Lonely Walks and Sad Students.

July 18^th Another week begins, another alarm call rouses us from our slumbers, and my brain says “why me?” The answer is of course that I am doing it for the love of my life; who has no choice in the matter because Yú insists on going early in the morning when there are no people there. In this photo you will have to look very carefully to find Huan, she is watching the only car that’s active, all the rest are parked, awaiting other instructors and learners.

It had rained all night last night so I headed off along countryside paths thinking I might find a snake or maybe something else that crawled out of the damp undergrowth.

The third photo is where I braved a hop off the main pathway into the woods, only to be caught short by a motorbike under camouflage and a path that just ended. I did see a des res off in the distance, and then also managed to peep into the window of a des res I showed you before. I suppose the inside could be extensively remodelled.

I only had an hour today so I went to the end of the path through the Caoban fields just to take this photo looking back. I told the farmers it was beautiful, they of course see it every day and more than likely thought that I was a crazy foreigner.

No snakes were seen, slugs and snails were all I saw on my meanderings, the latter I helped across the road again. That amused one local guy but I explained that he could quite likely have squashed it with his motorbike if I had not done that. He understood, and promptly fell back on the usual Chinese greeting of吃饭了吗, chīfànle ma – have you eaten? They usually then don’t understand when I tell them that I do not eat breakfast.

The weather stayed pretty good today, the promised typhoon, as usual, missed us by hundreds of kilometres and the sun even came out to play. When I got Huan home I decided that she should go up to the apartment and have a rest, I would go for a second walk before lunch. The first thing I saw was a little covered electric motorbike. I told Huan that I would buy it for her if she passed her test, she was not impressed. You’ll need the translation of course, it is a海宝, Hǎibǎo - Treasure (New Generation Energy).

For a nice long circular walk I headed off over the bridge (and road) to somewhere.

Next came another car, Huan’s help was definitely needed not just to translate what you see, but also to read it. Chinese calligraphy is sometimes not very easy. Top = 拼搏, Pīnbó - struggle. RHS = 风生水起, Fēng shēng shuǐ qǐ - flourishing. LHS = 靠自己, Kào zìjǐ - on their own. I have no idea which should be read first!

On the same car, on the back there was more. This was marginally easier although one character gave us many problems. The sentiment may surprise you. 你只管努力 其他的交给天意, Nǐ zhǐguǎn nǔlì qítā de jiāo gěi tiānyì - You just work hard and leave the rest to God.

Being a Tuesday it was my turn to be let loose in the kitchen again. Today’s recipe was a very easy one; here are the ingredients, for two people).

There was an ulterior motive for this. Our local shop, Baijiahui, has started stocking baked beans, but before we can try them we need to finish what we have. Anyway, what you are looking at is a raw sausage and bean casserole. And this picture, for a change, is a side elevation and not a plan view of Huan’s plate.

Our verdict? Lovely, no salt, pepper, herbs or spices needed, the beans and sausages have enough flavour as it is.

July 19^th Well this is possibly the last Changhao walk, at least for a while. The ladies will leave the enticing environs of Wuzhishan tomorrow and travel to Qionghai for their tests. It seems that this particular test is computer assessed. They will be alone in their cars and the onboard(?) and/or the external(?) computers will guide them and let them know how they fared. From what I have seen this week, watching the instructors, not the learners, I feel that they should be OK. That is because they are being taught to pass a test and not being taught to drive a car, there is a subtle difference. Once Huan passes, I can help her ‘learn’ thereafter.

On this last early morning, although it was later than most recent ones, I had two hours to while away so I went for a big circle up to Changhao, back through the countryside to Caoban and then back to the training ground. The plan was mostly a straight forward walk with possible a little bit of safe exploration. My first opportunity for the latter was this ‘ledge’ above the road which does eventually slope down again.

As luck would have it there was a handily located flight of steps right next to said slope. However, at the top it became clear that even with my boots on that was not the way to go.

Back down I went, through Changhao and across the river, a nice last look towards home.

And a last look towards the mountains beyond Changhao before proceeding.

