June 23rd Our plan for today had been to take a bus to Nansheng and a walk though the old army base. Someone, me again, woke up a little late, so the plan was changed. We took two buses instead. Here we are waiting for the first one.
We got off the second one at ‘turn-off #4’ on the main road. Huan was not sure that I was heading in the right direction.
Once we were over the small bridge and heading under the highway bridge she soon realised that my memory had not failed me this morning. This is an old tourist place.
If you look closely at the last photo you might spot a rock in the lake. That rock is in fact a statue, of who I’m afraid I forget now, and there was no one around to ask today.
Our route was to be through the mountains from the #4 turnoff back to the #3 turnoff. Here you can see that we are ascending, the lake, the highway bridge and the ornamental bridge are all visible somewhere down below.
We carried on going up hoping that nothing much would have changed in the two years since we last walked this way. We didn’t fancy walking back down again. We needn’t have worried; apart from the path being a bit more overgrown it was all the same, even the obstacles!
You may be wondering why there are no photos of the Prime Minister climbing over the obstacle. Well that would be because, being the gentleman I am, was holding the bamboo down to help her. The next photo holds some memories for us. If you look you will see that the path forks to the right up ahead. Four years ago we took that fork thinking it could be a short cut. It ended up being a long and difficult way, not good for me just a year after having my stent fitted. Today we remembered to turn left between the two trees you can see, that took us along what is now quite a good path created by the betel nut farmers.
This is the summit, well the summit of our walk, and in the past when we reached this point we could see the whole valley laid out before us. Now it is hidden behind those betel nut trees.
Down the bottom of that path we had the choice of going down the centre of the valley or taking the track on the left. Despite both of us wearing hats we decided that walking in the open in temperatures of 35⁰C and above was not for us today. The track looked like the better option despite the fact that it hadn’t been cleared for some time.
At the bottom I took these two views, one up the valley and one down towards the town.
In the village Huan found our first lizard of the day and pointed her finger. I obeyed!
Before leaving the village I took one final shot up the valley.
Before we got down the final hill Huan pointed her finger one more time.
Now how about a few ducks in a row?
Being a little worn out after our trek we took a bus home, a bus that changed its number part of the way there. I was pleasantly surprised. We stopped off for lunch. I was not really that hungry so I just had a chicken wing and a duck leg. Both were truly delicious!
Naps were an absolute must when we got home! In the evening I did my duty and held the fridge door for the shopkeeper again.
Dinner was taken in ShaXian, a place that we have often visited.
For a change the chicken leg and an egg you can see is Huan’s, mine was the beef. I must say that the beef was superb, very tender and silky indeed.
June 24th A lazy day was had by all, I spent the morning doing yesterday’s ‘words’ as we call them. The photographs had been sorted and edited yesterday, so not too much work needed. Of course Chinese lessons still had to be done! Having some use of the kitchen again makes it much easier to make sandwiches so that’s what we did today. It had been three months since we had an egg sandwich and boy did it taste good!
Not having walked in the morning we could take a slightly longer walk this evening. First we passed the tree nurses putting on the medicine.
Huan’s day was made with a lizard; mine was made with some flora and a pigeon.
Because we had not gone out this morning we took a longer walk this evening to visit a restaurant for the first time. We had noticed it a couple of days ago and also spotted curry on the menu. For some reason it is a Hello Kitty place.
I had chicken curry which was a little strange. It was chicken fillets, breaded, and fried with tomato sauce added then placed in a curry sauce with the rice. Huan had pork and mushroom with some Korean vegetables. We may return but if we do it will not be for the curry. Some of you may remember Vesta curries; mine was not as spicy or as tasty as they were! Still, we mustn’t complain too much, our bellies were filled and the food was not bad.
On our way home Huan managed to find another lizard, her eyes don’t sleep!
June 25th Sometimes the best laid plans, and all that… We were supposed to take a bus to the edge of town and go round the kindergarten route in the countryside. First the bus took far too long to arrive and then when it did it was too full for us to get on. The second bus was later so by the time we crossed the river it was already too late for our proposed walk.
Huan went down the middle of the road. I was on the other side of the central reservation to her to start with but soon moved to the side.
Peering through the pipes, I looked terrible; Huan looked like our old queen.
Look at this beautiful creature, doesn’t it look glorious. I was a little wary of getting too near though because it was on a chain and in a small village part of town that gets very few visitors. We were only there due to road works.
Huan wanted me to try picking up the pigeon; I told her that I didn’t really want to take the risk of getting bird fly so she let me off!
Everybody gets a stone in their shoe, sandal, welly or some other type of footwear at sometime. Today Huan decided that the occasion should be recorded for posterity.
