November 15th Is life back to normal now? Not quite. Huan was off out again before me this morning, she has to renew her “Hainan Hukou Card” before I can renew my visa. It took her quite a while, the machine was broken, the office had moved, but eventually she got it sorted. It was then time for me to pick her up and go shopping. Photos of the car were needed on the way. Yesterday, neighbours in the building told us that they were very sorry, but they had scratched our car. This was the space they drove out of, without damaging our car.
And this was the same space when they drove back in and succeeded in damaging our car.
Now my car is parked at an angle to facilitate easy access for anyone who has to pass it. How did he miss on the way out but hit on the way in? My guess is that it is because our cars are LHD here and he could estimate where the left of his car was much easier than the right. He has offered to pay for the repairs and it isn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be.
Tomorrow we will drive down to Sanya for my annual medical for my visa, yet another X-Ray, I’ll be glowing in the dark soon. This year they need proof of us being tested so we went off for another test this evening, #49. They also asked that I bring three photos this year, something we have never needed before. They usually take my photo there, straight on to the computer. As I had no more available we had to go from the test to the photo shop. Speaking of the photo shop we had to keep asking the lady not to Photoshop the resultant photo. Huan told her that I was quite happy looking like the wrinkled old prune that I am!
We walked back home via the river and Huan went crazy with her phone again. All she was taking photos of was me chatting to dogs but she still managed to take 104. Needless to say most are binned. The first I kept was ‘Blackface’ who was happy to see me but got very nervy if I went too near her new baby.
Here one that you know, sometimes he seems to know me and sometimes he doesn’t. His Mum says he is a bit of a snob!
Two more from the same street, sometimes Huan has the patience of a Saint, the number of times I stop for a chat and a tickle.
Instead of a dog, how about a little cat for a change. This one remembers us.
The last pup of the day is a youngster and another new friend. This is what it looked like when its Mum was trying to get it to give me a paw.
That was the end of our evening. Despite the best efforts of multiple four legged felons we succeeded in getting our Xinjiang bread home in one piece!
November 16th We had another early morning start; we had to be out and on the road before seven. Our destination today was the foreigners medical centre in Sanya to get my (less than) annual medical for my next visa. Luckily it hadn’t moved. We did have a small problem though, it seemed very difficult to pay the bill. The cashier couldn’t get my bank card to work so we then tried Huan’s phone. Neither Huan nor the cashier could get Weixin to work or Alipay. In the end we had to fall back on what should always work, and did this time, good old fashioned cash.
Fees paid it was back into the roundabout starting with a blood test.
Second up was the afore mentioned X-ray. That was followed by blood pressure, height and weight, eyesight etc. A urine test came next, obviously no pictures there! At #5, I think was a test of my new and improved heart. These machines must be magic because the nurse told Huan that I was hungry!
And the last photo is me wiping all the gunk off that they had used for my ultrasound. I’m sure there’s a baby in that picture! What she did tell Huan was that I had polyps of the gallbladder and crystals in the kidneys but that it was nothing to worry about.
Of course Huan immediately started worrying and hasn’t stopped since. The nurse told her that I should eat less meat, more fruits and more vegetables. Also I must not eat supper. If I listen to everything the doctors tell me or everything that Huan reads on her phone, I will go crazy. Perhaps breatharianism is the answer!
Before going home we paid a visit to my bank just to be sure my
pension was still coming in and that my bank card had not been ‘frozen’ again.
They do that sometimes. All was well although checking my incoming pension
nothing appeared in August but there were two payments in September. This was
the same for both of my pensions, state and private, so I guess the problem was
not in the
November 17th Are we ill? Both of us were up before eight, naturally. That’s quite common for Huan but a little rarer for me. Consequently we were out walking earlier than we have been for a long time. Huan chose to go to the countryside behind Rendishan. Almost immediately flowers decided to try and attack me.
Huan spotted cows coming towards
us from the Rendishan complex and asked me to try and talk to them. If you look
at the photo you may observe a man on a scooter; that is the farmer. Due to him
being behind the cows there was no way they were stopping to chat with me!
Exploration was the name of the game today. We would normally turn left here but decided that we would try the uphill route to see where it went.
The road was not in the best state of repair. When we reached the bridge shown in the second photo below I realised where we were, about to cross the highway.
From the bridge you can see the
highway going south towards Haitangwan and Sanya and then north through the
tunnel to Wuzhishan via
A little further on we came to a small village where I asked Huan to ask an old man where the road went. It seems we only had about a kilometre before we would have had to turn round. We may explore that on another day.
Going back over the bridge we explored a path on the left that looked as though it might lead to a way over the mountain and thence back home. It didn’t, it stopped at this gate.
At this point the director demanded photos of peppers.
On the right there was a bricked off path but with access around the side where the wall had fallen down. Here’s the boss on the other side of the wall. Note how the model is wearing a fashionable colour coordinated mask and jacket,
This road went up, two young men told us it went down the other side, they were wrong!
Arriving at the top we saw the wonderful sight of the mountains making clouds.
Thos two photos are taken from
the same spot, one at 12mm wide and the other at 60mm zoom. The photos don’t
compare with
Huan didn’t go too crazy today but she still managed to catch me of course.
I had been taking a photo of the village we had planned to walk through this morning before the exploration bug caught us.
Because we were on a plateau I was also creating a panorama looking the other way.
We worked out that in the past this particular mountain top was probably used by the armed police, perhaps for training, perhaps even indoor ranges. Alternatively these concrete bases could be even older, who knows.
Speaking of police, as we were approaching home Huan decided to lock me up!
That was the end of our ‘busy’ day, with eleven kilometres covered. It’s been a while so we both needed a recovery nap after lunch. I then dived into the kitchen to make a curry, planning to use all the vegetables and maybe make it last two days. It was a pork curry with potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, onion and eggplant and it still only lasted one day. It was nice though!
November 18th Test 50 today, nothing special, just routine every three days. I decided Huan should have a lizard hunt down by the riverside.
She found the first one which I couldn’t see at all to begin with. It may have helped if Huan had said “small lizard” instead of “small one” as we had just been talking about birds! This was a small one but luckily not too high up the tree.
I think we both spotted the second one at about the same time but this one was in a much more difficult position. Getting any neared would have meant destroying all the nearby plants which of course would also have made too much noise and frightened it away.
Seeing a different kind of four legged friend I leapt back onto the path to say hello. Lo and behold, the Mum was someone we know. It was Sam’s wife, he of the Wuzhishan Rainforest Hotel fame. They live close by to where we were walking.
While the ladies were chatting I decided to have a little macro practice.
Huan was so engrossed that she missed our last lizard of the day.
Shortly after that photo was taken Huan had a phone call from Zōu shūxián inviting us to a going away lunch for Zhào dé and Yú, they are moving at the end of this month. Well, it would be rude to say no wouldn’t it? Besides it means a licence to have a drink or two! So here is Huan with Zōu waiting for the other guests to arrive, and some bread steaming in the wok.
And here’s the whole gang.
Just to make sure you see me today, here’s another one after we’d all finished. P.S. My red face is not the booze, it is from walking seven kilometres in the sun without a hat before lunch!
The neighbours all took the restaurant car home, we walked. My belly was so full I needed to walk some of it off. The additional walk took our total today to ten kilometres so well worth it. Our last photo is a view that you probably haven’t seen before. In 2007 this was a two lane road with nothing before the traffic lights you can see there. In fact the traffic lights didn’t exist, and the turning to the left towards our building was a mere track. Times change!
November 19th Whoopee, Huan’s first market walk for a long time. It was a busy one too.
Nothing grabbed our attention today although Huan did try to get me to take a photo of a woman with some kind of medicinal patch over her eyes. I refused and said I would take a photo of our future transport. Don’t you think Huan would look good in the sidecar?
I tried my hardest to get some photos of Huan but manipulating the camera while trying to handle all the shopping without her seeing what I was doing didn’t work so well. As a result all I have is some very bad paparazzi style photos.
November 20th We took the Sabbath literally today, at least for the morning. Sometimes it’s nice to just sit around and rot! We did go out after lunch though, heading towards the river via the bap market. We had no plans to buy baps, first of all the sellers are not there in the afternoon and secondly we have found some better ones in the second of our large supermarkets. On our way out I stopped for a chat, as I often do; they both stuck their tongues out at me.
Then just for a change they both looked at Huan’s feet?
The boss let me have an ice cream today, aren’t I the lucky boy. Huan is smiling; I am struggling trying to manhandle the phone with one hand. Still, the ice creams are visible.
Our route home took us via the town square where we had to stop for another test. “Another one?” you ask. Yes, we have to go back to Sanya tomorrow and must have a more recent test on our phones so we aimed for 24 hours.
Huan asked me to record these little flowers for posterity.
Let’s finish the day with another little doggy that may or may not have been trying to have a nibble of our supermarket baps.
November 21st Would you believe that we went
for yet another test this morning? Well, we did. Tomorrow we have to go to the
visa office in
Being a Monday and having the morning free it was also a shopping day. Our first photos are all cars. It appears that the FBI may have been shopping too, very blacked out windows and a strange sticker on the lower front wing.
The next one is definitely not American, it is in fact a Chinese car but the owner seems to have some kind of German fetish, at least on the side. I have no idea what the words on the front represent and the words on the back are definitely English. I’m also assuming that Sghulter is a spelling mistake and that it should read schulter, which means shoulder. Kotlett I’m sure you can work out. Sghinken I’m assuming is another spelling mistake; it should read schinken, which means ham. Hals could refer to neck and russel to nose, all of which would imply some kind of German butcher. However, where does that leave us with ‘pink pie’ on the rear?
A long time ago, when I was in the army, we used to get beer in cans in some overseas postings with young ladies on the side. They were real young ladies, even had names as I remember. Today I found beer in the supermarket with young ladies on the side, not real though. Huan tells me it is yellow beer, could be pilsner I suppose.
And now some sage advice for you,
especially if you are about to give the ceiling a
You may have noticed some water around the cars earlier; here I am wearing my designer rain hat to keep my golden locks dry.
After lunch we headed off to Sanya to collect my medical results. Sometimes I think it’s better that we mere mortals don’t know anything and have no access to Google. I found these little words which started giving me big worries. “Sinus rhythm; Left atrial enlargement”. I am now going to ignore them and say nothing to Huan about what I read on Dr. Google!
Back in Wuzhishan we tried a new restaurant.
As you can see it is just a burger place, but this is different, it is a “Chinese Burger” place.
So, we come to the end of a busy week. Tomorrow we are off to
We’ll be back next week, see you then.
Dr Google is the worst ….. it really is better not to read
ReplyDeleteYep, I always do though. It is also better than Dr. Weixin on Huan's phone.
DeleteI'm a bit curious. What exactly do they test for when they do the urine and blood test for your visa?
ReplyDeleteHIV and other contagious diseases.
Delete