The Waiting Game – Part 2.

March 11^th There is a slight discrepancy in the order of the photographs today. The first photo in the post acts as the ‘thumbnail’ when I share the post. I like you to see something worthwhile and the first photo I took did not come up to the mark. In fact I ended up deleting it completely. Dogs came next but still not worthy of pole position so here is a panorama instead, taken when we crossed the river to start our homeward journey.

To keep the dogs together here is another out of order photo. This gentleman is taking advantage of the ‘new’ river by having a swim. Note how he is protecting his hair from the water, or, perhaps protecting the water from his hair. You have to do that in Chinese swimming pools. What got me though was that he was not wearing any goggles!

Next we can show you the three dogs. The first is a new one for us, a one year old toy dog of some sort. It was friendly enough and tried to follow me home. The second one is Mao Mao who disappeared for over a year but still remembered me when he came back a few weeks ago. The third you know already, the other partner of the two old men! Here I was chatting to the little girl who sometimes sits on his back.

Back at our place I had to unwrap Huan’s express delivery first. She has another new purse, her need is far greater than mine, and my wallet hardly ever sees the light of day.

Passing the rubbish area I noticed that our old mirror from the guest bathroom was still there so I took a swift photo of me in it.

Back home it was back into the kitchen for me to finish off today’s dinner. I had cooked most of it this morning. First I had made a tomato paste using two skinned tomatoes, some ginger powder, some paprika powder, some nutmeg powder and a dollop of tomato sauce. It was then the frying pan’s turn, in went the chopped onions and garlic followed shortly thereafter by the chopped red jalapeno style pepper. Once the onion was translucent in went the minced beef, lid on simmer until beef done. It was then time to add the tomato paste, a little water and the chopped celery and another quick simmer. That was it for the morning session. This evening all I had to do was reheat it and add the tin of kidney beans, without the tin of course! Once all was hot and ready we ate it with a French baguette instead of rice. It made a nice change, for both of us.

March 12^th We had one of those alarming mornings again, a trip to Sanya was called for to pay the workman and check his work. I wanted to go early because I needed to visit my bank first to get a new card, bring my passbook up to date, change UK£ to China¥ etc. All of this needed to be done before our next trip to Haikou. This was my view when the bank work was finished and I was waiting for the boss to join me back at the car.

We found a car park fairly easily this morning and set off for a little walk before our date with the painter. Snowbirds were really out in force down here. In all the times we have visited in the last ten years, we have never seen so many down by the riverside.

Huan had fancied a visit to the ‘seaside’ but the weather was not so good and time was limited so we just visited the marina instead. I do like seeing boats!

Birds don’t seem quite so frightened down here, or maybe it’s just an illusion.

I did my Good Samaritan photo duties again, the couple were well pleased.

We walked back to our place along the opposite bank of the river. Huan spotted an egret, not really good enough for here though. The scenery made up for it.

Mind you, as we reached the park area, the snowbird crowds grew again.

Crossing the bridge we found egrets again, these two deserve to be seen.

Supposedly the weather was supposed to have begun getting much better as of yesterday. It may well be warmer and more humid but the sun is still hiding.

We found a nice place for lunch.

Huan enjoyed her lunch very much, I was not so pleased. It was not the fault of the restaurant mind you; it was ordering the wrong dish, our fault.

Still, back in Wuzhishan I was happy to have burger and chips, just for a change. Huan’s was a fish burger, mine was a chicken thigh burger, and I really enjoyed the change.

March 13th Another bleak day, it threatened to rain most of the day but we only got the odd spot here and there. I cooked our dinner in the morning, a pork curry today. Mind you I had to wait my turn in the kitchen, Huan decided to make some flatbreads first.

After lunch, and a nap for Huan, we had a stroll around the town and river. We didn’t find much today though, a bird barely moving up in the sky?

I had an ulterior motive for getting Huan out of the house today. Yesterday, to make sure my bank account was functioning correctly, I had withdrawn some of the changed money. Today I made Huan put it into her account. She was initially reluctant until I reminded her that she would be buying all my food for possibly a month in the hospital! Once that was done we set off towards home, along the upper shopping street. More birds were seen.

Would you believe it, down at the river we spotted even more.

Our last photo of the day is not a bird. In fact until we got home and looked at it on the computer I thought it was just the end of a tree branch. Huan had seen what she thought was a lizard; I couldn’t see anything, even through the camera on zoom. She was right though, again!

Back home the curry tasted superb!

March 14^th With our trip to Haikou coming up and not knowing how often we, (or rather I) will be able to escape the confines of the wards, we decided a look at the countryside was imperative today. Here are a couple of views for you, down river and uphill.

In Luobote village Huan had me chatting to a kid.

I decided we needed this view as I made myself a promise that if my leg improves enough we will walk through there again to the mansions on the hill.

Huan was in good form for spotting lizards today and of course taking photographs of me trying to get photographs of them!

At least I got a good shot for her today.

We were really enjoying the walk today, the weather was good, hot enough to burn me, and the scenery was beautiful, as it usually is. The second photo is a little track that we went down and found a small bamboo house, for chickens we think.

