I Got A Book!

August 11^th Good morning world it’s a brand new day. Let’s go to the hospital and check my eyes again. We did that but didn’t see that the same doctor was on duty so we postponed until later. Huan said she needed to visit the ISP for our Ledong apartment so we headed off that way. First we passed Sān yuè sān Square for our thumbnail photo of the week.

Then we had to cross the main road bridge.

In the ISP office Huan’s business was going to take longer than I had expected so I went for a nice long circular walk, found somewhere that sold the necessities of life, and stopped for a break. I took a photo or two but then Huan caught me anyway!

With not a lot to do we decided to walk along the river and catch the #2 bus home.

The municipality were busy pruning so Huan took an enormous amount of photos that I then had to spend ages pruning when we got home!

As a walk had not been planned we didn’t have the camera with us, just our phones. We spotted a beautiful bird, I didn’t bother trying, Huan tried but failed. However, she did not fail when she found a lizard a little later on.

On the way home we bought a can of insect spray and gave Donald a good old going over. When he had been parked under the trees near one of the villas an army of ants had taken residence. Of course Huan needed the evidence again.

In the afternoon, as I had expected, the shower door did not turn up. After our coffee we took another bash at the hospital. The doctor we had seen before was not there but as we didn’t know his name anyway we decided to stay. First the obligatory eye test.

Huan then kept herself busy on her phone.

Before too long I was able to see Dr. Wang, a very nice man, easy to trust and who also had a smattering of English. He had a look and also tested my ‘eye pressure’ using what I do believe was an ‘air puff tonometer’.

All that was left was to pay and collect some more medicine. That consisted of some different eye drops for the day time and some eye gel for the night time.

Being a little early we went to the Chinese Burger place and bought a whole chicken to take home, along with some chips of course.

After dinner the TV man came with the new motherboard, however the problem was not resolved. He proceeded to remove the other board to take that one away and order a new one. Huan said she didn’t want to pay any additional charges and that she would rather just buy a new TV if that was the case. He agreed and went off with the second board. I guess we will now have another three day wait. Still, he is better than Window Man!

Our last photo of the day is about Huan’s health problems. She has been having something in the back of her throat for days now and unlike me, it bothers her a lot. She used Dr. WeChat and found a supposed cure that involves irrigation. Here she is giving it a go.

August 12^th Huan has been missing her trips to the countryside with all the kerfuffle we are having with our renovations so today I decided we would take one. The route was to be a bus to the end of the road that leads to the fish farm reservoir in the mountains. We had good weather for it; this is the view back to town as we got off the bus.

We have walked this way many times and we have often shown you the views of the ‘lake villas’. We have never shown you just one though so today we are doing just that.

Off up the hill we went and after a while our peace was disturbed by some strange types of farm vehicles haring up the road behind us. Check out the wheels.

Pointy Mountain was well visible today, across the other side of the highway.

This one is here just because it was so far away that I couldn’t be sure what it was. Huan told me it was a dragonfly but my eyes did not believe her. She was right, of course.

Soon we reached our destination.

And from the parapet I took two panoramas, one in each direction.

The gate is still there but the gatehouse is not in use. The signpost still stands proud although it is mostly pointing to things that are no longer in use. The sign you can’t read, pointing to the back, says ‘bed and breakfast area’. People do still sleep here occasionally, today we saw one car.

I did manage to get the tour guide to pose for me.

There was also a solitary fisherman and a rather worried cat.

Another panorama was taken from the other end of the resort. Wouldn’t it be nice with the sights and sounds of families with young children? Maybe one day it will happen.

Outside and back on the road I spotted a good subject, or I thought so anyway. Three-in-one, a little lantern seed with its tiny flower and a sniffer.

And then as we made our way down I happened to look behind and spot those strange farm vehicles again. Neither of us wanted to go back uphill so we took some long distance photos. They are obviously harvesting something but we have no idea what, or how!

