The Inmate, Episode Five.

April 15^th Well, we are always unsure of what the first photograph of the week will be, the one that ends up as the thumbnail, and today was no exception. After yesterday’s visit to the ENT doctor and her diagnosis we had to stay in. It wasn’t quite “Stand by your beds!” but leaving the ward was not possible. Getting worried about that first picture I happened to notice the embossed log on my hospital tray, a good sentiment!

Dr. Liáng’s assistant came with the paperwork and the medicine just before lunch, too late for the morning surgery. In the afternoon we had to get my treatment out of the way first and then head to ENT. It was packed! Over an hour after arriving it was my turn. First there was the preparation stage where you sit with everyone else looking like this.

I was quite nervous about the cotton bud part and even more worried about the endoscopy that would follow. I needn’t have been. I guess technology has improved so much now that it is just a lot less uncomfortable. I know I added the photos of my ear last week but I will spare you the photos of my throat, they are not very pretty. On the plus side, everything seems to be OK. On the minus side, I may now have to have a scan. I must try and remember to tell the doctor about my voice recently ‘breaking’, maybe that is related.

By the time we were finished it was time to walk out for some dinner. A shorter walk was taken ending up in the food street just across the traffic lights form the hospital. No photos were taken, we both had other things on our minds.

April 16^th Doctor’s rounds said that I do not need to have a scan for my ENT worries, it is mostly just a side effect of getting old! Ah well, no more two and a half octaves for me. With that ‘good’ news we were free to do our own thing today. We took the #71 bus again but this time went the other way when we reached the bridge. Having only had two photographs for yesterday’s post we didn’t worry today. That means there will probably be no collages either. Shall we start with birds again?

Since we last walked here, six years ago, the banks of the channel have been landscaped. It looks very nice now, probably good for wildlife too.

Passing by a tree a cat appeared, much to Huan’s pleasure. I tried for a gif and a portrait.

Back to Buddha and small shrines rather than temples. We don’t really know why there were here, possibly to look after fishermen. Another puzzle, why does the one on the right have an animal whereas the one on the left doesn’t?

Further along landscaping is still in progress.

We eventually came to a point where the construction work for the landscaping meant we had to veer away from the seaside. We ended up looking over one of the canals.

Huan was a happy teddy today, at least in the morning, I found a squirrel for her.

On our way back to the hospital we were lucky enough to find even more birds. Mind you, the first one would not turn around and show us his face!

We bought lunch from the street market and then sat on a bench overlooking the canal behind the hospital to eat it. It was a nice little picnic.

Later in the day, after the daily zapping was complete, we walked down the main road to Qilou, where there was supposed to be a five day food festival.

Huan was looking forward to some ‘long table’ food and I was hoping for a bit of British cuisine, both having been mentioned in various media releases.

Both of us were to be sadly disappointed. According to the locals, despite the media releases having inferred a five day ‘long table’ festival, that was only there on the first day. As for the British cuisine, nobody had any idea. Instead, Huan took a photo of a ‘Brit’! Note the image of Haikou’s clock tower on the right and London’s on the left!

We had to eat before the day ended so we chose a restaurant away from the food stall area.

Unusually, this restaurant’s menu photos made the dishes appear smaller than they actually were so we ended up with a little too much food. Huan’s was the pork and mine was the fish.

Needless to say; we could not finish it all! Our plan had been to take a bus back to the hospital but after waiting for what seemed like ages we decided to walk, probably better for our bellies anyway. Back in the ward all I did was photo uploading, sorting and editing, I was too full and too tired for anything else.

April 17^th A lazy morning, lay in bed doing my Chinese lessons and completing yesterday’s Blog post. For a change I joined Huan in going out to find lunch. We ate it here.

I asked Huan to try and take a photo of me leaving ‘the chamber’. Sadly, it didn’t turn out quite as good as either of us hoped it would.

Later on, we headed out for some dinner. Here’s a car sticker we spotted on the way where someone has kindly provided the translation.

Huan had chosen a Hong Kong restaurant for us, down on Haidian Three street.

Huan chose the ‘Chinese’ parts, I added the sandwich. Why? The first time I ever tried a ‘Club Sandwich’ was in 1970 in Hong Kong so this was for old times’ sake. Everything was shared and just like yesterday it turned out to be too much. We did enjoy it though.

In the restaurant I had been approached by a little girl who just wanted to talk. She only spoke Chinese; she is still in kindergarten but she was very chatty and amusing. She broke the ice by saying that she wasn’t frightened of me! I forbade Huan from taking her photo. However, she got her wish with two more children and their grandma as we were walking home. These two told us that they could not speak English but they must be learning somewhere as they were quite busy telling each other what various things were in English!

April 18^th The planner has something for me every day, sometimes I feel that I have to rein her in a little bit. Today we took a bus to Evergreen Park so that we could walk back to another bus stop through Century Park. Sounded easy enough and I knew the places were not too far. For a change the first photo is a foreign car, one that I wouldn’t mind owning myself! I haven’t driven one of these since 1984!

In Evergreen Park, mere metres away from the bus station, Huan found two lizards. Time for some collages again methinks.

A squirrel was next up, the commander was beaming by now!

Our time in Evergreen Park was limited because of the way we wanted to go. To cross to Century Park, we needed to cross this bridge.

On the crown of the bridge I took three more photos, one inland facing and two out to sea.

Over on the other side, Huan walked under the trees and me, being a bad boy, walked on the wall. She was looking for lizards and birds, I was just enjoying being beside the sea.

‘First blood’ was for me, a handsome crab and a beautiful bird.

Huan then found one on top of the driving range nets, too far for her phone and almost too far for the camera. We couldn’t tell until we cropped the photo but it was a kingfisher.

