February 18th “What a drag it is getting old” courtesy of his eminence Mick Jagger. Not quite the right song for me of course. We could have a song from this list but I have no idea which one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Day For me it was another day, another hospital!
It was a scheduled visit mind you, my annual heart check up. We’d probably be sitting around for ages between tests and doctors.
Our first stop, after paying the consultation fee, was the doctor, in the heart department. That strange object in front of the gentleman you can see is a blood pressure monitor. They made me stick my arm in it too; to my surprise I was fine.
Soon I was back in the cashier’s
queue to pay for all the tests I was going to have, and the medicines of
course. Normally Chinese people are limited to one month’s supply because they
are using their health cards. We explained to the doctor that we would be going
to
Huan was busy with her camera as usual; here I am having my arm emptied, again!
From there it was off to the ultrasound department followed closely by the ECG department.
And that was it for the morning,
I had the heart test results in my grubby little paws but I had to wait until
four in the afternoon to collect the blood test results. I still think the whole
thing is far more efficient than it is in the
Back home I was too lazy to make a healthy lunch so I had a Paddington one instead! I enjoyed every last bite. After a suitable rest, but no nap, it was time to prepare the ingredients for tonight’s dinner, chilli a la Bob again. From the left, top row first, we have bag of rice on top of homemade tomato paste, (made from two large skinned tomatoes, bag of unknown spice that we get when we buy barbecued duck and a dash of tomato sauce) a bowl of chopped garlic and onions, and another bag of rice on top of a tin of kidney beans. The front row, from the left has a bowl of chopped (白玉菇, Báiyù gū) white jade mushrooms, a bag of minced beef and a bowl of chopped red jalapeno peppers. Cooking would be done when we returned home.
At the hospital you only have to present you blood test bar code to the machine and the results are printed there and then. Today we had some helpers.
I had four pages of print-outs;
yes a grand total of 49 different tests. 43 were within the normal limits, the
other 6 were not enough to worry about. In fact the doctor, who we could pop in
and see again without another appointment, said I would be fine to wait another
year for the next test. He also added that it would be better if I were to eat
more meat. Well, I am not going to argue with that! We will of course take all
the paperwork to
Back home it was straight into the kitchen for me, no photographs of the cooking process or the final dish. You will have to guess from the ingredients you can see above. It was delicious and there was just enough left for Huan to have some for breakfast tomorrow. Relaxation was the order of the evening, just update this post, do a little Chinese and watch some more TV.
February 19th No hospital today, just a smiling face.
Can you guess what the big smile is for? Another free medical check of course!
Off we headed afterwards, towards town, via the riverside near our house.
And just where were we headed? Into town, a little shopping for Bob.
First though I sent Huan down the stairs alone to buy her Wednesday and Thursday lottery tickets. If only she could win, then we wouldn’t need lifts or stairs!
Shopping was easy. We needed a new battery for the doorbell, the outside pushbutton, so I had suggested toy shops. I knew they also sold games and clocks and things. Huan didn’t believe me, she never does, but the first shop knew straight away without even a close look. This time we only bought one as the spare we had in the house had dropped from 12V to 1V over the years. It lasts a long time in the bell push!
We stopped to chat to the ‘other old man’ on the way home.
Finally, at home, I spotted a bird on the top floor of our building. Huan couldn’t see it all and thought I would not be able to capture it. She was not far off; it is not a good snap!
That was the end of our incredibly busy day!
February 20th Happy birthday to me, I got a red envelope from the love of my life and then another visit to the hospital. Nothing urgent was needed, just a visit to the ENT department.
The doctor decided that I had nothing wrong at all, just gave me the name of some drops to use “if the problem returns”. I hope he is right. So then we had a little walk, first to the town square.
The quality of that photo leaves a lot to be desired. These two look better!
Huan then wanted the lanterns hanging around, big ones and small ones. The second photo looks rough again, at this time I had no idea why.
Being early we headed off to Little Island Park, checking out the view on the way.
Egrets were seen in the river but every attempt to snap them was absolutely awful. I found more birds as well, but the results were just as bad. If you look at this next photo, where I had given up actually trying to focus on a any bird, there is one there. It is on a rock in the lower foreground but you might have to strain your eyes a little.
We had gone separate ways around the approach to the bridge, today I had used the stairs and Huan had taken the easy route. She didn’t see the birds that I missed! She did catch up with me just as I was asking this Grandma if she wanted me to take a photo of her and her grandson. She was very happy about that although her grandson spent most of the time looking at Huan!
Huan did find a couple of bugs for me, I tried.
We were being followed and listened to as we crossed the bridge to go home. Eventually the snowbirds had to ask where we were both from, because Huan was speaking English with me. Once the conversation began then Huan had to record it for posterity, again!
After lunch and a nap, followed by coffee, Huan had to pay a visit to the government office, to sort out something to do with the land deeds. I stayed home, did the photos and lazed around. That was until I remembered that I said I would cook today. PS This is an easy one Dot!
I did add a carrot today, did less frying and more stewing, it was yummy! Before Huan came home I thought I would clean my phone cover just in case that was the problem. This is what I saw when I took the protective cover off.
And this is what I saw when I turned it to see the other side!
