November 16th Zzzzzz, for me anyway, only Youtube, 5kPlayer and Audacity still sorting out Christmas songs. Her Ladyship was busy of course, deporting herself in the morning and then getting dressed up for inspection by some boss or other for hulusi in the afternoon. I kept myself busy cooking dinner as I usually do on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
November 17th My trusty companion promised to walk with me this afternoon, she was out for a hulusi class in the morning. You’ll never guess how I spent the morning? Yes, you’re right, more of the same on the computer. All is done now though, I added a few French and German Christmas songs. If I have time, I may try and find a few more Chinese ones.
After lunch, getting ready for a nice long walk, Huan received a phone call. Gardeners were needed at three to plant some flowers donated by the “boss of the little island”. We still had time for a walk around the river though and even spotted one of those white birds. Unfortunately, it was just too far for a decent photo. However, just like the song we have two little dickie birds sat upon the wall. I wonder which is Peter and which is Paul. I also wonder why it is that chickens love to sit on walls.
Today we thought we would share with you the government health notices that we see along the riverside. Whether anyone reads them at all we can’t say but here they are with (probably far from perfect) WeChat translations. The first is “The effect of walking is significant.”
Followed by “Less oil, less salt, less sugar, makes healthy people.”
WeChat made a real mess of this one but I did get “Ten thousand steps a day for a healthy life.”
The writing on this one was too small for WeChat but it boils down to “Smoking is bad for you.”
There was one more about walking and then we got to the main sign. This is on the outer edge of the city for some reason. Today I managed to get it all without the surrounding trees. You can also see that no translation is needed.
Tea street was quite empty as we walked back home but there was a fisherman. We see a lot of those but today was different, he caught one while we were watching. It was not a bad size, it would have fed Huan and me, but he wouldn’t let me steal it!
The white birds, or one of them at least, obliged us with another photo opportunity as we reached home. It’s good enough for us but not for you I’m afraid. After a quick drink and a piece of carrot, Huan was off out and I was sent to the kitchen. They had quite a turn out and got all the flowers planted, mostly what you see here, but one or two elsewhere as well.
November 18th Both of us were a little weary this morning so we skipped hills and headed towards Changhao intending to go through the little villages as usual. First of all we’d like to show you some core samples. “What are they testing for?” We don’t really know but I think it may be to check on how much water ingress there is under the road surface.
As often happens, we spotted a road we had never ventured down before and Huan changed into her “Dora the Explorer” mode. This road was through the brickworks.
We assumed, or at least I did, that the road would take us to the GSM tower.
Before reaching the end we came to a three way junction, choices would have to be made.
Knowing that the right hand turn would take us uphill we ventured down the middle road first. It led nowhere, al least nowhere we could go.
Backtracking we took the hard road uphill next.
Just a little higher up the view was amazing.
A long time ago, in one of my previous
jobs, I used to visit mountain tops in the
On our way down again, we spotted the bridge to nowhere so snapped a quickie piccie of it. If you look very carefully you can even see our building and our balcony from where, we can see the tower we just left.
Back at the three choice junction we discovered a butterfly in distress on the path, we thought it was on its last legs. You can’t tell from these photos but just after the last one it surprised us both by soaring away. That photo failed!
All that was left now was the third road, and very beautiful it looked too.
It led to a small farm, quite new by the looks of it, no sign of people or animals yet. At the end of the road we found evidence that someone was around somewhere.
Before too long the paths were disappearing too and once more we found ourselves in the woods.
Luckily the gate to the rubber plantation was open so we were able to escape.
Once across the little stream and up the steps we found ourselves on the landfill road so turned and headed for home. ‘Dora’ decided that we should perhaps explore the stream on the other side of the road. Knowing where it eventually reached the road again I agreed.
Unfortunately there were occasions where we had to cross the stream, most times my boots were fine but on one crossing I managed to get water through the top. Seeing this, Huan decided just to take hers off.
We came to a weir where there was no way for us to go down so we had to leave the stream. On the banks the going was not much easier.
Eventually we rached the road where we could look back and almost see where we had been.
All that was left was to find a place for Huan to get her socks back on, the expression on her face goes with the question “What are you doing? Why are you taking a picture of me putting my socks and shoes on?”
Another expedition successfully completed. You know, in most people’s lives, expeditions are meticulously planned in advance. Ours are almost always on a whim and as such we seem to enjoy them a lot more. There’s just that hint of danger but we’re never too far away from the city or civilisation in general. We certainly finish up at home feeling that we have exerted ourselves and achieved something. It’s all good fun, I just wish I was thirty or forty years younger!
November 19th After a lousy night’s sleep I stayed home in the morning while Huan went to school. Still, it gave me time to write up yesterday’s post. An afternoon walk was fine though, nice and quiet while everyone was having their siesta time. Down by the riverside I did manage to find a new friend or two though, here’s one of them.
Unusually we found a cow laid in the flowerbeds down by the riverside, we’ve never seen them down this way before. What’s more this was just the one. It looked very tired and while he did move his head when I tried to pat him he didn’t try to get up and move at all. Was he lost? Was he ill? I guess we will never know for sure.
Instead of an electric car this time I’ll show you an ICE one. It’s quite an attractive beast, with a very imaginative name of Cháng'ān qìchē, (Chang An Car), model UNI-T. Who knows, if it has a 12v outlet in the cargo area, (for our coolbox) we may even consider buying one. (“In your dreams!” is what I hear from my better half.
From one extreme to the other, this is also an ICE vehicle but a little older. It’s also a farm machine, I don’t know what I wasn’t willing to remove the plastic. Don’t let its looks deceive you though, it does actually work.
