October 21st As I write this there is the sound of wind howling through the window cracks, it appears that winter is arriving early this year. Outside looked pretty bleak this morning so we stayed in and I cooked dinner, pork spare rib stew.
After lunch we decided walking was more than necessary, sans camera and avec brollies. Of course not having the camera meant we found a kingfisher!
Huan thought that this was either a dead animal or an animal in distress, so she insisted I had to take a photo. Voila, an old fishing net.
This is just a scene of the river so you can share our despondence.
How about this fellow, don’t you just love his colours and his ‘collar’. I think he has also been overdoing it at the local cordon bleu establishment, just look at his midriff bulge.
We took a bus home, at the request of the Minister of Transport. Before we even set off Huan’s camera was out recording my interaction with a snowbird. He thought I was Russian, naturally, so I had to put him right. It turns out he likes to join the dancing in the various town squares where, in his words, because he is a good dancer there is no shortage of ladies chasing him!
Back home it was time to resume the mantle of Chef Bob. No cooking was needed this time of course, just a reheat of what I had prepared this morning. Here is Huan’s ‘large’ bowl!
October 22nd Today I feel that someone
sneakily transported us to the
One of the jobs was cleaning up the coffee coasters in the living room. We have had these for years and only today did I spot something that made me smile. I wonder if you can spot it. Once again there will be no prizes for the winner though.
We finished just about lunch time, here are the results.
After lunch I made an executive decision again, (I was allowed to), that no naps would be taken and that we would carry on working. The first job was to take all the pictures off the wall in the corridor, clean them and let them dry.
While the drying process was going on I was busy getting wet in the bathroom. Often the easiest way to clean things is with the shower in the bath. Huan took too many photographs again but you can rest assured they are all safe for work!
Back to the walls, here is the ‘as bought from Taobao’ wall.
And here is the ‘Siblings; wall. Any siblings reading this, if the photos are wrong, send me more!
How did I know where to put everything? Well I took photos before I took the photos off the wall. Without that my brain could never have coped. Was that my work finished for the day? Of course not, I was back into Chef Bob mode, noodles with pork meatballs. Huan made the meatballs a couple of days ago, some were frozen and some were for today. The jug is pork stock, from the lovely dinner we had yesterday.
Here are our bowls. After I took a photo of mine Huan insisted that I take one of hers with her meatballs showing. Mine were under everything else.
October 23rd The computer didn’t tell lies today! It told us that the rain would stop by nine and not come back before twelve. Shoes on and out we went, it felt good. The first picture was more than likely caused by the winds the night before last. At least the owner of that car doesn’t have too much to worry about, mostly just some, quite bad, scratches.
Huan wanted to find lizards, and I thought we might see our usual skink. We were both in luck!
I found a bird, not that you can see a lot of it.
Snowbird market was not too busy, take a close look at the bike and sidecar.
At the bottom of the market he had stopped and I asked if we could take a photo. Instead he got off and asked if I would like to sit on it. No need to ask me twice! As I was sitting there another gentleman asked Huan if she wanted to sit down too and he would take our photo using her phone. Who could refuse such an offer, especially as here no one is going to do a runner with your phone! So here we are, pretending to be Wallace and Grommit.
As we were leaving I spotted that this particular combination is electric. Mind you, it was just a little too small for me and Huan thought the sidecar was too small too.
Another bird was spotted, again a bit too far away, so here are two photos of it.
It looked like most snowbirds decided not to risk venturing into the great outdoors.
Although this is only a storm drain outlet I quite liked the waterfall.
Huan said she could see a bird, I couldn’t see it but being the obedient chappie that I am I took a few shots anyway. There was a little bird there, only one. I liked the shot on the left; Huan liked the one on the right, so here they both are for you.
Another executive decision was made, I’ll have to be careful or I may have to face the judge! No work in the house today and no naps either, just straightforward relaxation. I did have to do a spot of work later though, here are the ingredients. Some you can instantly recognise, others may be not so easily. Back left we have a spherical egg-plant, also known as an aubergine, a brinjal, or a baigan, and for Huan it’s 茄子, Qiézǐ. At the back is some chicken marinated in a little cooking alcohol and soy sauce. The two white things are bags of frozen rice and the jar is store bought curry paste. The rest you probably know.
And here is my plate ready to scoff. I couldn’t take a photo of Huan’s she had already scraped some off to add to what I had already saved for her breakfast tomorrow.
One last thing I had to do this evening was to root through my drawers and find a pair of pyjamas. Winter must be here, could it be that dreaded La Niña?
October 24th After yesterday’s break from ‘work’ we were back down to it today, this time in the kitchen. Top cupboards were first, empty, thoroughly clean and then refill. Despite me asking Huan for help now and then she still found time to click away.
And here’s the top half, all done.
Next up were the bottom cupboards where Huan took a few less photos of me, thankfully. I did manage to include one of her this time; I couldn’t fit into this small corner cupboard! The procedure would be the same, empty, clean and then refill.
The empty space in the top right of the cupboard is where the rice cooker lives; it was in use when we took the photographs.
I thought my luck was changing when I was ordered into the drawers. I thought wrong; these were the drawers in question.
