September 9th Today’s first duty was to check on (not so) young Donald after which we decided on a Lizard Alley walk. Here’s our opener for the week.
Just a couple of metres further on we came across this sight. What did the people who put the bones there want? Did they want the bones picked clean so they could repurpose them? I know that if I had been scoffing something there I would have just tossed the bones in the river.
From one kind of bug to another, I love the raised eyes on this one.
I suggested to Huan that we try the ‘birdwalk’, the centre walkway along the river. She agreed and we found some birds so I took some photos, with the usual caveats!
Long before we reached Lizard Alley we found our first lizard, or should I say Huan did. He was on a tree trunk; this photo has been rotated for those of you using desktop monitors as I am. If you are using a phone you can rotate it right back again, I don’t mind.
Might as well stay with critters for a while, here’s another birdie for you. We think it may be a baby egret. If so, it is our first sighting of the season, no sign of its parents though.
Now this little fellow was not rotated, I took this photo at this angle. It doesn’t look like he was very pleased to see me.
And this one is not rotated because it would look stupid!
Now in ten years we have never seen a lizard on one of these red flowers. In fact we had even stopped looking as we passed this kind of foliage. Today we saw two! The first one was too quick for me this is the second one, who deserves two photos I think.
We interrupt our program on critters to show you a different view of Lizard Alley.
And now we return to our program where unfortunately no more lizards could be found!
By the time we reached the main road over six kilometres had been walked so it was time for Huan to use her bus pass. We were right on time and there was only one other person on the bus.
So, are you wondering about dear old Donald? Well we did take some photos this morning but we didn’t want them to end up as the thumbnail. Here he is, feeling a little empty inside. The workshop ‘thinks’ that we have had a long term leak from the sunroof. Let’s hope that when they have finished putting him back together again there are no bits left over! Even more worrying is the advanced state of mould on the rear doors. Will they be able to clean it off or will we have to buy new door trims? There’s something to be said for buying a new car every three years. If only I had a nice job, or a big pension, or a lottery win!
September 10th The sausage man is back in town so we headed off to the bap and sausage market to see if his stall was up and running yet. Speed was not necessary!
Luck was with us on the lizard front today, I found a skink on the wall and Huan found a lizard in a bush. She was a happy teddy indeed.
Huan was taken by this woman’s twirling of ribbons. I’m not sure of the correct terminology; the ribbons are tubular with small rings to facilitate air flow. She was good though!
At the market, instead of lizards we found a wee bee. If you look very closely you can just about see his wings. I’m curious though, what is that extra ‘finger’ on his left shoulder?
Unfortunately we were out of luck as far as sausages went. Sausage Guy is probably still sorting out his shop before opening his stall. Out of the market Huan had me hunting for birds again, a job that I am afraid I am not especially good at.
Mind you, I did a little better with the next two subjects down by the river. They are two different birds by the way.
Not content with that partial success Huan had me trying to photograph the last two subjects of the day despite the fact that I could barely see them, either with my eyes or the camera viewfinder. I tried boss, honestly, I tried!
Later on it was back into the kitchen for me with this recipe.
I didn’t change a thing, well not really. Our breadcrumbs did come from a dried out burger bun that had been in the freezer too long. We were pleased with how it all turned out although Huan said that the plated pictures were not worthy of your noble gaze. Instead, here is the baking dish.
September 11th Today was another old people shopping day, my choice, not Huan’s. Last week we bought a cheap vegetable peeler from Taobao, it was rubbish! My ‘executive order’ was that we actually buy one we could see, hence our trip to Baijiahi again. Nothing popped up in our ‘subject radar’ on the way there.
Nothing popped up on the way home either so I took some views for you.
Now you know all about snowbirds and how they return every winter, well, we have a few in our building. The third floor resident has an enormous balcony which our air-conditioning drain pipe drips on through the summer. I decided that this state of affairs couldn’t be allowed to continue so we bought some extra pipe to route the drain water into storage on our own balcony. That was another thing that we had bought this morning. Here I am joining the two pipes together. You will note that the new pipe is not the same colour as the old one. The green pipe was the only one we could find that would allow our existing pipe to have a snug fit. All done and tested and now Huan has another source of water for her plants!
September 12th It’s that time of the month
again, time to go and get drip fed some filling for my weary old bones so to
the hospital we went. For a change I made a video of this visit to show the
world how healthcare works in
It continued until the drip was finished, with breaks of course. Huan did make one or two short videos too but didn’t take her usual amount of stills. We do have a terrible one of me though, waiting in line to pay for the medication having already seen the doctor.
Isn’t it always the way that when you don’t have a choice of whether to go walkies or not the weather decides to be absolutely perfect for it.
Right, if you want to see the video of me hospital experience, and let’s be honest, why wouldn’t you, then you can find it here - https://youtu.be/LwcLEJxoHWI. Don’t worry there is no blood and gore and I am fully dressed at all times!
After our naps, which Huan thinks are needed because of my medication, (not sure why she needs them too), it was once again unto the cooker for me.
What did I change this time? Well, we have never seen crème fraiche here so I used whipping cream instead. Tarragon has never been seen either but as we always put garlic in everything I doubt that we missed it. Were there any mistakes? I probably used a little too much whipping cream so the sauce was not as thick as I would have liked it. Huan’s plate is first, with the pork on top, and mine is second with the pork hiding. We did both have green beans because we though some green vegetables were needed as well. No complaints, both our plates were cleared and no leftovers were available.
September 13th What happened? I didn’t wake up until just after nine and that was only because Huan came into the bedroom. I was having a strange dream for what seemed like most of the night though, someone had kidnapped #1. Sometimes I know exactly where my dreams originate, other times I am completely bamboozled. This was one of the latter. We were so late that we got the #2 bus to the other end of the market walk; it was a busy bus today.
Today was my lucky (lizard) day! What do you think he is thinking?
To my great disappointment neither the sausage stall nor the sausage shop were open yet, they must be doing more redecorating than we thought they were. Leaving the market this lady stopped us and wanted to know where I was from. Huan told her I was from Xinjiang!
Walking towards the riverside market, as a joke, I crouched down low and peered into the bushes. I almost hit this little one with my nose!
You’d be forgiven for wondering just what is going on here. In fact I was explaining to the older girl that the dog at her side was not doing anything wrong. She was just protecting her babies in the box and snarling at me because I was a possible danger.
Then we were both snapping birds, a few metres away from each other. I was snapping geese because I thought they were rather large and Huan was back on baby ostriches.
Are you taking the pith kind Sir?
EXCUSE ME! I added the exclamation mark. We haven’t had any car stuff for a while so I thought I would show you this little Baojun EV. It’s made by Wuling / Baojun with, would you believe, GM participation too. I wish test drives were a thing here! Anyway, here is the front view, as you can see it supports normal and fast charging.
As is normal these days in
This owner seems to have forgotten to do anything with the rear though.
Well, that is unless you count this attachment!
The model name is YEP, and despite its size, its lack of practicality and its high price (in this segment), I think it’s cute and I want one! In fact I think we should have two, one each!
Weekend cooking again and it was time to do the crumble that I hadn’t done last week.
I can’t remember where I got this recipe from which is a shame. I feel that the quantity of butter may be wrong. This is the second time I have cooked this and the crumble topping does not feel right at all. It all falls to pieces before you even get the spoon out of the baking dish. Maybe it should read 140g? Because of the way it came out of the dish we don’t have any photos for you. As usual, we modified it. We used, bananas, kiwi fruit, dragon fruit, pineapple, honeydew melon and mango. I guess we should call it “Tropical Fruit Surprise Crumble”! It was OK with ice cream although I suspect I might have enjoyed it more than the Queen of Hearts did.
September 14th Sometimes I think human beings should come with a user manual! Rain didn’t stop play today but it did stop a good night’s sleep last night. What we don’t know is why, for me especially. I used to be able to sleep anywhere at anytime, whether in a noisy place or a light place. Huan used to fall asleep like a baby. Is it just what happens when you get older?
Anyway, because of that we didn’t have time for a long walk so went a roundabout way to Baijiahui to do a little shopping. Donald has not yet returned home. This bird is a particularly bad photo but it has a certain appeal just because of that. It looks like he has had a crew-cut!
The next bird gave me a better picture but he was very good at hiding in the tree.
Blue moon… Five points for naming the famous singer.
Why do butterflies always look so threadbare? Is it a record of their near misses with predatory birds? And how do they still manage to fly with all those bits missing? I reckon there as some lessons for aircraft design engineers hidden in there somewhere.
Now this fellow had five photos in the camera but when I got home they were all garbage. Even this one is not good but it’s better than nothing.
This butterfly appears to be a complete one, pretty too.
I did talk to the pet shop birds again but you have seen them many times. I suggested to Huan that she took a few pictures of me walking up the hill with two bags of shopping and two express delivery parcels from Taobao. The first is slow, not the real me, the second is fast, definitely the real me!
September 15th Rewind and
repeat! Well not quite I suppose but today was shopping day and we still don’t
have Donald back. I did do a repeat of walking back up the hill with two
shopping bags and two express deliveries. However, Huan could not take photos
of this because she had been called away to the exit/entry police, it seems her
Today for our dinner I did mung bean soup with dried fish. Easy to do, first prepare the beans by soaking them. Second, in a saucepan fry some onion, garlic and a little ginger, when translucent add some chopped tomato. When all are done enough for you add the mung beans, bring to a boil and simmer until you are happy with them. Someone raided the kitchen and took my beans off earlier than I had hoped. Season to taste. Serve with the dried fish and boiled rice. Now the mung bean soup should not look like this, it should definitely be greener. I think we had the wrong beans, not enough of them and we didn’t soak them for long enough!
And that’s it for another week. We should get Donald back tomorrow so I have my fingers crossed that they put everything back in the right places, that there are no “bits left over” and that all his bits and pieces still work as they should.
From me, one whose bits and pieces no longer work as they should, and from SWMBO, we bid you a fond farewell and hope to see you again next week.
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