The Chronicle Continues!

December 23^rd This morning’s photo, and the second one, are the routes that weren’t. The trips up and down the stairs are beginning to get to me and I really didn’t want to go walkies today. Luckily SWMBO agreed with me.

I prepared dinner in the morning and then after a much needed nap, (yes, another one), I suggested to Huan that we go out to the fish market and buy whatever she needs for the next two days. Much as I hate the stairs, sometimes needs must. On the way out Huan took a photo of the lift progress, there appears to be a floor in place.

Our route took us through the old outdoor market where I spotted some new pictures on the walls, It would appear that the area is earmarked for beautification too although no dates or details have been given. I must say that the pictures look pretty good.

This is the market that my old blind friend lives in.

Fish in hand, along with some chocolates and a carton of milk, we approached home. Huan tried to record the rain. Yes, it had been beautiful all day while I was refusing to go out and then when we did go out the rain came. I felt a bit like Travis.

On the way in I took a photo of the lift progress too, can you spot the difference?

As I mentioned earlier, dinner was on me today. Now Chinese cuisine has what is almost an upside down version of a cottage pie where the mince is served on top of the potato. I had this idea of making mashed potato mounds using bowls, circling the bottom with some long beans and some peas. The picture in my mind was amazing. Thinking that the mash would be better with a smoother finish I used our little Braun blender. We have owned this for years and I do use it quite a lot but I have never tried to make mashed potatoes with it before. I never will again after today’s effort. It certainly did not turn out as I had planned.

December 24^th Christmas Eve with none of the feeling that you get in the UK. I do wish that I could take the good lady there for a month before so that she could experience the atmosphere. Of course, I may well be remembering it all through rose tinted spectacles! Today for us was a walk in the countryside of Rendishan. No, we didn’t go in there, we passed it on the way which is why we call this the Rendishan Walk.

I even found a bird!

Huan found a lizard in a very difficult spot.

Just down the road we came across a couple of water buffalo. They are much less predictable than ‘normal’ cows but I thought I would try anyway.

More birds, sitting on a wire, not a wall unfortunately, that would have been a cue for a song!

And then, just submerged under the water at the edge of a rice field Huan found what she is always searching for. Sad to say that it had already shuffled off this mortal coil. It was not very big; perhaps what you see there is marginally bigger than a CD. Side note, how many people do you know who have no idea just what a CD is?

“Let’s try a new way” said I, not wanting to walk too far. We ended up going through someone’s back yard where a lot of cooking had been going on. It seems that we had just missed a wedding in the village. That also explained the road being busy as we walked up.

On our way back we passed the baby water buffalo, too skittish to talk to us.

Huan then decided to take us ‘off-road’, good job I had my boots on! The ducks are here because Huan thought they looked like ‘real art’.

Did she have an ulterior motive? She did take rather too many photos of me again!

Following on from last week, these ducks were certainly not in a row.

As usual, I stopped to chat to a couple of friends after telling their owners that whilst I do not have any British friends in Wuzhishan I do have a lot of dog friends.

We waited a long time for a bus to take us home. In the end we took an OAP taxi. These are little electric vehicles, usually driven by OAPs and more often than not ridden by snowbirds. Having said that, many snowbirds think that they are too expensive. Huan would not normally take one; today it was my choice, one of those rare executive decisions.

The last photo is a selfie, by me, of me, because Huan said I was a little red. Yes, I had been a dummy today and forgotten to take my hat!

December 25^th Another executive decision was taken today; it would be Christmas with no walkies, well at least in the morning and afternoon anyway. I did the usual of catching up on FB, sharing greetings etc before making us scrambled eggs for lunch. After that I found a movie that I hadn’t seen, and at the end I stayed in the office hiding my teary eyes!

Me being a couch potato continued with “Taskmaster, Champion of Champions 4 - 'Put that on my gravestone’”, a movie called ‘Baby Boom” followed by “Overboard 1987” then the remake “Overboard 2018”. All of this was interspersed with FB reels and timeline surfing. As well as that, when I wasn’t watching movies or scrolling I had Winamp playing the Christmas folder; that contains over 2000 songs! Granted there are repeat titles from different artists.

The day turned into a complete no walkies day, no complaints from me!

I did venture out of the front door though; there had been noise all day from the lift shaft. This snap was taken at about seven p.m. and you can see that they are using the lift cabin frame to install all the bits that attach to the walls. I have to say that they are very hard workers.

December 26^th Today’s plan was to go to the bank and see if the lump sum had been received from my pension provider. Before we reached the main road I had a call from the bank, the money was visible but not actionable. Yet again there is some discrepancy between account names and numbers. We will have to take a drive to Sanya on Monday to get the information and then send it to the UK once again.

We still needed to go shopping so we continued on our merry way, passing the park where a lot of the snowbirds go for their daily activities. These are just a few.

You often see me with various pooches and other assorted animals with which I, more often than not, have a good relationship with. Sometimes though you get one in a huff, just look at the side eye I am being given by this one!

As usual, Huan found a bird, too far and too small. At least you can see his eye.

And then wonder of wonders, I found one. Mind you it also quite some distance away, at the top of a tree. I tried my best.

Walking back along the riverside market street, it looks like some of the traders have decided that the influx of snowbirds might make it worthwhile opening in the mornings now. The two gentlemen I am talking to had just asked me where I was from. Having said that I was from the UK they then asked me if I meant France! They were trying to get me to sit down and drink tea and no doubt empty my wallet a little; they had not seen Huan walking ahead of me!

We had a peer through the hoardings to see if the market would be open on the other side of the main road today, the answer was no. Work is definitely progressing quickly though.

After lunch and the usual nap it was time for me to dig out this morning’s shopping. For a change we were going to have vegetable soup.

The only thing not in the photo above is milk. Before blitzing it with my Braun I emptied a little of the water and added some milk. The colour may not be so good but the taster was fine.

If vegetable soup is not your thing then just add some already cooked meat to it after blitzing. Huan suggested buying some chicken strips tomorrow, I thought some smoked sausage would be better but anything would do, even some little fishes.

And why was the good lady thinking about tomorrow? Well, we still have enough left over for at least one more day and a breakfast for her.

December 27^th Market day again and the Minister of Transportation insisted that we take a #2 bus the wrong way around. What can one do? Before leaving our building though she had to disturb one of the workmen and take his photograph.

Off the bus I decided to take a few scenery photos, the third one here is a collage of two identical views but each one focused differently.

Up next we have long distance lizards.

This was followed by a bee, or is it a wasp, I am never really sure. Whichever one it was this is the first time I have seen one rolling around inside the flower, I suppose to cover itself with enough pollen to take home to SWMBO.

Before long we had to leave the riverside and brave first the steps, and then the crowds!

We were only there to buy tomato and cucumber for our lunchtime sarnies but when we saw that our duck man also has some lovely chicken we bought some of that too. That will be tomorrow’s dinner along with some takeaway chips and a mixed salad.

On our way home we briefly had a chat to ‘Great Fortune’ and the lizard that Huan finds nearly every time we pass this car park. Do you think they can remember ‘hoomans’?

Our last photo for the day is a collage, all from one car. It was nothing special, just an average boring EV. Now I guess all the younger readers may well ‘get’ the relevance of the stickers. I didn’t, I had to Google ‘Vice City’ and the answer came back ‘Grand Theft Auto’. Knowing absolutely nothing about computer games I’ll let you decide if the other two stickers are also related to the same game.

December 28^th “Where are we going today?” came the plaintive cry of a local female of the species. Taking my life in my hands I said that we were not going anywhere at all, at least I wasn’t. I had enough to do at home and a busy day again tomorrow. Strangely enough Madam needed no convincing at all, must be those stairs.

December 29^th What was my busy day today? Perhaps you remember that a trip to the bank was called for. First of all though, we had to get the car out.

It took about fifteen minutes for the driver of the other car to turn up but we weren’t really worried about time, not yet anyway. That started when we joined the Eastern Highway and traffic suddenly slowed to a crawl, less than 15kph. Eventually though we got through whatever was causing the hold-up and arrived at the bank with time to spare before their lunch break. It took merely a few minutes for the assistant to explain the problem for me and to let me know that the ‘lump sum’ was now merrily on its way back to the UK. How international companies can make such simple yet glaring errors baffles me, they had my name wrong!

Back on the way we headed to the Summer Mall for lunch and a toilet break. This was our lunch restaurant, quite cheap and cheerful. I whistled to a local bird while we waited.

So what delectable delights did we have? Just a plate of jiaozi, which was enough.

But we did also have some pudding!

Back home in Wuzhishan we parked the car before going out for dinner. Huan went to buy our lottery tickets and I went to reconnoitre the fish scales dam as a possible route to food. We thought we were getting an access gate; we seem to have a wall instead.

While waiting for my dinner I relaxed, or should I say relapsed, second time this month.

And here are our dinners, soup noodles for Huan and fried noodles for me.

And that’s it for another week from the land of me and her enjoying life, well for the most part anyway. Neither of us is very keen on the stairs but the boss does cope with them better than I do. Stay tuned to see how the chronicle of the lift, the windows and the bank continue. See you all sometime in the future, next year!