Hmmm, strike through only works in the text, not in the title. "Long distance" should read "Long Distance". Never mind eh?
April 11th I had a plan! I knew Huan would want to stay in and study, so I was going to go long walkabout. My plan was doomed. First it was a visit from Yú who wanted to confer with Huan about some of the Highway Code and also wanted me to access her iPad. Seeing as how her iPad is in Chinese and neither Huan not Yú could tell me how to change it we were all stymied.
Yú left and I went off to the bedroom to get ready for my travels. I came out of the bedroom to find we had more visitors, this time it was Zōushūxián and one of her friends. Mistakenly thinking I could help they had come to me to ask how the ‘friend’ could go about getting a visa for her fiancé to come and join her. She is Huan’s age and her fiancé is just a little younger than me. Of course I was of no use whatsoever!
Eventually I escaped and set off around the river only, crossing our little island on the way. You wouldn’t think there was a river here would you?
Walking up river on the other side you can see another view of what I showed you last week. From this side it looks as though they are building a wall to keep the water back, let’s hope it looks a little prettier than it does presently.
Last time Huan and I walked the riverside route together she pondered on why we hadn’t seen the dry insect husks on the trees for a while. I found one today only it wasn’t dry, it was still plump and juicy with someone living inside. That sent me to Google when we got home and it seems they are cicadas. It would be so nice if we could catch one leaving its apartment!
On my way home I bought a baguette, to go with tonight’s dinner delight.
Unbeknownst to me, Huan had already eaten lunch; Yú had brought dumplings with her this morning. Memo to self, next time call Huan before going into the bakery. Dinner instead was accompanied by corn bread which needed to be eaten and the baguette was bent in half and stuffed in the freezer. This was dinner, with some minor modifications as always. Instead of kale I just used another dark leafy green, and as usual we used Chinese sweet sausages. I made a mistake and added the bacon bits before the cream instead of scattering them over the top for serving. It made no difference to the Chief taster; to my surprise she loved it. She is not normally a fan of dairy in her dinner. If you decide to make it, I suggest you modify the amounts; we have put a full bowl in the freezer for future use.
April 12th Today we had an appointment, or rather Donald did. He was well overdue a service, in fact almost a year overdue, and he needed a new knob. We took a photo of the old one covered with a plastic bag to stop the bits falling off falling into the gearbox area. Bits were falling off due to sun damage I think; luckily the dashboard has not been affected.
Leaving Donald in the capable hands of Dongfeng, we headed out for a walk.
A big cat was spotted in the wild. Unfortunately, the boss won’t let me have one of these either!
After lunch, which we forgot to photograph for you, we had a call to tell us that Donald was ready to be collected. The full service had not gone quite as I had wanted it to, but that comes down to the Minister of Finance’s translation more than anything. It was cheaper than I had expected and apart from the gear knob and lubricants nothing else had been replaced. He did tell us that we would probably need new brakes in the not too distant future. We may well have them done in Wuzhishan. Dongfeng seems to be going downhill in Sanya, their workshop is now at the back of a new Electric Car showroom and they themselves no longer sell cars down there. So, what does the new knob look like? The answer is, nothing like the old one! In fact it looks like a piece taken from a completely different car, even the colour doesn’t match.
Back to Wuzhishan we went where we both struggled to keep our eyes open until dinner time. That was another episode of dining out, another where we forgot to take any photos for you. Huan said I should show you the chief mouser instead.
April 13th Last night the pest attacked me at bedtime and insisted I go out on the balcony and take photos of men, working on the road. They were doing the yellow lines. I of course agreed, willingly, with much mumbling and grumbling under my breath!
Today we had skies full of
foreboding, would it or wouldn’t it, Huan was staying in to study, I decided
not to risk it. Of course it didn’t, that meant I had to go out after lunch, I
needed the exercise. The plan was to go down
This one, a ‘Tank’, had bears on the doors. I don’t know if Tik-Tok has these bears but they are always on Douyin, (Tik-Tok’s parent), and they are invariably naughty. It seems these two are reasonably well behaved though. The passenger side merely says 不约 bù yuē - No date! The driver’s side is a bit more complex, 嘿! 起床了去越野了Hēi! Qǐchuángle qù yuèyěle - Hey! Wake up! We're going off roading.
