September 27th Another test today, #26, so I was obviously wrong about the frequency of tests coming down or even stopping altogether. I didn’t bother with yet another photo from there, I’m sure there will be time for more, instead here’s a late one from Huan’s birthday. Someone sent it to her this morning; you can even spot the birthday badge if you look carefully.
And that is it for today, after our test we went shopping, nothing out of the ordinary there and after lunch the rain came down. Once again we are on the fringes of a typhoon; this one is called ‘Noru’. I know, I can hear many of you saying “Bloody Norah!” Behave yourselves! Just to give you another piccie for today here is a screenshot from windy.com, you can see our little island just above the big swirly bit.
I finished my day with some more “Get Some In” and reminisced while watching and listening to the ‘Thames TV Intro’, ah, sweet memories.
September 28th Today was a British day, well the morning was anyway. It rained nearly all night, cleared up as we woke up and then came back with a vengeance right after breakfast. Our plan had been an after breakfast walk, with shoes and brollies, just in case. Just before ten I heard a little voice, “It’s stopped raining.” Off we went, with the aforementioned shoes and brollies just in case, as it happened, they weren’t needed. The rain only spat at us a few times. We did notice something odd though; all the testing stations were bereft of personnel.
Our reasons for going out were extremely important, Huan had to buy the lottery tickets for tonight and I had to look for baps. Here I am scanning my way in to the bap compound.
Luck was not with us today, no baps were available. On the plus side though I did buy a couple of those wonderful northern sausages. Almost home and Huan went berserk with the camera again, I saved only two of her snaps, one with the dog looking at me and one looking at her.
Huan’s days off were interrupted by messages from the team leader. She should have gone out last night for a practice but the weather was far too bad. She has gone out tonight for one leaving me sitting at home like an over protective parent. The reason? Huan has gone on her bike which, as she would be the first to admit, she is not very proficient at riding yet. I did consider walking her to her hall, even taking the car, but just like a good Daddy I realised that I had to let her try for herself. At least we don’t live in a very busy city.
I needn’t have worried, Huan phoned me when she arrived there safely, half an hour before the start time. She arrived home happy that she had succeeded in going all that way alone by bicycle, about three and a half kilometres, and then back alone afterwards. Normally she wouldn’t be alone, Yú would cycle with her but Yú was out of sorts this evening. Not only did Huan arrive home safely but she came with another bug photo!
September 29th We had another British day today, almost, but not quite, the same as yesterday. Our route out was almost exactly the same, we were headed for ‘bap alley’ in search of bread type sustenance. On the way Huan decided she would photograph the floral department at work, National Day is coming up so the streets get their bi-annual flower décor. All there was to be seen was a big truck with large flower pots and a smaller truck lifting those pots off for relocation elsewhere. Huan managed to take forty photos! I kept only four, here are two showing the transfer in action.
On this particular corner only small pots were being used.
Our luck was in today and we found baps, only ten, but that’s enough for five days. From there we walked to Huan’s night time rehearsal hall so that we could check the distance she had cycled yesterday. It turned out to be more than we had estimated. By the time we got home it was 4.2km which meant a round trip of 8.4, she did well.
Before we got home, as we expected, the rain came down. That was why we left Percy at home today, we were fairly sure we would get caught.
Having forgotten to take a photo of the bap stall and seller we decided to show you what they are like when we got home. They make an extremely good sandwich!
Huan’s days off shrunk by one again and she had to go out for anther rehearsal tonight. The rain has stayed away this evening so she should be fine.
September 30th Test number 27 today. Now some of you may be asking how I keep track of all these tests. Others, who know me, may have already worked out that I have them all recorded on an excel file, complete with calendar sheets. We were in and out very quick today, no photographs to prove it though. Our first photo is just to show you that we live in a ‘mostly’ crime free area. These two, the drinks fridge and the ice cream freezer, are both outside a local alcohol store which was closed when we passed. You may notice that neither of these cooling containers have any locks on them. The lady in the background was telling us we would have to wait a few minutes for the shop to open; I don’t think she understood why I was taking a photo.
Huan was busy trying to get pictures of me chatting to my various friends in the animal kingdom; I don’t know why she won’t let me buy her a camera. Here’s a pooch that used to hate me but now puts up with me, possible because I talk to his flying housemate up there in the cage. What’s more, the housemate responds to melodic whistles!
Remember the flower deliveries from yesterday? Here is one of the locations; you can see that some of the big pots have been placed here.
A couple of the local ladies are just finishing off placing small pots.
Bridges will all have flower boxes on them too.
And here is the other end of the road centre decoration.
Huan didn’t do such a good job with my second canine friend today.
She did her usual and managed to find a small lizard which then I mucked up taking photos of. Only one of the few I took is anything like worthwhile sharing.
As you may guess, today was another day much like yesterday, inclement weather and a bap search. We failed with the baps. On our final straight I asked Huan to pop into a bank to replace a damaged ¥20.00 note that I’d been carrying around for a while. One person was being served and there was nobody else in the queue, I told Huan she’d be out in no time. How wrong can you be? After a long wait I asked the security guard if there was only one teller working to which he replied, “Yes, one is resting and one has gone home.” Added to that the single teller on duty was not dealing with a simple transaction, we gave up in the end. At least we managed to make it home before the rain found its way down.
