Some Walking, Some Bugs, Some Drugs and Some Dogs

April 12^th Here we go, the start of a new week, and no decent camera to take photos with. From the moment we walked out Huan was in search mode looking for anything that she could either snap or tell me to snap. Her eyes being what they are she succeeded too and took a lot of photos of a lizard. Unfortunately none of them were near enough but I did manage to get close enough to snap one before the shutter sound frightened it off.

Not to be outdone, Huan snapped me instead!

Revenge was sweet though because I beat her again. She spotted a couple of little bugs and got a decent enough photo of them. However, a few yards further on I spotted another and using the macro function of the phone got a better one.

Similar results were achieved again when we competed over a snail. Although I agreed with Huan that my photo was clearer I still didn’t think it was good enough to share with you. That’s why it will remain hidden from your eyes and ensconced on our PCs.

Could we capture the caterpillar? This was like the one we saw and photographed recently but even bigger. It looks like it should metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly, and by the size, it won’t be too much longer.

Two canine companions for your contentment are coming up next. The first one is always very welcoming, the second is a new arrival and quite timid. It also looks very much as if someone has been playing make up games with the first one.

Other creatures that always say hello include these chickens, they seem to want to come out and play. When we passed this way during the holiday time we thought they were trying to come out and ask for food but today they had plenty of food inside. Perhaps they just wanted exercise.

Other friends were standoffish this morning. There are two Labradors, one black and one golden, that often come out to say hello, and even get jealous of each other. Today we could only see the golden one and she would not budge from under her chair. Huan said she had learned that I didn’t hang around long enough so decided not to move.

On the other hand, our overweight golden Labrador that we showed you the week before last still wanted a chat. Previously he would have been up on my knees, or even with his front paws on my shoulders. Almost immediately after this photo was taken he was back in the sitting position again, too much effort was needed to stand for so long. Poor old boy!

I thought I was back in almost tip top form after the little scare with my ticker, but now I am not so sure. Despite having a leisurely walk I still needed an OAP nap after lunch.

April 13th The day started with a visit to the hospital to see Dr. Mǎ. We found out that he had not been available on Monday because he was on Presidential duties. Xí Jìnpíng was on a visit to Hainan and during his time in our county Dr Ma was one of the doctors on duty. Dr. Mǎ told us that I seemed to be just fine at the moment and so would probably not need another stent, at least for the foreseeable future. He did send me off for another test though, the results of which he was quite pleased with. If he is pleased, then I am happy.

On our way home Huan tried for another bird, she got more than I did.

My next appointment is not for another month so we had to pick up a prescription for a month’s worth of medicine. One has been dropped but there is still quite a large pile. Wouldn’t it be great if they could just tailor your medication so that you just had to remember to take one pill every day! I’ve had to create an excel table to be sure I don’t forget which pills and when.

The (now) usual OAP nap was taken after lunch.

April 14^th Out before breakfast, Dr. Mǎ had also ordered blood tests for this morning. I know one is to measure blood sugar, I’m not sure about the other. I guess I’ll find out this afternoon when we collect the results. Here they are not too keen on Huan taking photos so this is just me waiting for the nurse to start work.

Because we hadn’t had breakfast we decided to eat out today. I decided it was time to film another eating out video. You can see it here - https://youtu.be/UuvAFBHXqHU The restaurant was our second choice, the first choice wouldn’t let me in at all, we think more than likely because I was a foreigner and could be Covid contagious. Having created another eating out video I thought I would suggest to Huan that we go back to our weekly videos. She did not agree, not even a little bit. Her reasoning is that we need to save as much money as possible just in case I do have to have another stent fitted in the future. I can’t really argue with that but my idea of a fortnightly video was much better received. Life has to go on after all.

Chinese hospitals are very efficient when it comes to test results. Because you, or your insurance pays for your treatment, all test results actually belong to you. In the UK we would have to wait until our local GP received the results when he would call you for an appointment. Here all I had to do was use a machine using the bar code of my tests.

A quick perusal of the results put my mind fairly much at ease; only one test had a very high result. That was something called LP(a) which I remember from previous tests. This has quite an effect on your cholesterol levels but unfortunately there is no medication to control LP(a). Huan will send the results to Dr. Mǎ in the morning.

April 15^th As forecast, Huan sent the results to Dr. Mǎ with an attached message, unbeknownst to me, querying some results, in particular the LP(a). Imagine her surprise when Dr. Mǎ told her almost the same as I had told her yesterday. All we can do is watch my diet, specifically refined carbohydrates. Once we’ve used up our stock I’ll do my best, again! Yes, I have been through all this before, for a period of at least four months at which time my LP(a) levels didn’t decrease at all. Sometimes I am not fond of modern medicine!

Anyway, back to a more normal life. Having seen Dr. Mǎ and had all my tests done and all the results verified for my Chief Medical Officer (Huan), a walk in the countryside was on the cards. This was the first one since my unfortunate incident! Off we went across the bridge to somewhere, which in this photo does not look very enticing at all.

