September 2nd Good morning world, it’s a brand new day! Mind you I will not be “packing my bags and getting’ away” as Blue Mink did way back in 1970. I don’t feel the need to break away and I have all the freedom I’ll ever need. Besides, just look at that glorious sky!
The Pinduoduo lady’s cat came out to see me; Huan says that she knows me. This photo was taken just before she decided that being picked up was not her thing at all.
Our destination was the village after Rendishan; it’s been a while since we walked that way. As we turned on to the main road one of the cleaning ladies asked for my help. Her tricycle was blocked by what we call a ‘borrow bike’. Here is my help and our little chat.
One of us found this lizard; can’t remember who.
Down the road I spotted a rather dirty Black Knight motorbike. The reason for taking its photo though was the seat cushion. I have never seen one like this before. This is what Google’s AI search tells me – “The image shows a motorbike seat cushion featuring a raised, honeycomb-like or studded surface, designed for enhanced comfort and potentially airflow. This type of cushion is often made from materials like TPE or high-elasticity gel, which provide shock absorption and pressure relief, promotes air circulation, reducing heat and moisture build up, offers superior weight distribution and shock absorption compared to traditional foam or gel pads, during long rides.” How would you learn these things if it wasn’t for your Uncle Bob?
I take the credit for the next one!
Huan found a cow under a tree; she thought it may have been hiding because it was ‘with child’. I couldn’t even tell whether it was male or female. I found more cows though and as usual Huan took a whole album’s worth of snaps.
I had prepared today and had my boots on. This road is often not very good, especially after periods of inclement weather.
There were some watery parts at the beginning of the hill but as we turned towards the village we were surprised to see that the road has been resurfaced. No problems here at all!
Over the little bridge we found some farmers cutting down trees. The trees had been damaged by the recent typhoon so they were removing it ready to plant some betel nut trees. Huan forgot to zoom in so the photo heavily is cropped and therefore not too clear.
The weather was still behaving itself as we approached the village. Here’s a nice view for you.
In the village I dropped Huan off at the little shop for a chat and to buy some water while I went ahead to take the views. The first one is under the highway looking back from whence we came. For the second one I had to go a little further so that I could see up the valley. I could have done with going even further but I didn’t fancy missing my lunch!
Back at the shop I had the usual
interrogation, “are you Russian” and when I replied in the negative “are you
American”. Sometimes people go on to other nationalities, this time he was
stuck. They do know the
On our way back down to the city we found a breeding ground for new yellow borrow bikes, just like the one I had moved this morning.
No more really good photos were taken so here is a selfie from when we were waiting for the #2 bus. We could have walked home but nine kilometres and some was enough.
Let’s finish the day with another beautiful skyscape!
September 3rd Donald has been in hospital since Monday so our plan today was to go and find out how much we would have to pay and then visit the bank. He was still in the waiting room so no bank visit today. Instead we went for a walk on the road to somewhere. On the way I snapped a couple of birds, Huan was impressed.
From two birds we move to two two’s, both involved with H2O. Did you see that? Another two!
On the road to somewhere there was also some remedial work in progress.
We were hunting for snakes and lizards, through the little village. All we found was a fishpond, an almost completed villa and another fishpond.
And then, just before we left the village, Huan did it, she found a lizard!
In the next village I found a little chap trying to throw his little T-shirt over the washing line. I asked him if he needed some help and to my amazement he understood me!
Before leaving this village Huan found another lizard for me.
This one caught my eye but I must admit I did not see all those ants until I looked through the viewfinder. My eyes are definitely aging!
On the way home, here’s another two for you.
Going through the outdoor market this chap really wanted his pooch to know me.
Of course he may have wanted us to know his dog because we have known his neighbour for the last ten years. I think we should start calling the neighbour Blind Frank. What say you?
Staying with pooches it was Huan’s turn to sit with Dodo while I took photos. I could swear that he is giving me an accusing look!
Yesterday I did some more surfing of the net to learn more about my cancer treatments and the various side effects that, of course, “vary from person to person”. One is tiredness which could explain why I can no longer do without my afternoon naps. It doesn’t explain why Huan needs them too though. Any budding doctors out there?
Sleep time over it was back into the kitchen for me, a real Chinese dish.
