March 15th My phone had us up
at four fifteen this morning and after a quick pack and cup of coffee we were n
our merry way to
Huan decided some photos were required before the needle room.
She also got into trouble as she usually does for taking photos of me being drained’.
Once booked into our usual hotel and after a short break we did our, or my, bank chores and then went for a nice long walk looking for lunch. Having just showed you a little Chinglish last week we thought you might appreciate a variation on the theme.
Next up is a symbol of how much some people like looking after their animals. Behold! This is a jaguar in a glove! Yes, the car was actually a real Jaguar.
During our meanderings we came across something a little faster so I thought a photo of each of us in front of said projectile would be nice. Here’s huan.
And if you look very closely, here’s me, waving to my imaginary Dad in the cockpit. That’s just me using a little poetic licence, Dad was actually an airframe fitter not a pilot.
Now you all know that we have very little success with photographing birds but today all that changed, I got a great snap of these three. Can you spot Hyacinth in the middle?
We ended up having lunch in a restaurant called 鱼小二, (Yú xiǎo èr) “Fish Small Two”, at least that is what the Chinese translates as. It was quite enjoyable, you can see a video of it here – https://youtu.be/-0_FcFTImUg
After lunch we continued our walk up towards the beach end of the island. We came across a few villas with a sales office. This is what one of the villas looked like from outside the complex. It does have a pool, just not visible from this angle.
The usual rules apply of course, you must have a
Across the sea we could see something that brought back just a few memories for me. It’s not too clear, our phones don’t do it justice, but a long time ago I did some work on rigs like that.
Once we reached the real beach, at the top end of
What would life be without another panorama now and then? This is one of the lakes in the park, we really should spend a lot more time here, exploring.
We finished our day in the park with some freshly squeezed orange juice. Huan was suitably impressed by the juicer, as was I. It would be overkill for us but it’s certainly a great deal more efficient than your normal household version.
We had bad news this afternoon, not very bad, just a minor inconvenience. The analysis machine has a problem so my results will not be ready until tomorrow afternoon. We were staying the night anyway but we had planned shopping in the morning before heading home. If we get the results before four then we should still be home by half past seven, a little later if we stop to eat on the way.
Speaking of eating, we ate out again this evening of course, this time at the street market. You can see that video here – https://youtu.be/9w6B7tBECi0
March 16th Good morning world, it’s a brand new day. I do like sleeping in this hotel; the beds are much more comfortable than ours. Unfortunately, the mattresses have no manufacturer’s name on them. Breakfast was taken near the hotel, the round dumplings are meat, for me, the oval ones are vegetable, for Huan, one boiled egg each and some strange hot soya drink for huan. Total cost just over one pound at ¥9.00, you can see why many Chinese people eat out!
Having risen a little late we just had a short walk this morning, down to the university walkway and back. We popped into a new car showroom; you order from the internet and collect from the showroom. Two electric vehicles were interesting, one called ‘Lingbox’ which I’m sure you won’t have heard of and one called ‘Polestar’ which I’m sure you will have. The salesman was so courteous and helpful that I didn’t feel I should take any photos. You could always visit the website - https://www.weacar.com/#/home - but you may need to translate it.
A little more Chinglish on the way.
Standing on the walkway across to the university we took two panoramas, the first facing east and the second facing west.
After checking out of the hotel our first job was to visit the Grocery, stock up on some cheese and sandwich meat and other odds and ends. As is becoming usual I bought them out of Raisin Bran by taking the six boxes they had on the shelf.
From there we went off the small island, back onto the big one, and visited another store, Corner’s Deli. There we stocked up on a lot more cheese and sandwich meat plus four more boxes of raisin bran, marked down to ¥15.00 due to reaching their expiry date next month. They also had some German seed bread marked down for the same reason so we bought some of them too. Huan was feeling ‘quite faint’ with all this spending we were doing!
Back in the car park I spotted this gorgeous beastie. Previously, having only seen photographs, I hadn’t been very impressed but seeing one today, in the flesh as it were, I was quite taken with it. However, at the (minimum) cost of $218,009 (¥1,384,771.37) I doubt whether I will ever drive one. What is it? It’s a Lamborghini Urus, their SUV model, 4WD and loads of POWER (as Jeremy Clarkson would no doubt say).
From Corner’s Deli we set off for 大润发 also known as RT Mart for our final shopping top up and to have lunch in their food court. There’s no video of that because you have seen one from there before. Today it looked like one or two more stalls had gone out of business. With ‘lunch’ time being over it was also far less busy. We ate from the same stall as last time, simple fried rice and a chicken wing for me.
And for Huan a whole fried fish but not much choice of vegetables.
Going back to the car I spotted this very upmarket display, well I thought it was anyway, and had to have a picture of it. Now Huan posing on one of the chairs with the phone in her hand would have set it off even better. However, if you zoom in, you’ll see why we didn’t do that.
Back to Haidian Dao we went to see if my results were ready. Huan went into the hospital while I waited nearly twenty minutes for a parking space! When I joined her she had been unsuccessful and was in the Information queue in the main hall. I went to have a go on the machine and got the ‘wait’ message too. I went to the back of the queue for the machine and when I reached the front, tried again. “Repeat ad infinitum!” Eventually we were successful and of course Huan had her phone ready to snap the occasion.
It was four o’clock by the time we left the hospital; Huan fell asleep in the car before we even reached the highway. Mind you, with her ability to nap she was soon awake again. It was only me who then had to struggle to stay awake. Seeing the Feng Mu services turn off was a great relief until we found that ‘for epidemic reasons’ it was closed. Luckily the next services were not too far and bottled coffee was available. One day they may have real coffee like they do in one or two places on the East highway.
I enjoy our trips to
March 17th Poor Huan was out to school this morning for her deportment classes, she wasn’t really in the mood for it. I stayed home and transferred all the photos, videos and words from the external HDD to the home PC. That was followed by editing, creating compiled videos, and bringing the Blog up to date.
Huan came home, exhausted, and said that she was giving her afternoon class a miss. I’m glad she made that decision because I’m sure if I had suggested it the answer may have been negative. Stubbornness is a trait I have often previously noticed!
Scanning and filing my PSA results showed that both ‘T’ and ‘F’ PSA levels are still fine. My testosterone level has more than tripled since December. However, I am still well into the normal female range and nowhere near the male range. The doctor said it will increase – s l o w l y…
March 18th The two old fogeys had a lazy morning, neither of us fancied a walk. However, after lunch we pulled our socks up and went for it. We even managed a photo of a wee bird in the reeds by the river.
The countryside was our destination this afternoon and as soon as we saw this view, we turned off the road, with the proviso that we would not go into the woods today.
That little track led to a small farm where Huan insisted we photograph the turkey. I decided we should snap some ducks and a goose too.
I was wondering if the goose was going to try and ‘run me off’ but he warily let me through. Huan had taken a drier route. Soon Huan took one of her long distance photos of Bob.
What was I doing? I was creating this panorama of the next part of our route.
Another long distance shot of Bob was heavily cropped to give this one.
Across the head of the little valley, this was the view back down towards the road.
Shortly thereafter Huan stopped for a quick sniff!
Just after that we skirted the edge of the road and headed up another little valley.
A butterfly stayed still long enough to have its picture taken, for a change.
We got most of the way round, passed a couple of farmers on the way, even took another photo of Huan enjoying her stroll.
Pretty soon we ended up in a position where we would have had to go through the undergrowth which was long enough, and sharp enough, to take lumps out of my legs again so we backtracked and looked for another way back to the road. Passing the farmer’s fish pond this little duck demanded to have its photo taken. Enlarged, it looks pretty good.
Once back on the road, we turned right and immediately took the next turning off to the left.
Another little detour gave us another photo opportunity for Huan.
Leaving Huan on the road, once we found it, I took another detour to see if I could find the main road. It was just through this little field, which was kind enough not to attack me.
Huan couldn’t hear me yelling at her so I had to phone her to tell her this way was fine. Soon she was coming through the little field too.
Unusually, I spotted these two before Huan did. She did spot another one, bigger and more brightly coloured, but that one was too quick for me.
I caught Huan trying to take another long distance photo again so asked her to come a lot closer so that I could pose for her. This is my ‘road runner’ impression! PS Ex army buddies please ignore the fact that both my right leg and my right arm are in the forward position!
A walk wouldn’t be a walk without a dog or two. Earlier on we had seen two pups with the turkey, ducks and goose, but didn’t get any decent photos of them. This pooch is one we always see at this particular water stop. She always has a good bark until I sit down and then she sidles in for a sniff first and then a chat.
Our last stretch took us over the bridge to ‘somewhere’. You may remember the steps that they were building down to the village road, made of concrete. Today someone was giving them a nice coat of paint to look like wood. It looks pretty good too.
Once home I almost fell asleep before dinner, luckily Huan was cooking. She has ‘volunteered’ to cook for the rest of the week to give my weary bones a rest. She has just about recovered; at least she was alert enough to go out for her hulusi practice tonight.
March 19th Market day today so after a shave and a shower and a pedicure from Huan that’s where we went. One thing I don’t like is motorcycles on the pavement; we are forever being beeped by someone wanting to pass us. They are usually going in the opposite direction to the traffic on the road which is one way. Today we even had a car on the pavement, albeit parked in one or more of the motorcycle parking bays.
Who was going to take the photos today? Huan was initially reluctant but ended taking a lot, the first few were all Chinese medicine again, I think we’ll skip them. The snack stall took her fancy so I left that in, spot the rice filled bamboo that #1 son and his boss partook of during one of their visits.