At the end of the paved part we could see that there has been a fair bit of progress up ahead. Huan thinks that it will be completed by the end of the year, I think not. She has learned not to ‘bet’ me when we disagree as I am usually, although not always, right.

Within a few metres, turning to the left and then taking the first track on the right, we were once more out where we like to be, the countryside.

We tried our hardest to get a nice selfie with the track behind us, not very successfully.

Soon the track narrowed a little causing Huan to voice a little concern, sometimes her memory of routes and places is not so good. She soon remembered when she saw the views.

Chinese people in general, and Huan in particular, are not that keen on taking photographs in cemeteries. Because of that I usually don’t bother but I thought today’s deserved to be included. Here is an ancestral plot being looked after by some ducks.

Soon enough we were passing through a village on the way home, the name escapes me at the moment but it’s a regular on our meanderings. Today we marvelled at how fast the rice harvest is from planting to harvest, probably not much more than three months.

At one part of the village we spotted a stone that’s always been there, but we’ve never seen the ‘head’ before. There’s that pareidolia again, can you see it?

To extend our walk a little we came home via Xiǎo dǎo and had our usual game of Pooh sticks. As always I gave Huan the choice, I won again! We even hung around to see if Huan’s stick would overtake mine further downstream, it didn’t.

As hard as we tried we couldn’t find any insects or lizards today so when we reached the second bridge I though I would experiment. This is supposed to be a ‘tilt shift’ photograph.

And here is another view of the bridge, totally unintentional. Huan was trying to snap a photo of a very rapidly moving insect; I thought her result was fine, for the bridge.

Arriving home we found mangoes on sale, so we had to buy some. Hopefully fruit sugars are allowed, they are not refined.

While I was waiting for Huan I went for a sit down which Huan of course had to snap for posterity. What I notice in this photo is the size of my belly!

When we got to our building we had walked slightly over seven kilometres, not too bad at all. Mind you, I did feel it more than usual, possibly due to the heat, we certainly weren’t walking too fast. The now customary OAP nap soon sorted me out.

April 16^th Saturday is market day by the riverside, except that today, just like last week, it wasn’t. There were only one or two stalls right at the far end, yet again no food market. I guess the spectre of Covid is still hovering above us.

So, the only photos we managed today were canine companions. First up was Bigfoot who lolloped along by my side as we walked up to his Dad. In fact the first photo is not a pooch but a saucepan full of shells, Dad had been in the river.

Bigfoot then posed for a photo.

Could this next puppy be Bigfoot’s little brother? It’s not beyond the realms of feasibility, just look at the size of those feet.

He fancied a pose as well but he would not look at Huan.

Here is another regular, very lazy today, and no toys to fight with.

Not too much further we came across a long lost friend. This one always used to be right next to our local clinic but that shop closed a few weeks ago. It seems they moved to a new location, still one that we regularly walk past, and I was remembered.

Finally here’s another pooch that we’ve only seen once or twice, difficult to get a photo this time.

I said all we had was dogs today, all photos taken by the director, but I thought you should see another one she took. She was convinced it was an insect and she took a great photo of it, close enough and well in focus. Maybe she used her macro function. However, it is not an insect!

April 17^th Zzzzzzzzz. Someone slept late, it was all my own fault though. Last night I forgot my after dinner meds until it was nearly bedtime. That meant I had to stay up much longer so that I could then take my bedtime meds. Who’s a dummy? That meant our morning walk didn’t take place. I started watching The Godfather movies and ended up not going out at all, #1 was 175 minutes, #2 was 200 minutes and #3 was 162 minutes. They don’t make them like that anymore!

April 18^th We’re back to rainy days and Mondays again but we didn’t let them get us down! Our plans were slightly modified and we went to Baijiahui after lunch where I took photos of things I am not allowed to eat or frink.

As you can see in that photo, sweets, dairy, fizzy pop and bread are all on the taboo list. And that’s not all, items in this photo below are also ‘dangerous’, too much fat. If I don’t eat any of the taboo foods then what will the relevant medicines have to fight? Surely it would be better if I gave them an enemy now and then!

After dinner our sheer bone idleness was kicked into touch and had a nice walk up the river and back. Within minutes we were a little worried about the weather but being brave little bunnies we carried on anyway, without brollies.

During our ramble we bumped into Bigfoot again but decided against boring you with yet another photo of her. The rain increased in tempo and volume so we headed back the same way.

Some of the food stalls had started their evening business, one of which had a large barrel which we had never seen in use before. The sensitive of you should close your eyes and skip to the next paragraph. Sometimes they have belly pork inside, today this one had pigeons.

Our phones don’t have the best of cameras but we do try. We each took photos of the other in the island park, I started with no flash, moved to flash and then left the phone in that mode when I handed it to Huan. My photos of Huan with no flash were fine; with flash they were abysmal as were her photos of me.

We finished off with a mantis, not really good enough to share though. There we are, three weeks out of hospital, still worrying now and then, and still schimpfing about following doctor’s orders but I suppose needs must.

Wish me luck for the weeks ahead! We’ll be back next Monday with hopefully a few more photos from the wilds around our home town. Bye for now!