March 29th Today’s first job was to remove my hospital bracelet! After that I spent all day going through hundreds of photos and the odd audio recording so that I could do a reasonable job on last week’s Blog post. It was also good to catch up with family and friends on Facebook.
March 30th The outside world was calling us for my first post-op walk, I didn’t say no but I was wary. The first thing I had to do was test the camera; I still had no idea how Huan managed to take the last three photos last week. Today’s test was fine.
Huan would normally have been out this morning but she has decided to pack in her OAP hulusi lessons. She has done that for me I think, against my advice, but on the other hand she will get a bit more relaxation in her life. Yesterday’s weather was pretty miserable but as we didn’t go anywhere we didn’t care. Today we sun and fresh air, something I had desperately missed.
On the island we chatted with the musical neighbours, and then listened for a while. I have to say that they are improving. Each of them was playing a different part and they were fitting together quite well, I was suitably impressed.
It felt good to be out appreciating the scenery again.
Finding bugs was good too; this one almost appears to be man made.
Another bug appeared, check out its strange fuzzy feet.
One thing that I noticed today was the increased epidemic prevention measures. Shops were insisting on health QR codes before entry, even our local grocery downstairs.
A walk would not be complete without a portrait of Her Ladyship. I took two or three without her being aware and then this one which she agreed to let me use.
It was a very short walk today, we crossed the first bridge and returned home. My fitness app on the phone had an update yesterday, a slight improvement. The UI is still in English, almost. They have now added a voice prompt, unfortunately that is in Chinese. Luckily I can understand enough to let me know how far I’ve travelled and how long it’s taken me.
March 31st Day two of the recovery, another walk needed, this time via the fish market to buy tonight’s dinner. First though, an after breakfast coffee at least I think that’s what it is. This one is Huan’s, I use a smaller cup and mine is also even weaker than that. The doctor said weak coffee or tea would be OK and as Huan had ordered Nescafe Mild last time instead of our usual, I was willing to risk it. No biscuit though!
Evidence of Covid prevention was a bit more noticeable than yesterday; even the baker’s was closed, albeit only for three days.
An old friend was spotted; he was very pleased to see me. In days gone by he would chase me up and down the pavement, what fun we both had! He disappeared for a long time and returned very overweight, he can’t chase me anywhere now.
Apart from the fish market we also had to try and find ‘medicine #7’ off my list, Huan had tried unsuccessfully yesterday. We succeeded on our third pharmacy visit. Arriving at the market, for the first time I spotted some Angel Fish, a bit small for Huan and I though.
For the rest of the ‘wet’ market we decided to show you a collage. Top left is fish, top right is meat, (mostly pork and chicken), bottom left is vegetables, (note that there is no fruit in this market), bottom right is local produce at a cheap government subsidised price. We shop well!
豆腐脑! (Dòufu nǎo!) is something that we hear called in the street multiple times every day. Very often I call back so some of the sales ladies are quite used to me, as this one was. The Google translation is ‘Tofu Brain’ but it doesn’t look like brain at all. Huan offered to buy me some today; I told her that when she wanted to eat some I would try it then!
On our way home I did some bug hunting again and I was a lot more successful today. If you want to know all the names I’m afraid you will have to do the image searches this time. #3 was quite difficult to photograph, it was quick and small, (but it wasn’t ‘Quick Joey Small’). #4 looks like a fag end, (not quite an ‘Old Stogey’ though), or a scrap of leaf but there is actually something in there. Occasionally we could spot a head like protuberance on the right hand side.
So that was our day two walk, not bad, we did 3.8km today and enjoyed strolling around the town. Last month I barely managed 100km, this month I doubt I will get anywhere near that. For all you worriers out there, I do not have a plan to do so; I intend to slowly build up my stamina again by more of the same, just walking around the town and the riverside.
April 1st Happy April Fool’s Day! Being the first of a month it’s also time for another quote from “The Lift-Your-Spirits Quote Book” compiled by Allen Klein, ISBN 0-517-16309-8, published in 2001. This month’s quote comes from the chapter “Beauty” and here it is: - Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable; what it is or what it means can never be said. (George Santayana) Bob’s PS: - Open yourself to the beauty that surrounds you in your daily life. It’s there; if you let yourself see it.
Rain stopped play today, or at least miserable weather did. I spent
most of the day watching FB and YouTube videos. Recently I stumbled across a
YouTube channel hosted by Peter Santenello, a travelling journalist who ‘meets
the people’ in the countries he visits. I have been watching his
He has also lived in
April 2nd That nasty thing called weather was at it again today, we were confined to barracks. We spent part of the day translating my ‘discharge records’ from the hospital. Huan typed it into her PC, sent it to me via QQ and then I used Google translate. It’s probably far from perfect but at least it gives me some idea of what happened.
Part one, the admission diagnosis was very scary indeed and I now know how close it was.
Part two, the discharge diagnosis
is also very scary, shrinking brain, fatty liver and all sorts.
Part three, condition on admission
had me thinking everything was fine.
Part four, hospitalisation
process, full of medical terminology and again very scary.
