Another Three Points!

September 10^th Poor Donald, he had to go back to hospital today. Yesterday, during our shopping trip, we had noticed that his new eye wasn’t working, it wasn’t switching on. The cigar lighter had no power in it. I guessed that when the garage removed the front seat in order to install the new evaporator under the dashboard they either disturbed the wiring or blew a fuse. We left him there and went to the hospital to check when my ‘prescription doctor’ is on duty this week. He is not on until Friday so we had a walk around the town.

Down in the river they are still working like mad to get things finished. Last year they stopped all through the summer, this year they didn’t.

We separated for a short while; I walked on the parapet before climbing over the wall while Huan walked down below on a little wall to keep out of the mud.

We had a nice chat with this guy on our way home. As you can see he has a motorcycle and sidecar. His English was superb, his mother had been an English teacher and he had used records from Linguaphone to learn as well. He had also lived in the USA for ten years. His English though had a decidedly ‘British’ accent to it. He was stopped at the car shop to remove the seat from the sidecar so that his dog, a rottweiler, could sit there more comfortably. I asked him if he knew who ‘Wallace and Gromit’ were and to my surprise, he did.

Back home and we picked up Donald before lunch. He had blown a fuse, something I suppose I could have easily fixed myself. On the other hand, the garage now knows that it made a mistake and may take a little more care in the future.

With life being back to normal, no more Landlord duties and no more typhoon worries we were back to napping after lunch. I’m not sure if it’s a blessing getting old or a curse! Chef Bob was also required to get back into gear. Today’s dinner was, to most foreign eyes, a boring British ‘meat and two veg’ dinner. Luckily for me, Huan likes British food; in fact she will eat almost anything that I cook with no complaints. This was lamb chops with mashed potato and carrots and some tinned peas. The only thing missing was mint sauce but as the last jar we bought lasted literally years we have never bought any since. I know, the ‘plating’ looks unusual.

September 11^th What did we do this morning? To start with we dillied, and we dallied and then we dillied some more and dallied some more before deciding to go for a countryside walk. The weather forecast was for rain at noon so the decision seemed good. Within minutes, after Huan had bought her lottery tickets and I had gotten rid of the rubbish the rain started. Should we abandon our walk? Nope, we decided to continue, a good choice because the rain was just fine drizzle that fizzled out before we reached the road to somewhere.

Walking through Luobote village we took the high road. Don’t be misled by this picture, it looks like a dead end but it turns sharply to the right just before the greenery.

We skipped visiting the cows today on the supposition that the ground would be far too soggy in front of the byre. Instead we took another route through the village. This route has a steep hill that can be very slippery after rain. However, that was not today’s’ problem.

We had to go through the smaller village pathways.

We were soon back on track with Huan showing me a lizard that I just couldn’t see at all. Sometimes I fail to see where her granny finger is pointing. Eventually though I saw what she had seen and got a fairly decent picture of it. It was very small!

We took the top road on the other side of the village too where we found a new installation. Some people were busy putting up new roofs to better shelter their houses from the torrential rain we’ve been having. The village management had also been busy. This is an outside PA system that they use for weather warnings, along with other important announcements.

How would you like to live here? This little dwelling belongs to a one-legged man from the village; you can just about see his head in the picture if you search for it. He likes to live here, he has a dog to keep him company, some chickens and ducks and he grows a little food. He does also have family and they do check in on him to make sure he is fine.

As you know we often find strange things on the backs of cars so here’s another one for you. It certainly does not look like a happy little piglet, tied to the mounting with ropes!

And then, surprise surprise, it was my turn to find two lizards. They were very close together and in a spot where we have never seen any before. It must be the weather.

On the last leg, walking along the river to our house, I spotted this next one. Huan didn’t want to wait for me to photograph it; she thought it was just a mosquito. I knew it wasn’t although being so small I wasn’t really sure what it was either. After cropping and editing I found out that it is a striped lynx spider. More information here https://www.singaporegeographic.com/spider/striped-lynx-spider-with-boxing-pedipalps

With today’s walking hills were included. They were not big ones although one or two were quite steep. They certainly seemed to take it out of us and naps were very necessary!

