December 6th Our first task this morning was another regular test; presently we still need to do them every three days. Next up was shopping, I had something to photograph but forgot all about it. Sorry! From there it was a quick trip to the Post Office to collect a Christmas card from one of my sisters and her hubby. We threw the envelope so we can’t tell you how long this one took. Before we arrived home the navigator told me that we had to visit the area clinic, they had called her for the usual blood pressure and blood sugar tests. Huan never refuses, probably because they always give free eggs! Anyway, I was dragged out of the car too, despite my protestations that I have more than enough medical tests on a regular basis and don’t really need the area clinic ones too. Here is a very grumpy me telling Huan that we really don’t need photos of me being tested yet again, you may be able to see I’m a little angry. The funniest part was that although I was angry my blood pressure was less than Huan’s. My blood sugar was also less than hers; mind you I had only had a coffee where she had eaten breakfast.
December 7th Today we had a first, for both of us, a double first for Huan. She had never seen an alpaca before and I had never seen a pet one. I have seen these two on Douyin, (Chinese Tik Tok) before; their owner walks them across Xiǎo dǎo sometimes.
We took so many photos I could almost do a Blog post only for the alpacas. We can fit a few photos in here I suppose. Another first for me, being spat at by an alpaca although Huan didn’t get the actual moment.
The final first for me was touching an alpaca, they are so soft.
I also got the feeling that they were very intelligent. The white one especially seemed to know what this rather strange human was rambling about.
All too soon fun was over and we were out in the countryside.
Since we hadn’t walked this way for many months we decided to walk back through the woods from the small reservoir. At the end of this road Huan went to the left looking for a route across the front of the reservoir, one we had used before. I turned right looking for a short cut.
Huan chose the best route; I had to fight through the vegetation.
Here’s Huan, tripping the light fantastic where she met me at the tree line.
And so we reached the tree lined walk we remembered.
When I say “we remembered” there had in fact been some changes. Here we are walking through newly planted betel nut trees, they were not there before. There were trees but not these.
Perhaps there were banana trees there before; we did come across one of those.
We also came across a few coconut trees with lots of ducks in attendance.
Finally, on this stretch, we met an old pooch. It was tied up, possible as a guard dog, but it didn’t make a sound. Even the tail wagging was muted and its back end was bloodied. It was not easy walking away after giving it a tickle and looking at its sad eyes.
Let’s have another pooch shall we? “I will get my head through this gap to shout at you!” It did too but I missed that photo.
I think that’s quite enough snaps for one day so we will end up with a view of the road to somewhere, or in our case as we were going home, from somewhere.
Did I say last one? My mistake, here is one of Huan jaywalking having just bought what she, and I; hope is tonight’s winning lottery ticket.
December 8th The lottery ticket was, as usual, an abysmal failure. This morning, after a not very good sleep, I was stuck to the bed again. I only got up because Huan made the coffee. Walking was the last thing on my mind so we left it until after lunch.
I told Huan that we would go lizard hunting, it’s quite a long walk but with no hills or difficult parts. We followed the farmer and his cows down to the riverside.
Here they are again going where we can’t go to join the rest of the family and then enjoying the river and frolicking in the grass.
Next up we spotted the housekeepers cleaning under the grass carpet! Actually we had no real idea what they were doing, they were lifting the overhanging vegetation of the little islet and rummaging around underneath. Perhaps they were looking for crabs, snails or shells. Initially Huan thought of birds’ eggs but they would not be under the vegetation.
Huan was lucky and found one solitary lizard.
Then I found a spider’s web with what almost looked like a sea shell in the middle.
And then we were both fooled, this was not a lizard but a piece of bark. In our defence, it did look like one from a distance.
Let’s stay with the flora for a little.
I even got down low and dirty, it wasn’t so easy getting back up though!
Later on we passed Blackface’s place but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. One of her pups was though so I had a little cuddle.
The expression on my face is because within seconds of picking the pup up Blackface came to the rescue and I had to put the pup down again. She went straight for a feed!
Our last two photos are just to show you how lucky we really are to
live where we do. Almost every road in town is tree lined; when new roads are built
trees are very quickly added. When I read the news from the
December 9th Another three days another test, number fifty nine this morning.
On our way down the main street we found an orchestra rehearsing, they were quite good too. There were numerous instruments there, most that we recognised, but there was one that we didn’t. Maybe you can tell us what this is.
Things would appear to be changing, these next two photos show that access to the bap market area is no longer controlled; the fences have been taken down.
We were there buying our duck for this weekend’s dinners. We did get one more photo for you though, another little electric car, this one from Chery. Now why they have used “Chinese Astronaut” instead of “Taikonaut”, (the name we use in the west for Chinese astronauts), or Yǔháng yuán (the official Chinese name for them which means travellers of the universe), I have no idea. I do like that he is sitting on a piece of cheese just as we would picture ours!
I did have a plan to take us both out for an after dinner walk but I got waylaid by the gas hob. I cooked today, and although we have no gas, the induction hob sits on top of the gas one. Frying makes a mess, and I was frying chicken fillets today. I decided that the knobs needed a clean too and then spent over an hour with WD40, lighter fuel, my ultrasonic bath and some Jif at the end. They are definitely clean now!
