Busy Chef Bob.

December 9^th “What shall we do today dear?” The reply was that we had to stay in; the balcony demolishers were coming back and Mr. Window Man would also be coming to measure again. The sliding windows were the first things to go.

Next to disappear were the window frames.

And then I thought I would try and stitch a panorama of the resulting view. It didn’t quite work out as expected but it gives you an idea.

I then whiled away the hours until lunchtime waiting for the rest to be knocked down and for the balcony to be measured. Just before lunch Huan told me, what she already knew, that the rest of the demolition would not take place until just before the windows were delivered and that Mr. Window Man had already been and measured! Still, I had nothing better to do.

What do you think of the view? Personally I would prefer that we didn’t put new windows in but that we returned the balcony to its original state, just with better and more secure French windows. SWMBO prefers to have new windows though so that’s our unanimous decision.

After lunch Huan dragged me out for some exercise and some fresh air, both of which we needed. Of course said exercise is made more difficult than before because we have to go down and up seven flights of stairs! It was worth it though.

No lizards were photographed, we did see one but it was too quick for us. How about a little bit of downriver scenery instead?

And we did spot some other wildlife, in the river.

We came back through a little village style place to avoid some large puddles on the main road. That meant we did not avoid an old neighbour of ours, who had been partaking of the odd tipple. I think his friends had too. He is wearing the red shirt; the guy on the left is a snowbird from Shandong who told us that he used to teach English in Middle School. I had been admiring a little cat so our friend asked if I ate cats, then dogs, then rats, then mountain cats and mountain rats. He was asking Huan what he could cook for us if we went for dinner. I told him that I would search the internet to find something. We’ll avoid that area for a short while now!

Nearer to home we spotted an old English friend. He saw us and picked up his ball to come and see us. He didn’t seem to want to let it go but I did eventually get it.

When I then threw it for him he watched it then ambled off slowly to fetch it. He did that once or twice. He seemed to enjoy a little game of football more. Maybe he was tired.

Back home it was straight into the kitchen for me. Because we already had some peanut butter this was the recipe I had chosen.

This is Huan’s plate; she had enough rice for a decent photo. I’m not sure why the photo in the recipe is more orange than ours. I didn’t change much; I added half an onion, diced. It tasted fine, we both enjoyed it, I highly recommend giving it a go.

December 10^th One of the good things about being retired is that most of the time you don’t have to do things. There is no timetable, no urgency, at least for most of time. Today was one of those days when we both felt too tired to do much, blame it on the overcast weather. There was nothing that we really needed to do, so we bit the bullet and lazed around all day doing nothing. We did have a nap after lunch; does that count as doing something?

I was back in the kitchen to make dinner today, no recipe for this one. It comes straight from my one brain cell. Here are the ingredients, if you can’t recognise them then click to ask! PS There was garlic too; I just forgot to include it in the photo.

And because we are short on subjects today here they are bubbling away in the pot.

And finally in our respective bowls, Huan’s is the fuller bowl.

December 11^th The sun was shining this morning so I thought we might make a video walk to finish off the upriver series. We both sat in front of our addictive devices for too long, Huan with her phone and me with the PC. We did still get out though.

And this was the view from the bus stop and in the bus.

Yes, it was another bus‘n’walk day but not a long distance one. All we were going to do was back along the river from the three legged dog public conveniences.

Huan was trying her hardest to find birds but they were all a bit far away.

She had much more success with this wee man.

And then it was my turn for a long distance catch.

With the flow being down a little we took the stepping stones.

The views were fine.

We both then spotted little creatures, Huan a lizard for me and me a butterfly for me.

“I’ll go on the lower path, you go on the upper one and we will meet in a minute” said I. In the interim the plant watering truck appeared!

By now we were on the homeward stretch, or at least the stretch to the market.

We still had time for birds and lizards though, anything to keep our dear reader happy.

In the market I bought a sausage, some processed meat and three potatoes for today’s dinner. Then I looked for lizards, unsuccessfully, before getting on another bus home.

Naps were mandatory today! I was back in the kitchen again later, with no recipe this time; it was just the pork bone stew that we should have had earlier in the week. I had boiled up the bones last night so all I had to do today was the usual, carrots, potatoes, onions, green beans and garlic. Here are the three dishes in one shot, Huan’s bowl, her breakfast bowl and my bowl.

December 12^th Two weeks ago I sent an email to one of my pension providers. Yet again, after those two weeks, I have no response. That meant a visit to Sanya today to visit my bank. I can check here in Wuzhishan whether or not money has come into my account but I cannot check whether or not it has been held up somewhere on the way. That did happen to us seven years ago and we had to visit the international department of the bank. That’s where we went today. A very helpful young lady, with perfect English, that she had learned in Southampton, did all the searching for us. The money has not been deposited and is not ‘stuck on the way’.

Off to Summer Mall we went then for a little shopping.

They appear to have a new mascot since we were last there. We have no idea what the elephant is supposed to represent, maybe someone in Hainan can tell us. The second one is slurping the juice out of a coconut.

