Swan Lake Sorrow!

June 17^th Another week, another change in the weather, no rain though, just overcast. That sounds like perfect walking weather and in the ‘winter’ months it is. However, in the ‘summer’ months the humidity is worse without the sun to dry you off! We were out early today; our flat had not had any electricity since sometime in the night, sometime before one o’clock when I got up for some water. At least the lift was still working. Rooftop singing provides the first snap of the day and of the week. I wish he had been nearer and facing towards me!

Mario was up and about too, in his BYD.

Our route was towards Rendishan village, on the way I found a cute new friend. Its ‘mum’ told us that when she bought her big dog they also gave her this one free!

Walking up past the fish farm wedding place we spotted some damage done by the recent rains. You don’t need heavy winds and storms to create this kind of damage, just continuous rain for days on end. Only one building was hurt though and we think that was probably the kitchen area.

Rain wasn’t there today but it wasn’t that far away either.

Another sticker for you. I have never been to the US but I have read about bumper stickers. What we see here would not fit on the average bumper, doors and boots are used instead. This was on the door of a car that I forgot to note the manufacturer of. What is it? The translation is along these lines – “Please don’t judge me, all you know is my name, you don’t know my story. You only know what I am doing, not what I have been through.”

This road has a school, fairly new; it wasn’t there ten years ago. Sometimes when we pass by we see a few cars parked. Today a few came nowhere near to the correct description. There was not a single empty space on either side of the road. Maybe end of term sports day?

In amongst them we found a little runabout for Huan! This one at least has a steering wheel.

Checking my phone for time and distance I decided that we should not go all the way to where we had planned. That would put us over the 10km limit that I have set myself before seeing Dr. Liáng again in August. We scooted off the road for a while.

Back on the road I was eyeballed a couple of times.

The last critter of the day is a dragonfly. There was a lizard late but he was too far away for my lens to get a decent shot so he will reside only in the computer.

Just like all little boys I had to walk on the wall. To stop Huan nagging me I told her to take a few photos. She duly obliged.

Here’s one that doesn’t need translating for you. This is not from a car but from a bubble tea shop wall. I’m not a bubble tea fan at all but I had to get in and snap this for you.

The last one of our walk was one of those that required what seemed to be dozens of shots just to get one. It was in just the wrong location for my height and my camera height. Bending a few leaves helped in the end.

Even though we had cut the walk short it was still 8.8km, not sure what the doc would say about that. I felt OK though, the afternoon nap helped. Huan was duty chef today and she did her upside down cottage pie. The potatoes go in first followed by the meat and veg filling and finally the cheese on top. It is a long time she made a cottage pie and either way up it is fine for me. No photos, I enjoyed it too much.

After dinner I went to check on the repairs that were carried out this morning. This little breaker box is in a separate cupboard and supplies our apartment and one other. As you can probably guess, there are no such things as good records here, definitely no “as built drawings”.

June 18^th Making a conscious effort to keep the distance down I suggested we check out the damage to our dam and then walk to our local village. First Huan went off to buy her lottery tickets and I went the opposite way to throw the rubbish. We met back at the river. Down on the dam you can see the worst of the damage; the handrail has almost completely disappeared.

Further down the fish scale weir was living up to its reputation, looking very good too!

I tried another dragon fly for you, it’s better than the last attempt. “When you see a dragonfly, it’s time to drink the flagon dry!” Do you like that? It’s all my own work.

We were walking in the river bed today, going a little higher as we went under the road to somewhere. Across the river the municipal workers were busy planting flowers to beautify the riverside. Unfortunately, since our last visit someone had been partying on the side we were walking. Just like many other countries, not everyone takes their rubbish home.

To leave the river we had to get through a cow gate. While I was busy with the bamboo pieces Huan was busy with her phone, not only when I was helping her but also when she wasn’t helping me. She did hold my lens cap for me though.

Walking back towards our little local village we spotted a bird on a wire. It appeared to have something in its mouth. Only back at home did we realise that it was one of our little green friends. That’s nature for you.

Seeing a jackfruit at the same height as my grinning mug, we had to do it.

The mothering instinct is alive and well. Just look at Mama’s eyes.

I did try to get close to another youngster with no success. I swear I did not say horseradish sauce or anything that vaguely sounded like that!

Getting back onto the road, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something move It froze, long enough for me to take a photo.

Nearing home, via our little island, here’s some water for you.

Nurse wall, from last week, is having wires fitted to train the plants. I like it.

Just before our buildings I decided I wanted to try, again, the local coconut juice. The sales lady actually knew my name; she used to work in the area health clinic that Huan uses. She asked about my health not knowing my recent history. I told her, without boring her. In the photo I am saying no to a straw, save the world and all that. Don’t look at the cup and the bag.

