Camera Cancelled, Camera Ordered, Camera Quarantined.

August 23^rd As announced yesterday, tests were needed this morning and we were not quite as early as we usually are. That meant longer queues!

Now I had the Fuji with me today and hence should have had much better photos taken from an angle showing how many people were in front of us. Something went wrong and all those photos were out of focus. We walked down towards the highway on ramp this morning, on the way I took this one. These steps lead up the mountain to a track and then nothing but trees and eventually an old army shelter. This was one of the first walks where we got eaten by leeches, I remember it well!

We were heading for the highway ramp today to try and get a definitive answer on whether or not we could drive to Sanya. The answer was a definite no, to go to Sanya a special permit is required, usually only issued for people who have to travel there for work. Taking the car for a service and renewing our insurance does not meet the criteria. I did try and take a photo while we were there, it was another out of focus one. The small blue sign advises drivers who want to go to Maoyang to use the normal route and not the highway, still no good for us.

Our last snap of the day is yet another cartoon car but this time I have no idea what or who the characters are supposed to be. Huan pointed out that they were charging through the window to which my response was something along the lines of OK for them on the ground floor, how do people higher up, like us on the seventh floor, manage if we have a similar car.

You may remember that we should have had camera news yesterday. When I contacted them I was told it was too late and that I should try again today. This afternoon we did just that and had to remind them of everything we had said yesterday. The response was that the camera would possibly be shipped around the sixth of September and possibly received towards the end of the month. With no definite answers I decided, yet again, to cancel the order. That’s three camera orders we have now cancelled. I think I need to check on Taobao just what we can get and not look for what I would like!

August 24^th No tests were needed today! Since we are not allowed to go to Sanya and to avoid doing everything over the phone we, or I, decided we should walk around Wuzhishan and try and find the PICC office for our car insurance. I definitely remembered seeing a PICC office, Huan wasn’t so sure but she thought she had seen one too. Of course my memory took me in the wrong direction completely! After going all through the town we wanted to turn left along the north bank of the river but this sign warned us off. There is “sick” down there, more than likely in the Pearl Hotel, that was all fenced off when we looked down the road.

Onwards we went towards the police station, the first one we had seen in 2007, thinking that if anyone knew the location of PICC they would. At least the weather was good for walking.

The police did know where the office was, all we had to do was walk back towards our house. If we had left the house in the opposite direction we would have found it almost straight away! Once there it was drinks all round and a lot of frustration on my part.

We left them to it in the end and said we would wait for their call. Two views of the river on the way home for you, one with a fisherman and one with not a lot of water.

You can tell when life is getting back to normal, the betel nut sellers were outside our apartments again. I doubt the government will ever be able to put a stop to the use of betel nuts but there has been a drastic reduction in red stains on the pavements and on people’s teeth.

And here is someone who couldn’t care less about quarantine! I have never seen a chicken in this position before, it interested me hence the photo. Those of you who know about these things will probably tell me that it is absolutely normal!

August 25^th Testing cancelled today due to a nearby typhoon. Its name was Ma-On and it was moving more towards Hong Kong than us. All we had was rain, all day. I had lots of spare time to browse the internet still looking for cameras! After lunch we had a call, asking us to come down and finalise our insurance.

Lots more frustration for me, not being able to read Chinese and not really understanding the differences, and/or similarities, in today’s paperwork and that proposed by Sanya. We did get it done eventually and after paying Huan received a ¥600.00 red envelope so it turned out much cheaper than Sanya.

Our next stop was Huan’s bank, not to deposit the red envelope but to put some more of her loot on long term deposit. She likes to do that, I just stayed in the car.

August 26^th Today was another test day, 13 for most, 14 for us.

I left Huan to make her way home and went off to buy the weekend lottery tickets, just in case it is pouring with rain again tomorrow. I also wanted to check, the market road is open again as is the market itself.

Tickets in hand I went past Baijiahui, that is another public testing location.

My last port of call was the bakery and the chocolate cake. Bakeries in China are not a patch of European bakeries, there is no real welcoming odour when you get inside and of course fresh cream cakes are nowhere to be seen. I really miss German bakeries! Mind you the chocolate cake is not bad and one ‘log’ lasts us four days.

