December 30th Having been to Sanya yesterday we had to do some of our weekly shopping today. I say some, not all, because those stairs are a killer when you are laden with shopping bags. The advantage of a smaller shop is that we don’t take the car and can therefore take a few photos with out trusty Xiaomi phones. Here are the views.
And this is a rather large dog that I can never get very close to and that I am also a little wary of. Today we saw a friend of ours in the garden and the pooch, after a little bark and a sniff let me pet her. There’s no photo, Huan was too busy catching up on gossip.
On the way from Baijiahui to the market we had to stop by the phone repair shop again. We had been to the Summer Mall in Sanya yesterday and they had a little Xiaomi shop there. I fell in love with their latest flagship the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Leica version. However, as it costs nearly a thousand pounds I did not buy it. That’s why I was back in the repair shop in Wuzhishan replacing my battery once again. That was the end of my photos for the day.
Huan managed another one though, of me and a student who wanted to ask me a lot of questions. His English was not bad at all so we walked together for a while.
December 31st I was very late out of bed again so an afternoon walk was planned. Huan had ideas of going along the road to somewhere and coming back via town to collect my phone. Half way through the morning she got a phone call to say that there was some mail for me at the post office, her plan was changed.
After lunch we set off up the hill to the post office. Along the way Huan tried to get a good snap of two pooches climbing my legs at the same time. She failed. The dogs however scratched my legs to bits; their claws have probably never been clipped!
From the post office I suggested that we walk to the bank, I was
down to ¥10.00 in my wallet. It’s a good job
A bus stop was the next port of call when we left the bank.
From Baijiahui we walked down towards the market and the phone repair shop. Someone tried to take a bite out of me on the way.
Phone in hand we headed for home and this fellow got himself yet another photo. I told Huan that he was getting famous now and that I had asked you all if you thought he could recognise me. He does look rather bored here so I guess the answer is yes!
Just by the island bridge we were ambushed by a chap who knows us, and we know him in passing. He told us that as he was retired now he was learning English. Like many Chinese people he has studied English but speaking it. After a few word ending corrections we let him go on his way and he let us go home.
I did try for a couple of birds but they were not good enough, so that was it for the day.
January 1st Happy New Year all! May you all be blessed with health, wealth and happiness; this year and may those blessings also continue ad infinitum. Okay, you are free to go and Google now! I was a late starter again today so we didn’t go out until after lunch. Huan chose her postponed route from yesterday.
Beautification continues apace across the river, so we went that way and then around the back way to the road to somewhere.
Soon we were in the village, away from the bustle of the city.
In the village Huan found both a lizard and a turkey, she was happy!
And then it was my turn to talk to chickens. They seemed as though they wanted feeding so they didn’t run away but I couldn’t quite get close enough to pet them.
This is a view of the village from the other side. Just look at those skies and the mountains too. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful place.
More beasties, one from Madam and one from moi.
Now I wouldn’t call this next one a beastie, more like a pussy cat really!
Before leaving the village we were back to flying creatures.
Squirrel alley lived up to its name today although #1 son assured me
that these are in fact chipmunks and not squirrels. Having not heard them sing
yet I cannot vouch for the veracity of his statements though. Maybe I should
shout “
I think we will leave it there for our walk, a nice shot to finish with. Back home it was time for me to get back into that kitchen again and cook some wonton noodle soup. No photos, yummy!
After dinner I sneaked off into the bathroom to satisfy SWMBO. I had been receiving some comments about my facial growth making me look old. My protestations about actually being old fell on deaf ears. Here are the before and after pictures for you.
January 2nd My meds were getting low again so I suggested we go the doctor next week. Huan said we could go today so, why not, better early than late. However, the heart department was on holiday until 4th January. We could have seen another doctor but I preferred to wait. Leaving the hospital we walked around the back, the new building is coming on well.
The town square was getting ready for children, we were a little early.
Huan had a quick pose, at my request.
Did you recognise the polka dots? I did!
“What is this place?” I asked the minister of infinite knowledge. “An antique shop,” was the reply. Whether there are genuine old things or not I wouldn’t have a clue.
We were definitely a couple of OAPs out for a walk today, even down little alleyways.
This was one where I had to have the Minister of Finance pose! The Chinese says, waiting for the wind, waiting for the rain, in Wuzhishan waiting for you. End of our day out.
January 3rd Market day and the old couple didn’t need anything so they could just enjoy the walk and the crowds. We took the bus to the other end so that we could walk back. This was the view from the bus stop; at least it was looking away from the road.
And because we don’t have many snaps here is the oncoming bus.
Even the first market was busy today. It’s nice to see everyone though.
A little puppy was spotted so of course I had to chat and boy, did he have a personality! Look at the size of him and he is only six months old.
This week, with the other side of the main road still being fenced off, the market on this side had extended a long way up the road.
Down at the main part of the market the crowds were still there.
Peace is always only metres away, and we love that too.
Finally for today, three more egrets, just about in range. Can you spot the dead fish? I would hazard a guess that it’s not one that they caught.
January 4th This week the weather forecast shows warmer afternoons than mornings, so unless we have to, we will go walkies after lunch. That is what we did today. We chose to go to the road to somewhere but this time by a different route.
From a nice big picture we move to a very small one. This photo has been cropped from over 8MB down to less than 250kB. Surprisingly there is still something to see.
And then we go back to a lovely big one again.
More ducks in a row this week, not by me this time but by the mother duck.
I managed to get another little bird, this time a bit nearer. Here are two photos for you, one where it is hiding and one where it is looking at me.
Another variation today was the back way through one of the local villages.
Now a walk for Huan would not be complete if she didn’t find a lizard, preferably a lot more than one. She did find two today but the first one was a failure. Hopefully this one is better.
The last one of the day is neither nature nor wildlife; instead it is an autonomous delivery vehicle. We watched this one go around a roundabout and observed that it was learning. This roundabout is fairly new so the road markings still need to be fully updated. The little truck started going to the right then corrected itself when it realised what was wrong. At the same time it was taking care to avoid the other traffic around it. It did good!
What else did I do today? Well I spent ages on the computer trying
to activate and use the
January 5th Monday came around again but we had urgent business prior to going shopping. It was time to top up my heart medication. Useful advice to anyone else in a similar situation, don’t run out and have to go to the hospital on the first day after the New Year holidays!
That queue was for the consultation fee and appointment booking. The queue doesn’t move quickly but it is not too slow and the fee was only ¥16.00. That got me in to see the doctor.
Huan took a lot of photos, none really very good. Here I am trying to explain to her that she cannot take people’s photographs without asking their permission. She did then ask the doctor but didn’t take any good snaps of me after. Soon I was in another queue.
This queue was to pay for my medication, again not too expensive. Three months worth of four of my medications only cost ¥130.00; the fifth was out of stock.
Medication in hand, or should I say bag, we set off to Baijiahui to do our shopping. On the way out we chatted to the ‘English’ cat.
We ended up going to both Baijiahui stores because the first one had no beef. I sat outside the second one while Huan went in. Our next stop was the pharmacy near the market for the out of stock medicine, that’s me good for another three months now. Where we often stop to chat to tiny toddlers they had a new little puppy today, wasn’t I lucky.
Back home Huan had an after lunch nap; I was too busy with dinner.
If you click to enlarge and read through it you’ll see that it is not exactly a straight forward recipe and it takes quite a long time to cook. This is what it looked like out of the oven, this photo though is spoiled by the extractor fan light.
And this was my plate, an afterthought as I had already started scoffing.
Would I recommend this one? I most certainly would. If you have the patience for it the end result is delicious. Apart from using a dollop of ketchup because I had no tomato paste I followed all the instructions, to the letter, with one small exception. I divided everything by half. We cleared our plates and had seconds; there was nothing left for Huan’s breakfast tomorrow.
Don’t forget that we also recommend that you click to enlarge, click to subscribe, click to follow, click to comment or for any other reason that you fancy. Finally, Huan and I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year; we hope you have a good one!
