Ledong, House Maintenance, Riverside Bar

May 1^st Mayday, Labour Day, or whatever you like to call it. No dancing around the Maypole for us, just a little shopping down the market. Huan isn’t fond of having her picture taken so I told her I would make it sepia then nobody would recognise her! The real reason was so that I could upload the same photo to Jake’s Street Photography Facebook page. Anyway, here’s the photo.

May 2^nd Of course it couldn’t last and as soon as the ‘worker’s holiday was over we were off to Ledong again to continue with the hard graft. Today saw me sanding down the walls in preparation for painting. We did a first coat today, on the repaired parts but no pictures of that, only of the ‘sandman’!

May 3^rd And we’re off! Loads of photos of me in all sorts of positions, up the ladder, down the ladder, standing, kneeling, crouching etc. However, these two probably sum it all up. I don’t think I’m as confident on step ladders as I was a decade or two ago! I did explain my worries to the commander-in-chief who told me that it would be OK; she would buy me a new step ladder!

Our afternoon was broken up with a wedding party across the road. It was a party after my own heart, no hotel, just a makeshift tent. We had heard them butcher the pig the night before so we assume it was cooked overnight. Very much a south Asian thing, I had the same with my previous marriage. By the way, you can’t see it, but none of the guests are dressed up. Only the bride and groom bother with that. Can’t say I approve! Of course, as the bride and groom arrived there had to be fireworks!

One advantage of having a party like this is that unlike most Chinese wedding parties, everyone didn’t rush off as soon as the food was finished. They carried on until well after we had finished for the day and even finished off with another bout of fireworks. The before and after I suppose.

May 4^th One of the other things our last tenants had managed to do was destroy the bed-settee-. I guess the ‘twins’ must have been jumping up and down on it. Anyway, here’s the good end, and what it should look like.

And here’s the other end, which as you can see, they tried to cover up. I guess they realised we wouldn’t be turning the furniture over to check the underneath!

Of course it was down to muggings to find some way to repair this. Well I managed, after a fashion. I got some angle iron, had it cut to the right size and then had some holes drilled in it, (the man who did that didn’t follow my instructions despite Huan translating them). Still, it worked, after a fashion.

Once both sides were done and we turned it back over again, we found out that the last tenants had also managed to destroy the mechanism that allows conversion from sofa to bed. I guess we may end up buying a new one! The last thing they asked us was if they could stay again next year. What do you think?

Once we had done for the day, final painting, sofa repair, little clean up etc, we decided to go for a walk, a slightly different route to one we had taken before. Lo and behold, we found a beer garden, next to a lake. It seems they open in the evening, around 8 pm the water feature starts, there is live music, of sorts, and they close around 2 am. Too knackered today but maybe next time.

A few hundred metres from the beer garden we also found a public swimming pool. Unusually, for a Chinese pool, it was quite busy. As we were not prepared for swimming ourselves I didn’t take any pictures inside, but this is the entrance, should you be down Ledong way.

On a lot of our walks we are sometimes sad to see how much nature is being destroyed by man, invariable just due to greed. Today we saw “nature’s revenge”, taking over the enemy!

May 5^th A glorious morning and time to go back to Wuzhishan. With this view I was almost tempted to stay a little longer but Huan’s plants were calling “w a t e r . . . .” and we needed to order a new door viewer (peephole) before the next tenants arrive. Yes, that was broken too, but I’m not at all sure we can blame the last tenants. It’s probably always been like that. Anyway, here’s the reason I almost stayed.

And a final look at the result of all our hard work over the past couple of days. Not bad, eh?

May 6^th A very lazy day, finding out just how many Chinese characters I had forgotten in such a short time! Dinner was the leftover pizza from our ‘northern’ friends’ visit. Always make enough to freeze the leftovers!

May 7^th Monday, so back to our normal routine of shopping. Just a little on the warm side this morning, when we got in the car the temperature was 37°C, by the time we arrived in the car park, driving through shady bits, it was down a little.

I just love it when the locals tell me it’s too hot and I reply telling them that it can’t be, it’s not over 45°C yet!

May 8^th Monthly report from Endomondo, lots of hours, not so many kilometres and definitely not enough calories!

