Three Weeks And Counting!

January 14^th Someone slept a little easier last night. However, she kept me from sleep for a great deal of it. Huan snores, as do most people I suppose, quite regularly but it doesn’t normally worry me. Last night though, maybe because of her nose, it sounded very weird, that’s what kept me from dropping off so easily. This morning walks were out of the question, we had been called back to Sanya by our tenant. She wanted to end her contract and have her deposit returned, Huan had agreed. My first job was cleaning the car windows and lights.

A little later than expected we were on the highway.

Our dashcam was operational all the way of course and we did share a video on Facebook of a few minutes in Sanya. https://youtu.be/UVi-QswmaZk This is a screen shot of that video. The very observant of you will notice that the weather in Sanya was not so good today. Wuzhishan’s was almost as bad so it turned out to be a good day for a drive.

Outside our Sanya apartment it was still Christmas at the Russian pizza place.

Inside the apartment we saw the reasons for the tenant leaving. To be honest I had thought it would be so much worse but at the same time, it shouldn’t even be this bad after the time and money we spent on it last time.

Our tenant was a teacher from the local middle school and her rent was being paid for her by the school. I suspect that she asked them about the state of the walls and they suggested she move out. Shame it went wrong, if the job had been done well we could have tenants for the next few years. Never mind, we’ll try yet again to sort it out. Being so close to Spring Festival though we will postpone any actions for at least a month. Back home we went and parked outside one of the maintenance team’s window, I hope he doesn’t mind!

All that was left for today was eating out, my treat!

January 15^th There were two tired teddy bears in our house again today and one of them was also a bit grubby. It had been a while since I had given myself a good scrub so I leapt into the bath for a couple of hours. I took a good book with me of course, Hammond Innes’s ‘The Big Footprints’. I’m sure reading his books takes me back a few years.

After lunch we opted to be just lazy! Huan had to go out after dinner though, just across the road to buy her lottery tickets. Sods law says she left her phone behind so I had to answer it, then go downstairs and collect the express delivery. Mind you, it was a bit big and heavy for the good lady to carry it. Our new microwave had arrived.

Well I say new but some of you may have observed that we have gone backwards in our choices. This one doesn’t have a thousand different buttons with an infinite number of combinations. It is like the one your grandparents had. In fact the comments on Taobao were very much along the lines of “very simple”, “the children can use it” and even “my parents find it easy”. We just decided that all we really need is a power level and a timer!

January 16^th Huan is just about back in the land of the living today whereas I appear to have gone backwards. My ear is blocked again, I’m exhausted and my throat is killing me. It feels as though whatever bug attacked me it is mutating daily to ensure I ‘stay down’! Today though we decided to fight back and head for the great outdoors, well the town and river anyway. First we went looking for squirrels.

We didn’t find any squirrels but I did find a pretty little bird.

Then along the riverside, but too far above and away, we spotted an egret, a one legged one.

Meanwhile, restoration of the riverside market street continues with these pretty street lights.

We’ll closely follow that with the ‘light of my life’!

You must also be due an update on how the new sluice is coming on, so, here you are. I must say that this side is progressing much faster than the far side did. Work doesn’t have to keep stopping out of the rainy season.

Another little bird next, found just before the library. I have to show you two photos, the first was from further away but he has seen me and is giving me the eye. I managed to get a little nearer for the second one, shame he didn’t give me the eye again.

Having read the China Daily news, on Facebook, yesterday we also set off looking for Wuzhishan’s New Year market. Despite searching in all the usual places we failed, more research needed. Mind you, the annual orange tree festival is there in the town square and Huan insisted I take some photos. Here they are, all in one. PS Do you think our tradition of tangerines (or mandarins) in our Christmas stockings comes from this Chinese tradition?

Worn out and also late home it was no lunch for me, just a banana and some water, a small lunch for Huan and then much needed naps for both of us. For a nice change I was back in the kitchen cooking won-ton noodle soup and very nice it was too. In fact it was so nice that we ate it all before thinking of taking any photographs of it!

January 17^th Another day of Huan improving and me deteriorating. As well as my ear and my throat I now also have some swelling in my lymph glands, AAaaaaaaarrrgh! We still decided on a walk this morning, planning to pick up out express deliveries when we returned home and then buy some medicine. We had the camera with us, just in case, and almost immediately we spotted a whole line up of birds. Of course they were too far away!

We were headed down squirrel walk today and for the first time in a while we actually found some. Huan saw at least four; I think they may have been a family having fun. In the first photo, if you look carefully you can see a little one further down the tree.

Our friendly goats have now all disappeared; their pen is empty and has been cleaned out. The farmer must have found them a new home.

Our route was down the road to somewhere.

We were actually on the look out for the snake the girls had found the other day. Unfortunately, the snake did not want to show itself so here are some flowers instead.

As usual, wherever we are, Huan will find egrets and insist I try to get a lovely photograph of them. I do try, but they are invariable too far. These two are not bad though.

