December 28th Escort duties resumed this morning, but only one elegant lady to chaperone and that was Huan of course. Today was another deportment class but Yú had gone ahead earlier for her singing class. After dropping Huan off I passed those poinsettias again, today they were being watered, as were the plants down by the river.
As you can see the bowsers are not the same. In fact they don’t only use them for flowers and plants but also for the roads and paths. Here is one filling up from a fire hydrant, which gets its water from the river and also a photo of the front showing the road cleaning nozzles.
As I was making my way upriver I spotted a bunch of people exercising, or being exercised, under the watchful eye of their trainer. My initial thought was that it was the fire and rescue teams again but seeing the ages and the number of females maybe it was a sports team of some sort, perhaps warming up for the Olympics. Some of them can certainly kick high!
Around this time I thought I had a heart attack, a massive spasm through my chest from one side to the other. However, it didn’t affect my breathing or my walking so I surmised that it was a muscle spasm similar to one I had before in the UAE. Fingers crossed!
This next photo I took only to show Huan flowers on a balcony, she always wants me to look at ours from down below. She was not impressed with this one but for the correct reasons. Neither of us could see any straps or other retainers holding those plants in place so it would be very easy for them to fall. The building is not over a public footpath but there is a possibility of residents within that complex walking underneath!
Walking back along the other side of the river I saw quite a few RVs, the snowbirds are definitely back. This one took a road that was a cul-de-sac before coming back down again where he decided to turn towards town. I did tell him that there was no through road, as you can see he took no notice of my advice.
Walking back on the other side of the river, again, I thought I would stitch this little panorama for you. As you can see we can no longer walk along the irrigation canal, we’ll have to wait for the dam construction to be completed, still a nice view from here though.
Looking across at the other side, where our apartments are, a set of steps has appeared which means we should once again be able to walk down river on that side. More worrying for us are the steps that appear to lead down from our ‘broken road’. If they are to become a permanent fixture we are going to need an access controlled gate there.
Lastly, for my walk, I took a number of photos of the ‘pavillion’ and then asked Huan which one she preferred. She chose this one.
That may be my last walk photo of the day but I do have another collage to show you. My last pair of shoes, the white ones arrived today, so I am now the proud owner of three new pairs of shoes. The white ones were very cheap, around £7.00, the other two were around £32.00 each. Buying shoes is perhaps one of the things that shows your age, I thought they were terribly expensive compared to shoes I’ve bought in the past. I think Huan and I are becoming our parents, always comparing prices with “what they used to be”!
December 29th Still on escort duty I walked Huan and
someone who wasn’t Yú up to the
Our favourite white birds were there again, still just far enough out of range to get a decent photo for you. I had been planning on a better camera for Christmas but the Minister of Finance vetoed that, she had good reason. How about an unusual selfie of me instead?
The shadow was the opposite of what I was walking into, a lovely day.
All the young exercise buffs from yesterday were there again today, some used their language skills to say ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’. I decided that Huan and I should walk this way again tomorrow and find out more.
My route home took me through Bigfoot territory again but there was no sign of her. Her tiny little buddy was there though, nowhere near so jealous when alone but still craving attention. He even nipped me a lot less than he usually does!
Having shown you the one RV I found, I thought I would try for some more electric cars. That was a failure too, just the usual that you’ve seen before plus a Tesla with a child crawling all over the bonnet. At least I got a nice photo on the way there.
My little ‘scare’ yesterday didn’t seem to have any effect on my walking or my breathing but I did have to have an afternoon nap just like yesterday. Perhaps I should have a check up after the New Year, just to be sure.
Huan got called out for a late afternoon practice by the deportment
class teacher. It seems she wasn’t happy with their performance on Monday and
Tuesday. The hulusi teacher is not so happy either, so they have another
practice tomorrow. In fact they will be having a dress rehearsal tomorrow
before the show on Saturday. You might think that with all these classes and
rehearsals they would be doing a public show. You would be wrong. The show is
only for the benefit of the
Duty chef was down to me again this evening so we had fried rice, with a difference. The usual ingredients were there, chopped garlic, chopped spring onions, shredded and chopped carrots; the unusual ingredients were a tin of tuna fish, some tiny dried shrimp and half a tin of sweet corn. Try it, it works!
December 30th First problem? Can I remember yesterday? Yes, I am writing this on the afternoon of the 31st. However, photos help you remember, sometimes, so here we go. Huan and the ladies had a dress rehearsal yesterday, an early one so no escort duty for me. With the weather being foggy I stayed in with a plan to walk with Huan after lunch.
Guess what? My plan failed, their deportment teacher decided they all needed another practice, down in the town square. I decided not to walk with them but to go and reconnoitre what is going on just down the road from us.
It is another street fair with amusements and food stalls and according to security it will be there for a few more days. I’ll go again and get some photos with Huan but I did take a few today, mostly to show her when I got home. Here, for your delectation, is Pooh in a bucket!
This is the ‘food street’, quiet in the afternoon.
And here’s a deadly weapon for popping balloons!
From there I headed off to the bridge to nowhere just to get a few kilometres in for today. They decided that it definitely was a bridge to nowhere and blocked all cars, from this side anyway.
And just to prove that the bridge to nowhere still goes nowhere: -
That’s enough of my walk, here’s a snap of the ladies to keep you amused.
My walk took me past the post office today, we had had a call from them yesterday telling us that we had two letters to collect. Now listen here family, I asked you to stop! That sounds bad doesn’t it, but most letters get lost, or take forever. These didn’t get lost. First, posted on 24th November, was a calendar and a Christmas card. PS It had been opened.
Second, posted on the 18th October, another Christmas card.