It was then time for a nap break; we were both ready for a good snooze after all that work. Huan woke up first and when I awoke I heard strange sounds coming from the kitchen. She had finished the cupboard under the sink but that was not the source of the noise.
No, the strange sounds I had heard were Huan trying to put the oven door back together again. She had decided to take it to pieces to clean it. Sometimes I worry about what she gets up to when I am not around to advise and protect her!
Between us we eventually got it back together and into place again. Strange how there are not many photos of the Chief working, could have something to do with me working alongside her during those times. Anyway, here are the completed bottom cupboards.
My last job before dinner was to tighten all the screws on our kitchen steps. They had become a little wobbly making me feel rather unsafe. Huan managed to record that too.
After dinner I had one more small job, clean all the hanging utensils and the wall behind them.
And that was the end of a hard day’s work. We decided to go out for an evening stroll, get a bit of fresh air and do a little bit of shopping. We also had a package to collect at the gate. Would you believe that because we didn’t go out all day today the weather stayed fine. Luckily it stayed fine this evening too, in fact it was very pleasant walking weather. What do you think of our mountain hovering over our mountain?
These cool evenings remind me a little of the run up to Christmas in
the
October 25th Our morning started off quite well with sunny skies in Wuzhishan.
Arriving in Ledong early, so that we could have lunch, the day was still good.
On our way out we spotted what we believe is the building owner’s car. I would hope that if I owned a Bentley I would keep it a little cleaner.
We didn’t have to travel far for lunch; there is a new restaurant downstairs.
On the way in I was ambushed, they wanted a video and photographs of their foreign customer.
What was our fare? I don’t like a big lunch so I just ordered fried rice and Huan ordered soup noodles. Mine came with a free soup that I rarely partake of but I forgot to decline it in advance. Both of us had more than enough.
And that my friends, was the end of our nice day!
Cue numerous arguments between the boss and myself. She thought that we could still rent to a new tenant today. I told her that in my view, some cleaning would be needed first. Even though only one wall was bad, there were other problems and we had no time to stay here and do what was necessary. My children are arriving next week and I haven’t finished the palace yet! I’m pleased to say that eventually I won. We did however call someone, first to fix the door lock. The old tenant had installed a new lock, and not done a very good job.
Somehow the old tenant had also done something to the shower unit, it was spraying water out from where there was no actual joint, PTFE tape could not cure the problem. Our fix-it man could do that too.
Being a jack of all trades we got him to fix the kitchen light too, it had been dangling down at 90⁰ to the ceiling.
Now before you all nag me and tell me that I could have done these jobs myself, let me explain. Yes, I could have done them, but a lot of time would have been wasted on shopping for materials and I did not want to stay late in Ledong. What I wanted was for us to be able to use the door, with our new keys, and have a shower when necessary after our work the next time we come. At least the view from the balcony has not become just another high rise building!
Our fix-it man took all the ‘dead’ things away with him including a lot of clothing that the old tenant was not taking with him.
Back in Wuzhishan we said hello to Zhāo cái. Here I am asking him
how he likes his new collar. It used to be mine; I found it during the
cleaning. No, you silly people, it wasn’t for anything rude, it was for one of
the shows I did in
Dinner was from our local buffet restaurant. I would have preferred chicken and chips or maybe burger and chips, but M’lady preferred rice.
October 26th A new day and from Rigsby we are back to charlady. Only one room was planned for today and that was the honoured guests’ bathroom. Here I am cleaning the walls, scrubbing the floor and then rinsing the floor.
Normally, when cleaning fully tiled bathrooms, I would either do it completely naked or at least stripped down to my briefs. Knowing Huan and her phone, and bearing in mind your sensitivities, I thought if best to stay clothed. Here is the finished clean bathroom and the ‘ready’ version.
No nap for me today; after lunch I got on with bringing this post up to date. Last night I had been far too exhausted to work. I was also back in the kitchen making a chicken stew although I didn’t have to cook the chicken; Huan had won a pre-cooked one. Once it was ready I dragged Huan out to go and buy a new toilet brush and to collect our latest express deliveries. On our way home we saw an egret but neither of us managed any good photos. Huan’s phone did do a little better than mine though.
And here is our hero walking home having fun with the new loo brush!
Back home all that was left for me to do was to serve the stew.
October 27th My first job this morning was to prepare some paperwork to send to next week’s visitors, maybe easing their entrance through customs. After that I was back to my usual job these days being everyone’s favourite charlady! That meant of course that Huan was back to her favourite job of being my personal photographer, here I am cleaning the master bathroom.
And here it is, all empty and shiny.
Washing the bits and pieces was next, the boss only managed one snap this time.
All that was left was for me to get all my ducks in a row. Can you see them?
Just in case you didn’t know “To get your ducks in a row means to organize your tasks and schedule so that you are ready for the next step.” The next step is also one of the most important ones; make sure our guests’ room is prepared for them.
So, it’s time for me to say goodbye for this week. If any of you can share this post I would really appreciate it, now that I can no longer use Facebook. I still have no idea what I am supposed to have done wrong and I still have no reply, or even any contact from Facebook. All miracles will be gratefully accepted to. See you next time!
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