March 14th Why is it that when we have to get up early, and we set the alarm to do that, we spend half the night lying awake waiting for the alarm to go off? We can’t be alone, can we? At least we had no problems getting the car out this morning and we were on the road just after five.
Huan had worked her magic and she had booked me in and paid the consultancy fee using her phone. My appointment was ‘around’ 09:15. Standing outside the doctor’s surgery this is the electronic information board. I was #18, waiting for #17to finish. Funnily enough, #17 seemed to include two families totalling six people and there was the other odd one in and out too. Not to worry, I wasn’t too late getting in.
Dr. Zhang was not as talkative as usual, probably since he was so busy today. He did tell me that depending on the results, an annual test should be fine from now on. He also laughed and said the strange feeling in my nipples was caused by the female hormone injections, despite them being finished over a year ago. I suppose that must be why nothing else works either! Men, get your PSA levels checked!
Here I am a few minutes later checking the amount to be paid for my blood tests, 2 x PSA and 1 x TST, and making sure my wallet was fat enough. Actually, the prices are very cheap here, it cost me around twenty pounds for all the tests.
As usual, Huan went overboard with snaps, here I am with the bit I still don’t like, even though the needle is miniscule compared to the ‘old days’.
The results will not be ready until tomorrow afternoon. From the hospital we visited the bank, time to change some more sterling to renminbi. The Bank of China has intelligent ATMs that will do almost anything for you. It showed that my OAP payments are up to date, hopefully that will remain the case now that my proof of life has been delivered. However, trying to change money we ran into the usual brick wall, “please present your ID as proof”, in my case passport and latest visa. Quite a long while later, we tried again, and failed again. The human teller had removed my old visa but had not entered details of my new one. Eventually it was all sorted out, and we went back to the machine and got the exchange done. Sometimes I wonder just how many problems international business people face, or is it just us retired oldies.
After lunch, small Chinese one for Huan and a can of beer for me, we went back to the hotel for a nap. I do love their mattresses! Once awake we headed off on a long walk to find the latest food street addition, I thought I knew where it would be. On the way, we found birds.
Huan managed to find a couple of lizards; perhaps you’ll be able to see one of them.
Watching the boats Huan thought that the boat owners must have a good life, and an easy one, living on board. It may well be a good life, but it won’t be easy and probably not cheap either.
We found the food street, not quite where I thought it was but near enough for me not to have to explain we were lost again. I liked the sign on the little bar.
We started off with some filled flat bread.
We followed that with some kind of large shrimp dumpling, with seaweed.
Huan then decided she needed noodles, and took a thousand pictures as proof. I have slimmed the quantity down considerably!
My turn next and I chose some little shrimp thingies with vegetables.
Just before we finished I had Huan take a shot of me, for posterity.
Just in case you don’t know,
We didn’t eat at this next stall but the sign flummoxed me. It turns out to be traditional Chinese, not simplified, and it translates as “Soul burning bird”, not quite the same as “research institute”.
One thing we forgot to photograph was our dessert, we both decided to have ice creams, chocolate for me and mango for the boss. Our lazy route home took us back up Renmin Dadao where we passed this particular hot pot restaurant.
It’s always busy, but that was not what caught our eye tonight. It was the queue of customers sat outside waiting for the chance to get in. This shot shows just a few of them.
For a hospital day we did a lot of walking today, probably around thirteen kilometres worth. There will be more tomorrow morning no doubt.
Huan had suggested that she wouldn’t mind staying an extra day if I wanted to, something I normally quite like doing. After spending the evening listening to various tunes sung in the sol-fa scale, homework you understand, I think we may well go back tomorrow evening!
March 15th I had second thoughts and decided we should stay the extra night, it meant today would be far more relaxing. Breakfast was taken at a roadside stall, 豆腐脑 (Tofubrain) for Huan & Pork Bread for both of us.
After eating we did what we usually do if we have an extra day here
and walked around
What can you see here? Are you up to our level of pareidolia yet? For us it is a long nosed creature coming up from the ground, with small eyes in front of big ears and above a small mouth. It also has a nostril near the end of its nose. What do you see?
Huan wanted me to take this one, it looks like a petrified forest although some of the ‘trees’ do have leaves growing out of them.
Next is a magical set of stepping stones.
And here is the wonderland that lies beyond.