What did my purchase taste like? A little disappointing if I’m honest. The first time I tried the juice straight from a coconut was in the Philippines. It was amazing! A little Googling tells me that the taste can vary by country, by coconut variety, weather, type of soil and all kinds of other stuff. It was not bad and had I been really thirsty I would have definitely enjoyed it more.

With our mixed up week it was my turn to cook today, normal foreign fare of beef steak and veggies. Our biggest problem is using the one hob; I wish our gas would return. Anyway, pan one contained potatoes, carrots and whole garlic cloves. Pan two contained broccoli. As each pan finished its duty it was moved to the side and not emptied. The steak, which had been marinated overnight in rice vinegar, soy sauce and a little white pepper, was then fried. While this was going on the vegetables were drained and plated ready for the steak. There was no additional sauce or gravy. Huan used a jar of something and I used butter. Both went well with the garlic cloves so everybody was happy. Sorry, no photos again, my plating didn’t deserve any.

June 19^th Today was my monthly bone strengthening day. When we had paid at the hospital and gone upstairs the first thing the nurse wanted to do was to take my blood pressure. I did try and complain that I had just ‘motored up the stairs’.

We had the same doctor as last month so Huan was convinced we would have no problems. When I checked the paper he gave us, there was a problem, just like last month he had chosen the wrong medication, six times the price of the right one. Luckily I had remembered to put the photos of the correct one on my phone. Off we went to pay.

The pharmacy was not busy at all today so we had no waiting and consequently no photos. Downstairs we went to where I had to wait for a bit while Huan went off to pay for the needle. As you can see, it was busy there too!

In fact I was the only patient for the whole time I was in there.

All done we went and did a little shopping for Huan’s dinner. Today I would be finishing off the upside down shepherd’s pie and she would be having a mix of seaweed, dried fish and tofu.

Of course with no camera we were bound to find a wee bug!

Some photos can still be taken with the phone though, with no difficulties at all.

Less than five kilometres was walked today, probably good for me.

June 20^th Huan wanted a bus‘n’walk today, to see the swans and the peacocks out at Nansheng. If we want to do that though we have to set off earlier than we did so our destination became the fish farm reservoir on the fourth road. We did go by bus.

Walking through the apartment complex at the bus stop we came across our first lizard of the day. Unfortunately this was rather a tragic one, even losing its tail didn’t help.

Soon we were on the road uphill where the director used her Grandma finger to show me another one, this one still in peak fitness.

Her eyes were keen today, here’s a wee spider for you.

Cows came next so Huan got very busy with her phone. These particular cows didn’t fancy saying hello though and just kept backing off.

Sometimes the finger points at something I can barely see, even the camera struggles. This one for example had to be cropped from 5184x3472 down to a mere 761x766.

This one wasn’t cropped so much! PS The other side of the bunch, that you can’t see, was in terrible shape, definitely not something you would want to eat.

The boss then found another lizard, this one with a magnificent tail!

About an hour after we started walking we reached our destination.

I did find a couple of birds, one big brown one and one small different coloured one. I failed however to get any decent photographs of either. Instead here’s a rather noisy dog who turned out to be fine when I got closer. As were leaving him (think it was a he), the owners told me to be careful or he would bite me! I think they don’t know him very well. He’ll be a big lad someday, just look at the size of his feet!

Next up it was both of us, Huan for the top two and me for the bottom two. What are we looking at? A mango tree, something you would love to have in your garden.

The proprietors of the fish farm had ‘modified’ their little electric runabout. These were popular for a short time a few years ago but they quickly fell out of fashion. Here they have chopped the top off, very easy because it was a fibreglass monocoque.

All too soon we were on our way back downhill again, underneath the highway.

The band of bovine brothers was still there and still very twitchy. Huan got busy with her phone again and I managed to sneak up on the baby!

By the time we got back to the bus stop I was ready for water. The last part had no shade so despite having our hats on it felt a little on the warm side.

Arriving home a little late we calculated that we had managed to keep to less than ten kilometres today, but only by one. Being late I just had a quick Paddington sandwich.

After naps it was my turn to cook again, fish today.

Ours was not a pink fish and there were some other differences. We had no oregano leaves so I used what was available, snow peas. Dried bay leaves were used instead of fresh and Chinese parsley instead of Italian. Here the fish is not cleaned in the same way as it is in the UK so we had fish eggs. They also left in the liver: that was not eaten. I took it out of the oven, the second time, after thirty five minutes, it would have been better with another five or ten. However, apart from the added carrot, the other vegetables were not too crunchy. With there only being us two there no niceties such as removing the bones, we helped ourselves from the large dish and both ate our fill! It was delicious, well worth a go.

June 21^st Market day came round again and we were quite looking forward to it after missing it last week. Before we got there Huan’s finger got the twitches again!

We were searching for some of that lovely BBQ belly pork to go with our usual weekend salad. The market was busier than the last time we came, two weeks ago.

