Even More Bugs, Even More Walks and Even More ‘Light Duties’!

May 10^th I had a lazy night last night, watching Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger movies. I bet you didn’t know that was his middle name. Most of his movies are feel-good, they make me smile a lot, even laugh out loud at times. Anyway, I had to bring last week’s Blog up to date this morning and post it on t’internet.

We did get out after lunch though, and were pleasantly surprised that the weather was cooler than the morning. What’s more, the rain stayed away too. To start our new week, how about a little Chinglish, it’s only a small mistake mind you, and the sentiment is good.

I beat Eagle Eyes today and found this lizard. I was able to get close enough that I could crop the photo right down at home, this is about 25% of full size. He is lording it over all he surveys.

The next thing I knew was that Huan was leading me up the garden path again. Well she was leading me somewhere off the road anyway and I was muttering about my breathing and hoping there would be no problems up ahead!

Wuzhishan is full of surprises and we keep finding new places, even after seven years. Today we stumbled into this rather large yard. The interior of the big building leads me to believe that it will be, or was going to be, a vehicle testing centre. The one we presently use is quite a way out of town and not so easy to get to. On the other hand, as China progresses the routine car testing (similar to our MOT test) is becoming much more sensible. Way back in 2010 it used to be every year from new, over the years it has now changed and for our present car the first test was after four years. We now have to have a test every two years until the car is ten years old when an annual test will be required. Will we come to this place next year?

And if we do come to this place I wonder if we will have tea while we wait.

Huan found someone who told us which way to go to the access road; it’s not quite ready yet.

The director then asked me to take pictures of the trees so I dutifully obeyed. I guess there also used to be a bamboo plantation here before.

The track did lead to a road which did lead back to the main road. Just before we hit the main road Huan spotted another road going upwards, I said absolutely no way! I am not going up mountains until after my next appointment.

Sometimes we don’t know exactly what we’ll see in our photographs until we get home and upload them. That was the case today. We knew that I had possibly snapped a very active little butterfly but we only saw its body when we looked on the computer. Is it young or is it old?

Passing these steps reminded us of the time they were usable. They eventually took us to an army shelter in the mountains, check Blogpost 2016 Part 3, published on June 20, 2017.

We have two posers coming up next, although my buddies would say that I am the only poser in this family. I am certainly not the best looking one!

We hadn’t been on the real road more than a few minutes before the temptress struck again!

The plan was to cross the little valley here just add a little distance to our walk. At one stage a little role reversal was needed and Huan went first. She reached a dead end and came back with a leech enjoying her ankle through her sock! No photos of that, the urgency of removal was far more important.

With no way through we had to retrace our steps, looking over the road to the mansions on the hill. It’s almost impossible for us to get lost here now, (famous last words)!

Of course no sooner were we back on the hard stuff than Huan decided to take the next turn to the right again, where we came across some new bovine buddies. The first bunch let me get fairly close but the rest of the family were not keen at all.

This route took us past the old ammunition factory again, today the gate was open. “Shall we go in?” asked Huan. Seeing as how they still have CCTV installed I said “Not a good idea.” Just up ahead I could see the foreboding skies beyond the deserted hotel so we made for home.

Huan found one more critter before we reached home; she didn’t need Eagle Eyes for this one.

To make up a few more metres we took a small diversion and checked out another des res. This one is in our compound, already sold (in 2006) of course.

Well, that’s a lot of photos for one day isn’t it? And we didn’t show you the des res interiors, no point really; it is unfinished, bare, completely empty.

May 11^th For some reason we had no daytime walks at all today, not really sure why, but we did have an evening walk. Huan enjoyed it more than our daytime walks and even though it was only around town it turned into a long one, ten kilometres. Our first stop was the pet clinic where the three kittens are still waiting for their forever homes. Another little customer was there too, the kittens were not very impressed.

Passing by the hotel swimming pool we decided to have a look behind where we found that the school has a very presentable sports field and track. Don’t inspect the photo too carefully though, you may find the stitching errors.