In the funfair we spotted a lot of pigeons, not flying anywhere, Huan thought that their wings may have been cropped. I couldn’t see them well enough. The poster, which I forgot to take a photo of, shows children feeding the birds.
These are the various characters that ‘help’ the children.
For a change we popped into the VR room, I didn’t see a great deal of VR but they did have a lot of plastic weapons and some genuine old stuff.
Outside, Huan thought I should assist the pirate.
Note how I get a swarthy looking sailor man while she gets a handsome prince!
In this collage you can see more of the lakes.
Today, our park visit was a lot noisier than any previous visits, with snowbirds all over the place, either dancing, practicing (loud) yoga, playing any of a variety of instruments, singing, using spinning tops or cracking whips. We tried going along paths that are rarely used only to find that badminton courts had sprung up since our last visit.
The other end of the park stops at the beach, notice the absence of people in the sea. That tells me that there are no Europeans on the beach today.
Historically the beaches would have looked more like the painting on this boulder shows.
Going back through the park it was time for orange juice, Huan likes to watch them prepare it.
She also seems to like snapping me taking my money out!
And here she is, at last enjoying the fruits (see what I did there) of my labour and wallet.
What’s a visit to
Our visit to the park over we headed off to our lunch destination, somewhere we had managed to find yesterday. On the way we found a Harley shop. I think they may have thought they had a sale until I explained that due to my age I am not allowed such a large bike. Speaking of the size, the little lady in the picture owns one of the two middle bikes.
This would be allowed by the powers that be, just not allowed by my wallet, a Maserati SUV.
This was our lunch destination, a coffee shop owned by Cristal (not sure if that is with an i or a y). You may know her and her family, she is married to Dr. Tim and they have three wonderful children. We had found this yesterday but had already eaten then.
Today Huan had a ham and cheese sandwich and I had a bacon and egg bagel. I also learned that bagels always have a hole in the middle!
Prices are good, all tastes catered for; if you’re in
We both needed a nap after lunch! Naptime over it was off to the hospital to collect my results. For some reason the machine refused to divulge them but the nurse on duty provided them instead. I think all is well, I will check when we get back home.
While we had been in Sweet Aroma for lunch we had bumped into a lady we know from The Grocery, we have often met her there with her little pooches. Today she told us that Corner’s Deli has opened a branch on Haidian Dao, good news for us, it makes our shopping easier. Our evening plan was thus to find Corner’s Deli and then return to the hotel via The Porch Café for dinner. It was another long walk but we found it. We also found boats!
And this is the location,
Walking round we spotted yet another boat, a fishing one this time. Sometimes I feel that I should have been a sailor and not a soldier, the sea holds a certain magnetism for me.
The whole of
The area is still not completed but it is well on the way, fountains already work.
Today we even managed to get a sunset in, although I can’t tell you
which part of
Oh no! Sorry Porch, we found our dinner at HCC. You may know from our posts that we not big fast food fans but we do sometimes make exceptions. Today was one of those times. Partly it was the lateness of the hour, we were both ready to eat, and partly it was this.
As far as fast foods go, for me anyway, Burger King beats KFC and MacDonald’s hands down. Today we both chose from the “King’s Collection”, the smaller of each version, minus the free cola, finishing them was still difficult.
I think we needed the walk home (nearly eight kilometres), to aid our digestion. That gave us a total today of nineteen kilometres, which, with the thirteen from yesterday, means we can definitely have a rest when we get back home tomorrow.
March 16th Today was the end of our ‘holiday’, shopping and a return to Wuzhishan was all we had planned. Breakfast was back to normal Chinese, fried noodles. Huan would usually have soup noodles but the restaurant refused to make fried noodles for only one person!
Corner’s Deli turned out to be a nightmare, not the shop, but
getting in and out of the car park. Half the lifts were not working and at one
stage, half way down some stairs, we were told that they were locked at the
bottom! They had their soft opening on 10th March; the grand opening
will be on 18th. Hopefully the teething troubles will have been
sorted out by then. As for shopping, well we bought too much but then again it
will be a while before we have to return to
No photographs from lunch on the highway, we both forgot! However, there is this one from our unplanned stop. I was getting a little sleepy so Huan made me stop for a coffee.
