August 2nd Instead of walking this morning we had driving, to the traffic police building for my yearly ‘medical’, basically an eye test. Last year we had to go there before we went to the hospital, today they sent us to the hospital first. The hospital department has moved to a new building where we met a new doctor, one that Huan recognised from a town clinic. He couldn’t find me anywhere on the computer no matter what info he tried. Eventually, after disappearing for assistance a couple of times, he found last year’s doctor and my records were found. Once that happened the procedure was very quick and painless. Results in hand we drove back to the police station where everything was checked and we were sent on our way. In the meantime, Huan had received a text message saying that my results had been entered on the traffic police computer and a visit to the station was not necessary. Ah well, all’s well that ends well.
At the police station we spotted a
“British” car, the owner even told us it was a foreign car, from an ‘outside
country’. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was probably built in
Chef Bob was cooking today, a special dinner for Her Ladyship, fried chicken breast with mashed potato, cauliflower and carrot along with a garlic, mushroom and onion sauce. The chicken had been marinating all night, the sauce was cooked in butter then whizzed with some milk. Working with only one hob is not so easy but I succeeded and the boss was well pleased.
Our plans were dashed once more today, our after dinner walk was called off due to inclement weather, yes, it rained again. No worries, I found a UK ITV television series, ‘Unforgotten’, it looks like another one I will enjoy.
August 3rd What is it about the landfill walk and why does Huan keep trying to take me that way? Do you think she has plans for me? Only joking of course, I enjoy it too. They are widening the road from the highway off ramp into Wuzhishan, reinforcing is needed.
Being a little earlier than usual we were quite well shaded and were reasonably enjoying our walk until we got to the rubber collecting point. No work was actually going on there this morning but our eyes and throats were assailed by ammonia as we walked past, not a very pleasant experience at all. How the gent who was there was coping we have no idea.
For a long time we haven’t seen any ‘dustbin lorries’ on this road but today we were passed by four in short order. Here’s one haring under the highway.
Both of us were fairly sure that all the tips on the mountain had been covered up with plastic sheeting to begin the next stage in their landfill evolution. The rubbish has been trucked somewhere else for the last few months. Here are the first two tips as seen from the road.
This is the third tip which we know is also covered up with black plastic. What there is though is a new building up on the right so we think that is where the trucks may be going. They did use to sort in town but we know that the site there has been repurposed. I wondered if they were sorting the rubbish here and perhaps removing the hazardous waste before the trucks then proceed to wherever the new landfill site is.
Over the top and going down the other side Huan mentioned how fast we appeared to have been today. Strangely I had been thinking along the same lines. I am not back to being as fit as I was last year yet but I am far better now than when I came out of hospital in March. Both of us were also remembering how difficult this route felt back in 2015 when we first walked it.
Arriving back in town earlier than expected we extended our walk and crossed the main road to head down to the river.
Shall we finish with a car again today? Unfortunately we can’t tell you what this one is; we could only get the back view. As we went around the front there were two people inside who were not too happy about me waving the camera about. It is obviously an electric car as it is being charged, and the absence of exhaust pipes means it’s not a hybrid. Answers on a postcard please.
The extra walk down to the river and then home gave us ten and a half kilometres today in a time of two hours and forty one minutes. I don’t think that’s bad for a couple of old fogeys especially as it was over a mountain. We did have a long afternoon sleep after though!
August 4th The glue monster was at it again last night and I woke up far too late for a morning walk. I planned an afternoon one while Huan had a nap, she didn’t sleep as well as me. No sooner had Huan closed the bedroom door than the door to the heavens opened up and rain began. Strangely enough the weather forecast was 100% accurate today, so accurate that our after dinner walk was completely as forecast, as dry as a bone.
Our first photo is the tame chicken that belongs to the restaurant. For some reason it often sits just staring at the wall which is what it was doing tonight before I pointed the camera at it. It has a good life but we can never get near it.
This one is to show what the weather was like, very good for walking in fact.
Both of us have had WeChat messages telling us about a Covid case in Wuzhishan and giving us the details oh his movements to cross check against our own but we were still a little taken aback to see this block cordoned off, very close to home.
Arriving back at our complex we discovered that the government had set up a testing station on the way in. This was to be my first ever Covid test and as you can see I was just a little bit on the nervous side. Mind you the doctor seems a little worried too!
Needless to say I retched as the cotton swab touched the back of my throat; fairly put the doctor off too. Huan took too many photos as usual.
