May 7th I had a plan, it was all mine; and then Madame changed it! She had previously decided that I would walk alone today so my plan was made. On getting ready I was informed by the powers that be that my trusty companion would in fact be joining me. She decided that she would stay home tomorrow when it’s her turn to cook. As a result and so that she would not have to walk too far I suggested just a riverside walk.
The fish almost bit my finger but Huan missed that shot. Afterwards I would not get near enough!
We then found one lizard each, unusual for me as you probably know by now. The first one entailed backtracking fifty metres to get on the other side of the trees and then going forward the same fifty metres to be in a position to see the subject. At least that put me on the right track to seeing the one I found after.
At the last bridge we saw that they have begun the new beautification construction work. On the other side of the river you can see where the previous work has been overgrown by nature!
We walked home on a route that we have missed for the last few months. At the moment it is very quiet, but I guess the shops and restaurants will open again soon.
Huan finished her morning on a high note by finding me a very colourful little chap.
Although our walk was quite a relaxed one today we both still fell into nap land for over two hours. It must be an age thing. On waking it was my turn to cook.
This is one that you should definitely try, we loved it. We had no chilli flakes so I used half of one of Huan’s red chillies that she keeps for such occasions. Because we were using baked beans, but without most of the juice, I skipped the honey. I think it would be better served as the recipe suggests, with nice crispy bread rolls, but we had it on a bed of rice in bowls. It worked well enough for us. Just for info, our red wine was Italian, Quattro Passi, which according to the bottle and Google, means ‘going for a stroll’. Very apt for us, don’t you think?
May 8th Huan decided to
modify my plans again and accompany on my walk. She did say that she would not
walk all the way with me. Yesterday’s plan, postponed until today, was to take
a video of the walk we did last week. It is now called the ‘Long Cut’ between
the first and third turn-offs from
She did manage to find a lizard a few metres after that, just outside the Party Service Centre.
Only one photo was taken on the walk between the first and third. It was taken with the Nikon Keymission; spot my finger trying to muscle in on the picture.
As the video taking ended so began the bird spotting. There were two of us trying to snap this little birdie, check out the attitude.
By this time my shirt was drenched, sweat was dripping down my arms
so it was time for a break. Cold coffee and the first cigarette of the month were
called for, sat on this bench.
More birds were found on the way home; do you think they saw me?
For those of you who follow our Blog, who may wonder about our little town, here is a link to the video that we made today. https://youtu.be/xLoQ2R5d1pw
May 9th Today was not a walking day but an admin one instead. Yesterday the dining room light started flashing and being over sixteen years old replacement bulbs are not very easy to find. Huan wanted to buy a new light fitting from Taobao, I preferred to buy local. I managed to win the argument by pointing out that I do not particularly want to be perched on top of ladders drilling new holes in the ceiling at my tender age! Measurements were needed.
During our shopping stroll I spotted a different bird in a cage, a pigeon. It looks very calm in this photo but it was actually far from that. It cooed, I cooed, if it could have reached me it would have given me a right good pecking!
In the afternoon delivery was made along with installation. As is often the case, mounting holes are not the same so we now have two visible holes in the ceiling.
Here is the pretty replacement fitting, off in the first photo, bright in the second and ‘warm’ in the third. I guess it will do.
Dinner was on me today, no recipes or photos. It was a good, old fashioned, English style stew. Chicken drumsticks, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and green beans with a few herbs and spices. It made a nice change and it was tasty, tasty, very very tasty, it was very tasty!
May 10th Poor Huan, she woke up next to the poor man’s Donald Trump this morning!
We could have gone for a countryside walk today but I thought Huan deserved a rest and a less strenuous stroll. She was happy enough with a riverside lizard search walk. Our first photo was a failure, a lizard that Huan found. This one is just to show you where we had to replace the lens cap and cross the road to avoid the man made rain.
Next it was my turn to find an insect. Did you know that these little creatures rub their back legs together? I have no idea why though.
Before the last bridge Huan found her first lizard. (It also turned out to be the last.)
Disappointment awaited us; we could not walk on the riverside path. It was blocked off for work in progress, new paving stones probably.
Seeing what looked like beans on a tree but knowing they weren’t we looked for open pods and found these. They turned out to be https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/209270-Tabebuia-rosea
Soon we came upon the workmen removing the existing paving stones. We were still walking along the not too busy main road.
Not far from the end we were able to go down to the riverside path again, where work had not yet begun. Maybe we’ll find some of our usual lizards down here we thought. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case, they were all in hiding today. Look carefully though and you will see the ‘beans’ I mentioned before, some open with seeds.
