New Chair But Still No New Camera!

July 19^th Neither of us slept well last night, I think I am probably to blame. The night before I felt like I pulled a muscle or something, quite painful, and last night I woke up sometime before three and found it very hard to doze off again. Consequently we had a slow start to the day, well slow for me anyway. Huan decided to make dumplings, I certainly wasn’t going to stop her! Instead I did some more dithering on the internet.

Once the dumplings were made we had to go out and visit Huan’s bank to find out if there was a limit on her card. On the way we passed a lazy dragonfly. Sod’s law meant that we only had our phones with us. Still, on macro mode we did reasonably well.

The bank informed Huan that her card is not a problem so it must either be something with her Taobao account details or her phone.

Because of last night we both needed a nap after lunch, mine almost turned into a ‘real’ sleep! Huan went dancing after dinner and I bet you can guess what I did. You’re right of course, even more dithering on the internet, not helped by Huan thinking compact cameras are like toys. By the time Huan came home, I had narrowed down my options and we sent messages to three suppliers. They replied in dribs and drabs, the last one just before bedtime, all of them to say that the camera I had queried was ‘out of stock’. I had actually asked if they were new or second hand so I guess the answers were diplomatic.

July 20^th Someone has it in for Huan and I, someone who controls the weather! We were woken not long before two last night to discover that we were in the centre of a thunderstorm. There was no delay between the lightning and the thunder, which in turn set off all the nearby car alarms. Once the thunder ceased the rain started! Huan eventually dozed off, sometime before I did. For some unknown reason I was wide awake again at five and ended up getting up at five thirty, sneaking out of the bedroom so as not to disturb Sleeping Beauty.

We still went walkies although Huan didn’t want to go too far. Here she is trying to enrich the coffers so that we can stop worrying about financial calamities!

As a shorter walk had been requested I took us along the old ammo dump road again.

The dogs were a bit slow off the mark today, perhaps the storm kept them awake last night too. However, the ducks and the geese were very vociferous, waiting to be fed.

Back on the main road we turned off towards the ‘new’ car testing site and then, instead of going there took a left turn up what we thought was just a short road behind the fuel station.

Eventually, much further than what we had thought, the road ended, and a short way after we found a small farm complete with very nervous dogs.

The road may have stopped but the path continued upwards.

There was another farm at the top where the farmer told us that there was no through road. That meant we would have to retrace our steps but first a few photos were needed.

The photos would help us understand just where we were, below us and between the trees we could see the city, with no way to walk down unfortunately.

Huan passed the time of day with the farmer’s wife, talking about how wonderful the fresh air is in the mountains. It’s true, even we notice the difference and it’s one of the reasons we walk. For people from big cities it must be even more noticeable.

Yours truly took a few more photos on the way down, if you look very closely you can even see the ‘bridge to somewhere’ behind our house!

Often when we walk we get very hot and sweaty and on those occasions we would probably jump in with the fisherman, given half a chance. Today though the weather was threatening to rain again so we didn’t feel so bad.

Our last two photo come just before our water stop at Shifu’s shop. We had watched this place being built but had no idea what it was going to be. It is an electric vehicle (car) charging station and the roof is not so much to shade the cars but to boost the charging power.

Much sleep needed after lunch before wandering the web again looking for a camera! Almost forgot to do my daily Chinese lesson, bad boy! Huan didn’t really want to go dancing but that’s one of the perils of stardom. It appears that in October they will all be on TV!

July 21^st Rain stopped play so I spent all morning on Taobao again. Eventually, based on value for money more than anything else, I chose to go with a DSLR. The choice, according to reviews, was for an entry level DSLR, a Nikon D5500 with a Tamron 18-200mm lens. I’m not sure if Huan will be pleased, the zoom is roughly 11, so nearly four times the Fuji. We may or may not be able to snap photos of birds. Once the decision was final, I called the Minister of Finance to come and complete the transaction. For some reason this was not possible, again. After much going around in circles I asked Huan to try ordering a couple of pairs of reading glasses for me, that transaction was successful. Once again the attempt to buy the camera failed.

Huan went off to the bank, again, to try and sort out the problem. Contrary to what they had said last time, it was their doing. They have new rules, supposedly to try and protect old people from being cheated, and Huan had to sign a form and have her photo taken again. Once done her spending limit was raised, she completed the transaction on her phone, and the camera was ordered. Delivery should start the day after tomorrow.

The heavens opened again in the afternoon but Huan was lucky, she was in the bank and missed it all. Of course the weather stayed fine for the evening so dance practice was on. As I hadn’t been out at all I escorted the ladies there before going for a stroll alone. Here are the ladies. Note the matching white trousers and red T-shirts. These will only be worn during the practice sessions and everybody was expected to buy them. Li ethnic clothes will be provided by the organisers nearer the time of the show.

Up the hill we went, towards the town square.

And in the square, here are the ladies again, with a few more and a few gentlemen too. They are busy answering the roll call! This show is being planned with military precision.

Most of the people in the above photograph are snowbirds; they have not gone back up north yet this year. I didn’t see many more on my walk.

People may have been scarce, but other creatures weren’t. Here’s a very handsome chicken.

And here’s a shot that would not be so easy with a ‘real’ camera. Because the phone cameras are so small you can take photos through the bars of a birdcage.

Today’s photos finish with another little creature, a little bunny rabbit. I couldn’t get any nearer due to the proximity of the young lady who was feeing it.

July 22^nd After two night’s of lousy sleep for both of us last night we slept fairly well. At least I have no recollection of tossing and turning all night. However, getting out of bed, at least for me, was very difficult; someone had been in with the superglue spray again. I declined Huan’s offer of a morning walk! We did get out in the evening though, I suppose it makes quite a pleasant change, it’s certainly a lot cooler.

Huan had me chasing a chipmunk here, there and everywhere but it was too distant and too fast for us. “It went up there” she said, so we followed.

Of course we missed it and then continued on to the end of town.

Huan insisted that we walk home via the town square, where she has been doing her nightly practices. They have a few days off and she wanted to see how busy the square was. It was very busy, in fact it looked more like a children’s park this evening.

July 23^rd Market day again and no rain this week, I do like market day. With the change in the weather ‘Tea Street’ had become busier.

As usual someone tried to sell me a tiger foot, as usual I refused. Instead I bought a lovely piece of belly pork for our weekend dinner again.

Further down we saw a couple of birds we hadn’t seen before, the Chinese name is 鸵鸟Tuóniǎo, which turns out to be ‘ostrich’. Now then, how many of you can say that you have held an ostrich, the seller insisted I held one while he shot a video to share far and wide.

Satisfied with our visit to the market we headed upriver towards the last bridge to return home. This shot took my fancy. You may wonder what it is. It’d nothing special or elaborate, just a rope stretched across the river to guide floating foliage to the riverbank for collection.

Huan had me taking more photos of birds, I was unsuccessful. She also had me taking photos of insects, I was unsuccessful there too. Consequently, there is only one more photo for today, I like it, hopefully you will too.

We passed by one of the Taobao couriers on the way home to see if they knew where my chair was. According to the computer it had left Sanya yesterday morning. Huan knows this lady of old and she told her that they only sent the truck from Wuzhishan this morning; it should arrive sometime after lunch.

After another nap, they are getting to be too much of a habit, and a lovely dinner, we had a phone call, our chair was downstairs. It is now sitting in the living room, I told Huan I was not going to try and assemble it this evening!

July 24^th I was up at three this morning, unable to sleep again, but not for the usual reasons. My dreams were full of cameras and how I should change my mind yet again. Trying to ignore them and go back to sleep was not so easy, I was wide awake and Huan was snoring. Eventually I got out of bed and started searching the internet again. Taking a break I began to assemble my new chair, well at least I unpacked it, there were no instructions included. Huan slept a little later than usual again, it must be good for her when I get up early! Just before she got up I located the instructions, inside the packing of the chair seat. However, the first job for Huan was to try and cancel the camera order, which should be easy enough as shipping hasn’t yet started. I decided that a DSLR with interchangeable lenses was probably not the way to go. First of all I am not that much of a photographer and secondly it is easier to damage with humidity and water. More searching of the internet is needed while we wait for the money to be returned to Huan’s account.

Once I’d had yet another coffee and Huan had hers I began the task of assembling the chair. As is her wont the ‘director’ went berserk with her phone again and took a measly sixty four photos of me doing just that. Here are just a few.

And here I am pretending to work, not much changes does it?

All that work and a sleepless night meant that an OAP nap was definitely needed for me in the afternoon, it ended up being two hours! Exercise was taken after dinner though, we went around the river, bought some Xinjiang bread from the night market food stalls and even went shopping to buy milk. On the way home we passed, purposely, Huan’s favourite bakery and bought some chocolate cake for our afternoon coffee tomorrow.

July 25^th Monday seems to come round every seven days which appears to be so much shorter than it was when I ‘were a lad’. Before shopping we had to visit Huan’s ATM to check that her Taobao refund had been received, it had. When she got back into the car I suggested she go back into the bank to make sure she would be allowed to spend what we needed to. (That probably should read “what I want to”.) By the time she reappeared we decided shopping would have to wait until tomorrow but we did have enough time for the fish market. Here is one of the fish that Huan bought but she forgot to take photos of it being ‘murdered’ for our dinner. It will be a first for me, I’ve never tried this one before. As it was chopped into pieces there will be no point taking ‘cooked’ photos to show you.

Huan had a nap today, I avoided it to try and reset my clock! What did I do instead? Well, surfed the web again for camera information and photography help. I didn’t really fancy an after dinner stroll but my feet told me I should have one, for their benefit. Somewhere along the way we saw these millipedes and Huan, having seen a Grandad teaching his grandson with some this week, decided she wanted to hold them too. The first one quickly climbed her sleeve.

With a little manhandling she ended up with two in the palm of her hand.

More photos were taken on the way home but the cameraman, i.e. me and not SWMBO, forgot to take the phone out of macro mode so they all failed. Never mind, there’s always next time.

So after another week of vacillating about purchasing I have ended up with nothing, again. Maybe the week ahead will result in more decisions being made and not being cancelled. Perhaps I can stop changing my mind every time I think about what I have decided.

Until that time, take care all, look after your nearest and dearest, be kind to strangers, make sure you also give yourself a good dose of love and care too. We’ll be back!

Amazon vs Taobao, Medicine Top-up, Nokia Day, Procrastinating.

July 12^th Our week started with yet another rainy morning. I decided to check for Amazon progress, still none, so tried to cancel the order. A few minutes later I received an email saying the order could not be cancelled. I replied asking where my package was then. Back came another email, telling me that the email account I had replied to was for outgoing mail only! There was a suggestion to contact Amazon on the help link so we tried that. It took some doing but eventually someone phoned us, told us the order had not been shipped yet, and accepted our cancellation on the phone. We should get the money back in three or four days, fingers crossed. Taobao is so much easier to deal with, shame they didn’t have what I wanted.

Rain kept us indoors again, after lunch and after dinner. Still, it gave me lots of time to surf the internet looking for another camera. More binge watching is also on the cards, this time another good UK series, “Line of Duty”.

July 13th John Steed and Emma Peel set off with their umbrellas in hand knowing that the heavens would surely open today. Of course they weren’t carrying their usual “Shaftesbury Slims” and their casual clothes concealed the fact that they were special agents of the British government. In other words we went out in the rain.

Popping behind the women’s clinic we came across a swimming pool, like many in apartment complexes, it was empty.

Around the front of this building there is a lovely small garden.

Returning to the main road we were ambushed by the security personnel from the clinic, they wanted to know where we had been for their Covid tracking efforts. Yes, the inconveniences, minor thought they are, have returned. Having assured them that we lived in Wuzhishan and that we hadn’t been anywhere in the building behind, they took our contact information and sent us on our way. We were off to the bap market, not to buy, just to see how things are, and we entered that complex through a little door for kindergarten children. This was my choice just to give us a few more hundred metres going in a zigzag fashion towards our destination. The market was still empty as expected; Huan decided a photo of her handsome escort was required. Who am I to argue? Spot the camera high up under the umbrella.

Our plan was to head down towards the river. That plan was thwarted, the gates are closed again. In fact it would appear that we were very lucky to get in the way we did, it looks like they are closing down for Covid preventative measures again.

Something scurried across our path in front of the Fodelai hotel. We both thought it was a lizard, the photo is not quite so sure!

The weather kept most people indoors so it looked a lot more like summer than it had been doing. “What a strange thing to say” I hear you say. Well, normally in the summer we have far fewer snowbirds but this year many have not left. I suppose that today you couldn’t blame them for staying indoors though, we were only out because we felt we had to be.

Madame was happy enough, the rain was not torrential. In fact in this photo it has completely stopped so she is drying her umbrella before we reach home.

Reaching our gate we found that the government had visited and we now had instructions and a QRL code too. The instructions are mostly common sense and we don’t have to scan the code because we live there. We do have to scan in other places though.

