Christmas, Old Wine, Dead Chicken, New Year

December 24^th Christmas Eve and I have no bathroom standby duty. I decided a walk was in order, after all it’s been eight days since I had one. Mind you, my knee is still not 100% so no hills were planned except the mild ones in town. The first photo comes from our new park bridge, they have begun the suspension cable installation. I wish I could get inside to see exactly how it’s done.

I took one or two photos on my walk, nothing special though. Of course I also had an ulterior motive for going out today, I need white wine for tomorrows dinner. Now buying red wine is easy, it’s called 红酒 (Hóngjiǔ) which literally translates as ‘red alcohol’. If you want to buy white wine, you can’t ask for 白酒 (báijiǔ) because while the meaning is ‘white alcohol’, it is not wine. Báijiǔ is a spirit, whose alcohol by volume can be anything up to 65%. That’s not exactly what the recipe calls for. So what do you ask for? According to my lessons, I should ask for葡萄酒 (Pútáojiǔ) but that just means ‘grape wine’. It may work in cities where they have more availability of wines but it doesn’t work here in Wuzhishan. Every shop kept directing me to the red wine display. Here, I need to ask for白葡萄酒 (Bái pútáojiǔ) or put the colour at the end, 葡萄酒白色 (pútáojiǔ báisè). Eventually I understood but it made no difference, nobody had any. Well one shop had a 187ml bottle which would have sufficed but they wouldn’t sell it to me because it was the only one they had and they had no idea of the price. That reminded me of the store men in the army who would never let you have what you wanted if it was the last item in stock. It was explained to me as they needed the ‘last one’ to be able to recognise what it was when replacement stock arrived. I had to give up and go home where I did some searching for possible substitutes. There would also be a chance this evening in the shops I’d missed this morning

After lunch, it was time to assemble my new chair. I can’t say I’m over impressed; there was some minor damage here and there, but not enough to warrant sending it back. If we lived nearer the supplier we may have done that, but returning things from here is a pain in the proverbial. Even worse than the minor damage though, it’s just not very comfortable! Still, I guess it will do what it has to and I’ll be able to use the guitar more easily. Here’s what it looks like, one arm up for demonstration purposes.

After dinner, it was shopping for me again and this time I was lucky. The wine is made by Great Wall and they are fairly trustworthy, we’ve had many of their red wines. This one looked like it had been in the shop a long time; the sales girl said it was thirty years old. That’s obviously not right, there’s an Olympic logo on the back so it should be 2008. Because it’s ‘old’ and ‘looks it’ I thought I could wangle a cheaper price. I did, I got a whole ¥3.00 off! Instead of ¥98.00 it cost me ¥95.00. Still, beggars can’t be choosers. Once home I had a quick taste and it seems like it should do the job. I’ll let you know when we’ve eaten the chicken tomorrow. Meanwhile, here’s the wine itself.

On the bathroom front, the new installation team wanted to come tomorrow afternoon. I pointed out to Huan, perhaps not as gently as I should have, that tomorrow is Christmas Day; she’s rehearsing all morning, and then they’re all having to go back for make up tests in the evening. We only have the afternoon together. They will now be coming on Boxing Day.

December 25th Well this was not the best of Christmas Days. Huan has successfully passed on her cold; I now have gunge in my nose and throat, a headache and achy bones to boot. At least I could stay in and relax, I thought. Shortly before Huan was due home I decided to get everything out of the fridge ready for this afternoon’s cookathon. Our fresh bird, which we, (or I), had followed all the instructions for, had gone off. The bag it was in smelled like urine and the legs were changing to a grey colour. It just goes to show that you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet.

Once Huan arrived it was off out for both of us to try and find a replacement bird. We had no chance at all. By midday, a lot of the market traders had closed for lunch; those that were open only had tiny 1kg chickens. I know there’s only two of us but I didn’t fancy cooking such a small bird, or even two of them.