October 1st “The Lift-Your-Spirits Quote Book” compiled by Allen Klein, ISBN 0-517-16309-8, published in 2001. This month’s quote comes from the chapter “Pets” but to keep everyone happy there are two, one from ‘Cats’ and one from ‘Dogs’. From Cats, Time spent with cats is never wasted. (Colette) Bob’s PS –If you don’t believe, try it. Whenever you see a cat, stop, talk and pet, you will immediately feel better. From Dogs, The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. (Samuel Butler) Bob’s PS –Another one for you to try, either with your own dog or with someone else’s, even a stray. It may take time if it’s not yours, but eventually they will play and you will both have fun.
国庆节 快乐, Guóqìng jié kuàilè, Happy (Chinese) National Day. Yes, everyone is on holiday today, well except for Huan and her dancing buddies, they have two rehearsals, one this morning and one this afternoon. Huan went off in the rain to catch her (free) bus, leaving me at home forlornly looking out of the window.
Today was Saturday so it was market day and the rain eased off before ten allowing me to go and have a shufti as it were. The run up was bare of any street sellers.
And the market itself wasn’t much better. Normally at holiday time it would be a lot busier but I think the weather had a lot to do with today’s lack of stalls.
Having failed in my shopping duties I was left with time to waste
until I was to meet Huan, and the residents’ committee, for lunch. I tool a
‘long cut’ instead of a short one. Now here is something that you may not
expect to see in
It’s amazing how much nature you can find in the city if you know where to look. This is a corner plot that will at sometime in the future be built on, not it’s beautiful and wild.
Remember the flower boxes from yesterday? Well here they are, on the same bridge but full now. Check the hills behind and you will see that they won’t need much watering!
In fact, by this time, I had been over watered, very much so. My shoes and socks were soaked, my shirt and shorts were no longer dry even though I did have an umbrella. I had some respite from the rain while I waited for twinkle-toes.
It seems that there will now be about five hundred people performing, three hundred and fifty of whom were in the hall this morning. Huan and Yú have been promoted and are now part of a smaller group along with young students.
They didn’t stop until nearly midday, not a good way to treat your performers when the scheduled time to finish was eleven thirty. Still, someone was there to take us to the restaurant so I only got a little bit wetter. The lunch was fine, I had the obligatory glass of 白酒Báijiǔ, well, one must show willing. I also had a few glasses of the not so obligatory beer. By the time lunch was over and I walked Huan and Yú back towards the hall, they had another practice starting at three, I was wobbling a bit. I don’t think they noticed though, they had one eye on the weather.
The river had swollen quite a lot since I walked past it this morning; the lower walkways were under the water. At least the rain had eased.
All that rushing water and the change in the weather plays havoc with the old waterworks, even more so since the prostatectomy, but when I got there, it was locked!
Luckily there was another one not too far away. Luck was also with me for the shopping, I popped into the indoor market to buy vegetables and the roast pork lady was just setting up. Maybe that’s the time we have to try in the future. Goodies in hand I set off on the last stretch, check the river here. The ford is completely under water, the riverside farms on the bend have disappeared and if our new dam was fixed that would be under water too.
My plan was to take one more photo of the rushing torrent from a vantage point in our little square. I failed; I fell over in the dirt and the wet. Of course I blame the weather and the conditions underfoot 100%, it was nothing to do with me having a bit of a wobble going! Huan and Yú arrived home later than they expected, the bus finished before they did!
October 2nd Huan sneaked off this morning before I was up. Actually I had heard her pottering about on the balcony but I must have dropped off again. I spent the morning being a house husband, first of all preparing a small egg salad for lunch and then preparing a bigger, much bigger, potato salad for today’s and tomorrow’s pork dinner. I enjoyed every minute.
The afternoon saw Huan go back for another rehearsal of course, she has two a day for most of this month, it’s hard work but fun too. I had a little meander, without Percy, just in case. There wasn’t much to take photos of anyway, apart from this little chap. He is always happy to see me and if he can, like today, he will put his front paws on my legs while standing on his back paws. I’m sure he could stay there for much longer than my patience would hold out!
October 3rd Monday came around again, just like it does every week! This morning SWMBO made sure I was awake and out of bed before she left. Why? Because I had to go for a solo test this morning, Huan had been tested yesterday at her rehearsal. We are now officially out of sync! Soon I was in the queue again, not understanding anything of what was being said around me. A lot of people in Wuzhishan speak the local language 海南语, hǎi nán yǔ, Hainanese in other words. Many people here, especially the younger ones and children, are bilingual, in some cases trilingual. I’m still struggling with Chinese never mind trying to learn a regional language too.
Just for a change here’s another view, this time from the sharp end looking back.
Despite being up and out so early I still couldn’t go for long walks in the country this morning, my shoes have not yet dried out! Instead I decided on another bap excursion where I found the seller only had nine. I stood guard over them while he went home and got another eleven so that I could buy twenty. Why he only brought eleven I don’t know, perhaps he didn’t want to stand outside any longer once I had bought the twenty.
Walking back home I thought you might like to see that the ‘farm in the corner’ is now above the waterline again. Whether any crops can be saved or not I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess.
Home early, ready for coffee and the internet, but I only got the former. Communication with the outside world is not possible today; at least it wasn’t all morning and afternoon. Even in the evening it was only possible due to the generosity of a good friend allowing me to use his different way. The first thing I did was tell my provider that I was online with a different one!
I also forgot that today is Monday and the weekly post was due! Last minute panic set in, hopefully you will get it today and not tomorrow. See you soon!
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