Christmas Time

December 19^th I’m definitely on the up, Huan is still struggling a bit. No walks today, I did the cooking, we stayed in and relaxed. Mostly I was just providing moral support. On the plus side I finished binge watching Edward Woodward’s Equaliser and started watching Queen Latifah’s.

December 20^th Her Majesty was still under the weather today but I did manage a solo walk after lunch. Fresh air was sorely needed! As we’ve had no photos yet I thought you needed to see something this week. Here’s an unusual view of the front of the library.

Down by the riverside the road works on the market side appear to be progressing very well, it may not be too long before things are back to normal. Something is different though, check the roofs on the stores, all the fronts have been cut off. Will they put them back on when all the work is finished? Huan thinks not but they haven’t actually disposed of the removed parts yet.

Making up the numbers I found another of those tourist posters for you.

Finding a way through the fences I went right down to the riverside, not much to see though.

No lizards or wild birds were anywhere to be seen, but I did stop and have a chat with the snowbirds that hang around outside the hotel, the lovebirds and their pals.

My last one of the day was searching for a squirrel, not my idea, just a seed planted by SWMBO. I failed, but showed her the proof of my search anyway.

Huan was on the mend when I got home. All that remained for me was to retreat to the kitchen and play duty chef again. Today’s dish was chicken noodle soup made with drumsticks, lots of vegetables, and the obligatory garlic. No complaints from either of us!

December 21^st We might both be on the up and up but the weather is on the down and down! The temperature has plummeted; at least to our tender tropical butts it feels like it has. 12⁰C is not very warm at all and for our afternoon walk today both of us had long trousers and coats on. Unfortunately photo opps were even rarer than yesterday. All I got was this 向前一小步, 文明一大步 (Xiàng qián yī xiǎo bù wénmíng yī dà bù) the translation of which was nice and obvious - take a small step forward, a big step forward for civilization

December 22^nd Today we are even colder, down to 10⁰C, not too cold for most of you, we know that. However, being here for over eight years now, and away from the cold of the North, we feel it! Still, exercise and fresh air was needed.

We, or should I say the boss, was looking for lizards, none were forthcoming. Do they hibernate? We did find birds and cows though.

Fame stuck for me, fleetingly of course. We happened to be walking past the school as the pupils were going back after their afternoon siesta. I was interrogated as to which country I was from, needless to say they didn’t believe I was a local. Not many of them could practice their English, which is a shame really. Some understood more than they let on but were too shy to speak.

December 23^rd Shopping for the makings of a stew again, it’s not really salad dinner weather yet. On the way home we spotted a little bit of Christmas.

Struggling to find subjects we found this, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamoroll. Where would you be without us to give you some culture?

The last one of the day was to try and give you an idea about the weather. To us the tops of the mountains just appeared to ooze cold.

Our stew went down well, only to be expected as I was ‘Le Chef’!

December 24^th More shopping today, this time for Christmas dinner. Huan decided that as she was still unable to find lizards I should take a photo of a snail. Normally that would be a definite ‘no’; I guess she gets bored easier than I do.

On our way towards town we spotted something going on around the town square. I should say something had been going on, it was all over when we got there.

So what was it? It was the “Wuzhishan Rainforest Paradise Cycling Challenge”, with some big name sponsors too. Yet again we missed something because it wasn’t advertised!

One of the camera people, with a security pass, was busy taking as many photos of me as he could so I decided I should reciprocate. Mind you, his was bigger than mine!

Huan decided that she had to go to one of her banks to put some money in for Pinduoduo, that meant I had to give her an early Christmas present!

A car with decals was our next photo, I rather liked the wolf. 半生已过, Bànshēng yǐguò - Half life passed, 学会沉默, xuéhuì chénmò - Learn to be silent, 凡事讨好自己 至于别人, Fánshì tǎohǎo zìjǐ zhìyú biérén - Please do everything to please yourself and others, 分心情看交情, Fēn xīnqíng kàn jiāoqing - Divide mood into friendship, 加油, jiāyóu – Come on!

The happy lady was then at it again, another bank this time but making a withdrawal and not a deposit. Surprisingly enough she is still smiling!

December 25^th Christmas arrived, strange how it always comes the same time every year! Where we are though you could quite easily miss it completely; there is no such thing as the spirit of Christmas here. I do quite miss it. Would you believe we had duck again, I think that’s the third time this week! Still, we didn’t have to cook this one, we put all the vegetables in the oven and then added the pre-cooked duck before finishing it all off.

Huan, bless her little cotton socks, bought me a Christmas jumper this year. I’m not quite sure when she expects me to wear it! It is also just a little on the small side so we both ended up trying it on. She looks better than me, don’t you agree?

I’ll finish off with the message I put on my Facebook page today “Christmas is a celebration, a time for giving and not simply a day we exchange gifts. The spirit of Christmas is in the 'togetherness', it's in the thought to which you put into thinking about others, it's a selfless time, where we forgive, take stock of what's important and become 'better' versions of ourselves.” I truly believe this and I miss the ‘feeling’ more than anything else at this time of the year. Of course, I do miss all my family and friends too, that goes without saying. Huan and I wish you all a very wonderful Christmas.

Christmas Is Still Coming

December 12^th Our day today was a last minute Chinese planned day. In other words Yú phoned Huan last night and invited us to lunch today. It was to be a celebration of the ladies passing their driving tests and a little thank you for me driving Yú’s car to Sanya. For some reason we forgot to take photos of the people so we only have the table with the food. It was scrumptious!

