Down By The Lazy River, Everybody Follow Me.

June 24^th Huan tried getting me on another bus‘n’walk but I stamped my feet and had a tantrum. Last month we made the downriver video and I promised to make the upriver videos to show what had changed there too. That was my plan for today, to video from the first bridge to the third one. Some photos were taken on the way of course.

I was on the new walkways; Huan was on the old pavement in the shade. She was trying to find subjects too, here’s a nice bug for you.

Going back down the other side of the river I had a chat with a bunch of workmen, none of whom were from Wuzhishan. What had caught my attention was one of them saying老外, Lǎowài which means foreigner. This was me telling them that they are not from here whereas Huan and I do actually live here and have no property elsewhere in the world.

At the end of the video I passed the time of day with the river cleaners, they actually spotted me first, and took a photo to show the end of the video.

Approaching Little Island from the rear side I found Huan lagging behind trying to take photos of this wee beastie. She wasn’t succeeding so I tried too.

On the island I was lucky enough to spot our only lizard of the day.

Going over the last bridge, not the one too far, I observed how clean the water was and decided that that info should be shared with you via a big panorama.

Apart from a new feline friend that’s it, no more photos for the day. You can of course see the video by going here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfZDnldhTo8

Had I not been lazy, and hungry, I could have shared photos of our dinner, duck leg stew. I boiled the duck legs first with a quartered onion, the cloves from a whole garlic, the sauce from the weekend’s salty chicken, a bay leaf, one star anise and a few black peppercorns. Much later on I added chopped and sliced carrots, chopped and diced potatoes, chopped and diced king oyster mushrooms, a quarter of a cabbage chopped and diced, some left over snow peas and then just before it was done, a dollop of oyster sauce. We had to use our large bowls, mostly because the duck legs would not fit in smaller ones. Both of us enjoyed it, ‘very bigly’ as someone might say. In fact Huan liked it so much that she decided to keep some of the left over soup, sans lumps, to make tomorrow’s fish dinner. More yummy on the way!

June 25^th Today it was Huan’s turn, another bus‘n’walk day was her choice. My input was making sure we avoided possible approaching video locations. Before we even went the Home Affairs Minister found a lizard on the balcony floor. It wouldn’t move and I didn’t want to pull its tail. We put it outside the window but when we came home at the end of the day it was still there. The poor little thing had shuffled off this mortal coil.

On our way to the bus stop we were passes by a driverless vehicle. I wasn’t quite fast enough but you can see most of it here.

This was our bus, bearing down on us at a super rate of knots. Well, not really, especially with all those electric mopeds in front of him.

At the other end, past the final fuel station on the Sanya road, and through the first village, we were soon in the countryside.

As you can see the weather was glorious and added to the pleasure that we got from that Huan went and found her first lizard of the day.

At the next little village we found a pussy cat.

I had not forgotten my hat this morning, knowing that this stretch of road was waiting for me.

When we came to the next village and having time on our hands we took a slight detour.

On the way in we found a new park, well new since we last walked through here a few years ago.

It was quite a strange experience walking though the village, there wasn’t a soul around.

Soon we were headed back to the kindergarten road, maybe there would be people there.

There was nobody in the kindergarten either but there was a guy working nearby. We asked him where everyone was and he didn’t reply ‘gone to the moon’. Instead he said that they were all at a village meeting. I guess it may have been in town somewhere. We carried on down the hill, finding another lizard on the way.

Repeat the last sentence!

Soon Wuzhishan came into view showing more reasons why I needed a hat today!

Sometimes I just like the views at the side of the roads in town. What do you think?

Finally, the road to the bus stop came in sight, it was very welcome too.

While we were sitting there Huan checked her WeChat and discovered that today was Zhōngkǎo day, today, tomorrow and the day after in fact. (Google’s AI - The Zhōngkǎo is a crucial examination in China, serving as both the junior high school graduation test and the high school entrance exam. It's a summative assessment of the nine-year compulsory education and is taken by students around the age of 15. The results are used to evaluate if students have met graduation standards and to select students for senior high school, including vocational and technical schools.) That could also be a reason why Yingshi village was empty. Many parents wait outside the school gates during these nerve wracking times for their children. Unfortunately Huan also read that buses were on reduced timetables for these three days, possibly being used to ferry students to examination centres. We ended up sitting there for well over half an hour before deciding to continue our stroll. The bus never passed us on the way home!

I am seriously trying to follow the doctor’s orders while at the same time making sure my bones and associated muscles are getting enough exercise. At least today was still less than ten, in fact it was even less than nine, it was 8.9km.

Both of us needed long naps today, two hours worth in fact. No admin for me, only this post to update. Huan was cooking, using yesterdays left over duck stock. She added some potatoes, cabbage and onions and used some filleted red snapper. It was amazing! Huan will certainly be using left over stock again in the future.

June 26^th The weather was overcast today, a little humid but maybe good for walking.

Unfortunately, that was not to be because my plan came to fruition today, a very important plan it was too. It was time to visit the hospital again, this time to top up on my heart medicine.

Here we were taking photos of each other supposedly looking bored.

Today we saw a different doctor; Huan still had to take a photo.

I had wanted three months worth of medication but as they were ‘out of stock’ for one of them I stuck to one month. All I had to do was pay and collect.