Our reason for visiting Summer Mall was to go and check what Corner’s Deli had in for Christmas. They had a few bits and bobs but unfortunately they had no turkeys, no Christmas cakes and no mince pies. Years ago they sold mincemeat so we could make our own mince pies, they don’t do that anymore. Laden down with just a few items we set off back to Wuzhishan.

On the way we stopped for lunch which we forgot to take photos of. That was just as well because neither of us was very impressed. Huan had a burger and I had a wrap, both were left unfinished, very unusual for us. I did enjoy a coffee and a fag though! This was my view.

And since we are short on photos today here are three on the ones Huan took of me! She wasn’t too happy with me but that is only the first, or maybe second one of this month.

Despite being late home naps were once again needed. We have no pictures of dinner, Huan cooked and she is not fond of showing the evidence. I don’t know why, she is not a bad cook and I clear my plate more often than not.

December 13th It’s Saturday again which means it is market day again. We decided to take the wrong way around because we didn’t need to buy anything today and we started off on the #2 bus. While waiting I spotted the usual.

Getting off the bus Huan found a lizard and then ten minutes later she found another.

Not needing anything from the market we walked down by the river. The new walkways were very popular today with people fishing as well as the walkers like us.

Both of us then took a turn at finding things!

And then it was back to scenery for me,

followed by something slow enough for me to snap.

On the wall I found a used boat ticket so we had boat photos taken too.

At the end of the walkway the route under the bridge was blocked so we still had to fight our way through a small portion of the market.

I guess the reason for the new outdoor gym in front of our place being empty must be because of scenes like the above, everybody is out shopping today.

December 14^th No walk was planned for this morning, instead I had other plans. Yesterday I had managed to find our Christmas decoration which we had moved to make space in our second bedroom when our visitors came. As is usual in these cases neither of us had any idea where I had put them. Eventually they turned up in an old suitcase. This morning’s plan therefore was to put up some decorations, nothing more and nothing less.

We did have to go out in the afternoon though, to buy some chips for today’s dinner. It was also an opportunity to do some of this week’s shopping in the market thus avoiding carrying so many bags up in the lift tomorrow. Going through the outdoor market Huan found a puppy and a kitten both tied up for the lunch break I presume. She was quite taken by all the play fighting. Mind you, she still said we couldn’t have any pets until I am housebound!

Just for a change I took some architectural photos for you. The first one is the recently completed extension to our local hospital which has grown in leaps and bounds since we arrived here.

The second is the government offices building overlooking the town square.

In the square a group of ladies were playing different kinds of flutes. We know that the nose flute and the flute with a right angle in it are often played together but we can’t identify the one that has a gourd in the middle. It almost looks like half a hulusi. PS They sounded good.

Another feline friend was spotted on the way home.

Back home we added the chips to our crust-less quiche that we rescued from the depths of the freezer. I added a few bits of chicken to mine. Can you perhaps spot the deliberate error in my cooking today? Yes, I should have micro-waved the quiche a little longer. Still nice though!

I suppose we should show you a little bit of Christmas décor. A lot of stuff was thrown in the bin; it was far too many years old and beginning to fall to pieces. We think it’s enough to be going on with especially as they may come and destroy all our windows before Christmas!

The front door wasn’t left out.

Meanwhile the star is not on the tree but sitting behind it. Yes, that is our cheapo temporary replacement tree just for this year. I still think we just need a small plug in and light up one, albeit a bit bigger and better than this one.

PS The gold ingot is full of Quality Street, provided by the young lady pictured!

December 15^th Here we are again, the last day of the (Blog) week, our normal shopping day. Well we still went shopping today but sans automobile and sans a long list. Remember we did some vegetable shopping yesterday and we won’t have a lift for a long time. I took the camera with me because I wanted to show you the exterior view of our now semi-bare balcony.

This is one where I tried to focus on a little bird through the bars of its cage.

In Baijiahui the dummy was at it again. I rather like this photo.

Our afternoon coffee was with a different kind of cake today. These are 1) the container it came in and a pretty good Wechat translation, 2) the complete ‘cake’ and 3) the cake cut into two pieces for us to savour. It was scrumptious! If you’re interested these are the ingredients: - Flower seed kernels, peanut kernels, maltose, raisins, jujubes, walnut kernels, almond kernels, fruit kernels, apricot kernels, white sesame seeds.

In the evening it was my last time as chef this week, no recipe, here are the ingredients.

And here are the stages of cooking.

Finally, Huan’s plate. As you can probably guess, we only ate half of it. That’s Saturday’s dinner already ‘in the bag’. Literally, it’s in the bag and in the freezer.

Another week comes to a close and we are getting fitter every day. Well Huan says we are, my body is not so sure as we reach the seventh floor up the stairs every day but; she’s the boss! Tube in next week to see what progress has been made on our lift and whether or not our new windows have arrived. Even if nothing has happened we will still try and share some snaps with you of our life here in the far away East. Bye for now!