August 19th Two days of rain stopped play and today turned out to be perfect for walking.
Unfortunately for us it was an
admin day! Donald’s insurance payment was due. Despite now being worth less
than 25% of his initial cost he still has to be insured, and because of me, I
always go for the maximum fully comprehensive. Bill? ¥2,400.00. Mind you, I
suppose that is not bad by
Some extra views because it will not be a busy day. One day this view may change, we believe that the old pharmaceutical housing complex will be sold and the land developed.
Doing the insurance would be nigh
on impossible without Huan. Everything is done on phones now so apps need to be
installed, permissions given, acceptance of contract terms etc. Of course it is
all in Chinese and just as in the
Unusually, Huan is seen here smiling after spending money!
We came back home via Big Old Dog’s place. Today we found out that his name is弟弟, Dìdì which translates as ‘younger brother’. He is seen here with his younger sister, he is ten, (maybe more), and she is seven. Huan asked if they grew up together, the girl said no, that Dìdì grew up with her father. I suppose she is right. In the second photo I am pointing out a little friend down the road for Dìdì. In the old days he could have bounded off to say hello, no chance of that now.
All we found before we reached home was another pooch. He had a good sniff of my knee before I was pointing for him too, telling him that his Mum was there, inside the bank.
And there you have it, the first day of the week over.
August 20th Would you believe it, we have another admin day today. This one it to try and avoid us having to take a trip to Sanya. My bank passbook needs bringing up to date after all the spending last week and there is only a line or two left. My account is in Sanya hence the worry. We walked on the off chance that we may find lizards. We did, first me and then Huan.
Not only did we see lizards but we also saw a stag, peering over a very high fence!
Luckily we could do all that was required here so I was ready for more admin later on, scanning the old and new book etc, bringing the PC up to date. Sitting at the bus stop before heading back into town we thought we would try a panorama stitch for you. Panoramas don’t work so well when the subject is too near but here you go anyway.
We were going into town to look for some mixed vegetables; I am doing fried rice today. We have seen frozen packs before but yesterday Baijiahui was out of them. We both thought that the indoor market may have what we needed and lo and behold, Huan found exactly the right thing.
Finally, on our walk home, we passed a couple of kids enjoying themselves on the beach.
Do all old people nap as much as we do? Answers on a postcard please. This was the fried rice dish I was making today.
Over the years I have cooked many fried rice dishes but never one from an actual recipe. I have to say that this is by far the best one I have ever cooked. Try it, you’ll love it too!
August 21st We decided that since we haven’t
done it for a while that we would do the
More scenery with the university proudly showing off its green roofing.
To Huan’s surprise I managed to ‘see’ a very small lizard that she had missed.
Not far into the park we saw a sign that we hadn’t seen before. At home I ran it through Wechat for an image translation. Wechat did a good job. Huan said that I should wear my long trousers. I reminded her that the first and only time I ever wore them I ended up in the hospital having a stent fitted! Look back at the Blog post for March 28th 2022 for details.
The park was quite sparsely populated with snowbirds but there were a few. Some were doing some exercises, some were playing ping-pong and some were practicing their dama dancing.
And then we were into the easy part of the walk.
There then followed some mild ups and downs before a nice rest area, should you so wish.
A lot more ups and downs followed, but at least after all this time we know where they end and where relaxation starts again.
Relaxation brought with it some nice views, one of which I even used for Facebook.
On the bridge we found a dragonfly. This year they all seem to be blue or grey, I wonder why.
Over the bridge we had two choices but only one led home, the downward route.
Passing a little poultry farm on the way down and wondering where all the birds had gone we noticed a little bundle of fur running up the hill and under the fence just to see us. Perhaps he was feeling a little lonely? We were worried that he would follow us but Huan convinced him to go back in and wait for his owners. At least he seemed to be well fed.
Nearer the bottom of the hill we were spotted and warned away.
This is what I thought would be the last photo, a view back into town.
And this one is the last one, well not the last one I took but the last one that I will share. Both of us were taken by the colour of the body as well as the wings.
So, we ended up walking 9.3km, the longest stretch in one go for quite some time. Needless to say we both really enjoyed our OAP naps this afternoon!
August 22nd Plans are strange things when you are retired. So many times they don’t come to fruition and what’s more, you don’t really care about it. Today, in my mind we were to have a bus‘n’walk‘n’video, sleep had other ideas! Instead we had a countryside walk, starting off by going through two villages in quick succession before turning into the lanes.
While I was taking that last photograph I lost Huan and turned to see a silhouette on the path. She was making a very good job of using her phone to snap a butterfly. It looked a little damaged and very wobbly so perhaps its time was nearly over.
Not content with finding her own subjects she was also keeping me busy. This ‘shy’ lizard was not at all easy to focus on.
I then caught her snapping an insect but not so well so here is mine.
From insects to cows, someone heard me mooing!
And then we are back to insects again with me. Some very small ones were having a feast and then, just to contradict me, I found a dragonfly that was not grey or blue!
Sometimes the landscape has changed and requires a new panorama.
Cows were seen again, with their minders enjoying a day out with a picnic!
Remember my dragonfly gripe? Well, here are some more contradictions.