December 10th “Saturday is market day, is everybody happy, you bet your life we are.” Well we do enjoy our market walks and today was no exception. The first thing we noticed was an increase in footfall and the second was entry without scanning our phones.
You may remember that I didn’t show you the pork a week or two ago. Well, the lady was there today but a little disappointed that we weren’t buying any. I told her that we would next week if she turned up. Had we been buying today we would have bought the middle piece on the left. It would then have been cut in half lengthwise and each half sliced in half. Yummy! I think I could quite possible eat the whole thing but the head dietician would not be happy with me.
Something we haven’t tried before but that we may consider if we see it again and have not bought our weekend dinner is pigeon. Would we need 2 or 4 to see us through the weekend?
Huan was at it with her phone too, this is honey. The honeycomb structures appear to be feeding down into the bowl and thence the jar at the bottom. Huan was convinced it was 100% pure, I wasn’t so sure. Perhaps we’ll try one week.
She also took a photo of me taking a photo of the home made hooch, 50 and 60 proof and from ¥10.00 to ¥16.00 per 斤 (Jīn) or 500gm. I think I’ll give it a miss.
My turn next, some strange things that we initially thought went on the end taps but it seems we were wrong and that they are for cleaning the bottoms of your pans. Don’t ask us how!
And how about a truck full of “long onions”, that’s what we call them anyway. They look like leeks but are not the same. The other side of that mountain there was another person, a woman, maybe this chap’s wife, selling out of the side door. Business was brisk today.
Another one of mine, a carved gourd, an excellent piece I thought.
Let’s finish with another two of Huan’s. She found a guy making cigarettes by hand. The box on his left has empty papers with filters, the pile in front is completed cigarettes and the pile on his right is the ones that failed.
December 11th There was no morning walk again this morning and I can’t blame the boss, I slept until just after nine. Maybe I need to start going to bed earlier! Anyway, we did get out after lunch on what will from henceforth be called the kindergarten walk. It helps me explain to Huan which part of the countryside I am talking about. We started off with a couple of those white birds in the river again. If you look carefully at the second photo you can see two birds.
Crossing Xiǎo dǎo today we noticed that the irrigation canal was in use again. I did suggest a game of Pooh Sticks but then forgot all about it. The sluice gates are still under maintenance and will be for some time so we were interested to see how the canal was being filled. They went for the old fashioned sandbag method, it works.
As always Huan likes to be busy with her phone and here is one she took of me.
And this is what I was focussing on.
Before too long we were off the beaten path and into the countryside.
Turning left at the kindergarten we went along a route that we haven’t been on for a long time, certainly before my heart problems. It’s a nice long hike but with hills that are manageable. It brings us out where we can turn round and capture a whole village in our sights.
Eventually we spotted our good
friend “
Both of us then ended up fumbling for our cameras to capture a snap of the other first. I was first but as always Huan was mostly hidden.
Huan was second catching me grumbling, as always!
There were three of them and they were sat on the wall but they weren’t ‘craws’! It looks like they are talking about when to jump as I was going to walk behind them.
I’ve said it before and I will no doubt say it again, we are blessed with living where we do. The countryside is beautiful, even the man made parts of it, and the weather is wonderful, most of the time anyway. We do get rain but typhoons rarely bother us.
When we eventually returned to civilization, the village shop was closed so I had to wait for life giving sustenance. Yes, I do mean water. The village did have a lot of signs though; Huan tells me that they all relate to the rule of law.
Walking back into town along the main street we were pleased to see that most of the road widening has now been completed. Trees have been planted so that before too long we will be walking in the stage. I even stood in the middle of the road for the second one!
I sneaked another couple of pictures in of Huan while we were sat waiting for a bus. Well, we had walked twelve kilometres so we thought we deserved a bus home. The bus would have been approaching from my side, hence the unusual angle.
By the time we got home, we had walked another kilometre from the bus stop so today’s walk was a long one, 13.28km in fact. Strangely enough we both felt fine. I felt even better when I opened Huan’s Taobao parcel, she had ordered some Christmas sweeties for me. Now if only I can learn how to ration myself…
December 12th Monday comes but once a week
but it nearly always seems to be Monday! How does that work? This particular
Monday started with another test, #60. We were being harangued while we were in
the queue; someone was trying to tell us we didn’t need to test anymore. Well,
yesterday we had to scan to board a bus and tomorrow we know we have to scan in
Back in our apartment complex I had a very important job to do, in fact I was late this year. The first of December is when I usually change the car SD card to Christmas songs. I tried this year but the card would not scan. It was a new card and it was formatted as FAT and not NTFS, it worked on the PC but not in the car. Today was the reformatted NTFS version and I’m happy to say it worked. We now have over two thousand Christmas songs in the car, with the odd repeat, or several, of course.
Off we went shopping, Huan wouldn’t let me open the car windows and turn the volume up though. Sometimes she can be a real meanie! Mind you, she bought me even more sweeties for Christmas so I’m not really complaining.
Our evening was a shower for Huan and a soak in the bath for me. That brings us to the end of our day and our week. Take care everyone; walk carefully if you are in snowy places. In the southern hemisphere you can feel free to skip through the fields of flowers. We’ll just keep on as always, no snow, not too cold and not too hot, see you soon!
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