Mostly Hospitals.

June 2^nd If you have to stay in a hospital, you couldn’t ask for more than one with a view!

Of course, that photo is out of order, the first ones Huan took today were of a very groggy me being drained of my life force for testing. If I had not had breakfast yesterday it could have been done then. Lesson learned for future stays.

Before breakfast I then had to present myself at the ultrasound centre. It has nearly thirty, I suppose you could call them testing stations, and it was very busy.

The wait wasn’t too long, is that a baby I see, or is it last night’s dinner?

We then had time for breakfast before the next task.

We had a very quick walk by the river too.

The task was not one I liked, getting injected with some kind of nuclear trace material. I don’t mind the nuclear bit; I just hate the needle!

The actual test was booked for three fifteen in the afternoon, all I had to till then was drink gallons of water. Huan napped while I uploaded last week’s Blog post. This was my view later, while I was waiting. Huan was chatting with someone at the time I took this.

Soon enough I was in, Husn even managed an extra picture, they opened the door when they asked me to move my arms.

Off we set, back to the ward, thinking we were done for the day when we got a phone call asking us to go back. I was stuffed into the machine again, the other way round this time, and my arms were rechecked. It appears that I may have a long-term problem in my forearm, not cancer but something else, perhaps a previous break. No wonder I was having guitar problems!

We thought nearly everything was done now, maybe a chat with Dr. Liang in the morning, a needle in my belly and then go home. We were wrong! Tomorrow afternoon I have to have an MRI, that involves more needles. Me no happy!

Never mind, dinner called along with a big rubber duck. The only reason we passed him though was because all the water I had been drinking had not yet finished leaving my body.

We were both exhausted so dinner was nothing adventurous, just somewhere we had been before. I even had rice for a change.

June 3^rd We were free this morning so Huan dragged off to the park, after breakfast of course. Here is breakfast, almost finished, and me waiting for the bus.

We found some birds, here’s the first one.

Since our last visit, whenever that was, they have built a huge adventure thing in the trees for children. Unfortunately, you have to be no taller than 1.3m to use it.

I passed a young boy listening to English with his Mum so I had to have a chat.

I removed my hat for this portrait, so that you could see behind me.

A short walk by the beach was compulsory although we stayed off the sand today.

“What about the birds?” I hear you ask. Well here are five for you.

Two of the attractions here, we have never been on either. One day perhaps but both were closed today. It was hot and we were early!

I can always find a dog to stroke; however, this one wasn’t real. I’m not sure what Lotso’s problem was but he doesn’t look very happy with me does he.

We walked back ‘home’ to the hospital via the local street market where I realised I had never taken any photos, at least from this end. Consider that omission corrected!

After lunch, water and an apple for me, it was MRI time and I had to present myself at this place. The nurse did a good job today; this needle is not always easy.

Huan only managed to get me going into the big bad noisy room.

Afterwards we decided to along the road to the university entrance away from the hospital, passing the cat café on the way. One day I will drag Huan in there!

This is the place that we found, small and clean, with quite a varied choice of grub. Huan had some sort of tofu while I had garlic legs and meat. We chose a soft drink that we didn’t know; the waitress said it was like champagne. She was wrong, but it did the job.

It was then time for home, not quite the yellow brick road but near enough.

Just before I took this photo I had been telling Huan that her lizard, the one she saw everyday during my radiotherapy period, had died of heartbreak from not seeing her. Was I wrong?

My torture wasn’t quite over for the day; I still had to have the needle in my belly. Just look at it, just look at the size of the hole in the end of the needle! That’s all you get because the nurse did not want Huan to take photos of the actual stabbing.

June 4^th We were both awake early this morning so we set off breakfast before doctor’s rounds. The third photo is our takeaway lunch as we would be home earlier today.

Would you believe it, Huan found another lizard outside our hospital building.

In the ward we had our meeting with Drs Liang and Feng; I am good to go for another year. I still have to come back every three months for a needle in my belly and I still need some bobbyfilla every month though. Usually we would stay in a hotel for test visits but I have to say that the offer of the hospital room makes life a lot easier. All blood tests, infusions and injections can be given in the hospital bed. When tests are done, we don’t have to go and get the results, the doctors already have them. For our three monthly visits we will stick to hotels, but for next year’s annual checks we will definitely be back in the hospital. Some of you may wonder about the cost for a foreigner, with no health insurance. This visit with its associated blood tests, ECG, ultrasound, CT, MRI, SPECT medication and three nights in hospital came to about £600.00. I would say that I got good value for money!

On our way home the only problem we had was that ‘Cruise control system cannot be enabled”, no idea why. Of course I can drive without it but I do miss it. We stopped for coffee and a celebratory fag for me which Huan insisted on recording, again!

Back home neither of us could nap for some reason so I got on with the job of updating the PC from all the files on the laptop and Huan washed our dirty clothes.