Parcels in hand we headed to the chemists shop, the pharmacy or the medicine shop whichever one you prefer. Our usual counter person was not there and the one who was wanted to give me the same drops as I had been given a week ago. Medicine was out of the question without a doctor signing off on it. I can’t complain about that. Home we went, for a very English lunch of cheese, onion and salad sandwiches followed by an attempted nap for me. I failed, my leg was not cooperating. Huan didn’t bother.

Afternoons have to include a coffee break so once that was over we headed to the hospital. Having paid to see the doctor we were then sent to the old building to the ENT department. This is not the waiting room; it is the doctor’s surgery.

On the wall was the electronic information board which was doing its best to confuse us. We were number 8 and it went up to number 7 before going back down to number 4!

We had no idea what was going on, this was the office with the usual ‘anyone goes’.

I decided to have a little walk around and take some views from the windows and balconies.

When I got back to Huan nothing had changed, still no one seemed to know what was going on. I peered into the next office, the ophthalmologist’s, and found that the ENT doctor was actually doing two jobs via the connecting door in the middle. I told Huan we would give up here and try her clinic instead. Refund in hand, off we went. While we were there Huan forgot all about trying to take hundreds of photos of me. When I was done though they told her that it was time she had a check up so here she is doing just that.

Why the big smile? Because her check up is free of course, she also gets a free gift every time. Today it was a kitchen apron. Did I get a gift? Of course not, I had to pay for my doctor, a course of antibiotics, a course of vitamin C and an oral spray of some kind. My fingers are now crossed!

On the way home we saw something that is very rare here, a traffic jam. Our traffic lights are not operational again yet but even so, this never happens.

January 18^th Once again I had a plan for today, another video day, this time of the market. We are already over half way through January and we haven’t made a video yet. My body had other ideas, while I could have walked and taken the Keymission camera any narration would have been terrible. We skipped the video for today.

Down at the market, or should I say Tea Street, we found that the market had expanded beyond its normal boundaries. The last photo shows the boundary, where they should have stopped behind. I guess nobody really cares and business was good anyway.

Business was very brisk everywhere we went although my eyes were very tired and I didn’t find much to take photos of. Here’s Huan going nutty!

The market had also extended up the other road, all the way to the Fodelai Hotel.

And next we have a grumpy chap. I asked Huan to try and lift the ‘skirts’ so I could tell which model of BMW convertible was being desecrated here. The owner was having none of it!

Now you never see the market where we actually buy our veggies on a Saturday. This is a stall in the bap and sausage market, the one we usually frequent.

Back home our traffic lights were being worked on. When we saw the ‘green man’ we set off across the road. None of the cars stopped! Looking around me I noticed that all the lights were in fact on green. Luckily nobody was hurt.

And that was our day. I did have to finish off the weekend’s stew but that wasn’t difficult.

January 19^th Neither of us was in the mood for going out in the morning, or the afternoon come to that. Instead we had a little saunter after dinner, just around the town. We only took our phones so no spectacular images, not that you would expect them from us anyway.

We do have some images of the progress of the riverside walkway down at our end of town. In fact we even walked on it this evening.

New Year is coming so here’s a nice basket full of snakes for you.

Being New Year the festivities have begun, or should I say the ‘how much can we make this year’ celebrations. I did try and explain to these two girls that the chances of throwing the hoop over one of the baskets was infinitesimally small. Still, they had fun I suppose.

Some of the New Year market stalls have also appeared on shopping street.

January 20^th Daddy’s birthday today, he would have been one hundred and five. He’s up with the stars now, shining down on us, with Mam too. Life goes on down here so it was shopping for us. I do not enjoy it at this time of the year, even the car park was horrendous today. Still we got what we needed for a week. After lunch Huan had a nap but as I had woken very late today, after nine, I decided that some vitamin D and fresh air would probably do me good. I kept it local though, Little Island Park and a bit of the river.

Here’s the last view before I crossed the river.

While crossing the bridge I saw a kingfisher, beating something on a rock. I had no idea what it was beating until I got home and cropped the photo, a huge crop it was too. It is beating a river shrimp; I think it then took it to its nest. There's a video here - https://youtu.be/C2V0FFaEV1U

The government are doing a lot of work on Tea Street, beautifying the buildings. It may seem strange that they are only doing the outsides but there is a reason for that. In the dim and distant past all the apartments belonged to workshops and other government units. However, just like the UK did with council houses, the Chinese government allowed people to buy their apartments. Many people did just that. Look carefully and you will see that not all window frames are the same. We think it’s a good job, we have only one complaint. The teas shops will spoil the look, the aesthetics if you like, by putting up their horrible awnings again. It would be so nice if they used a Li or Miao style of roof instead.

It looks very much as though the New Year Market will be back on Tea Street this year, keep your eyes open for the video, coming soon.

Let’s finish the week off with another bird. He had his back to me but when I whistled he did turn around and have a look. Oh for that longer lens eh!

And so, from the (still) invalids, Huan and I, it’s time to say goodbye for another week. Huan is almost mended, she keeps having minor setbacks, mostly involving sneezing. As for me, well it’s three weeks and counting! Any one have any ideas? See you soon.