Once home it was back onto t’internet for me, a little more research and financial calculating. After lunch I got Huan to come and assist with the translation of my various queries and then we finally put another order in. This one is through another shopping site called 天貓; Tiānmāo or TMall, and we are assured that our order will be here within just a few days. Huan is now wondering what reason I will find to cancel this order too! More details will follow in due course, what I will tell you now is that I have joined the MFT club.

August 27^th It struck me yesterday on my solo walk how nice it was to be out in the fresh air and exchanging smiles and pleasantries with people. Here in Wuzhishan we have never really had much of a lockdown but even a couple of days of bad weather makes us a little stir crazy. I don’t know how people in other cities and in other parts of the world coped!

We were out again today after another ‘no test’ morning; we wanted to see if the Saturday market had returned. Here is the boss down by the riverside.

For a change, here’s a black and white view of the old riverside buildings.

We had spotted quite a large number of municipal officers with a few police officers too; we wondered what they were doing. Further on it became obvious that they were enforcing the rules concerning Covid and meeting in public places.

By now we had correctly guessed that there would be no market this week, again.

Further up the road we found that the quarantine hotel has now been well and truly closed off to the general public.

We had to pass by on the riverside, it was a lonely walk.

Mind you, it was also a pretty walk.

Someone else was revelling in the lack of people and noise too but, as you know by now, I could not really get close enough.

That photo was taken with the Fuji which played well today, none of the photos turned out too badly. When the new camera arrives, we probably still won’t be able to get close enough to those elusive birds, explanations will follow. As to progress, the camera is now en route!

August 28^th Sunday, no church, just a stroll along the riverbank, we started off by going over the little island which was a bit sparse for people today.

No people sometimes equals less nervous wildlife.

Huan even found another ‘little’ lizard.

Being a pair of dummies we took the wrong road and came up against the Pearl Hotel obstacle which we had forgotten all about.

That meant we had to take a detour, two of us ended up happy about that!

Somebody else was too tired to be happy.

Here are some more creatures for you. We often see lines of red ants on the balustrade by the river and today was no exception. They were marching down from an overhanging tree branch and then along the wall. We had no idea what was going on here though.

And even more, well one more anyway, Huan took this one of me trying to get the little blighter to stand still long enough to have its picture taken.

I did manage a few in the end but none of them were spectacular.

We wondered if the local government had actually asked everyone to stay safe again, everywhere was so quiet. It was enjoyable though.

Freddy Fuji played well again today, any bad photographs were all down to me and not due to the camera playing up. “So what’s the story with the new camera then?” I hear you ask. Well the Fuji is in dire need of lots of money being spent on it, the rear display no longer works, the battery compartment and the connector compartment both have dodgy covers now, it takes random photos when I switch it on and off and sometimes, for no apparent reason, photos come out completely out of focus. We decided a new one was better than another repair.

So which camera to buy? I decided on a Lumix FZ300 bridge camera, not my first choice though. I liked the Panasonic FZ1000ii, also a bridge camera. However, the FZ300 is weather sealed so the decision was made and it was ordered from Amazon. After a long time of no progress, the shipment had not even begun, we cancelled the order.

Perhaps I should go for a DSLR I thought and hence ordered a Nikon off Taobao, can’t remember the exact model. Before that was sent, again a delay, I decided that I was not really a DSLR man and cancelled that order too.

We then found the Lumix FZ300 available on JD.com so after asking a few questions another order was made. Lo and behold we ended up in the same position as we had with Amazon. It would seem that the Lumix FZ300 comes from overseas so there are large delays built in to any orders. Once again I cancelled the order.

What did I do then? Well I went back to the web of course. Eventually I found some videos and test about MFT cameras. What is MFT? It is the size of the sensor in the camera. DSLRs are ‘full frame’, the Fuji is ‘APSC’ the FZ1000 is ‘1” Type, and MFTs are ‘Four Thirds 4/3’ also known as ‘Micro Four Thirds’ hence MFTs.

