April 16th Are we back to normal yet? Well, I think we are, although we were a little slow off the mark this morning and we didn’t fancy any hills. Instead we decided on a ‘mansions’ walk first passing these two wonderful sights. Which do you prefer?
Our usual shortcut down to the river is now completely inaccessible so we found another one.
Looking across the river, when we reached it, the first thing that stuck out was that something didn’t stick out. There used to be a hill there that has now been levelled.
Soon the lady of the manor was smiling, broadly smiling in fact. She had discovered a little lizard who thought that he could not be seen behind the fence rail.
Heading down river the path soon became overgrown. I do like it when nature conquers all, even though at times it means we can’t go any further. That’s not the case here of course.
On the way towards the stairway to heaven I had spotted some flashes of red on the other side of the river and I was very curious as to what they were. Could they be banners, or lanterns? At the top of the stairway I was able to zoom in and found out what they really were!
For a change, here is a view looking back from the top of the stairway, nice isn’t it?
Soon after I found a mirror image of Huan. Fancy, two of her, neither of my ears would be safe!!
While I walked to the end of the irrigation canal, or as far as we are supposed to walk along it, Huan went off on her own and found the Pathé News chicken.
Eventually we arrived back in Luobote village; the rice crop is doing well!
With some time on our hands we took the route home on the side of the road to somewhere. It is dry enough at the moment, when the rains start it will not be so easy.
Back on Little Island I couldn’t find any more lizards to satisfy the boss. Mind you, she failed as well. Instead I brought her flowers.
Almost across the bridge and I couldn’t resist a “Hello Sailor!”
After a normal lunch of tuna fish sandwiches, to go with the sailor theme, Huan took herself off to bed for a nap. Time was against me today so I couldn’t join her. For a change I was also cooking fish but a fair amount of preparation was required.
There are no photos of the actual meal; we had no white rice and also no parsley for the presentation. I can tell you that if you are prepared to go through the steps it is a lovely meal. We both had seconds and left just a tiny bit for Huan’s breakfast. Try it, you’ll like it!
One of the reasons time was against me was that after dinner it was time for another hospital visit, yes it’s been a month since I had my prescription filled. We were slightly luckier today; the doctor gave me two months supply of all, bar one. Our day was completed with a walk around town enjoying the late sun and gossiping.
April 17th After the poisoning scare last week there was another attempt to get me yesterday. This time however it was either bugs or plants. I felt the ‘sting’ at the time and this is how my arm looked when I woke up this morning. There were three stings/bites on my inner elbow, one with one yellow spot, one with two and this one with four.
With some kind of ‘green stuff’ on my arm we decided to head out for our daily walk. Our route today was the fish farm reservoir at the end of ‘fourth road’. Just after Huan had bought her routine lottery tickets we found a little birdie waiting for a bus.
Still on the main road Huan found a lizard and I found a flower.
Off the main road, and on fourth, we soon came to the village at the head of the valley.
Nearer to the village Huan insisted that I record these bitter gourds for posterity.
Radar did it again but I have to say that I liked this particular find. Just check that attitude!
At the fish farm I sent Huan down the road while I went off around the back way.
Just before I rejoined Her Majesty I spotted what is most definitely a des res. How could you not fall for a property like this?
While I had been busy Huan and her phone had been busy too.
She still found time to be the director though and had me snapping more fruit, just for the record. Here we have a Hainan Passion Fruit and then a Castor Oil Plant. Who else can remember the horrible taste of a teaspoon of said oil when they were little?
No rest for the wicked, she went and did it again, again!
I felt that I needed to be in control again so I took my place on the balcony.
Because we had walked nearly twelve kilometres we treated ourselves to a bus ride home. After making sure I still had two arms, and finishing lunch, it was once again nap time for the oldies!
April 18th Good morning all. I’m still alive and I still have two arms, the poisoned areas are shrinking with each passing hour. For a change today we headed downriver, to go under the highway and then visit the ‘dead’ fish farm restaurant. Someone seems to be getting better and better at spotting those sneaky lizards.
Looking across the river you can see the stairway to heaven from a different angle.
After checking out those red stools we showed you a couple of days ago we then headed into the forest to find our way to the highway underpass.
There’s a little valley through that wooded area with fish ponds, two farms, a few dogs and a lot more trees. I skirted along the far side while Hun took the shorter more normal route. She also took far too many photos of me rejoining her.
We got to the ‘dead’ restaurant where some work has been carried out although there were still no signs of life anywhere. We posed on hanging chairs, Huan is much more photogenic! Note how the colours of the chairs match our clothes.
I can’t remember the last time we walked this way and I can’t remember the filenames I used for this route so here are a couple of panoramas from today.
Something new is this pool table where I demonstrated my skills to Huan. Feel free to laugh, I don’t mind. It’s not easy with a hat on and a camera hanging down in front of you. Here’s a nice question for you. The Chinese are quite well represented in world snooker; in fact they are pretty good at it. Why then do we only have pool tables in Wuzhishan?
Huan then showed me that she is definitely not a stereotypical Chinese person in that she has no idea whatsoever how to play table tennis. Speaking of good old ping-pong, do you know when and where it was invented? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_tennis
This place has only one way in and then of course out again. As we left Huan said “I think that looks very nice” followed within seconds by “that’s nice too”. What she really meant was for me to create another panorama of the bend in the river. If I had been able to stand on the highway I would have been able to get a much nicer photo!
