December 5th Another week in our slice of paradise, with all its foibles. None of them to bother us today though, just a nice walk to the fish reservoir. Of course we found decals almost as soon as we walked out of the door, no translations or explanations here.
For these two we will translate the top one, for the second one (probably anime) I reckon it’s time for you to do a Google. Here’s the top one - 嘿！Hēi! - Hey!, 年轻人不搞钱, Niánqīng rén bù gǎo qián - Young people don’t make money, 你来人间化缘吗, Nǐ lái rénjiān huàyuán ma - Do you come to the human world to beg for alms? (Not so sure about this translation.)
As we left the town Huan continued on the pavement while I explored
a little. She even took a photo that I was completely unaware of; I am small in
it though, ‘
Leaving the main road and heading into the countryside we were surprised to see that the cement works has completely disappeared. I suppose the highway has been finished for a while. Now the question is will this land revert to farmland or will it end up with high rise buildings.
A little further on we found the farmers. Sometimes I think it would be nice to live in the village and help out now and then, not that I could do a great deal.
Just before the highway tunnels which we have to pass underneath we spotted yet another decal, my animal. 虎年来途虎, Hǔ niánlái tú hǔ - Year of the Tiger, Year of the Tiger (?) 如虎添亿, Rúhǔ tiān yì - Like a tiger and a billion. If anyone is reading this, or listening out somewhere, a million (pounds) will do, we don’t need a billion.
Between the two highways I spotted a way to walk up for a better view. It was still safe, I didn’t try anything dangerous, and I’m not quite as stupid as I used to be!
Huan got busy with her phone while I was up there. Here I am 1) studying the view, 2) walking under the highway, 3) holding my head where I just found out how hard the highway is and 4) the offending part of the highway!
She also took a lot of photos of me coming down.
Arriving at the reservoir we decided to try going around it and maybe get some different views. Here’s one you haven’t seen before.
In the past we have never been able to go all the way round the reservoir, today it was very easy. The scenery made it enjoyable too.
Just after the very old tree we had to retrace our steps a little where Huan found some ducks enjoying themselves just sitting in the sun watching the water.
We did manage to find another view that you haven’t seen before.
Back down the bottom of the hill where we were to buy some spuds and catch the bus I found some statues. Who the first one is I’m afraid I do not know, the second is more obvious.
With Huan busy at the small market I managed to find a couple of very large friends, one black and one brown. Both were tame enough but only the brown one wanted to talk!
The elephant offered to carry the potatoes for us.
We then waited for the bus for a long time, over thirty minutes in fact. Two buses turned up, dropped off their passengers and then said “Sorry, it’s lunch time” before disappearing back the way they came. We kept ourselves busy.
When the bus did come, it was full, standing room only. I stood! Back in town and on our way home Huan spotted yet another decal - 自由, Zìyóu – Free 像风一样, xiàng fēng yīyàng – like the wind, much easier to understand,
With our wait for the bus, by the time we finished lunch it was too late to take an afternoon nap. Still, Huan had made sure I would be busy with photos for quite some time. Duty chef was down to me again, and I had already decided it would be another shepherd’s pie again, sort of. I spent yesterday evening chopping chicken breast up into mince, not so easy but it worked. Dinner today went like this, boiled the potatoes; put them to one side still in their water in the pan. Peeled and diced one garlic bulb and one whole onion; fried both with some fresh ginger until the onion was translucent. Added the minced chicken with salt and nutmeg to taste, covered and simmered. De-seeded and diced one yellow bell pepper, added to pan. Chopped up some oyster mushrooms, added to pan. (I couldn’t find button and I didn’t want Shiitake.) When everything was cooked through added some natural yoghurt, I used two small tubs, and left to simmer while the potatoes were drained and mashed with a little butter. Everything from the frying pan then went into the crock-pot, the mashed potato on top and mozzarella cheese on top of that. Into the air fryer it went and out came a very nice and different shepherd’s pie. We didn’t bother taking any photos for you, we were too eager to eat it. It was very appetising indeed, there wasn’t anything left for Huan’s breakfast tomorrow, we ate the lot. Try it, you’ll love it.
December 6th With great reluctance we had an alarming start to the day again, I had been tasked to drive Yú’s car to Sanya. This time it was to have her car’s sunglasses fitted. Huan doesn’t know how to say no! Here I am having a sneaky fag at the sunscreen place.
And here’s Yú’s car prior to the operation. Notice the ‘new driver’ sticker on the back, a magnetic one, given to Yú by Huan, and then stuck on with glue by Yú.