Walking back towards the main road, we took opposite sides of the road just in case one of us could find something to take pictures of. Here’s the boss doing her bit. The questioning look on her face was because I had found a subject, a tree with ten or more ‘empty’ insects. I could not fit them all in so here are four of them.
Revenge was on Huan’s mind today. As I often take photos of her when she goes to the ATM she decided that she would do the same for me.
A different pair of little chicks appeared today, just so that Huan could see them!
On our way home we popped into KMC to buy ‘two reduced for Friday’ chickens, for our weekend salad, one for each day. While Huan was waiting I wandered round and round making up the kilometres. Did you know that KMC have musical burgers?
And that was Friday!
May 11th Saturday means it’s market day and we were quite looking forward to it. We’ve missed it while it was transferred to its temporary location. The authorities have clamped down a little so it doesn’t extend as far as it used to but it was still busy.
I almost got Huan to pick a chicken up.
Shortly after, this young lady tried to sell us some of her birds. I told her that Huan doesn’t know how to kill chickens, or geese come to that.
Somewhere in the sea, there must be a lot of legless octopodes, although where they would find the alcohol is anybody’s guess. PS https://www.iflscience.com/octopi-octopodes-or-octopuses-whats-the-correct-plural-for-octopus-71050
Despite the fact that we walk through the market every week, we very rarely buy anything there. That is down to me not wanting to carry bags of vegetables for many kilometres. Instead we buy what we need for the weekend from ‘lizard market’. Here’s the Minister of Finance paying the bill before handing everything over to the mule followed by a nice view of the avenue.
Almost home and the new construction at the end of our road is having its clothing removed. It’s quite a nice looking building. Let’s hope whoever lives in the apartments doesn’t cover it with security screens. The bottom few floors are supposed to be for business which has us hoping that we will get an RT Supermarket in Wuzhishan.
After lunch and a nap it was time for a bit of mild OCD for me. I replaced all my red and white coat hangers in my wardrobe with yellow ones. Huan took the red ones and the white ones will be given to the maintenance people for recycling. We have had them for probably twenty years and many of them had begun changing colour to a dirty yellow. What can I sort out next?
May 12th Another long cut video was the plan for today followed by a bus home. Here I am just before Rendishan with the driver of the #4 bus and a one of his passengers. My bemused look is because I am trying to understand the route that Huan is trying to explain to me.
About half an hour later my videography was paused, Huan had found a lizard.
It wasn’t long before she
interrupted me again! This little fellow is not climbing a tree, he is trying
to climb over a log to escape from the big eye in the sky!
‘Over the top’ and heading down the other side we found an orchard, guava we think.
Soon I was frustrated yet again by being interrupted mid-speech about another lizard. That clip was deleted from the ensuing video.
Almost at the end I needed a water stop. This chap had fairly good English and recommended the water he was holding before I said a word. I agreed with him that water was good and then told him that betel nut was bad and would give him throat problems. That was not very well received at all, what is he thinking here?
My second water stop was cancelled, the bus was already there. It was almost empty too.
Walking from the bus to the house I had to take this photo. Unfortunately I could not fit the whole of the first word in, but the whole thing says “Chafing Dish”. I’m not sure what it is supposed to say but I doubt very much that it would agree with Google’s definition.
Right outside our downstairs front door the director found another lizard. I managed a fair few photographs of this one, as he scuttled off to avoid us.
With our ‘long cut’ and the walk from the bus to the house we went over the ten kilometre mark. If you want to see the ‘long cut’, go here - https://youtu.be/sQET5BboA0A
May 13th Not much to report today and no photos whatsoever. All we did was shopping in the morning and then for me it was Taobao. More coat hangers were needed and new toilet brushes. I then spent ages trying to find some new shorts for me. I love the description of the ones I bought last time, eight or nine years ago. 花花公子中年休闲西装短裤男夏宽松纯棉大码中老年爸爸装五分裤子 translates as “Playboy middle-aged casual suit shorts men's summer loose cotton large size middle-aged and elderly dad's trousers”! Thinking of changing the type I found these 纯棉水洗多口袋短裤中老年男士宽松大码五分裤爸爸松紧腰大裤衩薄, they translate as “Pure cotton washed multi-pocket shorts for middle-aged and elderly men, loose large size five-quarter pants for dad, elastic waist, large pants, thin pants”. Don’t you just love online shopping?
So, if you want to see pictures of me wearing my new shorts some time in the future, then you will have to make sure you keep reading my Blog posts. Of course you can always subscribe to our Youtube channel as well, don’t worry, we won’t try to sell you anything! From ‘er indoors, and from me wherever I am told to be, bye for now, see you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment