September 5th The snooze button had to work overtime this morning, I really did not want to drag myself out of bed. However, the learner had to be at the training ground by eight o’clock. For a change, she would be all by herself today, as in not only no Yú but also no teacher. Yes, she had the car key and an hour to play all by herself, her teacher had to take another pupil up to Qionghai for their second test. Remember I told you about the use of one pedal only for this test, well this photograph shows you why.
And here is the lady in question, checking her mirrors prior to setting off. She did ask if I wanted to sit in the passenger’s side but I thought it would be better for me not to be there. She would then not worry and perhaps feel more confident.
It was a beautiful day for a walk.
Flowers are not something we show you a lot of, mostly because we never seem to see anything new or unusual. I don’t think we have showed you this one before though, welcome to the beautiful “Stinking Passion Flower”.
Arriving back home, Hun had previously agreed to another walk with me but I thought it would be better if she relaxed a bit more today. That’s a word that Huan finds difficult at times, but she agreed that it would be better for her to stay home. I set off around the town and the river, no speed required, just enough to keep my monthly total on track. The first photo is to show Huan where I nearly fell into the water coming down from the reservoir, and the second two just to show her where I walked.
Distance covered, I arrived home to find that SWWNLTM (She Who Will Not Listen To Me) had been extra busy making steamed dumpling for tomorrow lunchtime when Yú will be joining us for lunch. After lunch I had a nap, Huan avoided it because while she has not been listening to me, she has been listening to Yú!
Tuesday is more often than not my turn in the kitchen. That was not necessary today because I had done it all yesterday. Did we like it? Yes, very much. Were there any modifications to the recipe? Someone gave me two chicken breasts from the freezer, one of which turned out to be pork! Our apricots were dried and not fresh. As usual, the ‘cream’ had to be substituted. Our verdict was that it did turn out a little too sweet but we put that down to our dried apricots.
September 6th Only one snooze needed today, yes it was another alarming day for Huan to go, hopefully, to her last lesson in Changhao. Into the countryside I disappeared.
Then across the main road, towards Caoban, hang a left and along the riverside.
On the way I came across this little ‘truck’, loaded with corn I do believe. While I was there a little old Grandma appeared laden down with another big bunch and she told me it was 玉米, yùmǐ and a Google image search says corn, good enough for me.
I tried getting as near to the river as I could to show you the famous ‘weir’ from a different angle. As you can see, I didn’t quite get out far enough.
I had no idea what was going on here, me eyes just knew that there was something there. Only when I got to work uploading all the pictures did I see. Look closely, there is an ant at the left hand side, it appears to be trying to drag a whole caterpillar off somewhere.
Could this be the last one from the training ground? I hope so. This was taken from the upper level where ‘manual’ learners go, from this angle you can’t see down into the lower level.
Dropping Huan off at home I went off for another hour’s walk locally, taking quiz photos for tomorrow when she comes back from up north.
I did find one little flying machine for her too, a very little one.
And now a question for you guys, Google is of no use in this instance, Huan has not yet answered my query. It looks like rhubarb but it’s obviously not!
Back home for lunch break I went and found Yú sewing bits of ginger into pieces of red cloth. It seems that this will bring her luck tomorrow! Lunch was dumplings for all, with eggs and/or salty eggs. Mango chutney goes quite well with dumplings!
After lunch it was time to escort the ladies to their limousine. Now their teacher has to drive right past our house on the way to the highway, but Yú insisted that we walked to where he lives. Why? She wanted to be first there so that she could sit in the front seat! Here is my queen, sat in the back waiting for two more young students to join her.
Lonesome me then went off for my third walk of the day. On the way I came across two little coaches that I quite fancied. Look at the doors, there is one for each row of seats, no aisle down the middle. The rearmost row faces backwards.
I must admit to being just a little confused by the English here.
And now, roll of drums please, almost a whole bird!
And there we will leave it for today. When the illustrious commander returns tomorrow I will have to go through all the photos taken today and explain. What fun we will have. So, how far did I walk today? Just over sixteen kilometres before half past one, a nap was needed!
September 7th No alarm for me this morning but to my surprise I was still up before eight. I was surprised because I hadn’t gone to bed until after two in the morning. I had planned to go up to the reservoir this morning, to try out my new boots. I threw that plan out and took a long walk down the main street and back through the town, wearing sandals and praying against rain. On my way back into town I heard frogs but I could not find them. Can you see them?
My seven kilometre NAAFI break, no pies or pasties though.
How about some hidden treasure next? Well, it wasn’t exactly hidden; it was out display, 海宝, Hǎibǎo means treasure. At first I thought it was animal names but the two animals are not the same, one is a bear and one is a rabbit. Maybe it is just the name of the vehicles, which are not really cars and not really bikes although they are steered with handlebars.
I managed to cover ten kilometres at a nice steady pace so I was happy with that. Huan called about twelve thirty and passed on the good news, she passed! That means she is now 66.6% of the way to having her licence. The remaining test is the ‘driving on the road’ test. Before she can do that she has to have lessons on the road. I’m hoping she doesn’t wait too long.
As a treat I took her out to dinner this evening to Fatty Lai Crab Pot.
The blurb talks about the restaurant’s history and its fame as a meat and crab pot place where the young and the fashionable go. I wonder why they let us in… I have to say that the meat was very conspicuous by its absence, both on the menu and in the dishes. There was plenty of crab which Huan revelled in, and the dish also included chicken feet, she likes those too. I tried both, just to show willing, the crab tasted fine but I don’t like fighting my food and spitting bits out all over the table. Chicken feet have nothing on them worth the effort of even trying, in my opinion. All in all though, a nice meal and we were both satiated and satisfied.