The hotel / swimming pool grounds are also breeding EV chargers, here’s a row of new ones and a row of existing ones in use.

There were lots of dogs and cats this evening, so many that after a while Huan gave up taking photos. That was just as well or I would have been sorting all night long. Here we have a jealous dog and a cat that live together, a poor little kitten fearful of its owners, and two old codgers who just needed a bit of love.

To extend our walk we took a slight detour past the fish farm restaurant. The landscaping has been completed and the lake is full again.

Snowbirds were still in abundance, here’s a band complete with vocalist.

More dogs!

Here’s an unusual one, Huan playing with a dog and its toy.

Further downriver we came across even more snowbirds. We are nearly half way through May and usually, by now, they have migrated back north. Partial lockdowns in many northern cities are keeping them all down here for longer.

Food Street certainly comes to life later, I bet by half past nine it’s jam packed. We really need to come down one day even if it means eating much later than our normal time.

Someone had been doing some coconut carving a bit further down.

And finally, something we don’t see very often, in fact I think this is only the second time we’ve seen one. This car is parked in a space reserved for motorbikes and scooters.

May 12^th Not a lot to report today, just a lot of laziness, partly the weather, and partly us. Huan went out to play in the evening but I was too lazy to go walkies. There is a photo for you though, it’s a collage comprised of four screen shots from a video that Huan sent me. Just down the road towards the highway someone spotted a snake! Comments on the video estimate that it’s about two metres long and therefore is not a venomous type. I’d still run anyway!

May 13th Huan was out very earl this morning; she had received a call from our local clinic asking us to report for testing. I told her to go alone, I have had enough testing recently, am chock full of drugs and have my own appointment shortly!

Huan ordered me out today; well she thinks she did, for the benefit of my swollen feet. I would have gone willingly, for the same reason. First our usual, or my usual, little dream. Why am I limited to 50cc motorbikes, why can’t I try one of these, preferably the second one.

Our route today was to take us past my three legged friend’s place. The road there has changed dramatically, it is now a great deal wider and has to trees, not over where you walk anyway.

It’s been so long since we walked this way that even the river scene has changed. We thought the cows and flowers were very pretty though.

My favourite bug spotter found an unusual one, for us anyway, a black bee, or is it a wasp?

I tried another experiment with ‘tilt-shift’ today, the result doesn’t impress me much. Am I doing something wrong? Is it just my phone camera? Do you need to chose specific subjects? Do you have to chose the correct angle to take the photo from?

Bug spotter did it again and found two lizards, surprising really because it was raining.

Have you ever tried fishing with a catapult? You must need good eyes, I didn’t see any fish in the water at all. This guy did though. Mind you, on his last attempt, which you can see here, his ‘spear’ disappeared into the depths without his line.

From fish we move to to birds. You have seen this one before but from a distance. It was back in the cage before and would not allow me to get a decent photograph. Today it was happy to come to the edge of the cage, even to try and nibble my fingertips.

May 14^th More bugs, this time found by the apprentice bug spotter, yours truly. We have no idea what the first one is but the second one is a baby mantis. Just like its parent(s) it seems to react to the camera lens, I guess it must be the reflection.

On our way to the market we noticed that the riverside tea shops were in operation again. What was different? If you look closely you will see that there are no awnings, only sunshades. It looks as though the local authorities have asked for all the awnings to be taken down, again.

Our first photos were Chinese medicine from various natural stuff including dried snakes and stuff. You’ve seen that stall before. Today, we thought we’d be more normal and show you what we bought, pineapples at ¥5.00 for three, excellent value. I have no idea why Her Ladyship took the second photo or why she cut the top of me head off!

Get ready for some groans from the audience of readers. What is this? Is it the view from a telescope? Is it a slide from a microscope? It is neither, it is the view inside someone’s ear while it is being cleaned. Some things you will probably never see in a western market. I keep telling Huan that she should have a go.