Into town we went for the missing medication.

Last week you may remember that I hoisted up a whole bunch of bananas. Well today, after asking permission, I hoisted up another one. However, this was not a one handed lift; I am not as strong as I used to be! The lady said it was 15kg, felt like 30 to me!

A nice Range Rover here for you. Can you spot the errors? The wheel hubs also say Landwind!

At home and after another nice long nap it was my turn in the kitchen again. We had a non-spicy chilli con carne, Huan’s on a bed of rice and mine in a bowl with bread. Photographs do lie of course; my bowl was not as big as Huan’s plate!

June 27^th Today was the last day for the Zhōngkǎo test so no bus‘n’walk to faraway places or video walk was planned. Instead Huan suggested downriver to the little farm with a fish pond and turkeys so I agreed. With both of us wearing hats we headed off along the riverside path. Huan’s granny finger was spot on this morning and she found a lizard almost immediately.

Then it was my turn to find a not so easy to capture butterfly.

After the recent rains which destroyed some of the lovely landscaping work repairs have begun and also further beautification a little bit down river.

On the path new trees have been planted, one was already occupied.

Aye aye, I’ve got my eye on you, well some of my eyes anyway!

As we went under the bridge of the road to somewhere we noticed that beautification this far down river has not started yet. They will get there some day, slowly slowly catchee monkey and all that. When they do I guess they will also do something with the farmer’s ford.

Views were just as good as always, the hard part is varying them for you.

We never really find lizards on this path but the commander went and did it again!

Soon we reached the point at which we could go no further downriver.

So we turned left and headed to the little farm.

The pond was there waiting for us but I was unable to get a clear snap of the little fishes. The turkeys were noticeable by their absence; it has been a few months so they may have been eaten. Nothing else caught our attention there.

The finger found a bug! When the finger finds the camera must try.

On our way home we had to part ways, I walked in the road to avoid watering the camera while Huan walked on the pavement to enjoy the showers.

As we approached our building I called out for Dodo, he heard. He has learned to climb on the boxes in the balcony area and stick his head through for a good old petting. It’s almost a daily occurrence now.

How did we end our day? I’m sure you can guess, more naps.

June 28^th Saturday night’s all right for fighting, but Saturday morning’s better for shopping for the weekend salad stuff. Besides, a nice walk is always welcome.

Huan decided that for a change you should see that I also buy lottery tickets. In fact Huan buys the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday tickets, and I buy the Saturday and Sunday ones. She buys five lines per day and I buy ten so we each pay ¥50.00 per week. Every week the ticket seller tells me how much she is going to give me, and every week she fails. Dreams, eh?

It was also Huan’s choice to snap this turtle. She thought it had a different nose.

On our way home Huan was happy yet again when she spotted a young friend of ours. He is such a different type of Chinese boy, so well spoken and well mannered. Usually he likes to shake my hand and practice a little English. Today he decided a salute was more apt.

And that was it, Saturday over. We enjoyed every minute of it.

June 29^th We both got our way today, another bus‘n’walk for Huan and the next video in the Upriver Series for me. We took the bus to the start point, here’s a terrible screen shot.

We then headed off between Wuzhishan Bridge and Zaman Bridge, both of us walking on the lower walkway which is where all the work has been carried out. The good lady did have her Mary Poppins accessory just in case the sun got too hot or the rain came down.

No birds or lizards were found today, just some fishes and butterflies. Here’s the first of the latter.

Soon we reached Zaman Bridge, the last one in the town, and turned for home.

No sign of any boat coming in but if you have a dishy then here’s a little fishy!

Here’s Huan playing with water at a grand cost, (for the electricity), of ¥16.80 for three minutes. I did have my go first; Huan is using the balance of my time. If you want to see me then you will have to go and look at the video I’m afraid.

And here’s a last picture of the river for you as we approached our start point of Wuzhishan Bridge before heading off to the market for a little shopping.

We spotted the driverless delivery van again today and watched it for a few minutes. I still struggled to get the camera up and pointing because I was laden with shopping but here it is. It was quite interesting to see. In the second photo you can see that it is indicating left. However, the lady on the moped was not as good a driver so the van had to wait until she passed it. The reason for this is, in the third photo, there is a car parked facing the wrong way in front of the van. Quite a lot of decision making went on there, all highly safe in my opinion.

As promised, more butterflies for you. They are learning about the birds and the bees!

So, to see today’s video, go here - https://youtu.be/SXZp56ICo7E

June 30^th Rainy days and Mondays always get me down. Well that’s what the song says but in our case the rain didn’t start until we had done our Monday duty of shopping. Some of you may know that the Chinese have a penchant for eating chicken feet. Huan was always amazed at how big and cheap they are in other countries, I am always amazed at how small and expensive they are here. All prices are for 500g. I don’t know if you have ever tried them but as far as I am concerned they are a waste of time and effort, never mind money!

We didn’t buy any; the shopping list was already full! Back home, unpacking the shopping bags, is when the heavens opened. Huan was unfortunately down at the gate collecting some Taobao stuff. I took two umbrellas and went to fetch her and then met her half way back to the house soaking wet. Shame we have no photographic proof!

That’s all we have for this week, we will continue tomorrow. If the rain allows us then we will also carry on with the upriver videos, beyond the town limits. See you next week, be good!