Soon I was on the opposite bank of the ‘weir’ river. This was a place where there used to be some kind of ford, you can see the remains on both sides. It’s not passable now, at least not without a good pair of farmer’s wellies.

I carried on as far as I could on the opposite bank but eventually it became clear that I would need to get myself back on to a real road. More than wellies would have been needed here.

Normally, when we passed this particular des res, we would then have to go up and down the valley to eventually end up in Caoban. Today I spotted a path through the fields that were not yet planted with an abundance of crops. Previously there had been no access here.

In short shrift I was through the fields and looking down once more on the weir. I had just saved somewhere between one and a half and two kilometres.

Now I moved into the second hour of my walk and changed from thinking about distance to thinking about time. How long could I continue to go forward before turning back to make sure I was not late for my VIP passengers. Caoban appeared empty, maybe everyone had gone to the moon, either that or they were off in the fields somewhere.

On my way I passed another dead snake which, on my return journey I decided to snap for you. This one had not done a runner, it was still in exactly the same place, definitely dead and upside down with its legs in the air!

As this was my last amble in this area for a while I thought I would show you the ‘home straight’.

Soon the rest stop came into view.

If you are impressed by the distance shown there you will be even more impressed when I tell you that in the time left before the ladies were ready, and with my circumnavigations of the training ground, I had pushed it up to nine point two kilometres.

July 20^th I left Huan at home to rest and recuperate before she heads up to Qionghai today. That is where they have to go for the second test, the first one in the car. I went for a sprint-shopping trip just to make sure I have what may be needed if she returns home earlier tomorrow than I expect. There are no photos from my walk, so here’s the summary of that instead. The average pace was pushed way down by me spending nearly twenty minutes on the shopping kilometre!

After an early lunch the excited warriors set off on their travels.

Left to my own devices I set off for another walk, not at the same pace as this morning’s walk though. Because it had rained this morning, the camera was at home again this afternoon. Guess what? It didn’t rain and I didn’t find much to take photos of anyway. Our favourite white hound wouldn’t get into the right position for a combined selfie so I ended up taking one of me and then a photo of him.

With no camera and another dearth of photos here’s the summary of the afternoon walk.

Finally for today, a solitary meal or as it is called by filename for easier sorting, ‘unsocial dinner’. It’s amazing what you can do with instant noodles if you try. This has some big green onion, some lettuce, some parsley, some pre-cooked pork, some of Huan’s home made vegetable balls and instead of the sachets included with the noodles, a bag of juice that we got with our cooked belly pork for our salads. We never use that at the time, always later, like this. The dessert was Huan’s choice, I was ordered to eat it!

July 21^st I would make some comment about breakfast alone but as I don’t eat breakfast these days I can’t. Paul Anka had it right though, “I don’t like to sleep alone”, I was awake before seven. Could that have been something to do with having the bedroom curtains open and the office door open with Flower Power Radio on all night?

After an early call with Her Ladyship it was time for the Solitary Man to go out for a stroll. The weather forecast was rain so I was prepared with shoes, camera and umbrella. At the one kilometre mark the rain started, this was my view a little later.

The umbrella was doing a good job today; it was up and down like the proverbial drawers! Now and then I could get the camera out.

Lizard alley was bereft of all lizards today, I guess they are not too keen on rain, intermittent or otherwise. I did manage a bird though.

I am not a fishing aficionado but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the little fishies sometimes come to the surface when it is raining. Correct me if I’m wrong. My umbrella may have been up and down but this fisherman was even better prepared.

My ‘little’ walk was over twelve kilometres today and took me two and three quarter hours. However, that did include a little shopping, a wee-wee break and a coffee stop. I wanted to make sure that the Minister of Home Affairs had nothing to worry about for the weekend so I bought the meat, pre-cooked chicken, and the salad makings. After my lunch I went for a nap and waited for the phone call.

Yesterday the students had some practice in their ‘new’ cars and on the test circuit, they were happy enough with that. Prior to the test today they had another practice which they were again happy with. When Huan roused me from my slumbers she was not a happy teddy at all. Of the four of them who went up today, only the young man passed. Huan, Yú and the older gentleman all failed. I commiserated with her and reminded her that many people, myself included, failed the first time. Now I need to try and get her not to worry constantly about it for the next few weeks until the next test.