From great value food (pineapples) to what I would call exorbitantly priced food. Checking the internet it seems that these are expensive everywhere. What are they and why are they so expensive. Prized for their aphrodisiacal qualities they are abalone and cost ¥3.00 each.

I thought this next one was also aphrodisiacal as the woman selling it told us that it would make me feel eighteen again. It turned out that it was for my kidneys and it is a version of ginseng. It is called Cordyceps Ginseng, Google cordyceps if you want to know more.

This next one rather took me by surprise. Many ‘foreign’ cars are actually made in China and Peugot is no exception.  I’ve never seen the Peugot logo like this before though, I quite like it!

Almost home and the bug spotter had me going again. One dead and one alive.

Today’s walk was another with slight breathing problems. On the 11^th and 13^th, the two long walks, I felt fine, not so today. Huan thinks it could be the heat and humidity which never used to worry me before. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about yet though.

May 15^th For some strange reason I was awake far too early this morning, long before Huan in fact, and that was despite us having a late night. It did give us the chance of a morning walk for a change, out to the countryside. The river looked nice on the way.

A rather large spider’s web was spotted with who knew what in the middle. At home we saw that it was in fact the spider, but we couldn’t spot what it was wrapping for later.

This route to the countryside takes approximately five kilometres before we leave the city. It’s worth it though, just look at the views.

This next panorama shows where we like to go, and who knows, maybe after tomorrow we will be able to get into those hills again.

At our water stop Huan found a cat, a very lazy one, but she loved the fact that its eyes were a different colour to cats she had seen before.

Before too long we were through the little village and back on to main road through town. Just in front of us a lady flagged down the #5 bus and Huan asked if we should get on too. I should have said yes, but thought we may as well walk another kilometre to where knew the #1 bus stopped. It was a wrong decision, within minutes, maybe even seconds, the heavens opened and we both got soaked. Cameras and phones couldn’t be used until it eased off, here I am with the Fuji tucked under my shirt.

When we got to the #1 bus stop, Huan didn’t want to wait for the bus so we continued on. Here we are going back into town along the road I showed you on Friday. At least the sun wasn’t burning down on us and the rain had ceased too.

Because we hadn’t taken the bus home I needed another water stop. It was an interesting shop, the baby was chatty, the father knew me from my videos, the mother was surprised and I found a little souvenir, a mortar round. I hasten to say that it wasn’t for sale. It wasn’t a ‘live round’ either; Huan says it is a practice round. It was still heavy though.

We often show you electric cars, well here’s a different electric vehicle. They are sending it off to check the interior of pipes, water pipes I think. This little machine looks almost home made which surprises me, lots of companies sell little robots for pipe inspection.

By the time we reached our turn off I was feeling just a little tired. When we saw our apartment, I was as happy as a sand-boy.

Instead of the eight or nine kilometres I had planned for today we had walked over thirteen and a half! The ‘splits’ also show we were faster than we have been for quite some time.

Needless to say I needed a nap after lunch. Strangely, Huan didn’t!

May 16^th Dr. Mă was pleased enough this morning, he didn’t even shout at us for walking so far yesterday. After he’d told Huan how strong I was he did advise that we keep it to eight or nine kilometres though. As for shortage of breath now and then, he thinks that will resolve itself with time, I need to give my lungs at least three months. I guess that means another month of no hills or mountains. The hospital was its usual busy self.

I was telling Huan that the system they use here would probably work very well in the UK. You queue up, pay your appointment fee and then go upstairs where you can see your progress on the monitors until it’s your turn. Where it falls down here is people who have to return to the cash desk after their appointments, they just skip the queue. An extra cashier just for them would be a good idea. The other thing that would not work in the UK is another patient knocking on the door and coming straight in while you are with the doctor. Because this is something that we don’t do, and because we naturally queue, I feel sure it would work in the UK.

Another week is over, another four until I have a whole bunch of tests again. In the meantime we will try and get out into the country while avoiding hills. Love to all friends, family and readers of all types, we’ll be back!