I also found a spot of gold down there.

Then it was back to more of that gorgeous scenery.

“Join us for a drink” they asked. I told lies and made excuses vaguely pointing at my leg. I did ask them why there were no ladies present but we never got a coherent answer.

Not long after Huan did it again, she is a master of the art now.

If you can never get enough of the wonderful scenery, never fear, we are here to help.

Homeward bound we found that the students were soon to be homeward bound as well. We think these buses are for the nearby boarders who go home at weekends.

Huan was in seventh heaven today, she also found squirrels!

Is there an eighth heaven? Not only did we hear frogs but for the first time in years we managed to get a photo of one. Mind you it was still too far away!

Let’s finish the day off with another scenery pick, albeit including one human in the middle.

March 15^th Our last market day for a while. As the day approaches I find myself getting just a little bit apprehensive, even though there is no surgery involved. At least I hope there isn’t. I guess not knowing exactly what the procedure is or the timetable doesn’t really help. Needless to say, I have not let my leader know my worries, no need to worry her yet. Off we set for the market, the usual way around, our first ‘walk’ was amazing, just look at that stride!

The market was again quite busy today, not so much that we couldn’t walk though. It even extended far beyond its normal limits, almost to the second bridge. Both of these photos were taken outside of the market barriers.

In the river, the new gates were doing their job well.

Last week we showed you the new awnings but forgot to show them in use on Saturday. We have corrected that omission today.

We stopped at the Xinjiang bread stall to buy a pastie for my breakfast and to show the stall holders the photo Huan took of them with me way back in 2022. While we there this old couple ambushed me, they said they were not Chinese but actually Canadian. They had worked there for thirty years and were now back in China for retirement.

All we needed today was a little salad stuff. I had made an executive decision that we would boil up all the eggs in the fridge and have egg salad today and tomorrow. Coincidentally, we also had some previously bought Xinjiang bread to go with it. Huan was disappointed that we had no birds, lizards or any other wildlife today so here’s another view of the river.

March 16^th What is wrong with our weather? It was miserable again today; we were rained off this morning and then rained on in the afternoon when we took the risk! It wasn’t raining when we went out so we did find a tiny lizard. Of course we had no camera with us!

We didn’t stop for a drink, but then again, we never do. These two did though.

I spotted a cat in a cage so I had to go and have a chat to it. There were a few children there too so Huan had to get busy with her phone. I am clutching my throat because I can’t even sing the ‘abc’ song without croaking anymore! PS The fifth child is inside somewhere.

By the time the rain started attacking us we had found some shelter to walk under.

I had to take a photo of this machine because I could not tell Huan what it was for. Maybe if I had looked underneath it I could have made an educated guess. It turns out to be a ‘cold milling machine’ which, as per their website “Cold milling machines are used to remove asphalt and concrete surfaces quickly and efficiently. In doing so, they create a level foundation with the specified width and depth that is required for paving new surface layers of uniform thickness.” Nothing to do with flour and bread then. With all our road works over the preceding months it does rather beg the question of why we have never seen one before today.

Now Huan made me take the last two, to show you the rain. Yes, we were being rained upon at this time. I knew the phone camera would not show the rain; even the ‘real’ camera has a problem doing that. Suffice to say that we did arrive home wet and rather cool.

March 17^th A nice walk in the sunshine would have done me the world of good today. Unfortunately that was not to be, the weather was playing games again! A walk was needed though, for both me and for Huan to buy her lottery tickets. On our way we passed a very windy spider’s web, full of all sorts. This one was moving though so I guess it’s his web.

We had no rain but we had no sun either.

Going into town we spotted Doudou, (Dodo) so I called out to him. Huan thought he might not remember me but he ran up to me, said hello, and then retreated up to the top step where he proceeded to offer me his paw. He’s never done that before!

Here’s another cuddly on a scooter, I don’t think this one will stay this colour for very long!

What do you know, we found another pooch. This is a new one, perhaps three months old. This was me explaining to the owner that she needs to give him a shoe or a slipper of hers to chew on. That way he will not chew up every piece of footwear he can find.

Once home we decided to pack everything ready for Haikou to save time in the morning. Once it was all ready we put it in the car. It looks like we are off on our hols doesn’t it? The pilot bag with the computer, its accessories and some books to read will be put in tomorrow.

All that was left was dinner and I had told Huan not to cook, we would use Chinese New Year leftovers and our half a baguette. Butter was a must for me of course, not for Huan though. While I was enjoying my scoff I noticed the baguette bag. I’m not sure what they are trying to say here. Did they translate from French to Chinese and then Chinese to English? What do you think? It still did the job and tasted great.

So there you have it. We will be up early tomorrow and off to Haikou. We are not sure what the ‘plan’ is when we get there, if I will be sent straight into the ward, or sent off to a hotel first. If it is the ward then I don’t know when the next post will be published. It will still be dated correctly but could well be late. Last time we had no internet in the hospital. Wish me luck!