November 29th Good morning, happy new week to you! Another test this morning, so that I can try for my PSA tests tomorrow morning. After that we thought we’d have a walk down towards Changhao, for two reasons. First of course was the countryside and some fresh air, but secondly we wanted to check what was happening at our regular highway turn off. It has been closed the last couple of times we have tried to use it and we’ve had to come off at Yari village.
I pointed out this fellow to Huan and told her to check out how strong he was, pulling this small tunnelling machine all by himself. She realised fairly quickly that I was winding her up and that he was ‘driving it’ with the little levers.
The road towards Changhao is getting wider and wider, we assume it will only be up to the highway access road.
Cows were spotted, approaching quite quickly; I slowed down and gave them a fairly wide berth. Huan almost had a heart attack, she tried to chat and take photos which sent a calf running in front of the traffic. What a silly Billy!
Arriving at the highway access road we think we found the reason for the diversions. It looks like they are building a tunnel on the Wuzhishan to Changhao road and allowing the slip roads to merge at either end. Of course we can’t say for sure yet.
We took the reverse route today, going a bit further towards Changhao before scooting off into the countryside. The Head Botanist was busy pointing out flowers for me.
We stumbled on something we hadn’t really noticed before, an outdoor bathing facility. It even has its own tap! Mind you, it’s just a bit too near the road for me.
Once in the country side we were soon in the village whose name I forgot to take note of today. They have a much better bathing facility! It is in the school grounds but we think it is probably available to the villagers when the school is closed.
Another photo at the request of the Head Botanist.
At the other end of the village, as we crossed the bridge to head back towards the main road, we were surprised to see all this work going on. It seems that they are building retaining walls for the river on this stretch. Whether it is for aesthetic or other reasons we don’t know.
Personally, I prefer a view like this to one of manmade walls.
Back on the main road we took another detour to avoid all the construction work with the dust and traffic that it entails. Instead we headed under the highway towards the river.
This is the view on the other side of the highway.
And this is the view when we reach the river.
On the way home we passed by Shifu’s shop to see if his wife was up and about yet. She has just given birth to their fifth son, they had been hoping for a little girl this time. Both Mrs Shifu and the new arrival were present, but the little one was busy making lots of zzzzzzzs so Huan could not disturb him. Instead, I disturbed the family’s new pooch.
We had walked over eleven kilometres by the time we got home and we were too late for an OAP nap today. Huan may have snoozed on the sofa, I played nodding dog in the office a couple of times, but we persevered and mostly stayed awake.
November 30th What a palaver we had trying to get into the hospital this morning. As often happens, my phone refused to play and at the hospital gate neither would Huan’s. However, the lady on the gate understood well enough and the first hurdle was complete. The second hurdle was trying to get into the hospital building where we had to scan our health codes again. Similar problems occurred and we were being passed from pillar to post amongst all the nurses on duty at the door. One of them eventually found a place on my phone to input the number and check the last test rather than just use the names. It worked, to her satisfaction anyway, but without Huan I still would not have got in. Once we were in and had paid for the consultation there were no further problems. Here I am paying. Between the first and second photos there are about two to three metres and over ten minutes. The hospital was very busy this morning.
Before long we were on the fourth floor where Huan took a photo of my bald patch again. I hid it, can you tell?
Walking back home Huan spotted a boot full of birds, it wasn’t a coupe full of chickens though, just an ordinary saloon. They were being delivered to various places but were not trying to escape at all. Huan asked the owner why this was and he told her that they were travel sick.
After dinner we had to return to the hospital to collect the results. One thing about paying for things is that they belong to you and don’t get kept by your doctors. Getting in was much easier this evening, here I am trying to get the printout of my results. If you look closely at the top photo you may notice something in red. That says that the machine is out of paper. You can see in the middle photo that on another machine the screen looks remarkably different. The bottom photo is me perusing the results.
The next four photos I will take the blame for, 100%. I fell in love, it was yellow too!
“What about your PSA results?” I hear you ask. Well the tPSA and
fPSA are both well within the limits of what they should be. There is a small
problem, more of a niggle really, I have no idea what my TSTII levels are. That
is the level of testosterone which it seems is what feeds the cancer if there
is any. This blood test can not be done in Wuzhishan. I guess we will have to
pay a visit to the hospital in
December 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 “Spirituality”. The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises. (Leo Buscaglia) Bob’s PS – Plant seeds in your gardens, in your towns, in your cities, in your villages, watch nature in action. Plant seeds of knowledge and wisdom in your children, share what you know with your friends and colleagues, watch them all learn and grow. Smile at everyone you meet every day. You will be surprised at how good you will feel!
I was rudely awakened from my slumbers this morning by the C-in-C requesting that I get up, switch on the computer and the printer, then scan and print various documents. These were for her and a downstairs neighbour. Why so early? Well, Huan had received a call yesterday evening inviting her to go dancing for another five days, with an allowance paid for each day. There was no chance of her saying no!
Once I was fully awake and coffee was surging through my pipes, I decided that it was time to do the Christmas stuff. We actually haven’t had a tree up since 2018 for one reason or another.
Of course the family got garlanded too, and the front door got its usual wreath.
