September 20th Why don’t we start the new week just like the old one and go for another test again? Yes, it was test 23 today; still have to go every three days. At least the queue was short!
Today was also an admin day for Huan; I call it one of her money laundering days. She has to visit one back to take money out and another to put money in, she has her reasons. When she left the first bank I tried to create a time lapse of her crossing the road and failed. I really must read the camera instructions more. Instead, I give you the rubbish bins complete with washbasin.
Our route to the second bank took us along the river bank!
The new camera, as I’m sure you may remember, comes with a 5x zoom. What does that look like? Well the first photo here is at the wide angle of 12mm and the second is fully zoomed out at 60mm, (26-130 for 35mm film). 5x zoom is not a lot is it?
You can see why snapping birds is still not so easy. There is a lens for this camera that goes from 12mm to 200mm (24-400mm equivalent); I wonder how long it will be before I save up enough money for that. It costs more than the camera did.
After Huan had finished in her second bank she found a strange insect, one that I had never seen before either. Of course she made sure I Googled the image when we got home. It turned out to be a Mayfly, which I have heard about but had no idea what they looked like. You can find out more here - https://www.ynu.org.uk/recording-sections/sections/freshwater/mayflies.
Two photos of her ladyship, just for a change. In the first one she is looking down to see who won Pooh-sticks. In the second, well, she is looking at me. PS Neither of us won.
Serendipity struck today, I said to Huan “Shhhhh, they may be a lizard sunbathing on that rock.” There never has been before and there probably never will be again, but there was today!
Let’s finish with the Minister of Finance a.k.a. the Prime Minister, putting money somewhere other than a bank. Here she is buying local fruit at our front gate. You can’t actually see but her choice was nectarines, very nice they were too.
September 21st Last night we both had a message on our phones, this morning we went to our normal testing site to clarify, the answer was yes, we had to have another test today. In fact the authorities wanted to test everyone today. Maybe this is the precursor to the end of tests? They had four testing sites inside and the outside one was in operation again too. We went to that one.
Air-conditioning had been provided for the testing staff today. Maybe it had been previously too but this was the first time we had seen it.
Once again our plans were changed and instead of going to
Now dear readers, we need your help, Google wasn’t so good. What type of tree is this and why is it oozing sap? Google brought hundreds of results, the closest match was a pine tree, but this does not look like one of those to me.
Prowling around one of my favourite ‘desirable residences’, well a clearing in the forest, Huan insisted I took pictures of all kinds of stuff. Here’s a hairy fruit,
Two chatty neighbours,
And here is a crazy woman who will eat almost anything. At least I knew already that this particular fruit was not of the poisonous variety. Huan said it tasted like raw eggplant.
Approaching the summit of our walk more things were found. Huan found the green fruit, it is a papaya, and she will keep it until it is ripe for eating. Progress photos may follow. The other, which I found, is quite obviously a mushroom. “Can I eat it?” was heard from my travelling companion. “Oh dear” said yours truly, “I appear to have thrown it away!”
Going over the brow, we made a test ‘Vlogging while walking’ video, I wasn’t too impressed. My arms need to be a lot longer! If you’re interested in the performance of the G95, you can see it here - https://youtu.be/RakBlbgHNcg
These beautiful flowers took my fancy; perhaps you will like them too.
Next up, to Huan’s surprise, I saw something small before she did. Google succeeded with this one, it is an Asian Spotted Tortoise Beetle (Aspidimorpha miliaris).
Back to civilisation and what do we find, a pool table.
A long time ago, way back in 1968 when I left my army training and went to my first posting, I bought a camera. It was probably some king of instamatic, most of the affordable ones were in those days. In the first film was a test shot of snooker balls on the table extending into the distance. I plan to repeat that shot using Panasonic’s post focus function, when I get around to learning how to do that. Of course, there are no snooker tables here; it will have to be pool.