Tonight’s dinner was a little upmarket, not too much though. I chose the pickled cucumber because we both like it and Huan’s dish had no vegetables. It was a mistake, the picture on the menu didn’t show those mean little red chillies. Huan’s main dish was pork and potatoes while mine was a coconut chicken curry. We were both happy.

June 5th From one hospital to another, time to replenish my stock of heart medication.

Before seeing the doctor I had a go on the DIY blood pressure machine.

Here I am with Dr. Xu sorting out what I need to keep me going for another three months. We had a good chat about taking the right pills at the right time of day, as prescribed, and not taking them all at once, not that I would ever dream of doing such a thing. We also discussed pomelos and grapefruit, both supposedly banned because I have to take statins. Dr. Xu said a little now and then would be fine, good that Huan heard him say that!

All that was left was to pay and collect my little bag of goodies.

Hospital done with it was time to visit the supermarket to top on our healthy fruit supplies. Why do I have a big smile here?

I had found a big bottle of beer! The boss wouldn’t let me take it home with me though…

This was the view of my medicine shelf later in the day. Stay young if you can!

Neither of us had problems napping this afternoon, in fact I almost went two hours. Dinner was near and cheap, the local buffet restaurant.

You haven’t heard any mention of Window Man; that’s because we are purposely ignoring him and trying to relax for a while. We’ll start bothering him again soon. Relaxing feels quite good and it’s something we both need. Zzzzzzzzz…

June 6^th Market day again with the usual bus ride to the normal market before walking down to the riverside market. The normal market was rather bare.

Even the riverside was less crowded today.

Something new has appeared, it looks like a place I need to visit at sometime in the future, along with my sneaky packet of fags. Well, they do make iced coffee!

Did I say that there were less people? That wasn’t the case at the far end.

On our way to buy lunch we popped into the old Baijiahui building to see what was going on in there. A new English school is opening, it will be an AI assisted oral English school and Jenny, who may be the owner, will also be the teacher.

The last one before lunch, which was to be meat patties. Our usual lady had been joined by her sister who is ‘learning the trade’ before she moves up to Huangzhou and takes on her own street food cart. If she becomes as good as her sister here then she will do just fine.

Our after lunch naps were even longer today, three hours for me and a little less for the boss. All that was left was dinner, Huan’s looks fairly normal, what you’re used to seeing I suppose. Mine looks weird! I ordered the chicken but then couldn’t find anything to go with it so I chose the greenish pancakes. The fried egg was given to Huan incorrectly so I ‘borrowed’ it and had a fried egg sandwich with my flatbread. It worked very well indeed, so well in fact that I may well order just the bread and two fried eggs next time.

June 7^th This morning I gave Her Majesty the option of just staying in and doing nothing at all. She thought it was a good idea so that’s what we did. In fact we didn’t go out until it was time for dinner. With no camera to hand Huan immediately found two lizards for me!

Here’s one for you, count the birdies, no prizes for the winner I’m afraid.

Today’s route was through what we call the ‘No Housebook Place’. That is because when we first started walking that way none of the properties had any title deeds which come in the form of books here. In this view the LHS is still the same; the RHS now does have the required books.

In this collage the no deeds properties are in the top photograph, complete with an unfinished hotel on the left, the properties with deeds are in the bottom photograph.

Dinner was the burger place, special treat for me, I wanted some chips.

Let’s finish our lazy day with a couple of lovely sunset pictures.

June 8^th We had a plan today, a plan for a new bus ‘n’ walk day. First though we had to escape the apartment where the rubble is now taking over all the public areas on our floor. We have profusely apologised to our neighbours and again requested Window Man to sort it out. It seems that rubble from the eighth floor is being added to our pile too!

Anyway, back to the plan, we would take the #9 to the Nansheng highway entrance and walk back by the riverside. Our plan failed! Finding the right bus stop was not so easy at all, we walked for two and half kilometres before we found one with a 9 on it. After waiting there for half an hour or so we decided that a local riverside walk would have to do.

Many birdies and one birdie come next. Do you ever wonder, as I do, what on earth they are talking about when they get together like this?

Nearby there was a spy, I wonder if he could speak the same language.

I took a short cut to the chairs outside the tea shop where we often see Douding and Douhua but I had no desire to call them. I was exhausted.

I couldn’t not chat to a new friend though, a rather cute one.

Huan then found me a very difficult lizard, I did my best.

The riverside looked a little different today, quieter and shadier.

Our last one for the morning is me paying for our chicken burgers from the bakery while being watched by a grandfather and his grandson.

We had long naps again, at least for me, a little shorter for SWMBO. All that was left for the week was a local dinner. Today I saw that they had some fried chicken breasts so I ordered two of those then ran next door to get some chips to go with them. It was lovely.

And there we are folks, another week comes to a close, we have no progress to report at all on the house but at least I can say that I am healthy enough. All the tests I had didn’t find anything untoward and I am now clear for another year. Will there be any progress at home before next Monday? Somehow I doubt it but tune in anyway to find out. Bye for now!