On I went, past the old army barracks. This used to be a natural pathway with overarching trees. In time, it will return to a very similar experience. Whenever nature is disturbed here, the powers that be, more often than not, try to replace what has been removed. Check out the right hand side of the photos, you will notice trees already sprouting leaves.
Passing the end of the army wall I turned off the road and headed towards the river.
As I got nearer I spotted a short-cut for today. I had intended to cross the river at the next bridge and walk back on the road the other side. Roads are not Huan’s cup of tea so sometimes, if I am alone, I will wander along them, for a change.
For the moment I had to continue on the path until I could find a way down.
X marks the spot, well, maybe not X but a set of steps. You can see the bridge I was aiming for in the distance so the temporary one saves a fair few footsteps.
Here is the view of walking back the other way, a few metres lower, and two views from the temporary crossing, one up river and one down river.
You can see that the road I would be walking home on does not have much shade. It will have in the future, but we need to wait a few years.
In the dim and distant past, before the road was built, Huan and I would have walked along the riverside path. That has temporarily disappeared!
To help you with location this next photo shows where we often walk when the Minister of Agriculture wants to find lizards. Look between the two lamp posts in the centre; that is where we would appear from the main road. Between where I was today and the pathway opposite, down in the river on the grassy bits, is where we often show you cows.
Nearing the last bend into town I dropped down off the road onto another path that Huan and I used to walk, when we were younger(!).
More photos of riverside construction were taken but I don’t think you need to see them. When things are more advanced and we have a better idea of what they are doing, we’ll try again. For today, much to Huan’s disappointment, I didn’t find lizards but I did find squirrels. There were two but one was too near the trunk and too quick. The tree is also just a little bit far away, although it looks in the second photo as if the little beastie had spotted me too.
April 14th Music lessons for Huan and usually Taskmaster for me. Huan’s classmate is ill so Huan asked if I wanted to walk her to school. Of course I did! We got there just before the staff started the morning exercises for the old folks who live there.
The pool looked very inviting, although the weather is still a bit cool. Generally, Chinese folks are not over keen on pools. Children are, but no children live in this complex. Nearly all the pools around Wuzhishan are either not maintained or, like this one, maintained but not used enough. Why don’t they sell memberships, at a reasonable price?
Even in the apartment complex if you find the right place you can fool yourself into thinking that you are nowhere near a city.
As I often forget where we have walked and have to revert to searching either through Blog posts or through hundreds of photos, I decided there was an easier way. After each walk, take a screenshot of the map. For most of you it won’t mean a great deal but to the Chinese subscribers and to #1 son it will give them a clearer picture. In this case I walked Huan up to her school, at the bottom of the map, and then headed home via the river before turning up through the market to buy the weekend’s vegetables. Don’t worry; I won’t share these every time!
Huan came home with an extra photo. I wonder if they practice very much…
After dinner, a repeat of Tuesday’s from the freezer, we had to do another shopping trip. Huan fancies crispy pork belly with the salad this weekend and we can only buy that in the market in the evenings. I’m not complaining, as long as we can get it. It’s one of those foods where if I had to have it every weekend it would be quite some time before I got bored with it!
April 15th Last night she did it again! There I was, computer switched off, doing my rounds as the security patrol, checking lights and doors etc, when I got the call to present myself in the bathroom with the camera. What had she done again? She had found another lizard of course.
This morning being a Saturday was a market walk day, with the added benefit of not having to buy anything. All we needed for dinner was already in the house. Mind you, I had forgotten that taking Huan through any market when she has her purse with her leads to the insatiable desire to but something! Today it was Xinjiang bread for lunch.
Looking for things to take pictures of she did find someone’s lunch.
I think these are locusts and we more than likely ate some while we were in
From the market we took a walk on the other side of the river, for a change. Spot the decorations still in the trees since Chinese New Year.
We did have an ulterior motive for going this way and that was to check out a science exhibition. We had seen it two weeks ago but had not had enough time then. Here I am using the power of wind to light the blue LEDs. Ideally, there should have been someone the other side trying to do the same but lighting up the red LEDs.
And in this one, if you look carefully you can see bats on the table. When you touch any of the objects on the table you trigger dark shadows moving away from, or around the object concerned. The bats are moving away from the ashtray and I am pointing out to Huan that the same ‘touch’ triggered coffins inside the ashtray!