I was ever so pleased to get home and get some water down me I can tell you.
August 5th We got it all wrong today! Neither of us fancied going out in the morning so we planned to do exactly the same as yesterday. Checking the PC the weather forecast was exactly the same as yesterday so the plan seemed good. Wrong! The promised afternoon rain, although threatened, never turned up, instead it poured after dinner. Consequently, no walks today.
August 6th Saturday is always market day, except when it isn’t. We headed off that way today taking a detour via the bap market first to buy our cooked chicken for dinner. There is a spot in that complex that is not really looked after at all but as a result I find it’s quite beautiful.
Approaching the market form the other end we were met with what we had expected, nothing. The Covid incident means the market is closed, for how long we don’t know.
I had been looking forward to a local car show this week but it would appear that is no longer going ahead either. With a little luck it has only been postponed and not cancelled.
I tried sneaking up on another bird, but as usual couldn’t quite get close enough. Huan said we would be fine when the new camera arrives, unfortunately shipping has not even started yet.
I was able to get close enough to this strange beast though. I walked straight past it thinking it was just leaf debris, Huan spotted that it wasn’t. This creature was quite big as you can see with the comparison to my foot. The third photo is when it shot back inside when Huan picked it up and moved it off the path to avoid it being stepped on.
Even though we had no market today we did have a decent walk. However, sometime in the afternoon I received a text message, “Hello! According to big data analysis and your recent sojourn history, you may have time and space intersection with people infected with the new coronavirus, and there is a certain risk of infection.” Along with that I was given instructions on what to do, who to contact and told to stay at home for three days. Strangely, even though Huan was with me all day and we both scanned our phones in the same places, she never received any message. So following the advice we were then told that we had to go out this evening for another test, so much for staying in. At least there was no retching today.
On our way home I stopped to take a photo of a creature on a tree, and the tree decided to attack me. It was only a betel nut and it missed my head, hitting my hand instead. Here’s the offender!
What was I trying to photograph? A little snail who if he hadn’t been on the trunk would have been a likely target of the flying nut and would probably have been squashed. His head was much further out when we spotted him but in all the kerfuffle it was on the way back in when I eventually took the snap.
August 7th Being a good boy I stayed in today waiting to be told if we had to go out for another test or not. By early evening we were both going a bit stir crazy when Huan had a WeChat message telling us that we had to go for another test today So this would be the third test, in yet another location, meaning three tests in three different places so far.
Thankfully there was no retching again this evening. The bad news, or possibly the good, is that we have to turn up again tomorrow evening for another test. Huan tried to con me by saying that one will be the last one which is not what the ‘usher’ actually said. My Chinese is still far from perfect but I distinctly heard him say we had to come back tomorrow for another test with no mention whatsoever of it being the last one.
August 8th Still confined to barracks, luckily we have enough food in the house. This afternoon I had a phone call from someone chasing up the text message I had received. They wanted to know if I had been to Sanya or anywhere else recently. Huan explained that I had been nowhere that she hadn’t been with me and that the message I got came to me after we walked around Wuzhishan. I think she was satisfied with the answers. She then informed us that our next test should be taken this evening at seven.
We went to the same place as yesterday for today’s test, the queues were even longer.
You’ll be pleased to know that there are no photos of me with my mouth wide open today, Huan didn’t have enough time. She made me pose for this one instead.
And just so that you can be sure she took this one too. The one above is me with today’s test sticker, this one shows Saturday’s, Sunday’s and today’s all together on my phone. There was no sticker on Friday.
Huan also had a WeChat news message today telling us that we should stay indoors until the end of the 9th August, unless we need more tests of course. Tonight they told us that we wouldn’t have to go back tomorrow and that we would not have to have any more tests. I might believe that in another day or two and if life goes back to normal.
We
have now had four tests and the assumption, by us, is that we both tested
negative. Our reason for thinking that is that we were told we would only be
informed if there were problems with our results. With all the technology in
use these days I wonder why we can’t have some sort of evidence on our phones
that we tested negative on such and such a date. Mind you, we are not planning
on going anywhere in the near future, except maybe Sanya for a car service
later in the month, and then
Well, we have come to the end of an unusual week, hopefully soon we will be able get back to our daily walks again. Even better would be if we had a new camera to do that with but, as I said earlier in this post, it has not been despatched yet Tatty bye from us, we’ll see you next time!
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