Two people in particular swayed my choice, a down to earth wedding photographer from the UK https://www.youtube.com/c/MicroFourNerds and a rather less down to earth photographer https://www.youtube.com/c/MarkusPix/featured. Both of them talked about the Panasonic G100 which quickly became #1 on my wish list. If I had decided on that one, then within my budget, I could have had two lenses, a 12-32mm and a 14-140mm. Unfortunately, that model is small and lightweight and not weather sealed.

“Call Huan to the computer to help me!” That’s what I thought and that’s what I did. Between us we decided weather sealing would be better, that is one of the reasons we have had so many problems with the Fuji. Panasonic do have weather sealed cameras, some way too expensive for me, but they also have the G95. On the photography side the G100 would have been enough for my little brain, but the G95 has the weather sealing advantage. The downside is that I would only be able to have one lens, a 12-60mm, that’s why birds may still be a problem. Still, 12-60mm should be better than my existing 16-50mm and it is weather sealed.

Decision made, we ordered the camera through TMall, making sure to ask the usual questions first. How long before shipping, is it new and not second hand, etc. They told us the order would be despatched shortly after we ordered it and that it should take three or four days. Our order was placed on the 26^th and true to their promise it was shipped the same day. Now when you order online here in China it is easy to track your goods, it may be elsewhere too but that I don’t know. Eagerly watching the progress we observed that at two o’clock this morning the camera had reached Donguan, a city in Guangzhou, not too far away so shouldn’t be long now.

Unfortunately, at quarter to four this afternoon, the shipment advice changed to “Due to the government's epidemic prevention and control requirements, it is temporarily impossible to deliver the express to the destination. We are as anxious as you are. We will arrange for you after the epidemic prevention department informs you of the recovery. Thank you for your understanding and support for the epidemic prevention work.” Much wailing and gnashing of teeth could be heard all around our house. Still, this is only a temporary measure so for now we will not start worrying or making rash decisions.

August 29^th Aren’t we the lucky ones? Test #15 today, hopefully all will still be well, we have no reason to worry that it won’t be. Huan decided to take a photo of me taking a photo of the assembled multitude, at least the weather was good today.

The car was up next, we had been summoned to the area clinic for a regular blood pressure check and all the other usual stuff. When we got there, we found it was to be blood pressure only and then only for Huan. They asked me why I had missed the last one, that one was unnecessary for me as I had been given more substantive tests in the main hospital to check on my post-op progress. The area clinic told us that foreigners could no longer be tested at this clinic. It makes you wonder why they bothered asking about where I was last time. Anyway, Huan is A1!

Being a Monday we then headed off for our weekly shop. No real problems there although I did notice quite a few shelves with empty spaces. I wondered if that was because those particular items were coming from the mainland and just like our new camera were stuck in quarantine. We could have done with some tinned sweet corn, some pickled garlic and some jarred olive leaves but I guess we can survive without them for a while!

Memories being what they are we both forgot salad vegetables which we like to use for our daily lunch. Instead of going straight home we took a detour to the market, all open again, just scan your phone, take your temperature and enter. We found one occupant trying to escape, had leapt off the counter onto the floor below.

Now I am not sure what this fish is called, (not Wanda), but I can tell you that it is not a very tasty one. We tried one a few weeks ago, an experience we will not repeat.

And that brings us to the end of the day and the end of the week. I did have some admin to do, scanning all kinds of paperwork and then filing it. I had let thinks mount up on my desk, never a good thing. Still, all is done now and the manager is happy.

A happy manager is like a happy wife, gives you a happy life! On that note, we will leave you. With a little luck we may have a new camera before next week but I’m not counting on it. Take care everyone, we will be back before you know it!

Even More Covid Tests, The New Normal?

August 16^th Oh what a lovely day, test nine today, only photos come from there.

The supermarket and hospital were still not open so that was the end of our interesting day.

August 17^th Yet another test, number ten. Today we were not allowed into the place we usually go for testing, we had to queue outside instead.

Shops are not allowed to open fully, but with some you might be able to still do business.

Just after this we tried our first medicine shop for my monthly meds; they could only provide three out of seven, three that I wasn’t really short of yet. We headed towards the Chinese Medicine hospital passing our gate on the way. “You won’t get far” said Zhao De.