September 12^th Plans are there to be changed. Huan suggested the landfill walk today, seemed like a good idea so I agreed, even put my boots on for it. Going down in the lift though I changed my mind. Tomorrow is a hospital day, top up on all the heart drugs that they insist I take, so wallet needed money. Hence a bank walk became the new plan. We did decide to go the long way round though, through lizard lane. Before we left our apartment complex the local clinic was in our little square giving free BP and Sugar tests. Huan accepted their offer, I didn’t. Here she is being weighed in advance.

The scales were off and had her being a lot lighter than she really is. That was blamed on them not being on a level surface. Here she is again for the other two tests.

Half an hour later we found a rude filler cap!

The riverside is still mostly inaccessible for walking so we had to stick to the pavement near the road. (For my American friends, read “the sidewalk near the pavement”.) Huan found me a very small, very fast squirrel; I failed to get a decent shot.

She then found me a tiny lizard which I did succeed in snapping.

It was then my turn to find another tiny one. Where have all the bigger ones disappeared to?

For a change here’s a slightly different view of Pointy Mountain. You can see that at this stage we are walking in the road and not on the riverside path.

Huan then found me another lizard, behind a tree, with no way for me to get a good angle. This is what I did get, cropped, straightened and rotated through 90⁰. What do you think?

We were stopped for a while by this gentleman wanting a chat. It seems that he home schools his children, something we thought was not allowed here. Each to their own.

While Huan was chatting to him I found yet another tiny lizard. This time I managed not to scare him off and got two photos.

Soon we were at the bank where I upset the Minister of Finance, just a little. If you know Huan then you will know that she is an inveterate planner. Today I happened to mention that one of these days we will need to visit the main branch to find out how to make sure that she has full access to my account should that become necessary. She may be an inveterate planner but like most Chinese people, those kinds of plans are taboo! At least the seeds are now sown.

The usual naps were needed after lunch after which chef Bob was on duty again. Today’s menu was chicken curry; both plates were cleaned with me having seconds and Huan saving a bowl for breakfast. She will probably heat it up unlike me when I was younger and single!

After dinner it was my turn to be upset, again. Despite me trying to be ever so careful whenever we drive through the old town I have managed to pick up another traffic penalty. The police must make an awful lot of money from the one crossroads where I believe I committed the ‘offence’.

September 13th Friday the thirteenth, an unlucky day so they say. Our unlucky day was last Saturday so today was an admin day with the first job being to visit the police station to ‘collect three points’ and pay ¥100.00 for breaking the traffic laws, again. I sat there quietly to accept my punishment; Huan of course gave them merry hell. It seems, according to the officers on duty, that many people have complained about the exact same spot, the one where we were also caught the last time, in July. The police however, are in the same boat as us, following the law, and thus they have no leeway in how they enforce it.

Walking home we passed by the sluice gate construction site. Yesterday the ‘basin’ had been just about empty with people working away inside it. Last night it rained, all night long. The ‘basin’ is now full again, could be a lido in fact.

Admin continued after lunch with a visit to the hospital to top up my meds. On the way out of our place we found a red dragonfly, quite a handsome one.

From the hospital it was a trip to the market where we hoped to buy some of that lovely pre-cooked belly pork for the weekend salad. Our piece appears to be missing!

Ah, there it is, being measured and chopped in half and sliced just the way we like it.

It’s Autumn Festival this week, also known as Moon Festival so snacks were needed to go with our afternoon coffees. A couple of packets of moon cakes should suffice.

That should have been the end of admin but it wasn’t. Unpacking the medicines before eating dinner we found that one of them had not been included in the bag. Spot the difference.