Smack in front of me you can see the top of a beer bottle and above it a bottle of Baijiu. Needless to say I had too much of both. Usually I can drink at least as well as our neighbours; often much better but today I didn’t find it easy at all. Could it be my medication or is it the fact that I haven’t been allowed out for a long time!

Nearly everyone else had a drive home, we took a walk. Going over the bridge we spotted some birds, you may find it very difficult to see them. We only had phones today.

Huan did find more birds though and ‘ordered me’ to try and pick one up. Who am I to disagree?

Success with one, it willingly hopped onto my finger.

The rest of our stroll home is bit of a haze for me. I remember Huan waking me up around six in the evening but I don’t actually remember going to bed. This is serious; I definitely need a lot more practice on the jungle juice!

December 13th If SWMBO had suggested this morning that we stayed in I would not have argued at all, not even a little bit. Unfortunately, or maybe it was fortunately, she insisted we go out. I managed to talk her into going round the river looking for lizards. My legs felt as if I had done a half marathon yesterday, no idea why, but the walk was a necessary evil. At least the scenery was good enough to cheer me up a little.

We had the camera with us today so our photos were at least a little better than yesterday. I didn’t find any lounging, or leaping lizards, Huan found them all.

I did find this though; it was very small, very difficult to see in the EVF as well. Getting home and enlarging it, not very well, we think it is a baby, with no legs as yet. If you know better please feel free to comment under this post.

‘Eagle Eyes’ was very good and found these two as well.

Being very remiss today and not finding much at all I decided that a Hainan tourism poster would do instead. It does have a lizard, a monkey, a snake, birds and a coconut. We can’t see a frog anywhere though, can you?

Trying to get a few extra metres here and there I went up, to backtrack on myself, Huan went down. Neither of our photos are very good but you get the idea.

I also had a prowl around under the bridge; I could here Huan plaintively somewhere above me, “Where are you? What are you doing?” I answered taking some different photos, very quietly!

The last one of the day is one of my favourites.

After another nap I was on kitchen duty again, plain and simple food for a change. Fried fillet of pork with boiled potatoes and baked beans with onions, garlic and mushrooms inside. I suspect that the boss enjoyed it much more than I did. After dinner I brought the Blog up to date, made a cup of tea with honey and whisky and then had a very early night.

December 14^th I spent most of the night leaking from what seemed to be every pore in my body. In fact I went back to bed again this morning for some more rest. No sooner had I begun to feel a little better Huan started on her downward spiral. After lunch Huan went off to bed and I went off to Baijiahui, she needed sleep and I needed salt and cola. I know; I’m weird. When I feel down and start on the way back up crisps always seem to help and so does coca-cola. I did manage just a few photos with my trusty little phone. It would appear that three in the afternoon is a good time to go shopping, no crowds at all.

In the supermarket everything was so easy, even at the cash desk there was no one in front of me. I wonder if we should change our shopping time on Mondays. On the way out I spotted something just a little strange, if you Google the car model you will not find it. Did someone put the extra ‘T’ in there on purpose and if so, why?

Here’s my medicine all ready for me when I got home. And here’s my teddy bear having a nice little snooze.

Today’s walk was a short one. When I first went out the sun felt good on my body, but as time went by and the sun slowly cooled so did I. Four kilometres was more than enough. As soon as I had taken my third dose of cough medicine I was in bed with the teddy.

December 15^th Two rather worn out teddy bears in the house today, neither in the mood for going out. Huan started eating today, I didn’t. My body still said more sleep, more water and more salt and perhaps a little cola. I think we both slept a little better last night.

December 16^th We’re on the up again, not at the peak yet but both feeling much better than yesterday. Walking today was very important; the weekend lottery tickets were needed. Also Huan wanted to buy some pork on the bone to make a stew for this evening’s dinner. Did I enjoy the walk? The fresh air was nice, the crowds in the market not so. Photos were rare, work has begun on the river again, I guess until the rainy season restarts in Spring.

Of course, even in her below par state of health Huan still managed to find lizards. Even more surprising two of the photos turned out well enough to share.

Our usual nap was mandatory today, we both feel very weak, batteries running low! I had a bath when we woke up, doing something I haven’t done for years, using washing up liquid as the bubble bath. It works but it’s still time to buy some more of the real stuff.

Huan’s stew went down very well indeed, we just had a small bowl each for today, nice and hot, a little salty, a little gingery, really just what we needed. Almost immediately we could feel the beneficial effects, roll on tomorrow for the second course.

December 17^th Whatever bug struck us down it is not being very nice to us. Both of us are still feeling much less than 100%, probably way down in the 20s somewhere. We did get some sun on our backs in the afternoon with a short(ish) walk and Huan was happy she did find a lizard or two. She ordered me to snap and then snapped herself.

No cooking needed, more stew and an early night again.

December 18^th Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Perhaps there is, I seem to be marginally better today, Huan has started with the sniffles. Learning form earlier in the week we delayed our shopping until the afternoon, it worked well. On the way into Baijiahui we spotted these adverts, for an international film festival. I do know that such a festival is happening in Sanya this month but here? We don’t even have a cinema.

That was it really; I did get my finger pecked by this little bird, maybe I was too keen for him to perch on it. He didn’t draw blood but it did hurt!

So home we went, stew again for me, fish for Huan, and yes, you guessed it, another early night. Despite feeling quite knocked out by whatever bug attacked us I still never cease to marvel at how the human body is able to fight back even without additional medication. Good night all, wish us luck for the coming week.