The only ingredient I changed was the sugar. We have no white sugar in the house, only brown. That is for my morning coffee where I have one spoonful. If you make it, I suggest you follow the recipe exactly or at least be more careful than me. I divided everything by two because there are only the two of us. However, I forgot to divide the ‘water’ by two and added 600ml instead of 300ml. You can tell if you look in the pan. Note also the absence of a slow cooker.
What else did I change? In the beginning, instead of the scallions, I added half an onion to the ginger. I put the scallions in fifteen minutes before the end so that we had vegetables in our dish. I needn't have worried about my minor error; the Prime Minister was well impressed. Her only grumble would be that there were no leftovers for her breakfast.
September 4th Time for another video walk, number four in the upriver series. We took the #5 bus to Shén shù cūn, where our starting point was Panman bridge.
Off the bus we had to head in the opposite direction to the last video. Huan took photos.
Even I took too many photos today despite being on video duties.
Everything was going fine until we reached this point. Here I am on the video explaining that the farmer told us to avoid his fruit farm. That was just before we did the opposite!
Actually getting through his farm was not the problem. We then had to look for a way back to our proposed route. It wasn’t easy as you can probably guess by these photos. Cue my sisters giving me an earful again! I love them for it really.
We did find our way down to the riverside for a short way before being diverted through the farmland again. Here I am asking the workmen about their new plastic house.
Going through the last farmland of the day gave us our only critters of the day. Huan snapped a lizard and did a fine job of it. I snapped a birdie with the usual excuse of ‘too far away’.
After all the stumbling through the undergrowth I was very happy to see the bridge in front of us at last. Our destination, all it needed was a golden glow to set it off. You have to look closely but it is there in the photos, I promise.
In Nansheng I needed two bottles of water, the first to quickly quench my thirst and the second to savour as we rode the bus home. The two fingers are not there for ‘posing’ but to show which bottle is number two! I enjoyed them both, very much.
So, before we started today’s walk we were not sure if we would be able to do the two sides of the river in one video. We couldn’t! This time we will try not to have such a big gap before the next video. As for today’s, it’s here - https://youtu.be/s4AwrV1ywSQ
September 5th We had been given the news that poor Donald needed ¥450.00 spent on him to make him better. He has problems with his new fangled automatic handbrake and possible the rear brake lights too. We gave them the go-ahead and set off for the bank. I took Huan through the place where she always hopes to find a squirrel. This isn’t one!
At the bank I took out enough money to fix Donald and to top up Huan’s Taobao bank.
On the way back down the main street we spotted a grubby lizard.
And then after me making a withdrawal it was time for Huan to make a deposit. Unfortunately I didn’t get the satisfied grin today!
And out last photo of the day is the stairway to heaven! Well it’s not really heaven as you can see. My weekend plan was a tropical crumble so we were going to look for desiccated coconut and shelled walnuts. We found the (expensive) walnuts easily enough and then to my surprise they actually had the desiccated coconut too.
And that was our day over. Around three o’clock we lost our electricity, we knew that there would be work on the system between 8am and 7pm. It didn’t come back before then. We kept getting delay messages but eventually it didn’t come back before we went to bed. With having today’s dinner already chopped up and ready to cook we would have to have it tomorrow. There would be no crumble this week!
September 6th Power was back on when we woke up, good for me and my coffee! Last night Huan had received a call from the car hospital. It seems that Donald has other problems. All his carpets, the ones that you never see because you use after-market floor mats, are soaked through. They are going to remove all the seats and do a spray from underneath to try and find out why. That will add another ¥600.00 to the bill, just in labour charges! Here he is, sat under a tree, blissfully unaware that his insides are going to be removed!
Something else in the process of repair is the big school wall. Maybe a civil engineer can tell me why they do this. Is it just to try and dry the soil out before they start reinforcing the wall?
Today was market day of course but we didn’t really need to buy anything so we went along the river first. That’s how we saw the school wall and managed to get a few other pictures that we don’t usually do on a Saturday. First a flutterby!
And then a view of the river instead of a throng of people.
To Huan’s great delight she also found a lizard, which I hadn’t spotted!
This next collage got me into a retrospective view of life’s choices. It was brought about by the large lorries more than the road machines. I have always liked driving and even as a boy I wanted to drive, trains or trucks, I didn’t mind. I wonder how different my life would have been had the army put me into the Royal Corps of Transport instead of the Royal Corps of Signals. If they would let me I would still like to learn to drive trucks now! Anyway, here’s the collage of the wonderful work they are doing and then the result.
Huan wanted to show you this one. This tree was bereft of leaves before. If you look you will see that, just like me, it has some kind of medication introduced intravenously. Now it’s green again!
Our question from last week has been answered. All the gates look to still be in working order.
On the other side of the river the tourist paraphernalia is back in the water and on this side they are building some additional rafts. Snowbirds will be returning soon!
Walking across Fodelai bridge I spotted something down below. Huan didn’t see it at all so I had to try. It was a skink just about to disappear over the side.
We had no plans to buy anything but Huan had other ideas and bought a needlefish, or a garfish, I am not quite sure which. I also suggested that we buy some chicken strips for tomorrow’s dinner, Huan agreed. Here’s the seller frying them for us and me patiently waiting.
And that’s all the pics for today folks! I don’t suppose I need to tell you that we had to have afternoon naps, that’s probably a given by now. I did cook dinner later, the one I had prepared last night. Beef strips marinated for well over 24 hours, onion, garlic and broccoli, in other words beef and broccoli but probably unlike any you’ve tried before. I made the fatal mistake of cooking the broccoli too much. It was tasty enough, just not the right texture. Because of my basic error you have no photograph I’m afraid.
September 7th Having successfully destroyed my boots on Thursday we decided to avoid the countryside and stick to the town today. The first snap is one of Huan’s, “cleanup on aisle 3!”
Our route was through the no title deed villas where we had a little look inside. There were a lot of different butterflies in there. I did my best but didn’t manage to snap them all.
All that prancing about in the bushes put me in the mood for ice cream. First I had to find a green bean one for Huan and then decide between strawberry and vanilla, with a little chocolate for me. Decision made, it was time to pay and then take a terrible selfie!
Huan asked me to take this one which I managed to do without scaring the chickens.
Here we have a meeting of old friends. It’s been a few months at least, maybe even more. As soon as his Mum sent him out he knew who I was and we had a good chat.
Huan found me a tiny lizard!
And then I thought you might like another panorama to show that the river is regaining its beauty.
I think that is enough for today’s walk so I’ll finish off with the expedition leader sitting on the transport waiting to be ferried home.
Remember the chicken strips for today’s dinner? Well I remembered that you needed a photo of them. First I did the usual, fried some onion and garlic. When the onions were translucent I added a chopped tomato, the one I had left in the fridge. To these ingredients I then added a tablespoon of oyster sauce, a spoonful of Chinese sweet mildly spicy sauce and a dash of five spice powder. When I considered they were done enough I threw in a tin of kidney beans. After that I added the chicken strips to the mix, plated up the already cooked noodles and then put this all on top. As a sort of mix and match dinner of what we had available it turned out very well. We both cleared our plates and of course Huan reserved a bowl for breakfast!
September 8th Today we were just like any other two old people, anywhere in the world, going shopping with our carrier bags in our hands. Yes, Donald is still incapacitated. I tried a snap with my phone of a shy dragonfly, it didn’t really work.
Huan decided she needed a record
of me with a fellow countryman, its name is Mimi. It seems that Mimi’s Mum, the
owner of the music shop, was given Mimi by a friend. That friend brought Mimi
back from the
After waiting over half an hour for a bus we ended up walking home too. Huan was asking me every five minutes if I wanted to sit down and rest! No need, we get enough rest every afternoon! I was Le Chef again today and this was the recipe.
Were there any modifications? Well we don’t have new potatoes here and I had two rather large oldies in the fridge so I used them. I boiled them before to make sure they’d be cooked. Here’s Huan’s plate. Recommendations? The recipe calls for a green pepper so I used a jalapeno; I think it would be better with a bell pepper, especially if you are making it for children too.
And so ends another week, a week without poor old Donald. Huan thinks we will have him back before next Monday. I have to keep reminding her that what they quoted was the cost of finding the problem and not the cost of rectifying it. My fingers are crossed. Of course, you will know next week whether my fears came true or whether Huan’s hopes prevailed. See you then!
Fabulous young Bob! A cracking read kid 👍🥃
ReplyDeleteCheers! Gives me something to do and family like to know how I'm getting on in far off parts.
DeleteLoving your recipes and cooking skills. 😍
ReplyDeleteThanks Gale. I actually get a lot of pleasure from cooking. Don't fancy making videos of it though, too much like hard work!
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