view this one on full screen, it looks very good.

Passing through our next village we spotted a building that, with a little work, we could happily live in. It’s big enough, we can get the car in, it’s in the country side, and we could even have some geese, ducks, chickens and turkeys! It’s such a shame that we can’t do that.

Our reason for passing this des res was our plan to see if we could still find a way to the old medicine factory. Our old route has been taken by construction of more apartment buildings so through the trees we went.

It wasn’t easy navigating our way through the woods but we eventually came out somewhere that we had been before.

Pretty soon though we discovered that what used to be easy going had all become overgrown.

With very scratched legs, at least in my case, we soon found our way to the medicine factory. Since we have lived in Hainan it has never been a ‘big’ business but there has usually been something going on there. Today it was completely dead. Window frames and doors had been removed, all machinery had gone too, and there was no sign of people anywhere. I took a lot of photographs then converted them to black and white, it seemed more apt for the abandoned feel of the place. There are too many to show you so here’s a big collage.

Out on the other side of the factory and with no more undergrowth to fight through we thought a nice selfie would be in order. If you peer between our hats you can just about make out the road we were taking. (Cameras don’t all allow you to see when you point them at yourself.)

Soon, by way of normal roads we were back in the village at the other end of the bridge to nowhere. That meant of course we had to ‘rough it’ off the tarmac for a little while.

Before too long we were home and not very happy with our time and distance. According to my phone we had only covered 8.3k in three hours and fifty two minutes! There was a suspiciously straight line on the map so perhaps the GPS failed along the way, maybe under the trees. Ah well, at least we had a ‘different’ walk and we both enjoyed it very much.

November 15^th Another lazy day was had by me, shopping and Christmas songs. Huan had her deportment lesson this afternoon and hulusi this evening. We had a trip to a friend’s apartment to check for water leaks, their downstairs neighbour had complained. The water was turned off and we could find no reason for their problems. I asked Huan to pop down and ask them to come up and see for themselves. Guess what? They weren’t in, they had gone to Haikou! Ah well, we are prepared should they come back before our friend does.

No more photos this week, just our best wishes for a good one. Behave yourselves and if you can’t do that, then do as my dear old Mam would say, be careful! We’ll see next week.