November 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 “Wealth” Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. (Oscar Wilde) Bob’s PS –Go out, embrace nature, meet people, commune with them, make memories with friends and family, take them to your heart and soul, you will feel better for it.
Her Ladyship was free to accompany me today, or was it free to be accompanied by me, either will do I suppose. I chose to walk the Changhao way with a slight difference. Eagle eyed Huan was off almost immediately with these two bugs. Nature, with its infinite variety of flora and fauna never ceases to amaze me, two bugs, very different to each other.
Would you believe that she found another lizard? I’m sure you would. I have included both the photos we took, they are rather puzzling. I couldn’t get very near due to foliage but the lizard did not make much of an effort to escape either, it just watched me. What was puzzling us was its lack of body, especially in the second photo. Eventually we worked it out though.
Next we wanted to check on the construction progress of something someone asked to invest money in. Progress appears to have stalled at zero! It’s a good job we had no money to invest.
Soon we were entering the first village, complete with newly refurbished basketball court and seating area to the left. After that we crossed the river to the countryside.
This was the slight difference, a route we hadn’t taken before. We do think the road straight ahead here is where we crossed from the other side of the mountains, a long time ago, and felt much the worse for wear for doing it. We turned left today.
And soon there was the countryside in all its glory.
All too quickly we came to the last village before the road and then crossed another bridge to leave the countryside behind us.
The bridge was also in use for storing construction materials for a new clinic in the village, and for drying some kind of rice.
The camera stayed tucked away for our walk home, there was a bit too much dust being kicked up by trucks and cars. We enjoyed our walk today, eleven kilometres, and neither of us fell asleep after lunch. How about that then!
November 2nd This morning Huan asked if testing would end soon. The very non-committal answer was that it could become less frequent, perhaps weekly or even monthly, maybe, who knows, at some undetermined date in the future. This morning my phone was playing up so I could scan easily enough, which shows Huan’s status, but then the next page, family members, which is me, refused to work. Luckily, Huan had the same option and it worked.
Our route today was town only, via the post office to collect a letter from the UK Said letter appears in my hand here, where I am being checked out by a long lost friend.
Our between the trees walk, where we saw the ladies planting hundreds of flowers, looks quite pretty now. Some of the ladies were still busy down at the other end. The photo of them has been cropped so much it almost looks like a painting.
Musical snowbirds were back today, at least on the side of the river we walked. Here’s the first group, along with a singing buddy of Huan’s.
The next group included a well known instrument in
The guy standing up in the previous photo got between Huan and I, with his back to me, and asked where I was from, not unusual. When she answered he asked “Don’t the police say anything about him staying here?” Huan had to explain that I have a visa. Sometimes, you meet people who have almost zero exposure to the outside world, allowances have to be made.
Our last photo outside shows two
more friends. I don’t know why but dogs and cats seem to live much more in
harmony here than they do in the
There is one more picture though,
a picture of what was stamped on the letter and a screenshot of the WeChat
translation. The letter was from my pension provider and was posted mid-May.
The first franking in
November 3rd Bone idle day. Huan was slightly late with her preparations this morning so I made an executive decision that we would not go out. What I decided was that Huan is so busy over the next few days that she doesn’t need any countryside walks until it is all over. If she fancies a walk around the city, that’s fine, if not that’s also fine.
November 4th We did have a town walk today, being Friday we had to slot in another test before the weekend. This one was #43; you would have thought that the last one would have answered everything! After the test we walked via the bap market to the river and thence on home. Our first wagging tail was this one.
And here is the second one after giving me a good sniff first.
On our final stretch I got Huan to take a slight detour so that we could try the fare from this little bread place. They sell fried twisted bread, with fillings.
Imagine our surprise on getting home and translating the shop name, 酸奶大麻花, Suānnǎi dà máhuā. If you leave the words together it comes out of Google as Yogurt Cannabis Flower! Even more confusing were the fillings 奶酪, nǎilào and 芝士, zhīshì, both of which translate as cheese. The left hand plate has the nǎilào, supposed to be sweet and the right hand plate has the zhīshì, supposed to be a little more salty.
And here they are again, same left and right displaying their insides for all to see. We both had half of each and we found both of them to be a little on the sweet side. We won’t be buying the filled versions again but it’s one more we can cross of the tasting list.
November 5th An alarming time was had by all with the phone telling us, or at least Huan to get out of bed just before seven. You forget these times of the day once you are retired you know. I slept on a little until it was time to drag myself up too, grab a coffee and then do the usual Saturday market walk. Some new words have appeared across the river near the island so you can read those first.