There was a break when the boss came home for lunch with a pile more admin for me. This was the time the printer decided to play up, we probably don’t use it enough anymore. Eventually all was done and back she went for her afternoon session. After dinner we had to go and take another test. We’re not due until tomorrow morning but that doesn’t fit with Huan’s schedule. If we waited until tomorrow afternoon we would move from green on our phones to amber, not such a good idea. Because we went out late we had to go to the hospital, the queues were long.
This was obviously a popular place and time for test takers, not only were the queues long, there were also stalls with fruit for the adults and balloons for the children.
December 2nd Ship’s log, star date 20221202, Commander was busy all day, slave was idle all day. Both walked after dinner. End of log entry!
December 3rd Market day came round again but without the boss, she was out at her dance class. It’s a good job I like my own company, well most of the time anyway. My first job, under orders, was to buy chicken for today’s and tomorrow’s dinner, I got the last one!
Onwards to the river to show you some bits of string. How many of you believed me? It is dried yam, at least that is what the stall holder told us yesterday. Huan tells me that it can be used as noodles and also with stews.
Now, can you guess what these two groups of people are doing? I once lost Huan in such a group for nearly an hour. They are of course all hoping to get something for nothing while the Chinese version of “Alfie Moon”, with the same gift of the gab, relieves them of their money!
Why am I showing you this next photo? Is it for all the knick knacks? Not really. Many moons ago we showed you some birds in the top right hand corner of this stall. Last night Huan asked the owner where they were and he told us they had ‘run way’!
The market was fairly busy today.
And this one is just to show you how the outdoor false teeth dentists advertise their services. If I thought they could give me teeth like that I might even consider it!
Just to show that
I was on my way to the supermarket in that photo to buy the last couple of items for dinner. While I was there SWMBO called, she was home waiting for me to come and let her in. I didn’t laugh, honestly! Well, she would be early on the one day I was out later.
Speaking of the good lady, in her guise of the CMO she dragged me out again after dinner for yet another test. This is getting quite boring but it’s necessary to enter government buildings and that’s where her dance classes are. Today we reached the Heinz Varieties number, 57.
December 4th Huan had her penultimate day of dance classes today and I was a lazy slob! Well that’s not quite true; I took an admin day and did all the scanning, filing and desk cleaning. Here are the before and after photos to prove it.
December 5th The superglue monster was on the prowl again last night, it kept me stuck to the mattress until nearly half past ten this morning! I was enjoying my dreams though.
Obviously
there was no morning walk but since I stayed in all day yesterday I knew that I
definitely needed to get out of the house today. I chose to go the
And we will follow that with a family having lunch while Mum kept a careful eye on me.
More families were visible on xiǎo dǎo and they seemed to be both coming and going. The poor wee beasties were not sure which way I was going, I didn’t tease them for too long.
Passing over the sluice gate bridge I found a gent blasting the gates back to bare metal. It seemed like a good idea to take all of his colour away too.
Going through the ‘no house book’ area I spotted something that I am not sure if we showed you before. I’m sure you know what it should say.
Just before I turned up the road to the park route I spotted these ducklings. Initially when I pointed my camera over the fence they all ran way but patience paid out. When I didn’t move for a while they alll came back.
Here’s the worst hill, at this time of the day, there is hardly any shade at all. Mind you, it doesn’t last too long and as I was alone I was walking a little faster than usual. You can see from the second photo that shade reappears further up.
Some time in the past we showed you this little cave, it may or may not have been man made. There was a stream inside coming through the mountain; neither of us went very far in. Nature has taken it back since that time and just to be doubly sure we don’t try and go in again, someone has put a barred gate and warning notice there too.
Not long after that I reached the turning point where we don’t exactly start going down but we do start heading back towards town. You can see all the views from the bridge here. As we usually do, I crossed it and then turned right.
Another sign for you to peruse, but this time it is wholly in Chinese. I’m not really sure if anyone would really try swimming here though. The sign says 水深危险 (deep water danger), 严禁游泳 (Swimming is strictly prohibited), 严禁在此嬉戏玩水 (It is strictly forbidden to play in the water here), 违者后果自负 (Offenders will bear the consequences).
You may remember that on this walk we often see the same dog. Well, the only noise I heard this afternoon was a crazy fellow talking to himself and other animals, you can probably guess who that was. Calling for the dog I saw it up in the trees near the farm buildings but it wouldn’t come down. I climbed up there but either I have been forgotten or it’s not the same pooch.
Interestingly, all the chickens came to see me instead.
Let’s have another signpost shall we? I could actually read some of this one, but not enough. As usual Huan had to help me. 运动多 (more exercise), 健康多 (much healthier), 油脂少 (less fat) 疾病少 (fewer diseases). You can’t argue with that!
I think we’ll leave it at that
today. Once home I soaked in the bath for a while until Huan returned for
dinner. Oh, I almost forgot, Huan sent me the final photos from this class,
along with four videos. Here she is, in the middle.
After dinner, I made sure I had an apple just to add to the keeping fit hints I just showed you! Of course I would much rather have had an iced coffee and a cigarette after dinner! That could lead to an early death though, not from the smoking but from the CMO! On that happy note we’ll wish you a fond goodbye and see you next time!
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