There was something going on in
the market, looks like it was advertising
On display were Li brocades, basket weaving and there was an activity where you could test your reflexes by catching falling rods. There was a queue so I didn’t have a go, at least that’s my public excuse. Privately? I think my reactions are not what they used to be!
Instead, Huan and I posed with the figures made of reeds, me first, a gent with a gent, and then Huan, a lady with a lady (?)
And here are all of them, on parade.
Lots of baby birds were next, both Huan and I took photos of the baskets full of chicks, but arriving home I remembered that you’ve seen very similar before. What you haven’t seen before is Huan holding one of the ducklings. The stall holder almost had Huan buying it to take home until I asked where it would live.
“I am the music man, I come from down your way!” This chap is a regular visitor to the market and I can almost guarantee that when he sees me he will pick up a small accordion and play some Russian folk song or other. I guess he doesn’t know any English ones, or at least he is not aware of the origin of many Chinese songs we hear. So far Huan hasn’t expressed an interest in buying one; perhaps I should have a go. The small ones only have buttons!
Huan found yet another Chinese medicine stall, this time it was made from snake heads and scorpion tails, I think. Here’s the sign, and the large jar.
Canine friends were not so easy to find today, there were a few, some owners don’t like me touching, they are worried I might get bitten. Others were in and out of reach too quickly for Huan trigger finger. I managed to snap these though; the sculptor has done a fairly good job of bringing out the dogs’ personalities I think.
Back to life now, and birds, this time not too far away. These three were exceptionally well trained; they didn’t fly away from their cage at all.
The white one had a little nibble of my finger to start with but we asked the stall owner if he would come onto my finger and the reply was yes.
All that was left was to place Polly back on his cage and then it was time to go home. I told the stall owner that he had made me a happy man today!
March 20th Strange weather filled the skies this morning so we stayed in. Huan got on with some gardening and I got on with some ironing. She got me, I didn’t get her!
After lunch we thought we would take a leisurely round the river stroll, by way of the main street. We had no plans to go exploring at all! Passing the animal clinic only two pups were left in the outside cage, Huan would not touch them but she did snap one with me.
Do you remember me telling you how hills were visible from many of the streets in Wuzhishan? Unfortunately, they don’t all look like the ones I showed you last time.
“Shall we pose for a camera selfie with the river behind us?’ I asked. Huan decided we should have a photo ‘gazing into each others’ eyes. Mine were definitely not limpid pools. The jaunty angle of my hat was because the wind was trying to remove it. I’ll also blame the double chin on the use of the chinstrap!
Huan was back to being eagle eyes today, especially as this route does sometimes have lizards. She was lucky today, although one wasn’t quite close enough.
Here’s one of me being sniffed, it’s one of the consequences of talking to every mutt in town. All are usually pleased to see me once they’ve had a good sniff though.
BJ =
I also like the sentiment, even if the spelling is wrong.
Huan posed for me again, this time in front of a large set of steps up to the local middle school.
I won at Pooh sticks today, even after giving Huan the choice of sticks.
Would you believe that Eagle Eyes spotted yet another lizard? This one was beneath some bushes and I had to go quite a way in to get it in focus. I expected it to scuttle off at any minute but it did stay long enough for this shot.
Her eyes were still scanning, all the way home, and she managed to find two more subjects for me, two different insects.
Finally, as we were walking into our complex I spotted an old friend; her name is Èr dì which, even though she is female, means second brother! Her ‘Mum’ always lets her off the lead when she sees me; she knows that I will be the target. Èr dì is one of the happiest dogs that we know, this is despite the fact that she was mauled last year.
What a day that was! I thought that as we were not going exploring the amount of photos I would have to trawl through would be minimal. I was wrong, there were over a hundred and fifty, and ten percent have been used in the Blog! I hope you will enjoy them.
March 21st Neither of us thought to take any photos while we were shopping this morning, I guess we were too busy looking at ‘the list’. Checking the cupboards when we got home and put everything away it would appear that we are now well stocked up should there be a lockdown for whatever reason. It’s not exactly something we planned, but I like the results anyway.
Yesterday I didn’t get any photos of Huan gardening. Today, we bought new cups for our coffees and teas so I asked Huan to use the old cups for plants. Here she is showing the transplant of one of her Christmas cacti, (a couple of years ago), into my old cup. Hopefully, it will ‘take’, Huan certainly has much greener fingers than I do!
And so another one (week) bites the dust. It was different, although I am still not back to being manly Bob yet. I wonder if I ever will be. Remember ladies, tell your men to get their PSA levels tested so that they can avoid the same problems!
We will be back next week, hopefully with some exploration photos to show you. Until then, please take care of yourselves, and of each other. TTFN!
No comments:
Post a Comment