With two hours to spare, and Yú staying to supervise, I decided to go for a ‘car inspection’ walk and Huan decided to come with me. First we found a rather sad looking Bentley.
From one convertible to another, one that I had seen on the PC and thought it might be a nice little runabout on our little island. It looks quite ugly with the top up though and the price is far too expensive for what it is.
From one that I wouldn’t buy to one that I would, if I was rich enough and if the boss would let me. This one was not for sale though.
Huan decided we should not only take pictures of cars so here are some very old trees.
A ‘comfort stop’ was required and we found a public place, check the signs.
Into a shop called Mango we went, because I had spotted another convertible.
They also had bikes!
At the appointed time we found Yú’s car with its new sunglasses, looking a little dark to me.
While Yú was chatting with the BYD people Huan and I found a car that, if we had money available, we would probably have bought there and then. Yes, that 30,000.00 is the amount of discount, this would normally be over 150,000.00.
Yú returned to tell us that they had to do something with her battery so lunch would be available if needed. I let the ladies go and I went for another long walk. I found more motorbikes! At this shop the lady was quite keen to sell me one, preferably the large Indian you see here. She had to check her phone before reluctantly agreeing with me that I was not allowed to drive anything that big, or even as big as the small one with the sidecar!
You may have noticed over the years just how many scooters there are here. If you are old, like me, you may also have wondered if there are any foreign ones. Well today I found the Vespa shop, where they still don’t have anything small enough for me! (Sorry about the yellow one, I guess the camera was excited too.)
Right next door there a room full of Ducatis, not for me though, even if I was younger. This one amused me, an electric delivery truck next to a Great Wall pick-up.
Almost back at BYD Huan called me and told me that there was a waiting room, with easy chairs and drinks. “Maybe I can have a little nap” I thought.
A nap was out of the question, the A/C was a little too chilly for my sweaty body. I tried out the expensive sunglasses instead.
The ladies meanwhile were fine.
At this stage Yú’s car still
hadn’t reached the front of the queue for whatever work needed doing. It would
also need charging before we set off back. Cue another walk for me. Maybe this
is what I should have, no passenger seat in the front. Yes, it is a
I walked a long way, again, here’s some scenery for you.
During this walk I found Honda,
With another half an hour or so to waste I just prowled around locally. It was a pleasant enough place to wait. We thought the third photo looked like a bull’s head, do you agree?
Right in front of the chargers was a second hand car dealer. They look pretty good in this photo but the prices vs the mileage makes it much more viable to buy a new car.
Looking inside one of the shops I found this little bird, it looks like an African Grey. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. The people inside told me that it does speak but it was an incredible nervous bird so there was no chance of that for me.
Eventually we arrived back in Wuzhishan where we handed over the car to Yú and went for a burger. I was very puzzled by this sign, it seems that it may be something called ‘Lorem ipsum’.
We were at the KMC not to be confused with the KFC.
Dinner was fine, just what I needed after an exhausting day. Have you ever driven a car with two Chinese ladies who never stop talking? I’m sure you can tell which dinner is mine today.
Once home, the only job I had the energy to do was upload all the photos to the PC. Using my brain to remember the day and write this post had to wait until the next morning.
December 7th Today is “Major
Snow” here in
The garlanded family,
Indoors,
And of course the front door welcoming wreath.
We still needed an afternoon nap today, despite being lazy. In fact we carried on being lazy for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We did have plans to go out after dinner but enjoying our relaxation so much we changed our minds.
December 8th “Let’s go for a countryside walk” said the boss. “Your wish is my command” said the peon! We set off over Little Island where there is some kind of competition tonight for local singers. Our saxophone playing neighbours were there so I had a quick go at ‘Summertime’ with them. I have a feeling that the main man knows how to play it but not with someone like me!
Before leaving the island Huan did her usual and found a lizard. In fact she found three but only one was good enough to share with you.
Through a construction gate I spotted these trees. I thought they were very apt for this time of year despite not being snow covered.
Going through Luobote village we thought you might like this view which includes an information stone showing investment in 2015, the year we returned here. In fact since that time, the improvements to all the local villages through investment have been quite considerable. It is something that we notice a lot on our walks.
As we often do in this village we went to have a word with the cows. They were all sitting down doing nothing but on seeing me one came to the gate. The little ones looked on from behind. For the one who came I seemed to find the sweet spot to give it a tickle.
This view is down to a stream that feeds into the river, somewhere that in earlier days we may well have tried to explore. These days, mostly due to my heart, we don’t take quite as many risks. In all probability we would have to walk in the stream and end up covered in leeches again!
We do still go off the track now and then as evidenced by my glorious leader here.