There is no beach to speak of where we were walking but I did find just a tiny bit of one!

With me walking on the wall I was able to get a much better photograph of a bird in flight than I have done before. I wasn’t craning my neck to look upwards. Could the second one be the baby!

Century Park is home to the small but beautiful Wormhole Library, well worth a visit. We have been inside before so today we just skirted the outside.

Of course you could see all of this and more, all you have to do is visit Haikou!

I went off to take a photo of Century bridge, it takes you to Hainan Dao’s west side.

While I was there Huan was also busy.

Huan found another lizard before left the trail and I found another bird. A good day!

Before finally leaving the park and the Bund we visited Roxy’s to chat to Jake. His family was also visiting so we had a chat with them too. We weren’t up to it today but if you so desire, Full English is available from eleven am until two pm. They also do a mean pizza of course and serve a large variety of beers and spirits. For me, I was very grateful for the ice-cold cola! My mind was away somewhere and I completely forgot to take any photos. For that I apologise both to you and to Jake. There is a website though - https://roxyshainan.com/

Waiting for the bus to rest my weary legs we spotted one final bird. We are not sure what he is using, perhaps an old lace curtain, but he is taking bits off to make a nest.

I was so tired when we eventually got ‘home’ that all I did was upload and edit photographs. Once again this post would have to be completed the next morning.

April 19^th See above, I sat in bed all morning and did the Blog, my Chinese lessons and caught up on Facebook etc. Huan went out to collect more water and a pineapple for some reason. She found a lizard on the way.

We had a simple lunch, sweetcorn and boiled egg, which we ate sat on a wall behind the building that gave me the test that got me here!

We were looking for buses so we passed by the golf driving range.

We found the buses but couldn’t find any information that we wanted or anyone who might know anything about what we needed. I gave up. Walking back east we entered Baishamen Park from a different side and found a field full of statues. Could they be heroes, could they be famous, could they be myths? Well most of the information boards were worn out so no answers from me. There were also thirty-eight of them so collages were a necessity. We do still have all the individual photographs should anyone wish to see them.

As we were in the park we felt that we had to show some scenery again.

There was bound to be a bird too!

By now I was absolutely gagging, fresh orange juice was needed.

Seven oranges were used to make my juice, it certainly hit the spot.

Did Huan have one? No, quite unusual for Her Ladyship, she requested ice cream.

Making our way back to the hospital via little side streets we found this sign.

We were not expecting too much but we followed the arrow anyway. To our surprise we found probably one of the best temples we have seen for quite some time. There was far too much to see, at least that is what my aching legs told me, so today we made only a small collage for you. We will go back again and take a lot more photos.

And so we came to the end of another day. In the evening we went to the hospital street food greasy spoon, no photo was needed because there was nothing really new to show you. I was also in my jammies. Warning, there will be a video showing me in the restaurant in my jammies next week sometime!

April 20^th A lazy start this morning, after having a shower and a shave. We were meeting Patrick and his wife Flora for drinks and lunch. We met at the community centre, another place that has a nice little temple. We didn’t snap that, only the tree and the centre.

Flora’s place, “Every Flower Blooms” is on the second floor, next door to her kindergarten. I must say that it all looks really nice.

Even better, the coffee, with added nutrients, was excellent.

And here are Patrick and I putting the world to rights!

Across the road from the centre there is a shopping mall. It is enormous!

Inside it was also very busy and many of the restaurants had queues of customers sitting outside waiting. Maybe it was because it was the weekend and we think it is also the proximity of Chengxi railway station.

We ended up going just outside the mall to Lanzhou Beef Noodle restaurant. I let everyone else have the noodles, the bowl was far too big for me to get through at lunch time. I had two tea eggs and a couple of plates of cold vegetables. Here are those two again!

Lunch over we bade a tearful farewell to Flora and Patrick, only joking of course, but we did have to go our separate ways. For Huan and I it was time to head back into the mall. Kids are well catered for, inside and outside.

And for the romantics among you we have this.

We must have walked a good five or six kilometres going along each level and having a good nose around. Not only was the mall crowded but it was full of happy people. There were families everywhere and almost everyone had a smile on their faces, it was a good afternoon. We would need to visit again to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We did see cars today though, not something you would expect to see in a UK shopping mall. There were far too many so we are back to collages. PS We did get a couple of brochures (wishful thinking).

Poor Huan, I had worn her out with car window shopping, it was time for some ice cream and then a drive back to the hospital and the greasy spoon.

Tired she may have been but Huan still managed to give me two more opportunities on the short walk from the food to the ward. Here are the results.

Although we were both a little tired, I still managed to complete this post in the evening. That means less pressure tomorrow!

April 21^st Huan had ideas of another bus trip today with a walk at the end of it. I respectfully declined and suggested that we stick to the roads near the hospital. Passing a housing complex, I spotted these birds but I have no idea what they are supposed to be.

On the other side of the road, while making our way back, how could I not talk to this bird?

That was it for the morning. Lunch was from the street food stalls, no photos. After that, and after the latest zapping we had to do a little shopping again. We took the villa route.

Who do you think lives in this particular villa? Has one of the Royal Family got a ‘very’ secret hideaway in a small compound on a small island in China?

Almost at the shopping centre we spotted two very different cars. The top one is a cheapo EV but unfortunately I could not identify the brand. The bottom one is more obvious, the very famous British brand Lotus, now majority owned by Geely.

All that was left to do was have our final meal of this week, for a change it was not a ‘Chinese’ meal. It wasn’t exactly western; it was a burger restaurant with Chinese characteristics.

I must say that it made a very nice change and I loved every yummy minute of eating it. I was even a bad boy and had a Coca-Cola once we were back in the ward! Now now, don’t nag me, I get enough of that from Her Majesty. Stay tuned for more, we will be back!