February 10th What is happening to us? Neither of us woke up early enough to go walkies this morning and neither of us could summon up enough energy to go after lunch either. We went for the hat trick and stayed in after dinner too. What was that dinner?
That’s a different thumbnail isn’t it? This is the recipe.
We had no thyme leaves and no black olives but apart from that we followed the recipe as is. Well, there may have been some extra onion and garlic, we do like them. Huan had hers with rice and I had boiled potatoes. We can’t find new tatties here.
Is it worth cooking? Absolutely! We even think that we can use whole fish instead of fillets and steam it instead of using the oven. It will still taste great.
February 11th We started our day by valiantly trying to tame the wild washing machine that was jumping around all over the second bathroom. Maybe it’s in a huff because it knows that when all the windows and balcony are done it will be replaced with a new one.
The Minister of Finance decided that today we should walk to my bank here in Wuzhishan and see whether or not my small lump sum had been credited to my account. That meant going out of the back gate, as Huan calls it, or the front gate, as I call it. Instant find!
For some reason I took two photos of our street.
The Minister was well pleased this morning before we even got to the bank.
I had to make do with a dog and what may be ice cream.
The bank was very busy this morning; a lot of snowbirds were in attendance. One of the staff took pity on us and gave my pass book to a counter clerk rather than a cashier. We were in luck for speed and for news, my money has been credited. Here we are outside grinning, such big smiles for such a small amount!
We walked back along part of the riverside where we found the bap market had overflowed.
Our reason for walking that way was so that the director could so some more finger pointing. All I had to do was hand over the shopping and point the camera.
Near home our traffic islands were in full New Year bloom, looking very good for it too.
And so endeth a beautiful day with not a care in the world!
February 12th For a change, and because we haven’t been there for a long time, we thought we would take a trip up cemetery hill. We found a lizard where Huan managed a far more successful shot than I did. Here it is.
She then found two more but I got these.
It was a lovely day for walking.
Huan had her hat on, I didn’t. This road used to have a fair amount of shade from the trees but they appear to have been cleared ready for the planting of betel nut trees.
Some areas still have good coverage, like this one.
Being a cemetery it is located on a hill and we were steadily climbing all the way.
Slowly we continued; our legs had forgotten what hills were like, until we eventually reached our final destination of the day. This was where the road ended and the track began.
The Minister of Health often tells me that we should only be walking five kilometres a day and then proceeds to make us walk further. I had already decided that the end of the ‘road’ would be our turnaround point, Huan was considering going further. I showed her how far we had walked and nearly all uphill at that!
She relented and we began our, easier, downward journey.
Huan was still busy, this time finding butterflies.
And then it was my turn, ducks and a lizard that Her Ladyship missed. Do you ever wonder, as I do, what God’s creatures are thinking about and what they ‘say’ to each other? Just look at the two ducks, just like a young courting couple.
Huan managed one more little lizard.
That wasn’t her last find though, this little caterpillar was.
I managed another bird, not too successfully though.
We arrived home, after over seven kilometres, to see this. What is it? It’s the display when the lift is not functioning. Maybe they stopped it because testing, contrary to what we had earlier been told, has not been carried out yet. The stairs were not easy!
No naps today, I am not sure why. Chef Bob was on duty again, a Thai dish today.
Advice? You can probably play around with the ingredients a little bit if you want to but I would strongly suggest that you follow the method and its timings very closely indeed. We did both enjoy our dinner but I feel it was not quite as it should have been. Where’s the photo? Sorry to say that we had already started scoffing before I remembered.
February 13th I suggested a walk up to the disused officer’s club, which is not too far, and Huan agreed. We set off towards the highway.
Next we took a left towards the old people’s home, where I tried not to stop, and onwards past the #8 bus terminus to the officer’s club. You can see it in the distance in the second photo.
Here we are almost at the gate and here’s a view back down the valley. PS It is no longer the ex-officer’s club; it is going to be a government building.
Hoping that there would be a way to go down the other side of the valley we continued on. There had been no route in the past but maybe things would have changed. Our luck was out, the little village was still there complete with fowl and guard dogs but we could find no trace of a path going the way we wanted to go. It appears that village residents, of which there are only a few, use their motor scooters to come and go where we had just walked.
We retraced our steps until we found a way down into the farm area and found a raised piece of land that we could use to cross to the other side.
Getting on to the path was a little more difficult! My family will be nagging me about this!
Soon we were on safer ground and on the way home again.