Going back through the small farms I thought you might like to see how chickens live here. I know they will still end up as someone’s dinner but they at least live free for their short lives.
White birds were spotted over the river so, without any instructions from the director, I gave it a shot. To my amazement I caught two in flight!
Today it was Huan’s turn to talk to the cows. She needs a bit more practice, especially at making her voice a lot deeper but, they listened and they looked!
After our usual nap I was time for me to cook again. There is no recipe today and no photos either. Noodles were on the menu so no recipe was needed. I could have shown you all the ingredients but I’ll just list them instead. Garlic, onion, celery, spring onions, tofu, octopus legs (marinated in fish sauce, vinegar, crushed garlic, crushed ginger and white pepper), and of course noodles. We added a left over sachet from some old instant noodles so it ended up a little on the spicy side. Some natural yoghurt soon sorted that out.
April 19th Friday fun was an upriver walk, it’s been a while since we went that way. I also had a sneaky plan, we would not go through the villages but we would actually stay on the road by the river. Not too far from the house I found an ‘empty cicada’?
Here’s a question for all you construction geeks out there. What are they doing with the side of the river? We have also seen this further downstream, near the last bridge before our house.
In the months since we have passed by this way, the trees have multiplied at the sides of the road. In another two or three years we will have shade here, on both sides.
I spotted a little tweety that Huan missed; she probably missed it because of its colour. Only when we got home did we realise that we managed to catch two at once.
This is a view across to the road which we would normally have walked on.
Huan can’t seem to have a walk without finding lizards, giving me orders, and then taking pictures of me carrying out those orders!
Just to prove a point, here’s another one.
Last time we crossed this bridge we gave you an upriver panorama. Today, for a change, here is the downriver version from the other side of the bridge.
SWMBO still managed to find two more of our little friends although she never thought I would be able to capture the second one. Sometimes I can be stubborn too! Take a close look at the first one; it looks a little chubby, could it be ‘with child’ or ‘with eggs’?
Finally another one that surprised Huan.
April 20th Last night I surprised Huan with
a planned trip for today, no walking needed. There were no arguments! As you
may remember we are printer less, ours had become as was described in a recent
Facebook post, a Bob Marley. It just kept on jammin’! While trying my best to
source a new one from Taobao all I had succeeded in doing was to scramble my
brain. This trip was to go to computer city in
Our first task was to find the
place. It did come up on our sat-nav but unfortunately therein lies a small
problem. Our sat-nav maps are way out of date and we haven’t been able to find
a way to update them. Still, we got there and headed into the
We actually ate at the restaurant next door, called 九毛九, Jiǔ máo jiǔ. This translates as nine cents nine, rather odd. However, ‘máo’ is also homophonic and can sound like ‘māo’ which means cat. There were cats on the uniforms and on the menus. All we had was Ròu jiā mó, for us a popular lunchtime snack. It was nice but we forgot to take photos.
Before heading back downstairs we took photographs of what makes the plaza international. I knew the soldiers but I have no idea about the other characters. Can you help?
In DC City, that is the big computer and technology mall; my brain did not become unscrambled! There are no specific stores for different manufacturer’s printers; they are just dotted about rather randomly. Added to that there was no chance to actually play around, open tops, look inside, check the ink provision etc. I asked questions but the salespeople, for the most part, did not know the answers. Some answers I found on boxes that they couldn’t give me. In the end I gave up and decided we would after all use Taobao. Back to Wuzhishan we went.
At home, after a short rest, we took our weary bones out to our favourite buffet style restaurant. It has been reduced in size and remodelled but it still does the job. Can you guess whose is whose? At least I have some healthy vegetables this time.
Although neither of us felt like it we had a little walk to walk off our dinners. Passing by one of the moped shops I remembered that I had told you, and Huan, about the one in ‘Gulf’ colours but had forgotten to take a photo of. I made up for that today. If I was allowed I would definitely consider buying this one.
April 21st Sitting in the car all day yesterday wore us both out so today was cancelled!
April 22nd Approaching the end of April and it appears that suddenly there are fewer snowbirds around. Parking was easy this morning as was shopping. I wonder if we could get away with making a video of our shopping trip, perhaps I’ll try it one of these days.
After lunch I let Huan go for a nap without me. Whilst I am 100% sure I would have benefited from it, I also knew that after two days with no walks I had to get out. I kept my eyes open for lizards; you know Huan is always pleased to see the photos when she stays in. At the usual place, near the sausage shop, they were in hiding but I did find a bird. Look carefully at the second photo, it has picked something up.
Ten minutes later I found another one, a noisy one.
I did stop for a break, just after this photo was taken, on the other side of the river.
On my way home I checked out the riverside market street to see if it was any nearer opening again. I don’t know what you call them but the steel frames that used to ‘stick out of the front of the stores’ are now all back in place again. The road is still closed off but looking at that picture it shouldn’t be too long now.
Cakes to go with our afternoon coffees were required, not for today of course. Generally Chinese cakes are not up to much but these slices are very tasty and not too sweet.
Photos are sparse this week, and I felt they were sparse this afternoon as well. Huan needed more even if they were only scenery.
I did find another two birds but the photos were not up to much. You wouldn’t enjoy them. Next time I’ll try harder, I promise! So that’s it for this week, a rather unsuccessful one I’m afraid. Let us know if there is anything that you would like us to take photos of and while we can’t promise, we can try. Until the next time, take care, sleep well, etc, etc.
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