July 29th Hello new week! Let’s start with an admin day shall we. A visit to Sanya was what I needed to check that my state pension is now OK and to change some money. Here we have just exited the long tunnel near Baoting on the central highway.
The bank took a little longer than it should have. They started handing me bundles of loot when all I needed was to change the money in my account. Eventually we got it sorted out and went for lunch on the way to our Sanya apartment. No need to tell you which is mine!
In our apartment our first impressions were that not much has deteriorated over the last few months. A touch of paint under the window wouldn’t go amiss. And then, as we were leaving, Huan looked up at the ceiling!
The upstairs apartments are all empty so ‘what to do’? Cue a grumpy Rigsby moment!
After deciding that we would return sometime after my summer
hospital appointments we took a short stroll around the rivers. Our first
stroll was alongside
Note the lack of snowbirds! It’s a very pleasant walk albeit a very humid one today. It would be nice to get closer to the river but that’s not possible for much of the way.
Occasionally when you can get closer you can also get lucky. Look at these two!
Through the ‘shopping town’ as Huan calls it we crossed the bridge to the other side of the other river, the Linchun river. It would be so nice if they rented out boats here.
On the other side we walked through the park, not so near the river. You have seen this park many times in the past so collages were the order of the day. In the second collage, there is a beautiful yellow and green bird somewhere in the top left corner picture. Unfortunately, I had been too lazy to walk back to the car and so I was only using the phone.
And then we were over the bridge and back to where we had parked the car.
By now we were both shattered, like the proverbial horses on the way to the knacker’s yard. We had only walked about five kilometres but neither of us had slept well last night. Here I am being a bad boy for the second time this month, and enjoying every minute of it!
In the car Huan was so worried that I would fall asleep that she forced herself to stay awake all the way home. When we got there, we decided that a nice cheese and salad sandwich would be ample for our evening meal. Huan watched movies; I did my Chinese homework, and then watched movies too. I left this entry until tomorrow!
July 30th Here we are, tomorrow, and, having decided to stay in today, very relaxed. Mind you, that could also be because we both slept like logs last night. Admin for me, bring the bank records up to date. Baking for Huan, again!
As promised, here is the second Chinese dish of the week, pork pepper stir-fry. (农家小炒肉 (nóng jiā xiǎo chǎo ròu), also known as "Country Side Style Stir-Fried Pork".)
And here it is on the table, ready to be served and then Huan’s plate.
Verdict? We changed absolutely nothing and we loved it. Well, Huan loved it unconditionally, I loved it apart from the wood ear mushrooms, there’s just something about the texture. If I make this dish again I may well substitute them for dried shitake mushrooms. Try it!
July 31st Sometimes it’s good to have a boss! Last night I checked the weather and it was good for a video walk today. When I got up, without any prompting from me, Huan asked if we could have a short walk today. Maybe she can read my mind! I needed no extra encouragement and agreed immediately. Off we went, first across Little Island.
Around town and river we continued.
Birds could be heard but not seen. As we were on our way home, Huan asked me how far we had walked and, horror of horrors, I had forgotten two start the fitness app. We would have to guess based on time. We had a sit down to talk about it instead.
I spent ages trying to find some song lyrics to pair with this next photo. I failed. If you have any ideas, let me know, and I may include them in future posts.
I wonder how many of you own or drive electric cars. Some of you may have heard of Nio, a very famous product here. This is the latest addition here in Wuzhishan, a battery swap station. Written on the front is “Charging takes 1 hour, battery replacement only takes 3 minutes”. The car is also a lot cheaper when you buy it with the battery swap option. The downside is that if you buy it with the battery swap option your resale choices will be limited should you decide to sell. Neither is a problem for me of course, we can’t afford either option!
You may notice the cameras and Lidar units on the roof. They are there because you just park the car and it is then guided in automatically, you don’t have to do anything. If you want to see more, there are many videos on the internet.
Almost home, time to see a few more cows.
And that was it, the end of a quiet, relaxing day.
August 1st Oooops, we did it again! This morning we made a mutually agreed
decision not to go anywhere at all. Why? Because we had both been kept awake
last night by noisy restaurant clientele downstairs. We are on the seventh
floor but noise travels! Never mind, we enjoyed yet another day of rest. I did
a little work though, I prepared dinner in the morning, par boiled potatoes and
carrot, pre-cooked the lamb I had marinated last night. After the ‘very
necessary’ naps and coffee I got down to finalising the cooking. What were
having today? It was a good old fashioned
August 2nd What is going on with the weather? The PC says a gorgeous sunny day; the sky says it won’t let the sun shine in and the windows echo to the pitter patter of raindrops! Luckily it was very short lived so market day was still on. Huan even found a lizard where she had never found one before. Of course, I only had my phone with me, the camera was at home.
Today we approached the market from the other direction and were amazed to see just how many cars were parked along the road. It is not the season for the return of the snowbirds yet so we guess it must be people who actually live around here.
With some trepidation we turned the corner where, to our surprise, the market was not as we expected. It was busy, more so than last week, but not enough to justify all the extra cars. Maybe like us they were worried about the weather.
Huan wanted photos of the young ostriches and various other birds today, again, but I managed to talk her out of them. Instead she found another bird for me. Here is its owner teaching me how to get it to stand on my finger.
And this is me responding to the owner. She said that the bird did not understand English so I replied with my stock answer, ‘all animals understand English’!
And here are the best two pictures, the ones where the bird got back on its perch!
Huan wanted to walk back via the dam to see what was going on there. The first photo shows someone selling water safety aids; the second photo shows everyone playing in water so shallow that they would not be able to do anything if they wore said aids.
We took a close up of the little tent but are none the wiser over what was going on in there. Then, from the steps to our place, we took another view overall. I did wonder if they will allow swimming in the deep part to the right in the second photo. Probably not…
And there you go, another Saturday bites the dust.
August 3rd Up early enough for another video day and weather on our side too. Here we are waiting at the bus stop for the #5.
And here we are at the other end, well our stop anyway, going
towards
The walk was good; the local government has done a wonderful job!
And then it was my turn to surprise Huan, with a little lizard. Of course I was a dummy and forgot to include it in the video!
This next one could be a statue of the goddess Guanyin, with the inscription translating as ‘May your family be safe and sound’.
It was then Huan’s turn to find a lizard, followed by a bird and a butterfly for me. This lizard actually appears in the video but some dummy used the phone in a different orientation to the rest of the video. Of course I shall remain nameless!
The scenery continued to please us as did the weather, the sun kept hiding for prolonged periods but no water fell from the heavens. Perfect weather for walking in fact!
More birds for you now, the first we were lucky to get, the second just a bit too far away.
Soon we were on the homeward stretch, just look how the foliage has grown since they finished the walkway and did the landscaping. It’s amazing how fast nature can be.
Another wee birdie was spotted hiding in the rushes.
This first photo was our goodbye on the video, you wouldn’t believe that we had walked over seven kilometres at this point would you. The second was Huan, having decided that, because of the seven kilometres I would not be allowed to walk home, ‘running up that hill’ to make sure the bus waited for me!
Needless to say we both needed a nap after lunch! If you want to see the video, go here - https://youtu.be/fDwrvz_hAHo, speed up to skip my voice!
August 4th Oh I do like Mondays, most of the time anyway, and today was not too bad. I missed a bird at the shopping centre and then had problems parking the car when we got home. The ‘offender’ had no phone number on his dashboard. I wouldn’t mind so much but it was the same guy that I talked to before about blocking the ‘internal’ spaces. Why do they do it? Because they do not want to be blocked in themselves.
Today was another ‘cooking with Bob’ day, not that there is anyone else involved. It’s all just me. Here are the ingredients, if you’re confused, just ask. Suffice to say that the octopus in the first photo is completely chopped and marinating in the second photo.
Here is the hubble bubble toil and trouble once all ingredients plus noodles, were nearly done.
Finally here are our bowls, Huan’s first and mine second. There is no difference other than I stirred mine to bring the noodles and other stuff into view. Simple and yummy!
So, what will be the recipe(s) this week Uncle Bob? You’ll just have to click to subscribe and find out won’t you. Whatever they are, I will enjoy both cooking them and eating them. I can tell you that no actual recipes will be used this week, just my noggin. Let us hope that I don’t strain the brain (cell) too much! Till next time, TTFN!
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