Because we were going out for dinner this evening, as we passed the middle / high schools we decided to have a little snack. Here’s Huan giving hers a peck before eating it. As you can see it was a nice snack, actually one we’ve never had before, deep fried sweet potato.
Our weekly dining out session was at a burger place today, in our local shopping centre. We’d finished our dinner before I worked out what the restaurant was called “A Lot Of Meat”. They gave us a ‘pager’ so we’d know when ours was ready, check the Chinglish.
As always, you can find the video here - https://youtu.be/e8uPkSjEUzk
November 20th Almost fell asleep browsing FB a few minutes ago, came to just before Huan left for her evening hulusi session and decided I’d better get to work! Today was market day again, the place was absolutely heaving, we’ve never seen so many people in Wuzhishan, not in the six years we’ve been here. No photos of the crowds though, we don’t want too much repetition do we? Instead how about some snacks.
And instead of chickens, geese and ducks, how about a pigeon.
There had been a show prior to our arrival at the riverside which we missed of course, but we did manage to snap some of the performers.
More snacks, this time popcorn, but with one problem, plastic packing.
More food, not snacks this time, but what I will be cooking on Tuesday, shrimp fried rice.
Today, with very little persuasion, I managed to get Huan to pose again.
And that’s about it for today. The afternoon for me was cooking up a nice big pork stew. For a little something different I added some chopped apples, it worked well. Huan had seconds, lucky girl; I avoided them because some of the returning snowbirds have said I’m getting fat!
November 21st Huan chose our route today, down the main street and up to the fish farm, we haven’t bee there for a while. Public showers were in operation again, but that side of the road was too busy for us to walk down, we kept under the trees on the other side.
Before long we had to cross the road and therefore had no shade. Now we know that the huge ditch they had dug was for storm drainage. However, we still don’t know why the work area is so wide, more pipes and cables or a much wider main road. Time will tell.
Looking ahead, physically and in time, we foresee the removal of more trees up this road! This is where we turn off to the fish farm, right behind me is an enormous ditch.
Before too long, well it didn’t feel too long as we were enjoying the walk, we reached the fish farm cum reservoir. You have seen photos from here before so today I took various photos both vertical and horizontal to create panoramas and then let Huan choose which to keep. She is a bit of a fan of panoramas. This was what she chose for the fish farm.
Disappointment awaited us inside. There was still a tourist signpost.
And a rather saggy map which Huan held up for me.
Unfortunately, everything that you see on the signpost and on the map was in a state of disrepair. It’s a shame really because it would make a nice little family hotel.
On our way back Huan fancied walking alongside a stream again, I did remind her of what happened earlier on this week. As always of course I gave in and we set off down the hill.
Another panorama was called for but this time I had the director telling me to make sure I got the stream in as well as trees and sky.
Within minutes we realised that there was no way to follow the stream, the water was not only deep enough to come half way to my knees but also went downwards, very quickly.
“Oh, look, there’s pointy mountain, and the highway, and the tunnels, can you make another big photo here?” “I suppose so…”
Taking a slight detour on the way back we spotted a couple of fields full of fruits that I didn’t recognise. Huan knew the Chinese name but not the English. They turned out to be figs. Now, I wonder if anyone has taught them how to make fig rolls?
I don’t know, we hadn’t been gone long, but they started chopping down trees on the other side of the road before we got back. This was such a pleasant walk too. We did spot three soldiers, this path is in front of the old barracks, and they told us that the trees were all being moved to other places. Perhaps they want to dig big holes down this side of the road too.
By the time we reached twelve kilometres I was absolutely bursting, mostly because I had skipped the last WC because there were none with seats. Arriving here I spotted this sign.
When you see the disabled sign in
We did well today, fourteen kilometres by the time we got home. I did offer to buy Huan a gift for doing so well, she could have had a ‘singly’, a ‘couple’ a ‘family of three’ or a ‘family of four’. She was not impressed.
November 22nd The alarm clock came into play this morning, or rather my phone did. We had to be up early and out on the road to be at Yatai Rainforest Resort before nine. Yesterday I’d had a phone call inviting us to watch the show and as Huan had no classes she agreed we could go. The resort is a beautiful place, roughly an hour’s drive away.
It looks like a place that’s definitely worth an overnighter or more, there’s a swimming pool, ample gardens and of course lots of walking routes around. Be aware though that foreigners are not allowed to climb the mountain. Here’s the pool.
Of course we weren’t there for swimming, we were there as guests of Xiào gāng otherwise known as Sam. He took this photo of Huan and I. Note the tie, I think I was the only one who wore one, certainly none of the top brass did.
And here’s the gentleman in question posing at pointing out something in the scenery to me. Behind us is the actual five finger mountain, Wǔzhǐshān, which unfortunately you can’t see because it’s obscured by clouds.
The show was impressive although not quite what I expected. What I had thought we would see would be a few orchestral pieces followed by more local music such as hulusi and maybe some cultural dancing. What we got was a full orchestral concert and boy was it good. Within seconds of the first song starting I felt an overwhelming flood of emotion, although I’m not sure why. It could have had something to do with this being the first live concert of ‘real’ music that I’d seen for many years. This is the orchesra with the top brass at the end.
Being a guest I had not taken the big camera so only had my phone. I took snippets of each song, the phone kept overheating, but managed the whole of the last song, “Wǒ shì wǔzhǐshān rén”. One day I will learn how to sing that one. All the snippets have been joined in one video which you can see here if you so wish - https://youtu.be/GBkPvL5ZZk8
Lunch was taken in
the
And that’s us, finishing the week on a high, and absolutely exhausted, we’ll see you again soon.
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