We thought we’d try for some pork, that would do just as well. We had much the same result, nearly all traders closed for lunch and those that were open didn’t have anything worth roasting. African swine fever has a lot to answer for.

Quite a while ago Huan had fed some of our visitors by buying a ready cooked duck and then sticking it in the oven prior to serving it. It’s not what I wanted to do, but I gave it a try. To me surprise, it worked out quite well, here it is. We also had sprouts and peas of course but they are not shown. We didn’t feel very Christmassy but we did enjoy our dinner!

For the rest of the day I just sat there feeling sorry for myself while Huan went out for yet another practice. We did try and sing Silent Night in Chinese while I played the guitar, for my sister Sandie and her husband John. That darn ‘F’ chord is still causing problems.

December 26^th Feeling a little bit better this morning, maybe I’ll kick this little bug faster than Huan did. I had two duties today, the first was second bathroom standby, again. The second was doing a good impression of a dashboard nodding dog while I was on the PC carrying out the first duty. Needless to say, nobody turned up before lunch.

Dinner was yesterday’s duck leftovers, reheated and guess what? As soon as we sat down for dinner, the guy turned up to do the bathroom. He didn’t need our help though so nothing to worry about. Because he turned up so late Huan had to cancel her dancing date with the Dama dancers which secretly pleased me. I do like having her around! Anyway, here’s the finished ceiling. I’m not quite as pleased as I was with our bathroom, but it’s OK.

December 27^th Almost back to full fighting fitness today, another day should do it. Perhaps a walk today would have helped but the weather was miserable. I did have a little job left to me by the Minister of the Interior though, finish off the cleaning of the second bathroom and replace all the gubbins that normally lives in there. Easy enough for a man of my capabilities and my military background of cleaning toilets!

The rest of the morning was spent on guitar and Chinese. At least I don’t have to keep trying to learn Silent Night anymore, I can get back to following the lessons I was doing. Chinese is a lot of review as well as a new lesson a day. It’s not easy and although I am learning to speak, listening is still terrible, especially when we’re out talking to friends and neighbours.

So tonight was Huan’s show and I thought I’d better go and give her some moral support. My first mistake was to leave my glasses at home; this meant that all the pictures, and videos, were of absolutely atrocious quality. Now, when I said earlier about them having a technical rehearsal, you can scrub that. Even last night they only had the stage, with no sound or lights. That was fairly obvious as I was watching some of the acts on before Huan’s group finale. The sound was terrible! For some reason they also had rotating footlights on for all the acts as well, which not only disturbed the performers but made recording videos almost impossible. The video I made of Huan’s group is not good enough to share anywhere but I am hoping that the TV people will send me something better. WeChat details were exchanged with that in mind. Anyway, here’s a screen shot from mine, you can see Huan on the extreme left.

P.S. The lovely TV lady sent me the link today so if you have a couple of hours to spare you can click on it here. If you only want to see Huan’s bit, fast forward to about one hour and forty seven minutes. 

https://live.fang.com/liveshow/play/tuwenvod/1251953760-concatFile-bd704b44b78d3bf98e0557cb3a9076b7t0/10/sanya/wap/0/?fbclid=IwAR1UHL1-jIXludoo1WuE-QWi2u3hGHWb9hUsTjTYIS7Kf9T-tctw5L09iU8

December 28^th The weekend is here, no singing for Huan, full English lunches and walkies! Well, that was the plan. The weather was miserable this morning and I was doing a pretty good impression of a nodding dog again, having woken up far too early. We stayed in and I cooked, pig in a blanket, (except it was a chicken and garlic sausage) with the usual egg, beans and toast. Here’s the sausage part.