And here I am after, first chatting to the crab and then having a conversation with a parrot! The end to a good day, for all of us!
September 8th Again I threw my plan out of the window, mostly because I slept late but also because I didn’t think Huan was ready for hills yet. Instead we did the usual looking for lizards route and of course the boss was successful.
On the way home I took Huan past the ‘old’ bus I previously showed you, so that I could show her in ‘real life’. All the doors were open today. We couldn’t find anyone to let us go inside though; I was going to take a picture of Huan ‘driving’.
We did find another grasshopper before we reached home but it wasn’t a good poser!
Huan was feeling lucky today, I had promised another meal out this evening, albeit a cheapo buffet style one. At least she is easy to please like that!
September 9th Market day but I was all alone again. Huan had had a phone call last night to say that her lessons would continue today with the ‘on the road’ portion. She was out of the house before I was out of bed, just as well because it was raining. I was out by ten though, the rain had eased off, and umbrellas were mostly down.
I found another three wheeler for you, the translation according to Google is Emma. Somehow I don’t think that is correct because 爱玛 is the name of the manufacturer.
Next up is someone peering into the void, perhaps feeling “L'appel du vide [la-PEL-doo-veed] (n.), - The inexplicable urge, felt by some, to jump from high places. French - translates as "the call of the void”. (PS That snippet comes from a very interesting Facebook Page that I follow, https://www.facebook.com/GrandiloquentWords.
I had a hard time trying to explain to the stallholders that Chinese people like to cook and eat these, as do the French people, whereas I as an Englishman only like to eat them.
That was all the pictures I took this morning. Huan had to go out
again after lunch to learn how to use the lights and indicators so I went out
walking again too. At least it kept me on track. There are no more photos
though, I didn’t take the camera, or the umbrella and it rained on me all the
way round town.
September 10th Up early again this morning for a bus and walk day. That was for me, Huan was doing bus and driving lesson. I was testing out my new boots.
The bus was a little one, very small in fact, there were only nine seats. I have no idea how many people are allowed to stand, probably double that! You may notice that the sign at the door stipulates a ‘No Standing Area’, I wonder if anyone takes any notice of it at busy times.
Foolishly I had not checked the weather prior to our departure from the house. It didn’t look too bad to start with and at four kilometres it was still not bad.
You may gather from the signpost that I was headed up the reservoir, with another four kilometres still to go. I was already soaking wet, but that was from going uphill in the humidity and sweating. Everything stayed fine for another two or three hundred metres.
Before too long though things changed, there were clouds to the ‘up’ of me, clouds to the ‘down’!
And where was I? Well stuck in the middle with ‘rain’ of course. Apologies to ‘Stealers Wheel’.
At least my new boots had a baptism, of water and not fire!
I guess birds, lizards and squirrels are not too keen on heavy rain, I certainly didn’t see any. Mind you I didn’t see any frogs, snails, crabs or worms either, they usually like the wet. I did however see a snake, more than two boots in length. It’s a good job it was dead otherwise I might well have created a new Olympic record, the one for running away!
By the time I reached the bottom of the hill I was absolutely drenched and in dire need of a break, coffee was the medicine of choice. For some reason my ankle was also giving me gyp, maybe the new boots although I don’t know how. However, today’s distance was more than enough, fifteen kilometres; I could have a much needed nap after lunch.
September 11th Not a good day, there was definitely friction in the air. Yesterday Huan had asked me to do the shopping today because she would be busy with lessons in the morning and then busy in the afternoon with advice on the phone. I know times have changed but I do wonder how it is that we managed to learn to drive with one lesson a week, and no phones or internet to advise us on the way. Anyway, the day did not turn out as either of us planned, Huan was sat on the sofa waiting for a message to tell her when she could go for her lesson. The reason for the delay was the weather, it poured down all morning. I just sat and waited…
Eventually the message came that Huan would not be having a lesson this morning, she would have to go in the afternoon instead. That meant shopping was on again, back to normal, with two of us. Well, I say back to normal, the lift failed as we went out. The engineers told us that they would have to replace the ‘big wheel’ and it would be mid afternoon before we could use the lift.
That meant shopping was reduced, my choice, I did not want to carry too many bags up seven flights of stairs when we got back. I settled on four bags, I’ll sort out the rest another day.
Huan went off for her lesson, down the stairs, and I followed ten minutes later, the same way. As I went down the lift was also going down, very slowly. It opened on the ground floor and two of the engineers were on top of the lift cabin, they had obviously been checking their work.
Leaving our apartment complex, Huan was still at the bus stop, I overtook her and proceeded across little island. It had some additional accessories, why I am not really sure.
Are they anticipating big floods, a very strong flow of water, and if so, why only under one of the two bridges. The second one, with more water under it today, had no lifebuoys.
Now we do know that in the past, youngsters have met sticky ends in the irrigation canal. That can flow very quickly, and deep, as you see here. No lifebuoys here either.
Almost immediately after I took those two photos the umbrella had to be unfurled again, yes the heavens opened and the rain returned. Unlike yesterday I wasn’t soaked before the rain started although the humidity had got me sweating.
My plan for this afternoon was curtailed slightly; I decided that six or seven kilometres would be enough for today. My monthly target is still fine and I don’t have enough pairs of shoes to be changing them for dry ones every day!
I did think that Huan may want to see how the pigeons are doing. We haven’t seen them out for quite some time but I guess today they were happy enough indoors.
Before too long that is where I was too, back indoors. My plan for an evening walk soon faded away and I had a lazy time instead. All I did was watch Hallmark movies and brought this post up to date. You should all try the same, relax more! And on that note I’ll sign off, for me and for SWMBO. Think about me tomorrow when she takes control again!
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