By the time we found our pork lady she had sold out so back we went to the indoor market. All we could find was salty chicken so we bought one of them. There are three choices, tough, tender and most tender, or as Huan translated for me, hard, soft and softer. We took the softest.

After lunch, despite it being a lazy day, naps were still a necessary fact of life. Mine must have been more necessary as I slept the longest. After coffee what I needed was a small glass of white wine while I prepared the salad. This one has a parrot on the label.

We never show you weekend food pictures so let’s change that this weekend. Here is our rather large bowl of salad, it will last two days and maybe a breakfast for the Prime Minister too. Inside the ingredients are, half a chopped small cabbage, a large diced boiled potato, a large sliced carrot, a large sliced onion, a whole diced cucumber, ten quartered cherry tomatoes, a tin of sweetcorn, the juice of half a lemon, (it was in the fridge) and a large spoonful of garlic vinegar.

I add mayonnaise to my plate and some of the pickled garlic from the jar that I stole the vinegar from. Huan doesn’t add anything. So what did the salty chicken look like? Unlike anything you see in the UK I’m sure. As you can plainly see the head is there, the feet are inside and there are some innards on the top.

I can assure you that the taste was sublime, very tender. I left Huan to eat the head; she will have the feet tomorrow. I helped a little with the innards; they were much different to what I expected. They were a little chewy, in a nice way, and of course had a little salty flavour. PS We don’t chop the chicken up and mix it with the salad; instead we use a spoon for the salad and fingers for the chicken. We have a quarter each today and another quarter each tomorrow. Yummy!

June 22^nd Our internal clocks woke us up early for another bus‘n’walk this morning so we headed off to Nansheng to look at the black swans.

Through the hotel I went and tried for a panorama over the lake. I failed but a single shot shows you quite a nice view anyway.

While I was busy failing Huan was busy filming and photographing the Li lady and her loom.

If you fancy staying here, and it’s worthwhile for a weekend, or a day or two anyway, then this is the hotel name and its rather nice reception desk. You may not be able to translate from the photo so here it is - 水云居酒店, shuǐ yúnjū jiǔdiàn, - Water Cloud Residence Hotel.

Here’s another view of the lake, this time from the lower floor where the pool is.

Is this a fallen angel? It is the angel of my life, my lovely wife of course. There is a seat between the wings but unfortunately it is inaccessible so she is a standing angel.

Then it was time to go and find the swans. That turned out to be more difficult than expected.

There was quite a lot of reconstruction going on of walkways, ponds and all kinds of structures so we asked the workmen where the swans were. They told us.

This pond was much smaller than what the swans had been used to, there also seemed to be fewer of them than before.

If you look closely at those two you might feel that you can see a little sadness in their eyes. One of them tried to bash the fence down although it still wouldn’t come and say hello to me!

They will be fine I guess, once the work is finished they will once again have the run of the two large lakes. Maybe they will breed once they are back there too. Making our way back to the hotel building it was my turn to spot a lizard.

In the hotel we had a quick walk through the dining room, breakfast was still being served. We didn’t spot any bacon or fried eggs, but it was nearly ten o’clock. There was definitely enough food to keep Huan and I happy if we were staying here. For some reason all of the guests were youngsters today, maybe students who have finished their Gaokao exams.

Time to walk through the hotel again, past the umbrellas which I had somehow missed the first time. Inside I went up to the office balcony for a downwards view of the lobby.

The whole area has another name, 苗香谷, miáo xiāng gǔ, - Fragrant Millet Valley. I have put the map here so that you can find unusual English tourist spots. Let me know if you do.

Swan Lake over it was time to walk back down the hill to Nansheng. Our plan had been to maybe visit the peacocks too but I decided that time, and my better judgement meant that we should just walk to the bus stop. The scenery was fine although I could have done with a bit more shade here and there. My memory told me that there was more previously, so I had decided not to wear my hat today!

Two more little beasties for you, Huan’s granny finger pointed out the bird and I almost fell over the lizard. I don’t know who was the most surprised.

How about a little flora for a change?

Almost home and I managed to find another bird, Huan was happy. Happy wife, happy life!

Despite keeping our distance down today we both completely flaked out after lunch and slept for about two hours. At least we didn’t have to cook today!

June 23^rd No plans were made at all today apart from the weekly shop. We thought we had enough photos for a week and didn’t need any more. However, as we started driving the car out of our place that changed. Many people here have ornamental lizards on their cars, usually gold or silver in colour. Huan spotted one our bonnet that was neither gold nor silver. I stopped the car to get closer and got a shot on the headlamp, another one under the spoiler above the rear windscreen. I did try and get it to safety but it scooted off around the side and disappeared somewhere above the running board under Huan’s door. Hopefully, he fell off safely!

And so another week draws to a close, with nothing out of the ordinary to report. Life in our little corner of the world goes on just as it always does. I did write some depressing stuff here about the state of the world but decided to remove it. Just stay happy!