Part five, discharge condition
showed everything was fine, again.
Part six, discharge doctor’s
instructions, lots of advice, medication and a meeting next Monday.
How do I feel now? I would say a little concerned about the lifestyle changes, I’m not sure just how much we can change my diet. I’m also worried about the long term effects. Although I can’t read it in the report, not in so many words anyway, Huan told me that Dr. Mǎ said I would more than likely need a second stent in the not too distant future. I guess any thoughts about a new camera for Huan or I will have to go on the back burner for a while.
April 3rd Good news, the weather broke and the sun came out to play so a walk
could be enjoyed by both of us. We headed off down Sān
yuè sān Avenue wondering what to
entertain you with today. Initially, a little bit of local information, this is
a government building serving two purposes. The nearer part is the ‘Petitions
Office’信访, Xìnfǎng, literally "letters
and visits", we don’t have anything quite the same in the
Birds! Well, they were in a cage, the musicians who were playing outside a long term hotel had brought them out to play and perhaps to listen too.
The early bird catches the worm, or so they say. In this case the worm was saved by Huan who, after the first photos, took it from the path to somewhere cooler and damper.
A lovely pooch popped up next, its owner(s) were practicing some king of dancing so I sat down to say hello. Huan, as usual, took an abundance of photos, but insisted that I should use this one in the Blog post.
You can see that I am wearing my mask in the photo, I was not alone.
In fact the majority of people were wearing masks again. There has been public
advice for people who have been to various other places in
This route was taking us around the outskirts of the ‘bap’ market and pretty soon we realised that almost every way in was blocked, part of the local preventative action.
You can still visit the market but only via the main gate, (top right photo). The bottom right is where we usually come out of the market. Today, as no baps were required, we stayed away.
Soon we came across more birds, in a cage again, so I stopped for a chat and a beak nibble. Huan tried to gat a snap of the bird admiring itself in the mirror, unfortunately that didn’t work.
More old friends today, it was nice to be welcomed again. In this case I was also filmed by the ‘daddy’ while we were having a good old fight over a bone.
Even more pooches, this one was a pampered pooch, we had seen it earlier at the animal clinic, where it had been shampooed and maybe shaved. It definitely wanted to say hello, there went my hat. We missed an even better photo when he tried to climb up behind me but I was already in the process of standing up at the time. Just look at that ‘smile’ in the second photo!
On our way home, passing our ‘new’ shopping centre, we noticed that someone had barred entrance there too, except by the front where there was a small gap and a temperature and scanning table. As you can clearly see, it would be so easy to walk in this way. However, most Chinese people will follow rules and restrictions about Covid without complaint.
More birds, this time of the un-caged variety, and ones that we have tried to photograph so many times. Almost every time you can’t see their eyes, on this occasion I was lucky, possible due to the LED signboard.
Today’s walk was our longest yet since that harrowing day last week. It was 5.8km and both of us were feeling it despite going slowly. An afternoon OAP kip was needed by both!
April 4th No planned walk today although I did use the fitness app to record our walk to the hospital and beyond. Both of us had problems getting our phones to work well for the QR codes but we got there in the end. Off to the cashier we went, to ay, where we found that the doctor we had hoped to see wouldn’t be there today. In fact he would never be there! Somehow we had remembered his name wrong and instead of Dr. Mǎ we were asking to see Dr. Gao. As it happened even Dr. Mǎ wasn’t available today due to the local public holiday so we got to see a cardiologist instead. He and Huan got off to a bad start and I wasn’t impressed at his questions, I guess he was just trying to bring himself up to date on my situation. He sent me off for a blood pressure test which came back as 127/74, good enough for me! Basically all he had to do then was to write me out some prescriptions. Here I am waiting for the meds. How about the cap, waistcoat and corduroy trousers then?
From there we headed off to the smaller Baijiahui in the town to stock up on fruit. Everything else we would normally buy on a Monday wasn’t needed. On the way we passed a little feline friend who managed to scar me for life. Just check out her claws!
Fruit in hand, (nothing heavy in my right hand of course) we headed for home keeping a lookout for more bugs. We saw two of the ones from earlier, no need to snap them again, and then just as we were about to give up we found a spider. Lovely boy isn’t he?
Fruit filed in the fruit basket I decided to let you see just how many medicines I now have to take.
I had rather been hoping that Dr. Mǎ would have started reducing them today! There is hope on the horizon though; Huan has Dr. Mǎ’s WeChat details so she spoke to him after lunch. He told us that we should go back next Monday when he will definitely be there. That works for me, at this stage I would much rather talk to the man who put me back together again!
There’s not much else to say this week. I suppose we could tell you how the weather has cooled down considerably and isn’t expected to get warmer until next week. That’s probably better for my strolls around the town. I told Huan that we are staying away from the countryside until we have seen Dr. Mǎ, we both seem more sleepy than usual as it is.
Remember all, listen to your bodies, if something feels wrong then tell someone. Talk to friends and family; perhaps make a hospital appointment for an MOT. Don’t be a dummy like I was! We’ll see you again next week, take care.
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