I decided, without letting Huan know, that we need to walk a little more, not quite ignore doctor’s orders, but at least try a little harder. We managed 7 km today, slowly mind you; it did take two and a half hours. Instead of wildlife pictures today, we have the local petshop variety for you. There were others too, rabbits, hedgehogs and of course fish, but I think these are enough to keep you going for now.

Last, but not least, a rather camera shy pussy cat. I was free enough to stroke him, tickle him, whatever, but would he look at the camera, no way!

May 9^th We managed another 7½ km walk, again not too fast of course, must keep the doctors, and the boss happy! As usual I went berserk with the camera. Here’s the first of the day, a nice little bit of Chinglish. Somehow I don’t think that’s what they meant to say about superstition.

And here are three strapping young people that we pass regularly. I can’t tell you anything about them. Next time we pass by we’ll scrutinise much more closely and see if there is anything written anywhere.

Here’s one, just because I like it. I took this one for Jake’s ‘World Street Photography Site’ again and titled it “Everyone’s Gone To The Moon”. You’ll need to be an old git like me to remember that that was a song by Jonathan King released in 1965. (I was 15 then).

May 10^th Out early today for another long’ish’ walk, around 8¼ km. We were out early to try and buy today’s newspaper. After my recent ‘proof of life’ debacle it was Huan’s turn. Dalian had called her yesterday and unlike last year, seeing her on QQ or WeChat wasn’t enough, they needed a ‘kidnap style’ photograph complete with daily newspaper. Well, we were unlucky; it seems newspapers in Wuzhishan are not delivered before late morning, anywhere between eleven-thirty and twelve. Did get a few more photos taken though. I think this is one that my family and friends in the UK may like. The next time they complain about parking near where they live they can think about the road in front of our apartments.

After lunch we tried again, got the newspaper with no problem and headed off to the car wash with me looking forward to a lovely ‘Foshan’ coffee. Disaster! The coffee shop no longer opens in the daytime! Never mind, one bottle of cold coffee from the machine across the road and we were off home for me to play Lord Snowdon. No help this time, you youngsters can Google him. It took a few tries but eventually the powers that be in Dalian were happy ad Huan is now certified as being ‘alive’ until they ask again. At least it took less than 24 hours unlike the good old British government way! This may not be the one they accepted, but it’s my preferred choice!

May 11^th Guess where we were again. You’re right, back in Ledong. Two reasons, the new tenants (for September) want to have a look and if all is OK sign a pre-rental agreement. The second reason, the ‘peephole’ arrived from Taobao yesterday so needed to be fitted. I discovered why the old one was broken. The holes on either side of the door are not aligned so when you tighten the two sides together it becomes problematic. The old peephole was made of plastic and hence had snapped. A surreptitious look at the other peepholes on our floor showed that they all have the same problem. The new one is made of metal so despite not being able to get a flush fit, it should be OK. Here’s a close up.

The finished result is not too bad though. The old peephole included a doorbell, the new one doesn’t so you get a much better view. Reasonable pleased with the result.

Now I know I said we would have some photos of the public swimming pool the next time visited and that was the plan. All our swimming stuff was in the bag ready. However, while I was fitting the peephole, Huan was sat on the bed-settee along with the eighty year old lady and the security man who had ‘introduced’ them. Suddenly I heard an almighty crash! Both front legs had fallen off! “Enough is enough” I decided and the offending furniture was to be binned with immediate effect. The security man decided it would be better if he took it. Good luck to him! Anyway, that meant we had no time for swimming and instead we had to do a tour of all the furniture shops in Ledong again. We eventually found a Chinese style wooden sofa with two chairs, a corner table and a centre table. The shop wanted 2300i元 but somehow Huan managed to talk them down to 2000元 and include two dining chairs. We then had to wait in for delivery of course. The upshot was no swimming but a new set of living room furniture that hopefully will last more than six months. At least the new tenants, he is eighty and she is seventy eight, will not be jumping up and down on it.

Evening time saw us walking up into town for our evening meal, there is a lot more choice in Ledong than there is in Wuzhishan.

Following that I got Huan to show me where the local market was. It’s much bigger than both of Wuzhishan’s combined and seems to have far more varieties of fish, definitely more poultry, including pigeons, the usual chickens and ducks, and then some ducks that looked big enough for Christmas dinner!. Anyone living here is spoilt for choice!