And finally, there was a third letter, one from my pension company, who never seem to understand postal delays. This one was posted on the 24th September for something due to happen on the 14th October. At least this time I didn’t have to panic and send emails and couriers!
Where the blame for the delays and/or missing post lies I wouldn’t like to say. All the letters have both English and Chinese on the addresses although the Chinese is in Pinyin. I suppose it would be better if it was in Chinese characters but I can’t really ask everyone to do that. Even if I created stickers and sent them the pension company would not use them, “they have a system which they have to follow”.
The post office generally in
December 31st The last day of 2021 arrived, it used to be
so important when we were younger, now not so much. The advantage is we can
always remember the night before on the 1st January! Our day started
with the
So that you can see something here are a few photos of the morning.
Sorting out videos and Huan’s photos kept me very busy after lunch, too busy really, but we had to go out. Not only was it New Year’s Eve but it was also Friday, video food day. We were both quite tired so decided we would just have a buffet meal but they didn’t have enough dishes ready. Instead we went to a new restaurant called 愿者上钩, Yuàn zhě shànggōu, translates as “The Bait” where the speciality was 纸包鱼, zhǐ bāo yú, translates as “Fish in a Bag”. As always, you can see more here - https://youtu.be/hXjZLG66opo
January 1st The New Year has begun so I had to decide what little snippets to bore you with on the first day of every month. This year I decided to go with “The Lift-Your-Spirits Quote Book” compiled by Allen Klein, ISBN 0-517-16309-8, published in 2001. Now there are far more than 365 quotes in this little book so I will just try and choose one on the first day of every month; here for your soul and inner peace is the first one. It comes from the “Applause” chapter.
Every day, tell at least one person something you like, admire, or appreciate about them. (Richard Carlson) Bob’s PS: - make sure it’s a different person everyday!
My first job of the year was to make sure Huan had a rest for a change. I didn’t bring up the subject of walks until lunch was over and I had cooked the chicken off its bone for dinner. The joint decision was that a short walk around the river would be a good idea, not too far. Before we even reached our little island we had our first photo op, a small pretty bird which Huan insisted I take a snap of. Here it is.
Once over the island we decided to be bad and walk where the sign told us not to.
There were places where the path was substantially narrower than before but it was still passable. We followed the irrigation canal until it turned towards the bridge to nowhere and then we ventured back towards town.
Once back by the river we took our first camera selfie of the year to show you that New Year’s Eve didn’t cause us any damage at all, we’re both still sharp as tacks. PS I have no idea what that mark on my nose is!
Huan had me taking photographs of the ‘big white bird’ before too long and today we had a little more success than usual.
Before too long she was at it again, “look, there’s one of those that the people with the big cameras are always trying to photograph”. She was pointing at a rock where I could just about make out a bird; it turned out to be a kingfisher. This is a more than 75% crop so that you can at least see what it is.
Going back down the riverside, where the market would normally be, (it wasn’t there today, they changed it to yesterday because of the holiday), I gave a whistle and a hand clap to see if my little friends were there. Both the little one with no name and Bigfoot were there today, the little one running free and Bigfoot on a leash.
They both get very jealous of each other if you give them some attention, Bigfoot tries to fight the little one and then the little one tries to nip me. Just look at the look Bigfoot is giving Huan as she takes this photo; I really wish I could take her home with us.
By the time dinner was over Huan was obviously rested enough, she had to go out for her evening hulusi and possible dance practice. At least it’s for fun now with no pressure.
January 2nd I think Huan must have been more worn out than she realised, it was after eight when she woke up this morning, definitely not like her! Anyway, I sat quietly in the office and left her to her own devices in the living room until lunch time.
After lunch we were both ready for
a walk so we took the old favourite,
We got to the bridge where we found another snowbird washing their car, with three more in the queue. I know last time I was a little derisory about them but today, thinking about it, they may live in high rise apartments like we do. Running hoses down many floors is not so easy. We left them to it and went looking for the bird watcher. He wasn’t there but I did find his little ‘cup in a branch’ where he put his mealworms to entice the birds within range.
We debated trying to go further up, or rather Huan did, I made an executive decision and said we needed more practice before exerting ourselves too much. Instead we headed back down, taking this nice panorama for you on the way.
Huan was very happy out in the fresh air today so I managed to get her to pose for me.
Apart from a couple of canine companions that was it for today’s lens work. We did take a slightly longer way home but nothing just jumped out at us. No doubt over the next few weeks, while Huan’s music and other schools are on holiday we will get a lot more nice long walks in.
January 3rd Back to routine and our first Monday shop for quite a while. Huan was a
little worried that the car wouldn’t start as it was two weeks since we last
used it. I don’t think she’s ever recovered from our battery problems in the
frigid climes of
In Baijiahui, the supermarket, the queues at the vegetable weighing counter were at least thirty metres in either direction and a lot of the fruit and vegetable counters were noticeably empty. Consequently we only bought milk and a few cans, at least the cash desks were not too busy so we were soon on our way.
Some people spend money to put shiny lizards on their cars, maybe silver colour, maybe gold, we don’t have to do that, we have a resident passenger!
Where this little chappie disappeared to we have no idea. He could very well still be in, on or under the car somewhere. All we know is that we didn’t squash him as we drove away.
The town market was inaccessible, for both of us anyway, because there were no free car parks anywhere and too many people, like me, going round and round. No worries, we headed off to the bap market where there may be no baps, but there are car parking spaces and ample fruit and vegetables. All supplies were found but much to Huan’s horror at higher prices than in the supermarket. She may be right, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have much idea.
And so we come to the end of another week, with me falling asleep in front of the computer after lunch and Huan going out after dinner. Oh what an exciting life we lead! Let’s see if we can go for a nice long walk tomorrow. This is Bob and Huan signing off, until next time, take care y’all!
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