This is view of the old people’s home I mentioned earlier. I wonder how much it costs. I wonder if Huan would foot the bill for keeping me there. I wonder if they have a bar. I wonder if they do bed baths, not that they are much use to me anymore. Would you stay there?
Further towards home I spotted something that I hadn’t seen on the way out. What a wonderful use of the nooks and crannies of a reinforcing wall.
Huan had to stop off at the Pinduoduo villa to collect some baijiu for later this week. My last photo is a little pussy cat, who was having a good time clawing my legs here. I wasn’t complaining because if you look closely you may be able to spot that he has been in the wars.
February 14th Happy Valentine’s Day! Actually, I don’t know why I wrote that because I am a firm believer that Valentine’s Day is only for your lover or spouse. It is not for your boss, your teacher, your workmates or, God forbid, your pets! All Huan got was her Good Morning kiss, the usual, before I made our coffees. Anyway, it’s market day so we hopped on the #2 bus. At the other end we found a lizard hanging around in the bushes.
I wonder if any of you use a steamer to cook your meals. We use one for dumplings, vegetables sometimes, yesterday Huan did our whole fish dinner in there. They are of course very healthy and quite large for the average hob. This one would not fit in our kitchen at all!
I had an unhealthy fried dumpling for my breakfast!
This is the last market day before the New Year so it was just a little busy.
One of our brighter brethren, the one with three hearts, one big brain and eight mini brains knows how to avoid the crowds, sit in a tree!
On our walks Huan is always hoping to find more snakes, perhaps to push me into striking area, I’m not so sure. Today she only found a wooden one, nicely made though.
Meanwhile I persevered!
Eventually the produce market began to blend with the New Year market.
Here we were ambushed by a lady that knows me, she had chatted to me last week. Today I asked her about her camera, a Sony, told her it was not my favourite; I think the colours are not so good. She asked if she could take my photo, I will never see the result of course. Never fear, Huan was very quick off the mark to fill the gap.
By now we had done our outdoor shopping, all we needed was some fish for Huan’s New Year cooking and some vegetables for my today’s stew. Out of the market we caught the end of the street New Year fun stalls; here you can see decorations and sweets. This market finishes on the 16th so we will try and get down there again.
“Life is a roller coaster!” I’m sure that many of you, like me, will know that song. I wonder how many of you know this one. I have showed you this before but I don’t think there were so many little people in it last time.
At last, the donkey is nearly home!
February 15th Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and I know that the Prime Minister will end up being incredibly busy, cooking far too much. Because of that I suggested a bus to the three legged dog stop and a walk back along Lizard Alley. Once again we had a lovely day for it.
Huan’s happiness index increased when we spotted a solitary egret across the river.
Huan was on the lookout for other people enjoying the nice day. She found this group sitting on the stones mid-river but we have no idea what they were actually doing.
Lizards and birds are next, many smiles from boss lady.
Let’s have some riverside scenery, the day after the market.
Often on our walks I will suddenly veer off course because I have
spotted a four legged friend. This was a new one. Her owners were telling us
that she is their daughter’s dog and someone helped her to designate it as a
service dog so it flew free from the
Later on we decided that we had to visit the New Year Street Market, it will close tomorrow night. Some lovely lights could be found, too big for our humble abode though.
We were early enough to miss all the crowds.
New Year is a time for children so there are gifts in the market too. Looking at this stall the items on offer would not have been lost on me as a young boy. I don’t see any guns however.
Guns could be found around the corner where Huan tried her hardest
to get me involved. I was lucky; she was only going to pay if there was a horse
to be won. (2026 is the year of the fire horse.) The last time I tried one of
these stalls was in
We headed off through Baijiahui and came out on the main street.
Going back into town, to the indoor market, we found the bottom shopping street closed off and decorated too. All it needed for me was some Christmas music.
I think that’s enough for one day, my eyes are falling down now.
February 16th I knew that I would be banished from the kitchen this afternoon and that Huan would be very busy in there. Consequently I planned a 100% lazy morning for us both and just a relaxing less then five kilometre walk after lunch. As we left the house we noticed that someone has started doing what Huan wouldn’t let me do in the lift. They have started to remove the plastic film, soon it should all be done. Huan still won’t let me try!
As I said we planned only a short walk, upriver to the second bridge and then back home through the town, just in case we needed to buy anything. We didn’t. Huan was happy though, very happy, we spotted five different lizards and a chipmunk.
All that was left when we got home was for the chef to finish making our New Year dinner. Here it is, apart from some dumplings which were made after dinner!
So as we finish this week in a food coma all we can say is “See you next year!"
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