We then took a stroll back towards our end of town where Huan tried to divert me ‘home’ to drink the remaining can of beer in the fridge. I successfully avoided that diversion and we ended up in the bar previously mentioned, (see May 4th above). It is called 月亮湖 (Yuèliàng hú) or for dummies like me ‘Moon Lake’. Now you may know the story of the ‘Jade rabbit on the moon who constantly pounds herbs for the immortals, well, it would appear that in this case, this particular rabbit is more inclined to drink!

We spent a lovely two and a half hours there. It is a bar that is well worth a visit. The water feature previously mentioned, starts around eight and lasts about three quarters of an hour.

My camera doesn’t really do it justice at all. The fountain(s) are quite well synchronised with the music that is playing and in both our cases, we appreciated the music. The sound is loud enough without being distorted and we could still speak to each other.

Once the water feature stops then the music begins. It is ‘karaoke’ music, shown on a big screen, but the downside, no one is allowed to sing! Pleasant enough music though. Again the volume and the sound quality are just fine.

There is quite an extensive menu, any critique of that will have to wait though, we were both too full, Apart from the usual it also includes fried locusts, silkworms etc. The food is reasonably priced for what is in effect a great outdoor beer garden. Tsingtao beer is only 10元, for a small bottle, but that is way cheaper than the majority of bars.

I’m afraid neither of our cameras were really good enough for many photos to be included here, but you can see the daytime shots on May 4^th. We’ll give you one or two though, here’s a picture of the first ‘legless’ customer of the evening.

And here’s a customer who didn’t get legless, his commander wouldn’t let him!

In summary, we had a very pleasant evening and it’s one we fully expect to repeat in the future. If we have overseas visitors this will definitely be one of our ports of call.

May 12^th Back to Wuzhishan stopping off at Maoyang for coffee and a visit to the little boys’ room of course.

The rest of the day was spent doing not a lot except resting. My字 learning suddenly went backwards! The font that I see on the Memrise website has changed, whether due to them or due to my browser I don’t know. I am going to have to do an enormous amount of review.

In the evening we had no gas, it seems that someone has dug up the pipe somewhere and it may take a few days to sort it out. Steamed fish for dinner, done in the rice cooker!

Normality, Monkey King, Compression Stockings

April 18^th Strange dent on the car this morning, quite a high one. Perhaps some drunk ‘put the nut on’! Another rainy day so car washing out off, instead we had a little walk around town. We had to collect a Taobao that should have been delivered yesterday. Today also being “Sān yuè sān: (三月三) the riverside had been changed to a ‘touristy’ market place. It wasn’t bad I suppose but nothing for the children to do, really only stalls making money! I caught quite a few people taking sneaky photographs of me. Even after nearly three years it seems I’m still a novelty! Just a couple of photos from me, one showing the walkway and one showing Wuzhishan townsfolk engaged in their favourite passion, tea drinking.

Bit too much walking today, Achilles tendon flaring up again. Rest time for a while maybe, at least until the weather improves and we can go swimming again.

April 19^th – Lazy day in Wuzhishan. Huan decided to order paint from Taobao for Ledong so it will be a few days before we go. You should have been seeing a photo of me in my new ‘surgical/compression/support stockings’ today. They did arrive, from Taobao of course. However, despite following the measuring instructions to the letter it was a physical impossibility to get them over my feet! Needless to say they have been returned. We will try again, with the maximum size they sell!

April 20^th Decided to have a walk on our ‘private island’ just for a change and also as the river was just a trickle, down to the riverbed too. The island at one time had a KTV, or so Huan tells me, but it was shut down because it was too noisy for the old people. Maybe it was outdoors! There are supposedly plans to turn it into a park, who knows, maybe they will. My nightmare is that they build another high rise on it! Anyway, this is what it looks like now.

If only there was a way to live there and do it up. Unfortunately China is not like the UK in that regard. Doesn’t stop us dreaming though!

It wasn’t so easy but we did find a way down to the river bed so that we could walk round. It made a very pleasant change and gave us a different view of where we live. Many photos were taken but I will show only the panorama here.

