Find The Sun On A Cloudy Day!

“But your momma always said, "Look up into the sky, Find the sun on a cloudy day"”. Check Google and you will find the song.

July 15^th Unusually we both slept quite well last night and were both awake with the lark this morning. Unfortunately, the rain was also awake with us! Once it stopped we just had a walk into town and back, passing Little Island on the way.

I have no idea why this one was taken!

And this is the last one from our morning walk. How can anyone not like that view?

So our little trip into town was mostly a failure, we didn’t find what we were looking for. Back to Taobao it is then. After the usual lunch and naps the Minister of Employment set me to work again. I did try telling her that I was beyond the legal age for working but she threatened me with all kinds of weird stuff so I knuckled under. Here I am complaining about having to hold the cooker hood with one hand, the weak left one, while waiting for Huan to get her phone ready!

And here I am working on the telescopic struts, and also a completed strut.

Next up is me replacing the fan covers and then the completed unit.

Finally, the Minister had to check my work!

July 16^th Another admin day for me, first get my bones pumped up in the morning. Well, they don’t exactly call it that, it was time for my monthly bone strengthening drip feed. First the usual blood pressure test, good enough for me.

And then it was waiting time, a long waiting time. The first photo was taken twenty five minutes before the second one, when we decided to also sit down. We were waiting for the doctor in room 8, top row, my number was 24!

At one stage Huan even went to complain, I did try and stop her. It’s not as though the staff have any control over the numbers and it was a little unusual. I took her photo but it was, shall we say, less than flattering, so I edited it!

Eventually the doctor’s office was finished, after correcting him yet again about the medicine I should be having. I wouldn’t mind but we showed him the photo this time, again. From there of course it was off to the cashier and then the pharmacy. Here I am on the way down the stairs.

Downstairs it was the usual, the same nurse, who probably still doesn’t understand my fear. Even Huan thinks that I should be over it by now!

Our plan had been to walk into town after the hospital, visit the fish market and buy some fish for next week. By the time the hospital finished with me it was time to go straight home for lunch and of course the obligatory snooze. When we woke up, and even before coffee, the boss had me working yet again. What does this word ‘retirement’ actually mean anyway? First I had to replace Donald’s rear wiper, Huan forgot to take photos of that. The front ones followed, she took far too many photos of that! I must say that the procedure seemed a lot easier than the last time I did it, and that was so long ago that I really can’t remember when it was, or what car it was.

All that was left was a little washing, make sure the dust and grit was removed, and testing.

Was that our day over? No, for a change we were going out for dinner, a wee celebration. Seventeen years ago today we visited a government office in Dalian and tied the knot. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? The streets were even lit up for us.

We planned to go to a new restaurant in the shopping centre but after just a few minutes w changed our minds. Like many restaurants nowadays they have no menu, you have to use your phone. I like menus. Remember photo albums? When you used to show your pics to friends and family there would be surprises in there, things that made you ask questions etc. Well with a ‘book menu’, you don’t just see one meal at a time which is how I like to see it. Even if they only have one menu at the counter that is good enough for me. So we ended up going to what used to be DoReMi and is now called Duō xǐ'ài. Observant readers may remember the second photo. Despite the name change it has not changed very much.

Now you can order using your phone here but they do also have the menu on the counter. Huan opted for a seafood dish; the only fake thing in there was the crab sticks. It was a little too spicy for me and I would have given Huan the seaweed. Here it is sans rice.

I opted for a good old steak for a change. I didn’t really want rice but they would not remove it. I guess restaurants are the same world wide. Here is mine, sans the chips I ordered.

What did we think? Well, it’s a good job that we didn’t order any desserts! Huan emptied her bowl apart from some of the liquid. I ate all of mine, including the chips and the rice. The rice was some kind of fried rice with a very unusual and delicious taste. The ‘black pepper steak’ while being on the thin side was well worth having. I took no photos of Huan eating; she did try and get me, this one is fairly decorous.

For those with an interest in the financial side of eating out in China it cost us ¥94.00. That works out at just less than ten pounds, worth every penny. We did have one complaint though; the air-conditioning was not working so we sweated rather a lot. To cool down a bit we walked home along the riverside where they had also added lights for us!

July 17^th Liǎng gè (2) laid-back, lethargic, leviathans of laziness, lounging like a pair of lounge lizards, leisurely languishing like His Lordship and Her Ladyship, laughing light-heartedly, luxuriating in just being layabouts for a day. Yes, we did nothing at all today even though we were up early enough and the weather was superb. I fancied a rest day and as it turned out so did Huan. I must say it made a very pleasant change.

I did do a little work in the kitchen though; I made some kare-kare. I used chicken drumsticks instead of oxtails only because I couldn’t find oxtails. The reason for making this was another ‘using up stuff in the fridge’ day. Our peanut butter had been in there rather a long time. There are no photos because the end result was not as creamy as it should have been. There was less peanut butter in the jar than I needed.