September 22nd No walkies this morning, instead
we had a home visit. Now I know you all think I am getting old but the visit wasn’t
from ‘social services’ or ‘home help’, it was from Wuzhishan Media, they want
to interview me about living here and what changes we have seen in recent
years. Once they arrived, we spent most of the rest of the morning going
through photos on my PC, choosing one here and there to send to them for their
story. As a result we only have one photo, one of Huan and I waving our little
Rain stopped play for the rest of the day!
September 23rd No walkies again today, we were collected by the media people to go out to the hills and visit a touristy place called Maona village.
We were visiting here because the
President of the PRC had visited on his recent trip to
On our way to the square where the President addressed the villagers we ran into some cows. I do think that the media people were rather hoping the cows would come to me as they had seen in some of our many photos. Today, that was not to be.
Because of the weather and because I needed to be fully available I had purposely left Percy at home today. They gave me a GoPro to walk around with instead, I don’t know if the video will show that it is not switched on! Huan took all the photos you see, so until we see the finished video, we don’t have a complete record. Where Xi JinPing stood was like a natural theatre, I could feel my voice amplifying itself. Huan was stood with me so we have no photo of that. You can see the place if you look closely at this next photo, we are all watching a video of Xi JinPing but he doesn’t have his back to the trees as I did.
And here I am again, this time discussing the prices of the GoPro, which I was carrying and not using, and the DJI Pocket 2 which both the cameramen were using. The DJI is a lot cheaper than the GoPro, we will have to wait and see what the video quality is like.
Next we see Su Mei Li, checking the picture of where Xi JinPing sat when he talked with, I suppose, the village council. Following that is a nice little collage of me being interviewed, not quite in the same place; I had Huan hiding behind the pillar translating for me.
A more mundane aspect of village life is farming of course, that’s what they do. There were turkeys here, although Huan didn’t succeed in catching any decent photos of them. There was also a small granary. To my surprise, when they opened the little door there was no damp smell at all, no feeling of moisture in the air, and the grain was dry as a bone.
We had a walk around the circumference of the village, not many photographs of note were taken though. We will come back sometime in the future and bring Percy along for the ride. He will have to work his ticket though!
Me being me I had to have a play with the water wheel!
All that energy expended meant that I, and everyone else, had to have a cup of tea.
From there it was off to the restaurant in Shuǐ mǎn xiāng for a well earned lunch for all the workers, and a much needed breakfast for me. Yes, I have been skipping breakfast as part of my ‘shrink my belly’ plan. There was another dish but that came after the photos and after we started eating. Spot the chillies and the raw garlic, they will be used along with soya sauce to make a spicy dipping sauce, Su Mei Li is from Sìchuān!
The media people then tried to take us to a place where we could view Wǔzhǐshān itself, and perhaps see all five fingers. However, when we arrived there we could not go in, they were still closed for Covid reasons. Home we went, but not too dispirited, we had enjoyed a very nice morning and seen another new place. We will return when we can, taking a few more photos and videos and hopefully on a nice clear day so we can see the five fingered summit. Also, when we get a copy of the video that Wuzhihsan Media are making, if they deem it good enough, we will also upload it so you’ll be able to see it too.
September 24th Saturday is market day, except it’s not for Huan. Her rehearsals have started in earnest for the National Day show. She is busy today and tomorrow and then almost every day from 1st October to 13th November. Before taking her this morning we had to have our 25th Covid test, meaning she would be a little late. I even used my phone alarm to make sure I was up early enough; we still had to wait for the procedure to start though.
Today we had the additional task of carrying items needed in the testing. I was #10 in my group so had to carry the specimen bag that the ten tests in my group would be packed for delivery. Huan was #1 in her group so she had to carry the test tube that would be used for the ten tests in her group. Huan has been #1 or #10 in the past but this was the first time we both ‘got the job’.
Huan had to report to a new local government office, their show is very much an official one. Dropping her off I noticed the chargers, the largest are 120kw, whether that is good or not for EVs I have no idea. You will probably know more than I do.