Huan’s day was made when she found two lizards for me, within five minutes of each other.

Despite me trying to go downhill at a rapid rate of knots we were still running a bit late so lunch out became dinner out instead. We both had the same dish although Huan asked for extra pepper in hers. You wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. This is a Hainan rice noodle dish.

Our walk was over ten kilometres today so our naps ended up being extended as well! No walkies were required in the evening I just made us cheese, meat and salad sandwiches. It fools us into thinking life is almost normal even though Huan has to have hers on her knee in the living room and I have mine on a strip of my desk in front of my keyboard.

August 13th After yesterday’s long walk I suggested we stay in this morning and only go for a stroll before lunch. SWMBO was very much in agreement! We found a little green friend who really did not want to climb up on my arm.

Lo and behold, a few minutes later it didn’t want to leave my arm. Huan said that it was moving so slowly because it was pregnant.

Looking up the hill I noticed that Wuzhishan’s old water supply reservoir was clearly visible. On November 4^th 2018 a young cow made amorous advances to me there. Unfortunately Huan didn’t take any photos at that time.

We headed for lunch walking back across the river.

Huan chose the bakery for lunch, she had a pizza slice and I had some sort of sandwiches.

As we entered our compound two children were coming the other way, two grandchildren of a friend of Huan’s. They wanted to show us their puppies, 小黑 (Xiǎo hēi) and 小白 (Xiǎo bái) which translates as Little Black and Little White. The puppies would not come near me unless the children held on to them.

We enjoyed our lazier morning and the nap that followed. The evening found us going to Uncle Ma’s for some spicy grub again, well not too spicy.

Here are our sauce bowls and our free drinks. Huan’s is a green bean one and I have a red apple one. Our sauces are similar, sesame paste, chopped spring onions, chopped garlic and I also have some peanut sauce and a dash of oyster sauce.

Here are our dinners, Huan has soup, I don’t; I just mixed my sauce into what you see there.

It’s not often that we walk back home after dark so it was nice to do that for a change. These photos also seem to turn out much better than when I try to use a camera. What a nice relaxing end to a lazy day. Maybe we’ll do the same tomorrow.

August 14^th Tomorrow we will be busy so we had another lazy day today. Huan had a rough evening when we got home last night; she had a spot of Delhi Belly. Thankfully it was very short lived but she still didn’t fancy going out this morning. I went out though to buy two beef patties for our lunch, I only took my phone.

I had to stop at the express delivery lockers on my way back in, my new underpants had arrived. To my eternal shame they are size 6XL and they fit! Don’t worry, there’s no photo of them.

I did manage to drag Huan out for dinner; all she wanted was buffet food. Just in case you can’t guess, her dinner is the one with the rice.

August 15^th Our day was to be quite a busy one but only later, in the morning we did absolutely nothing at all! Our car, not Donald, came to collect us at one o’clock and we headed off to Maona for our public engagement.

When we arrived the car park had been taken over so our driver dropped us off and went to find somewhere to park until we had finished whatever we had come to do. We were not there for the International Tourism Festival but for a book presentation. That was what the car park had been appropriated for; the sign is at the rear of the stage. We had been invited by 黄珍珍 from the local government in Wuzhishan.

With time to spare we had a very quick walk around.

I took a panoramic view of where Huan, and hundreds of other performers, did a huge cultural show for international consumption. I can’t find a video anywhere, not even on my YouTube so I think it may have been destroyed by Facebook, like a lot of previous memories!

When we returned to the central location I somehow or other got roped into photographs for advertising local tea and local yoghurt. It was easy to be nice, they all taste great!

Soon it was time for the ceremonies to begin. As the orchestra began playing, I was instantly transported to the land of Hamlet cigars. Yes, it was “Air on a G String”. They played very well although they were doing it as incidental music for the two speakers.