It didn’t work so well, perhaps the sausage was too big. Once we’d eaten up and cleared all the dishes away we decided, that as the weather was fine, we would go out for our planned walk. Before long I was wishing we hadn’t. I started sweating but it wasn’t an “I’m hot” sweat, it was more like an “I’ve got a fever” one. We probably walked about twelve kilometres doing the scenic mountain route and then the river side to buy some baps. My legs were exhausted when we eventually got home. Mind you, we did see some performers down by the river. There were a bunch of people doing 太極 (Tàijí), more commonly known to you as Tai Chi and then some 新疆 (Xīnjiāng) dancers. However, Huan tells me that very few of them are actually from Xinjiang, they are mostly snowbirds who have learnt how to do the various dances. We stayed and watched two very good ladies; the first one was ‘just an ordinary dancer’ while the second one danced with ‘bowls on her head’. I was convinced she was cheating until she got to the end and proved that she wasn’t. Here they are, the first in the middle of her routine and the second just prior to starting.

December 29^th We both decided initially to go through the countryside but before too long changed our minds to a more leisurely stroll around the river. We thought we’d try and find our ‘frog’ from two previous visits. There was no sign of him at all but we did find a crab and a snail around the same place.

Today was Huan’s day for spotting, she’s the one who saw the crab and the snail as well as more snails further one. She also found this little creature.

She didn’t see this next one though, it was all mine. I spotted a few birds flying into the reeds and although I couldn’t see them very well, even zoomed in through the viewfinder, I tried to get a photo. The result is far from perfect but much better than I had expected.

Huan got this next one though, a fish, hiding near the bank. We did ‘disturb’ it with a piece of bamboo but it didn’t move very far. Huan said it had a hole in its side although I couldn’t see it. Maybe it had escaped from one of the many fishermen out today.

And here is one of said fishermen, complete with umbrella on his head!

Despite not going off into the countryside, we still managed ten and a half kilometres and we were home a little too late for a ‘Full English’. Instead lunch was tuna fish sandwiches. I did make us a ‘Full English’ for dinner this evening, before diving into a hot salty bath while Huan went walking on the stones.

December 30^th Today was a very important day; it was the Annual General Meeting of the shuǐ àn biéshù Residents Association. Well, I may have exaggerated just a little there. We don’t actually have an association and although it was a meeting, I have no idea when they last held one for all the residents. I can tell you one thing, if you think meetings in the west are tedious; do not go to one in China! Only five people spoke and the meeting lasted nearly two hours. I even had to make a video of it, which I won’t bother sharing with you. Here you can see the enraptured throng in attendance, some of the committee and my cameras.

You might be wondering if we learned anything new, the answer would be no. Lots of blame was apportioned and lots of promises were made but once again, we will just have to wait and see. Every cloud has a silver lining, and this one was ‘dinner for the committee’. Two members were absent, one way up North and the other has a sick husband, so that left twelve of us. By the time it was over I was extremely bloated. The food was good, as always, even with a couple of dishes we had never tried before. Apart from eating too much, there were also far too many cries of干杯, (Gānbēi) which is translated as “Cheers!” but literally means “dry cup”. I joined in the first toast with a small, very small, glass of白酒 (báijiǔ). After that I stuck to beer, also in small glasses, but the cries of “Gānbēi” kept coming. Huan wasn’t able to escape today either and she hardly ever touches alcohol of any kind. Within minutes you could tell by her face that she’d been drinking, she goes very red, very quickly. I’m not going to show you a photo of Huan alone, but here’s the whole crowd, with the exception of me, in a panoramic shot.

Needless to say, a very quiet day followed for both of us. Huan had a little snooze while I compiled the video for the committee. No cooking was required, not even any sandwiches were needed, we were both still too full.

December 31^st The last day of the year, and not a ray of sunshine anywhere, just miserable rain clouds. SWMBO had given me orders today, no walkies, (just as well with the weather), instead I was to pick her up after singing so that we could do our weekly shop. No driving was possible yesterday! (Hic!)

There followed another lazy day, Huan watching TV, me watching The Bill on YouTube. All was going well until there was an enormous crack and my (new) chair arm broke. As the arm is connected between the seat and the back, it was quite a worrying surprise for me. I’m not having much success with chairs am I? This is the third one we’ve bought from Taobao since 2015. Photos were taken, showing what it’s supposed to look like, and what it does look like, as well as photos of the actual ‘break’.

Huan then began the process of fighting with the Taobao store concerned. This is one case where we should perhaps have checked other people’s comments and not just relied on the ‘reliability score’. “We’ll send you as new arm” they said. As the chair had already begun leaning far away from its vertical position before the arm broke, I wasn’t too keen on this. After much arguing back and forth it was agreed that we would return the chair and get our money back. Of course we will have to pay the return shipping costs. We’ll see tomorrow whether it’s worth doing or whether we just forget all about it. For sure, my next chair will be bought locally!

And so we come to the end of another month, and the end of the last long monthly tome. From now onwards I’m going to try posting weekly, probably on Mondays when I’m not out walking. Should anything out of our ordinary humdrum existence happen, then that may well result in a special post, we’ll see. Let me know in the comments if you would rather see a long monthly magnum opus or a shorter weekly digest.

From me, and the boss, that’s also it for this year; we’ll see you, tomorrow, next month and next year. Sleep tight and have a very

Being Landlords, Committee Dinner, Gentleman Bob

September 11^th On the road again today but thankfully, not an early start. A trip to Ledong was called for by the Minister of Finance to renew the lease for our tenants there and of course, get some loot. This time they only extended until May next year when they will return to Harbin. They’re a very nice couple, both in their eighties, and always glad of a chat. I find it amusing how they are so different to each other in their ‘temperature needs’. He is always hot and she is always cold. Today, on this semi-tropical island, she was in bed with an electric blanket before we arrived. He is always in his shorts although we are told that he’s down to his undies if there are no visitors. Luckily Ledong is less than an hour away so we were back in Wuzhishan before lunch. I did take one photo in Ledong though, what do you think about this little bit of poetry?

In the afternoon Huan’s singing partner’s daughter came round bringing gifts for our dinner. They insisted because we had brought them from Haikou to Wuzhishan. Our protestations about being there anyway fell on deaf ears. What gifts did they bring? They brought steaks, which they had ordered from Taobao on the 9^th. They arrived this morning in a polystyrene box padded with some ice bags. Included were some sachets of black pepper sauce. Of course I had one for dinner but I forgot to take a photo of it. Instead you can have a photo of the three different kinds they bought for us. Not bad at all and if you are in China definitely worth ordering.

September 12^th Huan had to go to her singing class this morning, but not to sing. The ‘chosen’ group were doing their thing along with some dancers so the other students had to go and ‘be the audience’. Being the gentleman I am, I walked her there. Right outside our door we spotted this little creature and Huan gave me explicit instructions not to touch it as its hair would burn my skin. Needless to say, I obeyed!

I was able to go for a nice long walk of course and test out my nice new monopole. It does the job well enough and is a great improvement on the one that seized up on me. As well as the videos I took some still with the Keymission and then tried to stitch them into a panorama. It didn’t work but I was able to take ‘pairs’ of the eight photos and stitch them together. Here are two of the four results.

An old people’s nap was needed after lunch, it turned into nearly two hours, much too long. Still, I read this week that an afternoon nap a couple of times a week is good for you! After our nap the rain came back with a vengeance so that was it apart from our usual educational lessons. We are both improving, honestly!

September 13th Today is 中秋节 (zhōng qiū jié) – the beginning of Mid Autumn Festival so Huan is on duty! There will be a celebratory lunch for our committee and for members of the new maintenance company. (Yes, they actually did it, the old company is out, and a new one is in. I wonder if anything will change.) So, Huan had to start by going downstairs to help prepare all the vegetables and then return upstairs to steam the shrimps. I stayed out of the way and went for a walk. I had to keep it short though, only seven kilometres, as I have to look fresh and presentable when we go downstairs again.

Well our dinner went well, lots of nice food, good company and far too many ‘bottoms up’! I didn’t take any photos but I did take lots of video footage. Here are a couple of screen shots of the food and the drinking.

Followed by an unusual one of ‘er indoors with a drink in her hand.

And finally one of me during one of my breaks on the balcony!

Now the boss and I are not so used to lunch time sessions, in fact we’re not used to them at all, so another OAP sleep was taken when we got home! We had planned an evening walk to try and remove some of the calories we had consumed but wouldn’t you know it, rain stopped play yet again. Still, we both managed a bit more music practice, although, to be honest, I’m not so sure mine sounds anything like music yet!

September 14^th Huan decided we needed a ‘small’ mountain walk today, off San Yue San, the main road out of town. She fancied walking up to one of the many smaller reservoirs but we, or should I say I, took a wrong turning and ended up going to a small village called Fan Dao Cun instead. It was still a ‘small’ hill so Huan was happy enough. Today was a Fujifilm camera walk as we hadn’t been that way for quite some time. Not many photos were taken, only one hundred and twenty two! Don’t worry; they won’t all be included here.

Let’s start off with the animal world and tree climbing chickens. I suppose it happens a lot in the mountains but when we see them they are usually grubbing around on the ground. These three reminded me of three old dears having a gossip.

Staying with chickens, I learnt something today. Here’s a few hanging around the village rubbish bin. Even though I couldn’t get near them, they seemed more docile than some. Huan explained that they were male chickens who had been made into females. She pointed out that they had the head and front of a hen but the back of a cockerel. Of course I had to Google this when I got home and I guess what they are is ‘Capons’.

When we reached the village we were very surprised to see just how far the highway construction had progressed. The last time we were up here, there were only holes in the ground where the four front supports are in the photograph.

We always stop and buy water in this village before retracing our steps back home. This is the shop that we usually use. It seems the government decided it was a dangerous building. Luckily for us, we found a little hole in the wall shop just a bit further up into the village so our thirst was quenched!

And now it’s back to the animal world again. I took quite a lot of photos of the water buffalo but this is the one I got nearest to. I did have in the back of my mind the lady that was injured by cows in the UK last week but this gentleman seemed fine.

And our last photo for today is full of students. You may notice that they are all wearing blue military uniforms except for the teacher who is wearing ‘olive greens’. Well, all Chinese students go through 军训 (Jūnxùn) military training in middle school, high school and university. According to the law this training should be carried out as soon as term starts or after National Day which is October 1^st. This week is the first week back at school, this particular school is a vocational college. You can find more info here: -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_education_and_training_in_China

Sometimes I think the UK should have something similar to this too, albeit not exactly the same.

Lunch today was the first of our ‘doggy bags’ from yesterday, cold tofu (the chewy type) salad. I added red cabbage, grape tomatoes and a little bit of vinegar, very tasty.

We were supposed to be going out for dinner but our guests were unavoidable delayed in the mountains so the second doggy bag came out for dinner. This one was chicken, potatoes and vegetables, nothing needed to be added. Aren’t we the lucky ones, no cooking today at all. Mind you, after what we’ve eaten this week, a full English was definitely not needed today!

In the evening we were visited by the ‘Quinn Boys’, Patrick, Podraig and Dodo, they had been to Shuimanshang for the day and Podraig was in need of some TV while Patrick required liquid sustenance. Dodo was just happy being here. The fourth member of the gang, Flora, was unfortunately a little too worn out after the day’s activities. A good evening was had by the men though, especially Patrick and myself, (Uncle Bob), putting the world to rights on the balcony. Patrick even showed me that my new guitar is capable of sounding very good, and sweet little liar that he is, told me I wasn’t doing too bad! Even though we live a very contented life here in Wuzhishan I do so appreciate the visits we get now and then from like minded souls. Needless to say, a little too much of the amber nectar went down the hatch and I ended up going to bed very late after allowing my stomach to settle a bit.

September 15^th Slept well last night, maybe I should have a few beers a little more often. This morning I had planned to go out for a nice long walk while Huan stayed in and waited for our friends to pop in before heading back to Haikou. My plans were thwarted, not by the weather this time, not by Huan either, but by the ‘leader of the committee of eleven’ who wanted me to make a video for her. As you know, we have a new maintenance company and she wanted a video showing the ‘state of affairs’ at the beginning of their contract tenure. There are dual reasons for this, one to show if and how things improve from now onwards, and the other to show all the absentee tenants how things are now. It’s done, the video was made, compiled into one and handed over. Personally, I don’t believe a great deal will change and I think they have no idea of the actual costs of putting right many of the things that are presently wrong. Ah well, we’ll wait and see.

Once we had seen Patrick, Flora, Podraig and Dodo off we sat down to an easy lunch, boiled eggs with toast. Perhaps we’ll go back to fry-ups next week.

In the afternoon Huan did lots of music searching, I did lots of Facebook surfing. Dinner was next, re-heated dumplings and sweet potatoes that Huan had previously cooked, simple and tasty. There’s nothing like a relaxing day now and then. In fact it was even more relaxing than planned. We were going to at least have a stroll around the river this evening but, would you believe it, rain stopped play, again!

September 16^th “Monday is washing day, is everybody happy, you bet your life we are.” Of course, for us it’s not washing day but shopping day. We’re still happy though!

Happiness can be fleeting. Our tenants in Sanya are giving us headaches. In order to increase the rent by a mere ¥200.00 a month we are going to have to fit a new front door, probably costing us over ¥2000.00. To ease Huan’s troubled mind I agreed to this but there is no way we are going to rent it to them for a further year next time. The wife there is very clever and as far as I can see is just trying to take us for as much as she can. Lesson learnt, maybe.

To relax ourselves a little we had a stroll around the town in the evening and then Huan hit the keyboard and I hit the guitar and a bit more Chinese.

September 17^th Highway bridges again today, on our way to Sanya. No walkies, we were off to see about a new front door for our tenants. As usual, when we go the mountain route to Sanya, we stopped for coffee just outside the city, underneath a highway bridge. Don’t you ever wonder just how all those tons of steel and concrete, (or tarmac), are held up? I know it looks like they are on big fat legs, but take a closer look. The surface area that actually supports the bridge is much smaller than the support itself. I’m not even sure if they are physically joined together or if the highway just ‘rests’ on the supports. What do you think?

So, in due course, we arrived to meet our tenants. Huan sat getting the contract signed and hopefully the money transferred while I went to measure and photograph the old door.

Now you would think it would be fairly easy to locate a ‘door shop’ locally, after all, we can do that in Wuzhishan which is hardly a big city. It took us a little longer in Sanya and, contrary to what we expected, the prices were higher here than in our own town. We did eventually settle on one for a price of ¥2,800.00 That includes removing the old door, fitting the new one, cleaning surfaces around the door, (sort of), and then disposing of the old door. That alone costs ¥300.00. Hopefully this will keep our tenants happy until next year.

It was not an especially warm day, or so we thought. However, this was the temperature when we got back in the car, and it stayed like that until we stopped for lunch. PS I wasn’t feeling any sadness, I actually love the heat!

The place we stopped for lunch was a new one for us, a little shopping centre complete with a ‘snack street’. Here’s what it looks like.

You might notice that it’s not very full. Well, that’s because Chinese people have their lunch earlier than we did today. What did we have? Huan had what looked to me like fried noodles but it was cold and a little spicy. I had ròujiāmó (肉夹馍), (translates as ‘meat folder’), which unusually, was made with chicken and flakey pastry. I had to ask because to me it tasted a little like tuna fish inside, possibly because the chicken was “chicken floss”. (You can Google that.) Whatever, we both enjoyed our slightly different from usual lunches!

Our first stop when we got back to Wuzhishan was Huan’s bank, we hadn’t seen a branch all day, and we wanted to be sure that the rent had been deposited for her and, more importantly, that it was the agreed contract price. Sighs of relief from both of us, all was hunky dory. No music for either of us today, both ‘brains’ not functioning at 100%. On the plus side, I did get a little Chinese practice in.

September 18^th Today started with rain so I surfed the web while Huan went to pay our electric bill and maintenance fees. She paid only for September to December, due to the change of companies. Usually we pay¥1662.00 per year, more than most because we have a three bedroomed apartment. The fee for everyone is ¥1.21 per square metre per month. Now, people complain that things don’t get done, but when you see how little money is collected it’s no wonder. Many of the apartments here are unattended most of the year, some have never been lived in since they were bought, which means most people either pay a reduced charge or don’t pay anything at all. I have no idea how private apartments work in the west but I’m sure it can’t be as inefficient as this is.

What a couple of layabouts we were this afternoon. Despite the weather improving we just lay around like beached whales again!

Of course, after dinner we were forced to go out and buy our lottery tickets for the next two days. We strolled around the river and managed a little over five kilometres, we felt pretty good about that. Then got home and forgot to turn off the fitness tracker until we’d both had a shower. I guess that will be a long 5k! No photos today.

September 19^th Her Imperial Majesty suggested the reservoir walk today, the one we got wrong last time, so I agreed. It would also give us a chance to check out how the highway was coming on in that are. It is usually quite a pretty walk and a lot of it still was today.

Unfortunately, as we got nearer the construction area it changed, just a little.

We managed to get through this part reasonably well and eventually saw the progress we had been looking for. It will still take a little while longer to complete methinks.

We carried on up the mountain until we reached the reservoir. This also used to be a fish farm which, on one occasion, we watched them stocking up. It looks as though that business has gone into liquidation because there was no sign of life in the buildings at all. I was able to go upstairs and check, on some very dodgy stairs though, I made Huan stay down. We couldn’t see any fish at all although there were a couple of people fishing across the other side. Today was another Fuji walk so I tried a panorama and failed miserably. I just can’t seem to get it right; a visit back to the handbook may be called for. However, the trusty Nokia phone came through as it always does so here is the panorama.

Having seen what we came for we started on our way down again. The first stop was in a little village near the top, cold water was required, especially for me, I was parched. From there we took a detour via another country road that we had spotted on the way up. The plan was to keep our shoes a little cleaner and give us an easier walk. It worked, for a while. When we got to the highway construction area, we had to cross the road the trucks were using. This caused a slight problem, slurry I think you would call it. It was only about five metres wide but there was no way round it, and a long walk back. There was nothing for it, ‘Gentleman Bob’ to the rescue once again. I carried Huan over this part. It’s a good job I did, this is what my boots looked like afterwards.

Almost back home and Huan did something that she doesn’t usually do, picked up an animal. She thought this kitten was so cute but would only consider having one if it never grew any bigger. Anybody know of any ‘Peter Pan’ kittens for sale?

Having drunk two bottles of water on our walk, which by the way was longer than we both remembered, (over fifteen kilometres), we decided that lunch could be skipped in favour of milk shakes. They went down well!

I had another OAP kip in the afternoon, Huan, being the hero she is, did some housework. After dinner, we both managed some more music practice. I wonder when my fingers will be hard enough to practice for more than fifteen to twenty minutes at a time. Mind you, there’s no deadline so I shouldn’t really worry just yet.

September 20^th With the weather on our side and not having had a lot of rain in the last few days we decided to go on our ‘normal mountain scenic walk’. We both started to realise that we have lost some fitness over the summer months. It was enjoyable, just not very fast. It’s uphill all the way to the bridge, near which today was a Godsend, a little waterfall coming from up above. Cool, clear water, what a refresher. Mind you, I didn’t drink it, only used it to cool down. The last time we drank stream water still brings back bad memories! Who knows, this may well have been OK but, once bitten, twice shy.

Going down was much easier, so much so that I was able to convince Huan to carry on and complete our daily ten. I did stop off for a couple of bottles of water though, don’t want to overdo it now, do we. I almost had another OAP sleep in the afternoon but just managed to stay awake through the ‘nodding head’ stage.