I think it may well be time for a
new phone, not a flagship of course; another mid-range will do for me. It may
well be another Xiaomi, apart from batteries I’ve had no trouble. The second
and third batteries were also not Xiaomi originals; they were just what the
phone shop had in stock. In fact the nearest Xiaomi store to us is in Sanya,
and the best one for us is in
February 21st The weather is up and down as fast as something I won’t repeat but that I had to explain to Huan. She hit me! Just look around us today.
We were heading to Huan’s bank and then other banks and government buildings so we started off by going over Little Island. It is the way to her bank. Having seen birds yesterday, without the camera, I rather hoped we would see some today, even without the sunshine. We did, but again not really near enough.
Some bigger ones were even further away!
At the boss’s bank all the fish ran away from me!
As a consolation for me I took this ‘artistic snap of a posed flower pot within a flower pot’. That was probably not their intention when they put it out there but I liked it!
Then it was time to walk through the town to the bank that deals with government payments, in at least, I don’t know about out.
Now I find most things here in
Thankfully Huan was only in there for a few minutes. I didn’t
accompany her because I did not want to walk up to the third floor. On the way
home we stopped by our phone shop, just to have a gander. Here I am explaining
to the sales assistant that years and years ago
Almost home and a friend found me.
We seem to have walked for miles so after a pulled pork sandwich for lunch, naps were most definitely needed. After coffee poor Huan had to go out yet again. I refused to go with her; I felt that I had walked enough for one day. I browsed Taobao for a new phone instead. She was out to collect our ‘new’ title deeds which now include the land (which still belongs to the government by the way). She was happy, not only did she get the job done but she found a lizard too! He looks like a real big boy, don’t you agree?
Did I order a new phone? Well sort of, I chose one, and then I decided that Huan should have it and I can use hers until that packs up or until we can afford something better. She decided that Taobao was too expensive so found the same phone on Pinduoduo. Now we wait and see.
February 22nd It was market day but there was no way I was going to do our usual full circle. First though we handed the car over to the garage, Donald needs a service and something is falling off his bottom! Almost immediately we then spotted some tiny birds in the trees. They were so tiny it was almost impossible to capture them, even on maximum zoom.
Instead of walking all the way we decided to take the #2 bus to the bap and sausage market, planning to walk home from there through the riverside market. Right outside our gate someone had thoughtfully left a chair so I could sit with 旺财, Wàng cái a.k.a. Lucky! Huan said that he looks like my dog in the photographs she took; only one is shared here.
In the first market we decided that it was time to revert to salads at the weekend, no more stews for a while That meant rotisserie duck this week. The third photo is obviously sausages but I didn’t buy any of them, instead I bought the piece at the front, some kind of processed pork. It is rather nice on sandwiches,
We both agreed that we had to take this next photograph; neither of us remembers seeing a purple cauliflower before. Google was very informative.
Everywhere was busy this morning, it appeared as though every man and his dog had decided to visit our little town markets today.
It’s been quite a while since we have updated you with progress in the river; we have had other things on our mind. Today we got a look. It appears that apart from the clean-up they have just about finished. One of the ‘gates’ is in the ‘open’ or ‘down’ position to allow water to still flow downriver. Of course we are still not sure just why it has been put here.
By this time we had bought everything that we needed, my leg was feeling the effort and the crowds were still not easing off. We found a way out early and headed for home.
February 23rd The weather was not so good today so we used that as an excuse to just do nothing. What’s more, we both really enjoyed it!
February 24th Last night I tried having no additional ‘over the counter’ pain medication. Sleep was not too bad, no pain although I was uncomfortable a lot of the night. This morning however I was wondering just what I had done wrong. Long John Silver had nothing on me; I was limping even in the house. Still, we only had to do a little today, first claim Donald from the garage, not too bad, only ¥430.00 for a service and a minor repair. While Huan was paying the bill I was busy ambushing the express delivery man to see if he had anything for us. He did, Huan’s new phone. Next was the usual weekly shop, no photos taken at all there.
Back home and after lunch work began. First Huan’s new phone was set up and all the additional apps that she doesn’t need or want were removed. Next we had to transfer all the data from her old phone to her new one. Xiaomi’s app ‘mi-mover’ does an excellent job of that. There were a few hiccoughs when she tried to log in to her Wechat account but we got there eventually. Here is her new phone, front and back.
If you look carefully at the screen view above you might well see that there are two front facing cameras. Both of them are 32mp cameras and together they give you some selfie flexibility. Here we are giving them a try, first at 1x then at 0.8x (or 0.6x, can’t remember) and then at 2x. These photos have not been downloaded from the phone but sent by Huan over Wechat so the quality is not as it should be. So far though, both the commander and I are happy enough with the results.
For me it was then back into the office to try and do the same with my ‘exploded’ phone and Huan’s old one. My first attempt with the moving app worked well enough until I tried to set up my own accounts, both Wechat and Xiaomi. Eventually I had to do a factory reset on Huan’s old phone and then go through all the transfer stuff again. This time, without too much effort, we got there. Once I was happy with the old phone I removed all the data from the ‘exploded’ one and did a factory reset on that too. Tomorrow we will take it to the phone repair shop and see if he wants a free gift. It will work with a new battery after all.
With
all the kerfuffle of sorting the phones out neither of us got a nap today and I
am feeling it now. Sleep should come easily tonight but I will take a couple of
pain pills just to be sure! All that we have left to do before returning to