The ceremony was in fact the unveiling of a new book, and I thought I would be one of many foreigners to be invited. It turned out that there were only two of us, myself and a journalist from Hainan International Media, Polina. I think she probably deserved her invite much more than I did. Here she is doing her bit off the stage.

And here on the stage is the honourable Mayor of Wuzhishan.

Speeches over, it was time for the unveiling and the presentations.

Here I am being presented with my copy of the book. Please don’t look at my shorts! Had I realised what sort of an occasion it was I would have dressed up. Those of you who know me will be well aware that I love dressing up!

Someone sent Huan that photo but they did not send her an individual photo of Polina receiving her book. They did however send a couple of combined photos.

All that was left was for us to leave the stage and have a couple more photos.

So what was it all about then? It was about this book, which I won’t type the title of because you can see it. You can also read the synopsis on the back. I have only had time for a quick glance but I can assure you that it is well worth a read. The lyrical prose appeals to me. If you see it on sale, don’t hesitate, jump in there and flash the cash!

I never get car sick but I didn’t feel so good on the way home today. After Huan asked the driver to make the car a little warmer the temperature went up to 18.5⁰C, God knows what it was before. Anyway, we got him to drop us off in town and walked to a restaurant opposite Baijiahui.

The rain had been threatening us all day and decided to really attack as we were finishing dinner. I was still not feeling in tip top form so I grabbed a drink and a fag!

The rain was not easing off so we set off home with our one umbrella. I let Huan have it because she had her handbag full of goodies and the shoulder bag with the book and other goodies. Only as we neared our gate did Huan remember that among the goodies we had been given today were two shower coats. They often give them as gifts up in the mountains; after all, it is a rainforest. It was too late by then so it was straight into a hot shower for me. All I did after than was upload all the photos, sorting could wait.

August 16^th Today was all admin, sorting photographs, editing photographs, deciding which ones to keep and how many to put in this post. We did get out for dinner though. Huan had 拌面, Bàn miàn – mixed noodles (second photo) and I had 螺丝粉, Luósī fěn – snail rice noodles, incredibly small snails (third photo). The first photo is the view from the restaurant because you have seen the interior many times. It is the nurses’ college.

PS Sorry about the photo aesthetics, we forgot to take them before we started scoffing!

August 17^th Today was TV repair day; the repairman came with the new PCB. A shout came from the living room, “it’s fixed now”. I went to check and the picture was upside down!

Repairman then screwed it all back together.

And then it was my turn to assist him in rotating and getting the TV back on the wall.

As it was early enough we went out for a stroll and some lunch.

Huan found a black moth that I am having difficulty in identifying. Feel free to Google away to your heart’s content and even to share the answers with us if you like.

She also found the greater spotted grumpy old bob bug!

In fact she was really on form today, here’s the squirrel that she found.

Lunch was taken at Lanzhou Beef Noodles where we had fried bread, pickled cabbage salad and a fried egg for me. It wasn’t bad but the bread was a little dry today.

This morning Window Man had sent Huan a message to say that the shower door would be installed this afternoon. I told her not to clear out the bathroom until they actually turn up. Someone turned up but only to leave the wall and floor fittings outside our door.

We didn’t fancy going far for dinner tonight, mostly because we were a bit late going out. This was our chosen venue, shown today from a different angle.

Unfortunately they have no rice or noodles here, well except for one noodle dish, so we stuck to the fried offerings. They are, in order, cauliflower, chips, pork strips and whole fish.

We couldn’t eat it all, there was just too much, but we tried our best. Despite it being a fry-up we quite enjoyed it and would consider it again in the future. On the way home I helped one of the waitresses move some cardboard boxes to the kindergarten next door.

So, another week is over with at least a smattering of good news. Huan’s TV is fixed; she no longer has to permanently rely on her phone. The parts for the shower door installation are now all here too. Will it go up tomorrow? Tune in next week t find out. Until then, from all of us here, to all of you there, take care and have a great week!