Down at the river Huan liked the pink foliage, I did too. Since we have taken many photos here I thought this one would make a nice change.
How about some more creatures, I like to see them and so does the Minister of Everything. Mind you, she jumped a mile when I reached out to touch the antenna of this grasshopper. I thought, and I had said as much to Huan, that it had shuffled off this mortal coil. When I did touch it I don’t know who jumped further, Huan or the grasshopper.
Our second beastie has a small problem; it seems to be missing a leg or three.
The final pest is the express delivery collector. Here she is using her new fangled smart phone thingy to access her own personal reception box. What she is getting shall remain a mystery, at least to me and other mere mortals of my ilk!
After lunch, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries decided to play Percy Thrower on the bedroom balcony again so there were no naps. I did almost fall off my chair though! After a chilli-con-carne cooked by Chef Bob, it was time to go out again. Huan decided that this weekend we would not have a salad but instead a nice pork stew. As I like to cook the meat the night before to make it nice and tender we headed for the market. And that was it for the day.
December 9th Although we didn’t need any shopping today we kept to our usual routine and had a market walk. It still ends up at nearly eight kilometres so it’s not exactly short. At the beginning, if it was too warm, cool showers were available from the construction site!
Huan spotted a squirrel, much too far away and only appearing as a silhouette in the viewfinder. I did my best with cropping and tweaking.
She then spotted something different, a plant that we see a lot of, but this time with a central trunk growing out of the normal base we see. To get the whole thing in I had to move back quite a lot so if you want to see it more clearly you will need to click to enlarge.
That’s all for today folks! Well I did cook a large stew with the ingredients I had planned for and then the extra vegetables I found in the fridge. It will last two days, easily!
December 10th If I asked Huan if she wanted to go to the ‘dead people’s place’ she would absolutely say no. However, if I ask if she wants to walk up dead people mountain she will say yes. Today’s walk was the ‘Mountain Graveyard Walk’; it’s been a while since we went that way. Crossing Little Island we found a number on the floor, just one, very strange.
Before we left town we found two beasties, one bird and one lizard, both not easy subjects.
Soon we were headed into the clouds; Huan chose the photo with no road.
At then end of the concrete road we found two graves visible. I had wanted to walk inside for a change and show you some of the more elaborate semi-circular tombs. Unfortunately everything was far too overgrown for me to get anywhere near.
Once off the hard road we found a track we had not been down before so, being the intrepid explorers that we are we set off to do just that.
We came to what seemed a dead end.
My radar ears soon picked up a dog which meant a farm, more than likely back on the main track, so I dragged Huan off through the trees.
Huan was impressed, so much so that she took this photo. Well, they do say that the sun always shines on the righteous!
Eventually we made our way to the spot we had aimed for many times in the past but never got there. There is a telecom tower, in fact we can see it from our house, but once in the woods it is not so easy to find. Today we were successful!
Looking beyond the building we saw that there was no way to
continue, no way to get to the
Looking around as we headed home I said to Huan, something that I often say, “you know, we are so lucky to live in a place like this’. She agreed.
Nearly at home I had to try and explain ‘Wallace and Grommit’ to
Huan because of the photos I was taking of a pair of moped handlebars. Mind
you, once home I could not find a love interest like the one you see here.
According to Google, there was only Fluffles, and she didn’t have brown ears. I
did find these two available on Amazon in
As winter is coming, well sort of, and for a change, I had a nice soak in a hot bath before serving up our reheated stew for dinner. It’s been a while since I had a bath and I enjoyed every minute of it. I think I need a few more so that I can actually finish the book I am reading!
Interesting PS for today, did you know that I am philobrutish? (Ask Susie Dent or Robwords.)
December 11th Our only plan for today was shopping although I did wonder if I might have a wander after lunch. As it was laziness set in and I didn’t go anywhere. Still, with so many photos this week we really didn’t need to go out looking for more. That’s not to say I didn’t find any of course. When I saw this wine I had to take a photo for one of my little brothers.
I’ll let you attempt to decipher the writing on the label. It was available in three vintages, 2020 @¥68.00 per bottle, 2018 @¥98.00 per bottle and 2016 @¥289.00 per bottle. Did I buy any? No, I’m afraid not, Huan is not a drinker at all and even the cheap ones didn’t appeal to me. Now had it been this bottle, I would not have hesitated. Unfortunately it appears to be no longer available.
So, with no wine for me, perhaps I’ll pop off and have a glass of Sherry, well Christmas is coming isn’t it. We wish you all the best with your Christmas shopping and end-of-year booze ups, enjoy but DON’T drink and drive. There you are; the message for this week. Bieee!
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