In this one, my face is being scanned to create an AI image that can then be superimposed on a famous Chinese character. The end result was horrendous and Huan did not get a shot.
And here’s the good lady herself learning all about the power of pulleys. She was surprised at how easy it was to lift herself up. I told her it was good that she practiced; we may need to install something like that on our balcony when the lift doesn’t work any more! Yes, we only have one lift. With a pulley system she could lift the shopping up, and me!
And here’s a ‘young’ man with the world in his hands!
Our last stop was in the ocean department.
This is a bemused me wondering how the oil rig animated itself and changed colours just because I touched it. I am also studiously observing the shadow of my hair!
Anything you touched on that board became coloured and mobile once you touched the drawing.
So, what was my verdict? It could have been better; a few of the exhibits were in need of repair. For myself, English would have helped; Huan can not always translate for me, especially when things get technical. It may also have been better with a younger age limit; some of the children were not reading any of the instructions, just pushing buttons and moving joysticks willy-nilly. Had there been English of course, then this post would have had dozens more photographs and pages! Also today, I was inhibited from taking so many photographs because there were a group of army personnel in attendance. I think they may have been new recruits and were being shown around, and being shown what types of technology they could be working with.
Let’s finish with some more mundane technology from our walk home. What is going on here? Huan thought that this was a great idea, tyre repair at the roadside. I am not so sure. If you look carefully, you can see that the logo on the car and the logo on the side of the van are the same. Many cars now come with no spare and with run flat tyres; this may be one of them. I guess it is progress but I am not sure I like the idea very much.
April 16th Well there went the morning plans, straight out of the window! Last night we had three power cuts, the last one coinciding with me changing something in Picasa. When the power came back I had virtually no thumbnails to see; and no pictures in the database. The problems of using free software and no longer having a UPS! Anyway, there is a way to rebuild the database without uninstalling the software so I left the computer doing that and went to bed.
This morning, the rebuild was complete, but with problems. To start with the names database needed a lot of help, and then all the folders needed their contents re-sorting. By the time it was all done it was also time to get into the kitchen and make the commander’s lunch.
Laziness set in after lunch, well sort of anyway. I follow a lady called Sabine Hossenfelder on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/sabine.hossenfelder and also on YouTube where she does “Science without the gobbledygook”, https://www.youtube.com/c/SabineHossenfelder. One of the people commenting on a FB post happened to mention that Sabine is also a songwriter and singer so I had to investigate further. There went the rest of my afternoon!
After dinner, the student, having exhausted all her writing implements and stolen mine, finishing that off too, decided we had to go shopping. Once refills were in her hand I sent her home while I walked happily in the rain. Only one photo for today and it is this sign. The spelling of ‘welcome’ is obviously just a simple mistake. As for the other English, well it appears to be almost the same as the Chinese according to both Huan and Google translate, 摆烂茶摊 Bǎi làn chá tān - bad tea stand. Individually the characters translate as “put rotten tea booth”. We have no idea what they are trying to say, if any Chinese friends can help, please do.
April 17th The student didn’t really want to go shopping today, she preferred to stay home studying. Consequently I went alone, with her money though, she insisted. Somehow the whole procedure seemed to be quicker than usual, I wonder why.
After lunch, to keep up my fitness, (laughs all round), and to make sure my heart gets at least some exercise, I went out again, alone again. These people are not alone are they but we can’t work out whether or not they are sleeping by the river.
Much to Huan’s disappointment, I found another squirrel.
You have seen the view towards the camera before, but never this one, towards the river.
I thought I would add another view, from the pavement, (sidewalk), again looking as though we are not really in a city at all.
And the last one for the day, I’m sure the passers by on the market steps had no idea what I was taking photographs of. It is a member of the Hemiptera family of insects, (the family commonly called true bugs); this one is a ‘yellow spotted stink bug’. I know, I can’t see any yellow either.
So, another week ends, a new one begins, the student is still busy in the living room. At least she is still eating and sleeping at normal times! I’ll let you know when she decided that her brain is full enough to go and attempt the test in the real world. Mind you, we have to wait so that both Huan and Yú are ready at the same time.
As for me, I’ll just keep right on rolling along, see you next time!
Shouldn't it be "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"?
ReplyDeletePoetic licence. 🐸😁😎
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