This is where our lunch came from, Lanzhou Beef Noodles on the top shopping street. Look on the wall and you may be able to see lamb chops. We may have to go there again, soon! Our lunch was just Ròu jiā mó to take home.
I have to admit I was struggling to walk this morning, I felt really worn out and I could feel catarrh building up in my sinuses. I was happy to cut our walk short. All that was left was another bridge and another lizard.
I desperately needed my nap today, even Huan slept for two hours. I didn’t really want to go out for dinner but I suppose needs must. Huan had piggy insides soup with a bowl of rice and some pickles. I just had meatball soup without the noodles and without any rice. I put vinegar and white pepper in it instead.
Back home my feelings of not being quite right were still there. My self medication consisted of cold medicine, tiger balm and lots of water. The stick it up your nose inhaler was also there just in case. Hopefully this will just be a short inconvenience but I do sometimes worry about still having long term effects of radiotherapy. Fatigue is one of them and it can last months, sometimes years. Let’s wait and see what tomorrow brings.
June 26th Two red severely bloodshot eyes stared at out of the mirror this morning prompting me to cancel any walks. More self medication was required. All I did all day was Chinese lessons and watch movies, and nap of course. Unusually for me I did eat today, I don’t often do that when I’m ill. We even went out for dinner, chatting to two students on the way.
As for dinner I still fancied soup so went to Sister Xiao Gu’s restaurant.
Neither of us had a spicy soup, Huan had bone broth and rice with hers, I had tomato soup with mine. From the sauce table Huan added a little spicy and a little garlic, I added a lot of garlic, some greens and calamansi juice. I absolutely loved it and I think I will do it again after popping into the bakery on the way to buy a baguette.
June 27th Market day called so I listened and awoke far too early. When Huan eventually surfaced she was not feeling 100%. Her eyes were fine but her throat and nose were not, she was bunged up with the green stuff this morning. She was very pleased when I suggested that we skip market day and stay home for another day. I was pleased too and went back to bed for an hour! I did surface long enough to take a view of our rainy afternoon river.
Just like yesterday we still had to go out for dinner. Neither of us fancied a long walk so we just went local to a newly opened restaurant. It’s so new that they don’t have rice dishes yet, they haven’t arrived. I guess it may be a franchise.
For a change we both had exactly the same dish, pork noodles with a poached egg added.
On the way out we had heard a solitary drum; we thought it was just someone practicing. On the way home the drummer was still drumming so we followed our ears. They led us to a lion dance outside a local snack shop; it was celebrating its first anniversary. The first collage is mostly the guys on the support, giving us a show to remember. The second collage shows the hard work being done at the bottom of the support. Both of us actually took videos of the performance but both of us also failed to get any videos worth keeping, never mind sharing. Sorry!
June 28th We’re struggling to get rid of whatever bug is attacking us. Huan read on Weixin that it is a seven day bug so hopefully within a day or two we should be over it. As for today, well we decided that we really did need to get out of the house for a while. While waiting for the bus I found a bird and Huan had a natter.
We got off the bus early to walk down the side of the river.
Just before crossing the river Huan found her first two lizards of the day.
How can you tell it is summertime? There isn’t a snowbird to be seen anywhere.
The scenery is always wonderful though no matter what time of year it is.
Just in case you wonder how I feel about the place that we live in, this is for you.
Time for a bird or two I think.
And then SWMBO pointed her finger again, two more subjects had been found.
For a while we had been followed, it seems that the wee man wanted to try a little English.
Huan then took photos of our takeaway lunch being prepared.
Back to lizards and I tried to do a high five again while Huan took a photo. No chance!
Mind you, he did end up giving us a good pose.
Back home for lunch and then the now almost compulsory naps. In the evening, after the rain had stopped, we just went local. I didn’t really enjoy dinner but it did fill a gap.
On the way home I had a chat with a long lost friend, she remembered me, as did her minder.
June 29th What a way to end our week, staying in the house yet again because we are both still not 100%. My head felt like someone had tried to inflate it with a bicycle pump and Huan was still sniffling like crazy. At least I got my Chinese lessons completed in the morning.
In the afternoon the rain returned again but we did get out in the evening.
We didn’t go far and we both had the same bowl of noodles with extra meat. Huan had a small dish of pickles with hers; I just added vinegar and white pepper to mine.
Another week bites the dust and our apartment still looks upside down with dust sheets all over the place. We didn’t call Window Man yet because I will have to visit the hospital on 1st July for my routine bone filling process. You can rest assured that progress reports with photos will be forthcoming just as soon as things start moving again. For now, it’s goodbye from two worn out teddy bears, stay tuned and we’ll see you next week!
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