October 6th It looks like you have the boss and I as a thumbnail this week. That isn’t even the first photo of the week; it was taken as we went out for dinner.
The actual first photo, and most of today’s photos were taken by the director herself.
I think I was busy in the office all day but I can’t remember. We did go out shopping for extension boards before dinner but we didn’t find what we really wanted. I bought something to make do and mend. Dinner was in a dumpling place.
October 7th Work continued with the painter painting and office sorter sorting.
We had decided that one of us, me, would go out to fetch lunch, while the forewoman stayed and supervised the worker! Before that I took some stuff that we don’t need to the local electrical shop for their children to use. Unfortunately for me, the real electricians were here to change the breakers downstairs so there was no lift! That was my first trip up and down.
The time came and I set off for lunch from the bakery. I was absolutely exhausted and had to stop, buy myself an iced coffee and a pack of fags. I did feel better afterwards! Lunch in hand I set off home and felt a buzz of relief when I saw that power was back on, ergo lift available!
As we took the lamp down in the living room it came to my attention that the outer covering had completely shattered over the years. Huan knew this but had decided not to bother me with it. I sent her out to try and buy a new fitting so that we could fit it while the painter is still around. She failed miserably, came home and sent me. Way back when we had bought the original there were far more choices in Wuzhishan than there are now. That’s what happens when people mostly buy online. In the meantime the painter had suggested removing the whole thing, filling the holes and painting it, and then we could decide where to go from there. Back in the UAE we used to have hanging paper balls for our lights so I suggested that. Unsurprisingly Huan agreed. More ordering online for us too!
While I was out the painter was still painting.
While I was web surfing the painter and Huan were rescuing a creature that had flown in through the open fly screens. After snapping it for posterity they let it go.
And then it was dinner time again, locally because we were both worn out.
October 8th We had a rest this morning, the painter was busy at a previous customer’s house, a villa downstairs in fact, where the occupant had replaced a lamp. It made a pleasant change. Lunch was dinner, or at least I thought it was.
I had never noticed the plates here before. There are English words of wisdom, Chinese too and then a WeChat translation of the Chinese.
After lunch the worker arrived and began his additional work as requested by his supervisor. She is of course also known as SWMBO, by me anyway.
If I was doing the job I would have started with our bedroom, the furthest one from the front door and worked my way back towards said opening. I have no idea how Huan and the painter are planning things. These are the two bedrooms for the next couple of days.
Both bathrooms are also crowded.
The living room and dining room are not quite as crowded, the dining table and chairs have gone to a new home. However, some of our bedroom furniture is presently residing there.
At least I could still get to my desk although the office had also been invaded.
On the way out to Huan’s second dinner and my nor so large meal, we bumped into ‘Giant Dog’ again. His owner was trying to get a photo of us together with the dog looking at him too. We were not very successful.
The government offices in the town square looked very pretty this evening. Here is a SOC photo, no night mode, just normal auto and cropped to remove the square.
Huan had another real dinner, I had just chicken and garlic legs. If the option of buttered bread had been available I would have had the garlic legs on that.
October 9th Frustration is growing, tempers are getting frayed, at least mine is. This morning the painter was absent again, checking out another job. However, we weren’t sure if he was coming back to our place in the morning or in the afternoon. Consequently we had another ‘long wait’. Outside the rain had returned so we couldn’t go anywhere anyway. I had previously planned that we would use some of the cucumber and tomato in the fridge with some spam and Xinjiang bread for lunch. Pickled garlic was added for both of us. Is it possible that I am getting even clumsier as I become more and more impatient? It would seem so; I managed to shatter one of the fridge doors with the pickle jar!
Painter man did return after we’d finished our lunch and naps. I locked myself in the office all afternoon and left the boss to it.
October 10th It’s getting boring now, every day is the same. We have things out of place in every room, dust sheets all over the place and two brains in crisis! I think Her Ladyship was also too bored to take so many photos today.
She even managed to get one of me grovelling around behind my desk.
Huan had a nap after lunch, I didn’t I waited to let the painter back in. Unfortunately, in her confused brain state she forgot to tell me that the painter was not coming back until tomorrow morning. Had I known I would have been napping too.
After failing to put up our new lamp in the living room, the electricity was off again today, we took ourselves off for an afternoon stroll. Huan was happy, we found a bird.
It was a nice day for a walk.
Her Majesty was over the moon this afternoon, two more birds were found.
Somewhere on our meanderings we came across this memorial to a hero. I have included the WeChat translation should you wish to read the English version. Chen was a member of the Li ethnic minority, not Leigh, that is a translation error.
All that remained for the day was another buffet dinner.
October 11th Today was the painter’s last day. Huan took her last few photos.
I went out to buy some fruit, some stuff for tomorrow’s lunch and dumplings for today’s lunch. The Mid Autumn Festival flowers are growing well.
This was my view of the escalator into Baijiahui, the view of the solo shopper.
This was my view on exiting the building. It’s hard to stay grumpy with skies like that.
I did need a fag and a coffee on the way home though.
This is why those mid autumn flowers are growing so well!
I got home just as the painter was leaving. When he left we had our dumplings and then a really well deserved nap. On waking we went to check doors on the ninth floor, Window Man has said he will replace our door and he wants us to choose one. Why is he replacing our door? It’s not the one we ordered and it’s already going rusty! As for the two doors on the ninth floor, I don’t like either of them. We’ll see where we go from here.
Back downstairs we started sorting out our apartment, moving furniture around and cleaning paint splatter. Photos of the sorted rooms can wait until we have the curtains back up and they look a lot tidier than they do now.
Going out for dinner the lift was out of service, something to do with electricity maintenance somewhere nearer the gate. We were both feeling the strain so we went local again.
Back at our apartment the lift was still OOS. Huan went straight up and I rested for a while before slowly following her. By the time I got home we could use our shower again so that’s what we did. Huan then carried on cleaning; she’s a glutton for punishment. I just checked on her now and then and got on with today’s words.
October 12th Our first day alone for a while, not that it made much difference to my C-in-C. She put me to work fairly early climbing ladders and putting curtains back up. There were some other small cleaning jobs just to keep me going. Here are the bedroom curtains.
Now I thought she was too busy to take snaps of me today. I was wrong! This was after lunch before I got started on the living room curtains.
And here are said curtains.
I did manage to break the coffee table while I was shifting furniture around everywhere in order to get the ladder into the right places. However, we won’t mention that, at least until we find out whether repairs are possible or not.
Two very worn out Wombles went out for dinner before a little shopping.
What were we shopping for? I wanted some plastic drawers to put in
my bookcase to free up the two small tool boxes in there. We needed something
to clean all the Sellotape residue off the door frames. Huan, with all best
intentions, had used plastic to prevent paint splatter but she had stuck it on
with Sellotape. Boxes weren’t found, it’s back to Taobao for them.
En route to our shopping destination we passed a very vociferous cat. One of the shop workers was outside so we asked if it was their cat. He said it wasn’t but that someone in the shop had been feeding it. I think the cat had its own ideas!
Well that’s it I’m afraid. There aren’t as many photos as usual and nowhere near enough of our little city and its surroundings. Forgive us, we are both absolutely exhausted. It may take us a few weeks to recover! We’ll still be here of course, and you can still check on us next Monday, as I’m sure you always do. Bye for now!