July 14^th Today was a hospital day; collect the medicines for the next month. To be extra cautious we took our brollies again. Dr. Mă had told Huan that he would be in attendance today, unfortunately for us, he wasn’t. The receptionist told Huan that we could get the medicines by going to another pharmacy, in what used to be the main hospital up the hill. After waiting in yet another queue we reached the front only to be told that what we wanted was not possible here, we had to go to the new main hospital, back down the hill, and to the second floor. Off we went again where the nurse told us to wait outside consulting room #5. After another long wait Huan disappeared and waylaid another nurse who diverted us to room #8. Initially I thought we were going to have trouble here as well, my Chinese listening comprehension is not good at all. In fact the nurse was just checking with Huan why there had been one medicine less last month. Huan explained that the hospital had no stock and we had to buy it outside, all was clarified. Here we are then in another queue, having handed in my prescription and now waiting for it to be filled.

Once out we headed into town, The weather was just as dark and foreboding as yesterday but it was important that we visited Huan’s Taobao bank. Huan had received a message saying that the Amazon money had been returned so she wanted to confirm. It had!

Once back home I piled all the new boxes on top of the old ones, there do seem to be rather a lot. I think before we see Dr. Mă next time I will have to do a count!

So, money back in the account, it was back to surfing Taobao for cameras and checking Youtube and other sources for info and comparisons for the rest of the day. In the end, having gone back through our photos since we arrived in Hainan, I decided spending oodles of money on a large sensor camera could wait. The Fuji is an APS-C sensor, nice and big and produces really excellent photographs. Before we bought it, most of our photos had been taken with the Nokia Lumia 1020 phone, that sensor is far smaller but still took acceptable photos. In the end I decided on a Nikon Coolpix A1000, still a small sensor but with a 35x optical zoom so it should produce better photos than our Xiaomi phones. It will also fit in my pocket should the weather change. If I am ever rich enough to buy a ‘good’ camera again then Huan can take this one. All we have to do now is order it and wait.

July 15^th I thought I would refresh my memory with the Nokia today and the weather was willing so off we went. It was a little late so we stuck to the riverside.

Over the little island we went, Huan forbade me from sharing the photo of her!

The skies quickly changed colour but we decided we could read the weather and pressed on.

Getting close to small objects is not so easy but that has more to do with my eyes and the old screen than anything else.

Do mantids have memories and did this one remember me? Was my memory failing and one green face looks much like any other?

As usual it ended up on my hand but the light was not good for Huan’s phone.

Despite the abundance of shadow this one took my fancy.

And finally here he, (or she) is having one last look at me before I went away.

Now we share with you a couple of cropped (5x7) photos of the river.

The Nokia has a panorama mode but I thought I would try a couple of stitched ones instead, looking upriver and downriver from the Fodelai bridge. Here’s the upriver view.

Seeing the clouds in the previous photo we decided not to go any further upriver but to proceed home, it was approaching lunchtime anyway. Here’s the downriver view, not so good but I think you can safely blame me for that and not the Nokia.

Looking up at the wires, just because…

Huan had us walk back along the main street, so that we could pass the chocolate cake bakery again. I managed to grab this shot of a fairly empty town.

The Nokia is not so good with its front camera and Huan was not too pleased with this shot at all. The ones where I made her take her hat off were even worse!

As we were nearing our apartment the cleaning lady gave Huan some seeds, don’t ask me what they are. They are supposed to be like something already in our living room. I’ll just wait and see, Huan is the one with the green fingers.

Today’s verdict? The Nokia is certainly showing its age, it is slow, it is very difficult to see the screen in the sunlight but overall not a bad set of photos. Hopefully we will be fine with our new compact superzoom and it will not produce much worse results.

July 16^th “Just another day in paradise”, I bet most of you instantly thought of Phil Collins. I did too until I looked for the lyrics and found the same title, with different lyrics and melody by a country singer called Phil Vassar. The chorus goes – “Well, it's ok, it's so nice, It's just another day in paradise, Well, there's no place that I'd rather be, Well, it's two hearts, one dream I wouldn't trade it for anything, And I ask the Lord every night, ooh For just another day in paradise.” Why today? Well Huan and I have been married fourteen years today and I guess we do live in an ‘almost’ paradise.

No celebrating for us though, just a walk around the market starting off with the Chinese medicine stalls again, I wish I could understand this one.

Huan wondered what they used this beetle thing for.