July 18^th Having been a pair of lazy good-for-nothings yesterday we planned a video day today and then failed to get up early enough to do it! We kept to the town instead. As we were leaving Little Island we saw three very bright lights. They turned out to be just that. Last time we took a photograph of this place they were there but switched off so we didn’t notice them.

Huan was getting withdrawal symptoms; she really needed to find a lizard. How she saw this one against the tree bark I will never know. This photo is heavily cropped, rotated and edited so that you can see that there is something there!

Birds were on the limit of the camera too, I cannot crop this one anymore for you.

We often see water cannon in use to water the foliage alongside the roads. As far as we can tell it is just water with no insecticides added. This one is often parked here where, for some reason, the foliage seems to get more than its fair share of drenching. The operator was busy on his phone or we could have asked him, he does usually pass the time of day with us.

We meandered along, through the no title deed complex, up the main road and through another apartment complex whose back door was conveniently open.

These ladies were doing some landscaping cleaning outside of another apartment place. I thought they looked so much like country folk doing their chores that you should see them too.

Another creature evaded our lens, boy was he (or she) a Speedy Gonzales!

Do you like to see a little scenery? So do I, so here you are.

And how about scenery in miniature? I was rather taken by what was happening on the top of this brick wall. It would have been better had I been able to get a slightly higher view but I think you can probably see what I mean. Even better would have been a resident lizard!

We were on our way home by now so I dragged Huan through the indoor market to buy the salad stuff for the weekend and some fish for next week. Our last photo of the day is my dream house again, I really would not mind living there looking over the river.

July 19^th We are being warned of an incoming typhoon, it even has a name, Wipha. The funny thing is this typhoon does not appear on my typhoon forecast page or my ‘windy’ page. There is a storm somewhere between the Philippines and Taiwan but no reports of any typhoon activity. Maybe it is just warning us well in advance!

Anyway, today is Saturday, one of our usual quiet days, the other being Monday. We still walk on a Saturday, today was just less than six and a half kilometres, but it is an easy ‘in-town’ walk. We took the back entrance into the bap market area for a change.

All we needed today was a duck to go with our salad.

I had left the camera at home today in the vain hope that the Grandma finger may take a bit of a rest. She only went and found a lizard, where we never saw one before. I have shown two photos here, both at 8 times zoom. I managed to get a little closer for the second shot.

That was it from me, Huan took a few more of the creatures again, here’s her last one. Last week’s ostrich babies are out of shot here, down in the bottom left.

As for the rest of our day, well the winds and the rain did appear along with a forecast for much more of the same tomorrow. Still no sign of any typhoon though.

July 20^th Well the forecast rain was not there when we woke up this morning. I had a look out of the bedroom window and all I saw was a dead shared moped on the banks of Little Island. The entire world seems to have similar problems.

With there being no rain and none forecast before eleven we decided to do a local walk. As you can see here, not much in the way of blue skies or sun.

I thought that all we would have today would be some scenery shots. To prove me wrong, Huan managed to find a wee beastie on my shoe.

Then we were endowed with a little more luck. Although it was really too far away we managed a few shots of this little bird. These two were chosen by Huan to be shared with you.

And then we were back to scenery, ahead to the riverside and behind to our buildings.

Walking along Tea Street and under the bridge, the usual Saturday market route, we noticed a couple of Muriels on the tunnel walls. Maybe they were there on one of our market days; if they were then we missed them. I tried a panorama stitch, not too successfully I’m afraid.

Walking along this side of the river, where the market is on Saturday, is always pleasant. On sunny days there is always enough shade. It could be better with more places open but maybe in time that too will come to pass.

Walking on the side away from the river, it was my turn to surprise Huan!

Huan came across to see what I was doing. Can you spot my ‘just-in-case’ umbrella?

Considering the weather we were quite lucky today, we both found another subject each.

And we’ll finish our day with a nice little view of a park; look at all those lovely colours!

July 21^st We woke up to traditional British weather, pouring rain. In fact we had also gone to bed with the rain. The typhoon with no name, (on my maps) had skirted north of the Philippines, south of Taiwan, straight through Hong Kong and was now sitting directly north of Hainan. Despite the images, all we were really seeing was rain, lots of it.

This is a particularly good website if you are interested in your own weather. I tried it out with various places in the UK, it looks pretty useful. https://www.windy.com/

Monday of course is our normal shopping day. Huan decided to wear her very fashionable bubble-gum pink wellies so I had to record the event.

Back home it was Bob’s turn to be the chef again, this time a plain old English dish of lamb stew. The ingredients were lamb leg (off the bone), potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, oyster mushrooms, some kind of green leafy vegetable, parsley and assorted spices (not hot ones).

Not much lamb is visible above so here is one of our bowls. It was truly scrumptious!

What a lovely meal to finish the week with, even the Queen herself enjoyed it. Some people look on cooking as a necessary household chore, I just enjoy doing it. With high hopes of clearer skies in the near future we will bid you all a fond farewell, until the next time. (下次见)