That entailed another visit to the hospital after dinner, to the pharmacy (or the dispensary as us Brits would call it). The counter staff said we should have taken the whole bag back with us. They couldn’t seem to understand that had we done that they would have had no way of knowing if we had just left some at home. In the end I asked if we could see my prescription that the doctor had printed, that would help us identify where the error was, either his, or theirs, or I lost something on the way home. It turned out that it was the doctor’s error. Lesson for me, check more carefully next time, also check the bag contents before leaving the hospital. Not to worry, I can buy one box outside to put me right along with all the rest.

September 14^th Saturday is market day so we set off to see if there even was a market today. The last time we had walked that way, when Huan walked down and I walked on the parapet, there was no through road for vehicles at all. Although repairs have not yet begun on the fallen embankment, a route had been cleared for the market vehicles so it was still on. All I found to take a photo of was three chickens in a row outside their little cages. Unfortunately, I did something wrong so none of them were in focus!

After the market we popped into the Fodelai Hotel car park, a place where we can sometimes spot birds. Today there weren’t any so Huan took a photo of me instead.

He’s a big fellow isn’t he? Here he is again, by himself this time.

Past the hotel we found a little kitten that answered when I called it. Huan took far too many photos; unfortunately I could not make a gif out of them.

Having bought the salad makings Huan then dragged me to the fish market for next week’s fish. We were doing that today so that we would not have to take the risk of people crossing the road in front of the car and the cameras catching us out, again! On the way back home, the only subject we found was another bit of fallen wall and soil, this one does not appear to be much of a problem though. I would like to get up there and see if there are squirrels or other creatures but we are not sure where ‘there’ is.

I had planned a sneaky fag walk after lunch but I got too lazy! Only naps and Hawaii Five-0.

September 15^th Yesterday we had a delivery in the evening, too late for me to work. At least that was my opinion and I stuck to it. This morning though, work was needed. It was time for me to replace the kitchen tap, put in a slightly less complex one. Here is the ‘before’ view.

That was followed by the disassembly and removal stage.

Next came the assembly of the new tap and its associated pipes.

The taps in the wall were giving me a problem so I sent the foreman downstairs to buy two new taps and find someone to help put them in. I didn’t want to risk breaking pipes off in the wall. While she was gone I did successfully remove the two old taps.

Eventually I managed to get on with ‘my’ job again. It took some argy bargy with the boss but I got there. Here I am connecting all the pipes before testing.

We tested using a bowl and then it was time to re-install the drain hose. That almost brought us to blows, with each of us thinking we knew better than the other. Left to my own devices I sorted it out and then said “na na na na na” or words to that effect!

Finally, just in time for lunch, the job was completed. Both above and below the sink now look better with much less clutter. Using the ‘spray’ head with this tap is a lot easier than the old one, no dangly bits under the sink that you have to pull up. Et voila!

And then before we knew it Sunday was gone, in a flash. Huan had expressed the urge to walk after lunch but luckily for me, the rain came down. It stayed for the rest of the day too.

September 16^th Monday rolls around with alarming regularity, every week. It’s the time between Mondays that worries me; it seems to get shorter and shorter! This morning was just the usual, shopping with the boss. After lunch, and because all that shopping took it out of her, Huan had to have a nap. As for me, well I had not had a fag since 3^rd September so I needed a solo walk with requisite break en-route. Less than fifty metres from the house I found two of Huan’s favourites, one very small and the second miniscule.

Before I reached ‘Little Island’ I found a little bug, we glared at each other.

Nothing was found on the island but the views at the other side were fine.

Having crossed the irrigation canal I found my next subject, another bug.

My planned route was along the riverside again. However, it looks like it will be some time before we can walk on the path next to the river; construction work is still in progress.

I tried another couple of subjects, with no success at all. However, I did get one last chance. Remember last Tuesday when we mentioned Wallace and Gromit? Guess who this is!

And so another week comes to a close. Here’s hoping that we can avoid the dreaded penalty points on my licence for a little longer. Drive safely! See you soon.