What do you mean you can’t read them? 各民族像石榴籽一样紧紧抱在一起 - Gè mínzú xiàng shíliú zǐ yīyàng jǐn jǐn bào zài yīqǐ - Nations hold together like pomegranate seeds. I’m sure you now understand it 100%.
Each week the market attendance, customers and stall holders, goes up a little as life gets back to its winter normality. The camel had returned this week.
I did have a chat with them about the milk, I told them that camel milk is very nice but not so much in its powdered form. They agreed. Another stall holder grilled me, as they often do, as to where I am from. It turned out that he and his buddy were not southerners at all but snowbirds. They don’t just come down for holidays; they come down to do business too.
Did anyone else talk to me today? Well quite a lot of people passed the time of day, some tried to get me to buy something but what I wanted was not there today. A little more worrying was that all the false teeth sellers were trying to get my custom too. Do they think my teeth are in bad shape? Can they tell when you’re wearing a face mask? My teeth are not so good but I think I would prefer a dental clinic than the outside market.
I did my usual chatting to four legged friends. This chap’s mum tells me that he loves me. I think she would also be willing to part with him if I wanted to take him home with me. Unfortunately, SWMBO says it’s not allowed and I reluctantly have to agree with her.
Meanwhile, in the fields of Mauna cun…
It seems that Huan, as well as wielding a hoe, is also dancing with a huge basket. The ‘stage’ is I think behind the ladies. The audience, which hopefully will include yours truly, is to be on the other side of the small river. As you can see, the preparatory work is still ongoing.
Their rehearsals are marathon like at the weekends; Huan is out to get on a bus by seven and back nearly twelve hours later. Luckily, she has a stroke of luck on the morrow; she doesn’t have to go until after lunch. That could be because tomorrow, according to the schedule, eighty children are being included in the rehearsal. Perhaps the directors want to have some exclusive time with them first. Only another eight days to go and Huan can rest.
November 6th Huan enjoyed her morning of rest, I did too! She went off after a “full English” while I wandered the countryside a little. The road to somewhere is blocked off again for all except bikes and people but what for I do not know. They can still access the road from the other side all the way to the barrier you see here.
Just past the green construction nets you see there I spotted some black and white workers.
It looks like we will soon be able to walk the back way to this village.
The village in question had hordes of bikes outside today and a few cars; I wondered what was going on. As I got nearer I heard the general hubbub of a meal and drinking in progress but I took no photos. The last time Huan and I took photos of a celebration with no obvious reason it turned out to be a wake, I didn’t want to make the same mistake here.
Zabao cun was my first waypoint, they have a new sign too, and some additions.
In fact they have a few additions for seating, for exercise and for playing games.
Going through the village I spotted some wall art, I much prefer this to Banksy’s.
At the other end of the village I took a detour over the top road and came back to the entrance where I noticed the village office has also had a makeover.
Leaving the village I gave this short cut a wide berth. Some of you may remember that the last time we saw a live snake it was here, on the pipe at the end.
The wide berth took me back on to the road to nowhere, here’s a panorama to the left. As you can see, it was a lovely day for an afternoon stroll.
Luck was with me today, I spotted this without the aid of Huan’s eagle eyes.
And three little ducklings who hot footed it back to Mum, or is it Dad, when they saw me.
This next one was a ‘uurrgh’ moment, I was expecting to touch something with the consistency of a grape, or perhaps an eggplant. This fruit was soft and squidgy and left purple dusty stuff all over my fingers. Google tells me it’s a jackfruit; perhaps they are soft and squidgy when they are tiny. If we see them again we’ll get Huan to ask someone, today there was only me.
Sometimes when I am out without Huan I take quiz photos for her, she has to try and tell me where I took them. These two came from the end of the road to somewhere, she will guess the first one easily enough but probably not the second.
These next two will more than likely need a little clue from me, they are both taken from the far end of what is called a children’s park.
And the last one, just to try and trick Huan, is in black and white. As it is not far from the traffic police and the bus station she should get it fairly quickly though.
November 7th Monday rolled around again, and I felt absolutely terrible. Huan slept very well last night, I hardly slept at all and woke up queasy. We had no choice though, our latest test, #44 was due today. Once that was done it was straight home and straight back to bed for me. Poor Huan tries to ‘nurse’ me at times like this but all I want is sleep and water. I briefly woke up at lunch time, drank more water then zonked again. The next time I woke up it was half past five in the evening, slowly starting to feel a little better. This time a sweet tea was needed. Luckily, I am not required for my driving duties this evening, the ladies have no rehearsal. They are supposed to collect some shoes later; Yú said she will collect Huan’s.
My brain is still struggling so I’ll just sign off now, see you next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment