February 17th Start the New Year as you mean to carry on. Look out of the window, decide the weather is too miserable and we are too tired, so don’t go anywhere. I did go on the roof just so that we could have a photo today. Happy New year one and all!
February 18th There must be something in the air, or is it perhaps in the water. I didn’t crawl out of bed until half past nine this morning and Huan hadn’t beaten me by much. I had spent a great deal of last night tossing and turning, waking up at very frequent intervals experiencing many strange dreams at the same time. We forced ourselves out after lunch; it is New Year’s Day after all. We found some horses on a nearby substation. This is the writing on the first picture - 跃马自贸港州府新故事 (Yuè mǎ zì mào gǎng zhōu fǔ xīn gùshì) and this is the translation - Leaping Horse Free Trade Port, New Stories of the State Capital. The second two are self explanatory.
Today’s weather was just as bad as yesterdays but it is the ‘winter’ season so the chances of rain are minimal. That makes walking a little more relaxing.
We walked opposite sides of the road to see who could find a lizard. I was the lucky one; I saw one scampering up a tree because a family getting into their car to go home had just disturbed it. With them still there and me peering upwards this is all I could manage.
I was more successful with this little green man. I have no idea who he is and it looks as though a child has had to redraw his eyes.
What would a nice walk be without some nice scenery to share with you?
By now we were walking together and Huan did her usual finding things I couldn’t even see!
Soon it was time for me to bound away from Huan; I had spotted a great big furry friend. I have no idea what he was only that he was eight years old.
And that was the end of our first day of the New Year. No chefs were needed in the kitchen today, we were on leftovers!
February 19th Another day with more of the same, although we did manage to tear ourselves off the mattress a little earlier. The weather was also much of a muchness, we kept feeling the odd spot so decided that a local walk would be enough. We slummed it through the council estate and had a look at the square where we had spent quite some time in queues during covid times.
We didn’t think we would get many photos today so here is a cute pig.
Huan found the money God so went over for a chat.
Our streets always tug on my heartstrings not matter what the weather is like.
And of course it must have been quite a long time since we shared any cows with you.
Despite the weather Huan still managed to find lizards, two to be exact. The second photo shows both, one at either side of the photo.
I know; they are too small for you to see. Here they are again, both bigger this time.
And then we were home, leftovers again, this time pork stew from the weekend.
February 20th “Happy birthday to me!” Yes, I’m another year older today and boy am I starting to feel it. Last year, with the cancer in my hip, I could barely put my undies or trousers on without leaning on something or sitting down. Thankfully that phase has passed, now it’s just getting my socks on that is not easy! Anyway, let’s start with my birthday breakfast, longevity noodles, for an even longer life, prepared by the love of my life.
As we usually do we had birthday lunch with the neighbours. The location was to be the same as last year. Here we are across the road.
This was the restaurant and we were in VIP Room #5.
This was the spread with another dish to follow later on. If you look top centre you may just see an individual bowl of noodles with egg. That was not mine; someone else had a birthday too. I did have an identical bowl though; it is off to the left, behind the water bottle.
I was not the only one taking pictures but I’m not in this one. My noodles are though!
This one was much later on when a fair bit of alcohol had flowed under the bridge. I hasten to add that I was not guilty; I was drinking very lightly in fact. It was also not my idea to pose like this, it was somebody else’s and Huan translated for me and agreed.
You can see that it is later by how little fish is left in the dish. As for me, well my boat had obviously come in. There’s a song reference there for you oldies.
There were nine of us in total so using the other eight and the New Year wall decoration I came up with this. More time could have been spent composing each shot but at least we have a record and a memory of who was there.
They wanted a picture of Huan and I having a toast. Mine was a little beer and Huan’s was a little hot tea, aren’t we the bold ones.
When lunch was over the ladies got busy with the doggy bags, I guess we will be eating leftovers again for the next couple of days.
Huan decided to take the bus with Yu and her daughter; I thought that I needed the walk. We took photos of each other across the road while they were at the bus stop. I failed, Huan, with the help of Yu’s daughter succeeded.
Finally, here are the photos of my lonely walk home. Boy, did I feel tired!
February 21st Market day again so off we went.
Here we are crossing the road to the riverside street where I
stopped to chat with this fellow who had a full frame Sony. We compared notes;
surprisingly he prefers
Getting down to the riverside we discovered that there was no market there this week.
I did my duty for a couple from up north and took their photo for them.
This one I took just on the off chance that Huan might like it. She did!
Yesterday, during my solo walk home I had seen this bird and failed to get a decent photo of it. I thought I had done just as badly today but I was wrong.
As we neared Fodelai Hotel market stalls began to appear and the road up to the normal daily market was quite busy. We still managed photos though, two birdies and a lounge lizard.
We hadn’t seen Douding and Douhua for a long time so we sat for a chat today. So here is Douhua but where is Douding?
Well here he is. In the previous photo he was hiding behind me. In fact he had been indoors, too lazy to respond to my calling him, until Douhua came. Jealousy then reared its ugly head.
The normal market was just as busy as usual, maybe even more so because a lot of snowbirds had thought the riverside market would be open. All we needed here was some salad stuff to go with leftovers from yesterday’s birthday lunch.
We waited rather too long for the bus so Huan treated us to a snowbird taxi again.
Huan did take a couple of selfies with her phone as we were being ferried home. They are not here because she had some strange beautification setting enabled. We both looked as though we had been through some kind of embalming process. Naps were back today, probably best we have them tomorrow and Monday too, next week will be busy.
February 22nd We had to move the car so that
Huan can wash it tomorrow. Don’t blame me, it’s her idea! Anyway, because we
had to move it we went for a Doctor Ma walk, so called because Doctor Ma made
me walk up there three months after I had my stent fitted. It starts from this
rest place on the
We had a look down to the city before we headed off uphill.
We had both forgotten just how ‘uphill’ it was!
In the last frame there I was chatting with another photographer. He had a Sony full frame with a Tamron 50-400, much better than my little system but also much heavier and more expensive. Here I am trying to explain the M4/3 to FF comparison.
Onwards and upwards we went. You can see Huan ahead of me here, I was having a rest!
We decided that we needed photographs together so I asked him to pose for this one. He made me feel good by calling me a good director! You can certainly see the difference in our camera sizes here; his is much bigger than mine. Now then, get your minds out of the gutter please.
We carried on going higher.
Seeing no end in sight when I saw the second view there I gave up. My body was not happy and really didn’t want to continue so, for a change, I listened. Huan agreed with me, we let the Sony man go on alone and we turned around. Huan thought that maybe we should only walk in town in the future. “Not a chance” said I. Would you give up scenes like this?
Besides, I may be able to get to the top again; it’s only two years since we last went up there. Less snacks will be needed! For now, down we went, Donald was waiting patiently.
The Sony man had seen a snake on his way up and of course he had snapped some birds. We had failed with the birds; they were too small and too high. Huan was eventually cheered however, by this little tailless lizard!
February 23rd Another visit to the dentist this morning, one of my teeth needed gluing back in!
From there I took Huan on a mystery walk with overcast skies, she immediately found a lizard.
The mystery was soon solved; Huan had forgotten what we had passed yesterday, cats galore!
I know, you can’t see much there. Don’t worry, I took photos of each tree with an enlargement of each cat so that your needs could be fulfilled.
There were two more on the water feature and then Huan wanted a photo of me too.
Time to head for home.
On the way the Minister of Culture let me know that today is an “eat noodles” day. Who am I to disagree? (PS That was an earworm in my head this morning courtesy of a Facebook reel.) We ate outside the nurses’ school, Huan had 汤面 (soup noodles) and I had 拌面 (mixed noodles).
Back home we were quick to resume napping! I did go out in the afternoon to give Donald a wash, in the car wash. I asked them to glue our GPS back on to the windscreen and to replace the battery in my key as well. While they were doing that I had a little walk, no photos though.
And that brings us to the end of another exciting week here in the land of the oldies. We’ll be back next week with more news, see you then!
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