To make sure we didn’t have the usual circular walk we decided to get a bus home. Here I was looking for a route to bypass the village and enter from the other side. This one would not work, at least today. On another day, if Huan had not have been with me I may well have tried it.
Instead we took the back road into the village.
In the village Huan found a lady weaving and as usual, wanted to take photos. I told her to ask first and the lady agreed. In the second photo she is showing Huan how to do it and in the third photo she is showing what the finished weave looks like. For me it looks amazing, how do they do it? She told Huan that she will take the finished product into a shop in town and they will sell it for her. We do have quite a few Li and Miao shops now.
Meanwhile I was heading downhill looking for the main road and a shop.
Huan must have sprinted down the hill after me because she managed to catch me buying and paying for the water.
As always in the villages, there are children who want to communicate, in some form or another. This young lad tried to tell me something but it was completely unintelligible, not even the language was clear. Here I am explaining how my Mam would tell me not to speak with my mouth full. Surprisingly his grandma knew exactly the same phrase in Chinese.
Before too long a bus came along, with seats and only ¥3.00 per person, good enough for us.
Walking back home from the bus stop I had to take this photo. There are at least two good reasons to buy this car. First it is a Lotus and second it is yellow. Of course I have no idea whether or not is a good car. If anyone wants to present me with it as a gift, I will not argue!
Today was another day for me to cook and Huan had asked for rice pudding. Here is the recipe and the ingredients. Not shown are the butter (which is salted) and the sugar.
I used more rice and dairy and less sugar. I also learned that cinnamon sticks cannot be ground in a coffee bean grinder. For my bowl I also added dried raisins and sultanas. Here are the bowls, bottom left is mine, bottom right is Huan’s, they have not been stirred at this stage so the fruit cannot be seen. The top bowl is the extra for Huan. She will have half with fruit for breakfast, maybe banana, maybe peach. The other half she will have at lunch time with sweet potatoes. It doesn’t work for me but each to their own I suppose.
August 23rd Saturday mornings are not only market mornings but also shower and shave mornings. Once can’t be a scruff when accompanying one’s wife around the metropolis! Huan often asks if she can cut my hair, I usually refuse. Today I said she could, it makes her happy and I needed a teeny weeny trim. The first photo shows how much she wanted to remove, after she had refused my first ‘level’ as being not enough. The second is what we ended up with.
And this was me on the way to the market. Huan was pleased with the result.
Not needing too much we were going the ‘wrong way round’ which meant views.
On the final straight we met a family that had already finished their shopping. At least the young lad didn’t go home with a bag of beans, although I do wonder how the duck felt.
As for the market, well it was busy enough to be interesting and not busy enough to get on my nerves. What more could we ask for?
All Huan could find today was a repeat, baby ostriches again. They are growing mind you. I learned that their feathers are unlike normal bird’s feathers and not soft to the touch at all.
And that was it, nothing else to report for today.
August 24th Another day of
rain stopped play all due to typhoon Kajiki which is passing south of
Confined to barracks Huan got cooking and I got watching movies. Both of us were happy enough and I at least had something else to photo. Here is Huan’s preparation.
Next is her dumpling construction.
And finally here are the finished products, dumplings, baps and flatbread.
For those of you who may follow my Facebook page here is one that you will not have seen because it is from an army page. I don’t usually respond very much but I did add the blue to this one. PS I was not in the infantry!
August 25th Monday, as you know, is always shopping day and, more often than note has very few photos. We woke up to rain again today and SWMBO went berserk with her phone. She went berserk before I was even out of bed and she continued until shopping was done. She took over one hundred photos, I took a few. The first two that Huan took made for quite a good stitch up; when she got home I took the one from the balcony. Water was BIG today.
Unfortunately big rain also comes through our small walls.
Looking out of the kitchen balcony we saw that our normal route was probably not a good idea.
So many photographs were taken by the boss that collages were a necessity. The first one is our drive to Baijiahui, trimmed down to just four.
As for shopping, well that was somewhat easier than usual.
Our next drive was to the indoor market to buy some mushrooms. A few bits of greenery were down, nothing too serious though.
Again some people had not yet arrived at work, including the mushroom sellers. All the meat farmers were also absent, no pork anywhere, no cooked meats either. Luckily meat was not on the list, we have some in the freezer.
On our way home some more damage was seen, this time a little more serious and worthy of individual photos. Spot the tree chopping yellow truck.
Around the corner we saw the reason they were here. A whole tree had been uprooted taking a small car with it. Two photos are here so you can see all the detail.
Further on we saw that the river was in full flow more than we have ever seen it. In fact “Little Island Park” was in danger of becoming “Even Littler Island Park”!
Huan was somewhere in there while I was out taking the snaps above.
As we approached our back gate there appeared to be problems, not for us but for cars having to use the middle of the road coming the other way.
Later on we saw a video where the black car to the left of the crown of the road was doorsill deep in water It would appear that he was not the only one because the recovery truck was taking somebody else’s car away first.
All that was left for us was to navigate around a piece of tree and then we were home safely.
No naps today, I had far too much work to do with Huan’s photos and videos and also my photos and videos. I did manage to make dinner though, some kind of seashell noodle soup, shells already removed. No photos, you can take our word that it was most definitely up to restaurant standard. And that’s that for another week, see you soon!
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