He was wrong; we were able to walk to the hospital, through a dead town.

Inside the Chinese Medicine hospital they had these wonderful bas-reliefs, two of which you can see here, but still not enough of the medicines I needed.

Walking back through town we did manage to find one medicine shop that had everything I needed, not a wasted journey then. We also passed the closed indoor market and another ‘half open’ shop. Tomorrow, they will be fully closed too.

On the final stretch home we did manage to find wildlife for you, a rather odd looking worm. We decided that this one was best left untouched!

Within minutes of being home we had a phone call to ask if we were home and had we been for our tests today. It seems someone with a ‘red’ health code had tried to sneak past our gate. Luckily Huan and I are still ‘green’.

Just to make my day a crown fell off one of my teeth, well it came off while I was chewing some raisins and broke on the way. Guess what? No dentists open until we finish with this lockdown.

August 18^th Yet again it was a test day, this time number eleven and back at the same spot, where we had to be tested outside.

Just to make sure we got something else this week we took some flower photos. Maybe I should have taken the Fuji with me because the phone didn’t do such a good job. In fact it seems that macro mode today was far worse than normal mode.

August 19^th This morning saw a very frustrated Bob trying not to get angry with wifey. She had heard the loudspeaker van today advising us that more tests were needed. Going to the usual place we discovered no medical teams in place at all. What’s more shops appeared to be opening up and other people were telling us, without any evidence, that testing was over. Some of them had heard the loudspeaker van too! The frustration came from the fact that no one seems to either want to phone someone to find out what’s going on or perhaps they have no phone number to call! We walked back through town to check which shops were and weren’t open, along with the market and of course dentists. Tomorrow, we should be able to do a little shopping again.

August 20^th We were back to the new ‘normal’ today. Last night we heard the loudspeaker van and it even woke us up this morning. Yes, we had to go off for test number twelve, for us, eleven for the sticker brigade. After our tests we thought we would go and see if the Saturday market was back, checking on the fishing on the way.

The market was noticeable by its absence.

We were being tested again today because there had been a positive case on the 18^th, probably reported too late for yesterday’s round of tests. We wondered if they were in here, the Fodelai hotel, which is now a quarantine hotel.

With the lack of photo-opportunities this week I thought you deserved to see rather more of this car than just a collage. If someone gave me this as a gift I would not complain at all! It is a Bentley Continental GT V8 probably from 2016. Although we have obscured the plates we can tell you that it probably came here from Hong Kong.

Some good news did come from our walk; although the market was closed we could get into the bap seller’s apartment complex which meant we could buy a duck for today’s and tomorrow’s dinner. Also I got to catch up with a few of my four legged friends who were almost as pleased to see me as I was to see them. A quick visit to the supermarket, which is open as normal again, to buy milk then the bakery to buy chocolate cake and our Saturday was over.

PS Our new camera has still not been despatched yet. A chat with the supplier resulted in him asking us to check back on Monday. I told him, or her, that an unsatisfactory answer then would result in cancellation of the order. We’ll wait and see, again.

August 21^st No tests required this morning. However, inclement weather kept us in all day.

August 22^nd No tests were needed again today, that had me wondering if we were back to normal. Being Monday it was a shopping day so off we went. Our first stop was Huan’s bank where the ATMs were out of money and the counters were closed, something to do with their #1 bank being in Baoting. I didn’t understand the reasoning at all. Baijiahui, the supermarket was fine although a few items were missing from the shelves. As we often do we then went to the town indoor market to buy some fish. To our surprise the market was still closed and the road past the front blocked. I guess someone may have tested positive in that area. No worries, we had tinned fish with our left over weekend salad for dinner.

After dinner the loudspeaker van passed by again, we all have to have another test tomorrow morning. It would appear that life is not quite back to normal yet or maybe that we have a new normal now. The news did say that the government was going to try and balance its covid control response with the economic needs from now on.

That’s the end of this week’s post, even smaller and with fewer photos than previous weeks. We live in hope that life will change for the better soon and we are thankful that in our city, we have not had any real problems. Until the next time, auf wiedersehen!