And I managed to take this one even though the stall holder wasn’t too happy about it.

This wasn’t medicine, just a butterfly that looked very much as if it needed some medicine of its own. It was having a lot of trouble moving at all and was still in the same place when we left.

We visited a buddy on the way home; he was a little too warm to chase me today.

We saw another car today; this one looked a little different. It was a Geely but unlike any that we have seen before, a bit like a truncated pick-up. Huan tells me that the writing on the side was advertising cooked salty chicken, quail, chicken feet etc.

While trying to find a vantage point for the front of the car I bumped into this fellow. He is sort of handsome, don’t you agree?

Our no cooking weekend this week consisted of a lovely salad, prepared by yours truly, and some pizza out of the freezer, cooked by the Minister of Food. We are both getting quite used to no cooking at weekends!

July 17^th Sunday is the day of rest, or not, as the case may be. It isn’t usually a day of rest for us, it is instead a day for long walks. Checking the mountains early on I wasn’t sure whether a long walk would be on the cards or not.

I needn’t have worried, the weather cleared up nicely so out we went. Huan took a hat, I didn’t, I thought the sun looked like it was going to be in and out all day. (PS I was wrong and got a burnt head!) Before long Huan had found her first lizard.

Going through the village we were dragged into this small courtyard by one of Huan’s OAP school friends. There is a little Li culture going on here, the people present had done a show in the market yesterday. Huan will also be doing a Li show, in October I think. When they asked her if she would participate she said they told her it would be three or four times a month, perhaps a couple of times a week. Just as I suspected and told her at the time, she is now out for two to three hours every night! If I ever get a new camera I will try and get a video for Youtube.

We learnt a little bit about agriculture today when we came across this family in the rice paddy. It seems that after they had done what they were doing they would just scatter rice seeds, willy nilly I suppose. Once they have taken root they are removed and then replanted, I’m not at all sure why. Huan wanted to go in and help, I asked her to wait until another time, partly because of her long skirt and footwear and partly so I can take a video next time.

About half way round our walk Huan found another lizard, prettier than the last one.

Having the Fuji with me today I could crop the photos when we got home.

What is this I asked myself, the ants seem to like it.

When it grows bigger it looks like this.

And, courtesy of the farm lady, when it is harvested it looks like this.

Views we like to see –

And views we don’t like to see –

We regularly used to walk through those fields. I guess China is becoming more urban just like the rest of the world. Some see it as a good thing, I don’t, I would much rather see a lot of smaller towns and villages instead of cities.

The village of Zali Cun was our next stop, a large bottle of water was purchased here.

Just as we were leaving the village something flew right in front of us. We thought it was a very small bird but we were wrong. Unusually, I was able to sneak in reasonably close for this photo, quite a handsome creature isn’t it.

Our last two photos show the newer (bypass under construction showing the bridge to somewhere) and the older (village lane and irrigation canal) versions of where we live. I often wish that I could see what it looked like here in recent history, say twenty, thirty, forty or more years ago. It was much quieter in 2007 when we bought our place!

July 18^th Monday comes round every seven days, strange that, and it nearly always means that we have to go shopping. Today there was an additional detour, Huan’s Taobao bank again. Let me bring you up to date! You already know that the Fuji is really struggling these days, hence my desire for a new camera. Some of you may also remember that Huan’s computer is also out of order. To add to our woes, my chair, or should I say Huan’s old chair, in the office broke this week. If that wasn’t enough the water cooler has also stopped cooling water! August is car insurance renewal and service time. Because of all that I decided to lower my sights and searched again for a point and shoot camera. I had three different models all lined up and in each case my first question to the suppler was “Is this new?” All of them turned out to be second hand so it was back to the drawing board. This evening, just before Huan went out, I found a Nikon D5300, old but not used, and within my now reduced budget. Somewhere or other the order went wrong so now I am stuck waiting for Huan to come home and sort it out!

Huan came home, we didn’t sort it out, it looks like there is a limit on her Taobao card. Both of us being the worrying sort and not trusting all online stores despite the built in safeguards, Huan has now gone to her ATM to make sure no money has left her account today!

Good news, Huan’s bank has not been emptied. Tomorrow we will sort everything out and I should be able to order a new Nikon D5500, changed my mind yet again. Aren’t I the fickle one?

Even more dithering means that this is now being uploaded almost a day late! Please accept my most humble and grovelling apologies, I promise to try and do better next time!