Having missed our lunch photo we thought we should at least give you one more for today so, here is our dinner snap. As you can see we visited the buffet style restaurant, back to being poor again! I’m sure you don’t need telling which one belongs to each of us.
March 17th Life has returned to normal, classes for the hulusi team have resumed, I am back on intermittent escort duties. Today I walked Huan and her friend to Yefeng where I planned to take a photo of them both together. A third member hopped into the frame before the first snap, a fourth member before the next and then before long all eight of them wanted to be in the frame. I tried hopping on one leg to make them all smile; they took the cue as an instruction to do the same, stand on one leg! Still, the smiles are there.
My route today was along the riverside, the first thing I noticed were the snowbirds.
Spotting a little insect struggling on the wall, I stopped to have a look and almost picked it up. Only when I looked through the camera did I see that it was a small honey bee.
Just before these next two pictures were taken the snowbirds were turning off this path and going up to the road. There was a sign saying work in progress but seeing that there was still somewhere to walk in the middle, I ignored it.
I had a chat with the workmen above and asked them what the pipe was for; they replied “自来水” (Zìláishuǐ) which translates as tap water so it’s basically a water main. That also explains the various valves I saw further down river.
As I neared home I spotted yet another electric car. I use that term loosely as it only has three wheels and is steered with handlebars rather than a steering wheel. Of course, if I were that way inclined, the powers that be would allow me to drive this one.
Just for a change, and so that Huan doesn’t have to cook at all this week, we went out for dinner again this evening. The fare was dumplings although Huan did have a bowl of rice soup too. Both of us forgot all about food photography! Afterwards we had a trip to the market to buy the weekend’s meat; I will be doing the usual potato salad, with pork this week. Near the market we found a vehicle that I may or may not be allowed to drive. I know that I am limited to 50cc on two wheels but I’m fairly sure I am allowed to drive a tricycle. Does this count as such?
March 18th Back to normal for sure and a walk through the riverside market this morning. Luckily we didn’t need to stop and buy anything. It was jam packed with not only a lot more shoppers but also a lot more traders.
We did stop for one photo though, in fact the subject was moving so it was a video which we than took a screen shot from to share with you. Psssst! Wanna buy some medicine?
We didn’t go back through the market; instead we extended our walk along the riverside where Huan desperately wanted to find lizards. I had walked in the reverse direction yesterday, and with all the work going on I found nothing at all. Huan, of course, was lucky today!
Not to be outdone, when we got back onto the main road, I found a spider.
March 19th Sunday, the day of rest, well at least this morning was for me. Huan was very busy sewing all morning. She had bought some tops online, for dancing; she ordered two but for some reason got three. She spent all morning increasing the size of one by butchering another. She doesn’t have to send any back because it would cost her more than the top cost.
Anyway, she decided we should walk towards Changhao after lunch, I decided to agree but with a caveat. We would go my way.
Of course I had forgotten the obstacle course!
We succeeded in getting through the maze and over the fences, without Huan being able to take any photos at all. It was worth it just for this view.
And this one a little further down river.
Huan managed to find a frog but the photo I took of it wasn’t so good at all. All I found was a lot of little piggies who were not on the way to market. They were parked just outside the place where they would cease to be, the slaughterhouse. It didn’t make me feel good.
Staying on our side of the river we couldn’t go too far but we could turn left and head towards Changhao via the highway underpasses. First we would have to pass through this little farm, wouldn’t you like to have this as the driveway to your house?
Huan had some idea of my plans but she wasn’t sure until we reached the highway. When I told her we were turning right instead of left she remembered.
Silly me, when we got to the end of this small path I remembered that we couldn’t get out this way so our steps had to be retraced. Once on the main road it was too late to head for Changhao so we headed home via the highway turn off clock and some nice rocks.
More disappointment awaited us, another of our detours has ceased to be, there is now a gate blocking our route. Once again we had to go backwards to the main road. Construction is almost completed now, street lamps have been installed and trees have been planted.
Our final detour, through the future vehicle testing site, is still passable.
We walked only eight and a half kilometres today but since we both felt so worn out, we decided that we had done enough!
March 20th NTR We decided that enough walking had been done this week, and that more than enough photos had been taken. Consequently, today was just shopping and idling! Will normal service ever be resumed, tune in next week to find out. PS Remember you can click to enlarge!
No comments:
Post a Comment