April 21^st 22^nd 23^rd Nothing special, short walks around the town, more Chinese learning. No longer at the top of the leader board. Whenever I get there, someone else, always the same person, has to outdo me. Now I am learning Chinese characters so that is the only place my points come from. He, or she, however, is learning Chinese, English, Maths, Art, Music and God knows what else. There is no way I can stay at the top! Never mind, it’s more important that the characters stick in my memory. I am over 300 now but still hardly ever recognise any when we are out! Any ideas why?

Something else happened though, which I almost forgot. Despite having been out for a walk I had forgotten to buy any ‘Nescafe Smoovlatté’ to keep me going until the next delivery from Taobao. I decided to make my own iced coffee, didn’t taste too bad, but of course needed cooling down. I stuck it in the freezer. “Are you sure it will be OK?” asked Huan. “Of course it will.” I answered and opened the door to prove it. Well the glass container decided to commit suicide so there went my coffee, all over the floor. Once Huan had cleaned up my mess (her choice), we decided that we would have to pull the fridge out to check for more coffee and glass. Well, those of you who know Huan and I will also know that we like to keep a (reasonably) clean house. You should have heard the cries of anguish from Huan when she saw what it looked like behind the fridge! No photos of that, we will leave it up to your imagination. Needless to say, we will be cleaning behind the fridge more than once every two years in the future!

April 24^th Nice walk along the riverside this morning taking in the new walkway. When they were building it, the flowerbeds around it were beautiful, not any longer though. Maybe they are going for the ‘wild’ look?

We did see some flora, here it is for your delectation.

Not forgetting some of the local fauna, seems a bit reserved though.

And just a little bit more, a little birdie feeding its chicks. This is one place where I’m afraid my Nokia is not quite good enough. If you look carefully though you can see two little beaks.

April 25^th Life can get very boring when you are under doctor’s orders not to walk fast, not to walk far and not to walk up hills. This is even more true when you are surrounded by hills as we are. Hopefully this will only be temporary. Anyway, we can still walk locally and sometimes still be surprised at what we see. Have you ever seen a Lychee Stink Bug Nymph (Tessaratoma papillosa, Tessaratomidae)? I have to credit one of my Facebook friends with giving me the name. They feed on Longan fruits and we have a tree downstairs. It hasn’t flowered since we’ve been here but it looks like this is the year. Very pretty!

Recently the Chinese news had an article, shared by Tropicalhainan.com about a farmer who found gas. Makes me wonder what is going on just outside the nurse’s school. Any ideas?

Now some of you may know the story of Monkey King. Did you know that the Gods banished him to spend eternity under Wuzhishan? That was before his ‘Journey To The West’ began of course. We see him quite a lot here. He didn’t look too pleased today and I’m sure ‘Pigsy’ would not have been happy with a clothesline hanging off his nose!

And just a little further on we found a gentleman of the Li Minority group, very frightening I must say!

April 26^th and 27^th Stuck indoors again, more rain. We are now coming to the end of our first three years here and we still can’t work out the weather. My son and his wife were here in April last year and the weather was gorgeous. This year it’s most definitely not! Never mind, more Chinese learning instead!

April 28^th This is a ‘nature’ day, starting off in our ‘garden’, otherwise known as the bedroom balcony. I didn’t want to get too close just in case this little fellow got too near my nose!

We had a little longer walk than we usually do these days, (it’s OK Doc, we walked fairly slowly), and we came across some beautiful flowers. Here’s the first –

And here’s the second which I can’t believe we haven’t seen before. How could anyone miss such a sight?

In fact this looks more like a bunch of beans before it flowers

I got a few more insect pictures on the way home, they were just sitting in the sun on a white wall. Not having a good macro camera, there’s only one for you to see here, handsome isn’t he?

And then we were home awaiting our visitors for the evening, our friends from Haikou. I hardly took any photos but here’s a couple of mediocre ones. I hasten to add that I mean the quality and the subjects!

April 29^th The second night with our visitors and dinner courtesy of Huan, home made burgers. I can honestly say that Huan’s burgers beat anything you can find outside any day!

April 30^th And finally – it’s official, I am now OLD! Here I am in my ultra fashionable ‘compression stockings’. Who thought it would ever come to this?

Ah well, c’est la vie, as they say. See you next month!