Nature comes next, I do like to see how in the end, it always triumphs. These are old electricity pylons, before long you will not be able to know at all from the shape.
While Huan was practicing I was going walkies, but it was walkies with orders. “Don’t forget to buy the weekend’s dinner and try to find some bread too!” Being a Saturday, and with ‘tea street’ being very busy I had high hopes for the market. They weren’t quite dashed this week, some of the stallholders had obviously got the message but it would appear that most hadn’t. The most important one, the pork fellow, was not there.
Being a bad boy I sneaked in through the open back gate of the bap apartment complex where I was able to buy two cooked chickens and, my lucky day, five baps too.
Sleep was a necessity for me after lunch, Huan had a small one and I had a long one! Once awake it was back to practice for her, yes, she has to go twice a day on many of the days, and it was into the kitchen for me. A husband’s work is never done!
September 25th Huan went off for her dance rehearsal and I became lazy. My plan was to walk after lunch, escorting Huan back to her dancehall and then going off on my own. I spent all morning sending a lot more photos to the media people, a bit of overkill perhaps. They can always bin them, that’s the advantage of digital stuff.
Huan came home a little early with good news, for her anyway. This afternoon’s practice had been cancelled. “Good” said I, “we can go for a walk then.” “No” said the boss, “I’m too tired.” We had a nap instead. However, we did venture out after dinner, what’s more we went into the countryside. Here’s the sky on the way.
Huan had me taking photos of turkeys again. I think it’s time we had another one for Christmas dinner, that might slow her down a bit!
If turkeys on the ground don’t do it for you, how about chickens up a tree? Huan asked me if they slept up there, and I told her that I thought it was highly possible.
We even had a walk down to the river on our route, being told by quite a few young men on the way that there was ‘no road’ where we were going. We told them that we knew where we were and where we were going having been that way many times before. In the end we gave up, we think an excess of alcohol may have been involved. Anyway, I created two panoramas there, the first one using the ‘perspective’ option and the second using the ‘cylindrical’ option. Which one do you prefer dear readers, do let me know.
Let’s finish off the day with a few more sky shots. Percy was still on full automatic of course, one day I will try and learn how to use manual. I’m not too disappointed with the results.
September 26th Sometimes the boss changes my plans! They were changed today because she had a birthday yesterday and hence was eligible for a bus pass. Instead of shopping this morning I performed my duties as ‘Parker’ with an odd “Yes, m’lady” every now and then. It took two government offices and two banks although, to be fair, it was only two banks because the first one could not print any cards. The second bank took a long time, I could see some of the goings on from outside but eventually the job was done. Here is the OAP with her pass!
I have no idea and neither does Huan as to why there is an arrow showing the direction to insert the card into an ATM. Huan does know that she has a password, she also knows that she doesn’t need the password to go on the buses. It’s a strange world sometimes.
By the time the bus pass saga was complete we had no time for shopping at all so it was home for lunch and another nap. I did drag Huan out after dinner though, to the fish market, that will be one less thing to worry about tomorrow. On the way home I lapsed into becoming a Good Samaritan, albeit a foreign one. The rain had brought down a small branch which cars were having to swerve to avoid. Luckily, it wasn’t too heavy!
And so another week comes to an
end, along with another binge watch. For you
What will this week bring us, a little normality; Huan had a few days off in her schedule. Notice the word ‘had’. She’s now received a message telling her that tomorrow and Thursday she, and her compatriots, must present themselves in the town square at half past seven in the evenings. Still, the twice a day schedule doesn’t resume until October 1st so one shouldn’t grumble. In fact one should be grateful for the time we have this week!
It’s a good job I am not such a bad cook and can take care of our nutritional needs if Huan is too busy. I can even cook things I may not be allowed at other times. Tomorrow it will be liver and onions, British style, yummy.
We will see you next week, which is also next month. TTFN