Part of the ‘looking after Huan’ part was also cooking tonight’s dinner. Usually, on the recipe, it tells me where I got it from. This one didn’t, but a search found the source, it’s now there. I’m not sure where it originates from; I have it filed under ‘mongrel’. Only two changes were made, the pipe rigate, (I showed you the substitute last week), and the Emmental cheese. Not having any in the fridge, and none within 250 kilometres, I used cheese slices.

Verdict, it was fine, we both enjoyed it. Advice? Plan your quantities better than I did, we now have a bowl in the freezer for another time. I suppose I could scoff it when Huan has her next test, it would save me cooking.

July 22^nd I’m not really sure what happened today. Neither of us felt like going out in the morning, we each waited for the other to ‘suggest first’ in the afternoon, and in the evening I just couldn’t be bothered.

July 23^rd Grumpy took charge this morning. For some reason I woke up in a really grouchy mood so without even a morning coffee I went off for a solitary walk. My route was to be the landfill mountain, Huan mad me take an umbrella along for company. On the way I spotted another old fish farm restaurant, it closed down a long time ago, having its lake filled in. Will there be even more construction here?

Let’s follow that with two left turns, the first one off the Changhao road onto the landfill road, and the second one away from the old, now impassable road, to the new, under the highway one.

Once under the highway the going was fine, not too hot, clouds on the hills. I took a little detour, just to have a look; there was no way for me to go through that forest and up to the road.

Having sent me off with an umbrella, Huan was now sat at home worrying that I didn’t have a hat with me because today is 大暑, Dàshǔ or Great Heat to you and me. Luckily, that is only a calendar thing, the weather was not too hot, and I had plenty of shade.

A smallholding and a spider came up next. Spot the hound

And then, before you could say Jack Robinson I was at the peak.

Sometimes you spot views that you think might be new ones. On the other hand it could just be that the old brain has forgotten seeing it before. Whichever it is, I liked this view.

Although my walk was down from the summit, there was another little up when I took the back road through to the big fish farm restaurant.

Back out on the real roads again this cheeky chappy let me get quite near.

Now here’s one for all you golfers out there, let’s see you hit a hole-in-one from this tee! In fact, I don’t believe you will even reach par. (PS I know nothing about golf, my one and only round, way back in the 1960s, took me over 180 shots on an 18 hole course!)

Normally, when I show you a car, it is either because it is electric, it is “secret”, it is something I like or it has something to translate. This one is none of those things. It is an old Lifan Mini, not much to write home about, Chinese cars have come on in leaps and bounds since those days. I guess this one is advertising car decals.

This one needed a little translation although爱玛, Ài mǎ is just the name of the brand. It is a three wheeled electric moped, looks nice enough. The translation, according to Google, is Emma. PS Spot the error in the sticker on the car.

And we’ll finish off the day with two pests, leaving you to decide which is the greater pest!

Well, that’s a lot of photos for one day but seeing as you had none yesterday I’m sure you won’t mind. Not having had a decent OAP nap since Thursday I had to have one today as did the Minister of Health. After that it was just a matter of relaxation….

July 24^th Well that didn’t end well! As you know Monday is shopping day, no problems there, it went perfectly. Our OAP afternoon nap was enjoyed too, waking up to coffee and cake. Things went wrong after dinner when our planned walk was cancelled due to some unexpected rain. At least it was unexpected by the Minister of Climate Change and her peon! Just to make sure you got one photo for today we took a selfie on the balcony. It may not be obvious but it is raining behind us, and we are not smiling because we are happy to stay in and be lazy, honestly!

What will the new week bring? Hopefully it will bring some quick refresher lessons for Huan. She needs to get back in a car quickly to go over, her mistake and understand the whys and the wherefores. After that she needs a few more lessons before her next test. She’ll get there.

At least while we are waiting, and with reduced lessons once they do start, we will be able to tramp through the countryside together. I think Huan is already planning a “bus and walk” for tomorrow, must make sure I don’t sleep in.

Don’t touch that dial, stay tuned to this channel, turn the volume up and enjoy life! Back soon.