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.

Guitar, Typhoons, Nurse Huan, Needle, Lost Bob

September 1st “What shall I write? What can I say? How can I tell you how much I miss you? The weather here has been as nice as it can be, Although it doesn't really matter much to me For all the fun I'll have while you're so far away, It might as well rain until September” No Jethro Tull this month, instead it’s “Carole King” with “It Might As Well Rain Until September”. It is September of course and it didn’t just rain until September, it’s still raining as I write this.

However, today started off well enough, we were able to get our daily ten kilometres in. To start with, we went across the river to see how they are getting on with the new park. Sometimes I wish it could just stay like this but I guess progress will mean a paved footpath.

Mind you, where they have already landscaped it does look quite pretty.

After that, we walked down by the riverside which, because of the rain, has become almost impossible to walk in places. Here you can see why and also the poor workers who are cleaning it all up before the river swells yet again.

Home for breakfast at lunch time again, I would call it brunch but we already had our cereal before we went out. The rain came after lunch so it was keyboard for Huan and Chinese for me and just general lazing around doing nothing.

September 2^nd It’s still raining! Today being Monday, is shopping day of course. I thought the only photo I was going to show you was our car, all clean in the rain. However, later in the day we had a Taobao delivery, my guitar has arrived. Yes, I bit the bullet and decided to go for it. Andyguitar.com is where I went next, first to learn how to tune the guitar, quite easy with the built in tuner, apart from the lower E string, that’s a little harder. Second was learning a couple of chords, E and A, followed by a little strumming practice. A lot more of that has to be done before moving on to the next stage. I had to show the world of course so a little video was made for Facebook, here’s a screen shot.

The rest of the day was taken up with intermittent guitar practice and Chinese practice. I was very lazy while our guests were with us last month so I’m reviewing all the tests before moving on. It’s amazing how soon you can forget things.

September 3^rd Guess what? It’s raining, again! There are three typhoons in the area.

They are not near enough to worry us, but near enough to give us lots of rain!

We had to go out again today though, shopping for an amplifier for the new guitar. I won’t be using it for quite some time but we needed to know that the pickup in the guitar was working correctly. What a time we had, three women, Huan, a friend she met in the store and the sales girl. I don’t think anyone knew what was going on. Eventually we made a choice, made sure we got all the correct bits and a nice hefty discount and brought it home.

After lunch I unpacked my ‘new toy’ as Huan called it and then she discovered it had two microphones included. There was no stopping her after that! It’s a good job I won’t be needing it for a while otherwise I would probably have to fight her for it!

I took myself off to the bedroom and did some more guitar work. Some people will tell you that the guitar is easy to learn, others will say the opposite. All I know is that in less than twenty four hours I have progressed more than I did in six months in Hong Kong forty six years ago. (I was single then and magnetically attracted to beaches, bars and the nightlife.) It will still take a long time of course and my fingers already hurt. They say it will take four to six weeks to develop the calluses required. No days off will be allowed, if we have to go to Sanya to renovate our apartment there, the guitar will have to go with us!

I also did a lot more Chinese practice and I’m now back up to date. Isn’t it amazing what you can do when it’s raining outside.

September 4^th We had a small break in the weather today so a quick walk was called for. Huan met ‘shop lady’ friend as we were leaving our place so I walked behind, as a dutiful husband should! A leaf caught my attention, but it looked a little strange. Have you ever seen a pregnant leaf before?

Another motorbike was next, this time a BMW 750, (I think), outside the same shop we saw the Honda last month. There must be some rich boys in there!

Now Huan, for some reason, decided to tell ‘shop lady’ that I still have ‘fat feet’ sometimes. You may not know it, but here in China almost everyone has ‘cures’ for almost every medical problem that you could possibly have. I tried to get Huan not to listen, without success of course, so this little pile of shopping is for me.

At the top, there is pearl barley which I have to have in a broth tomorrow, supposedly with the rock sugar you can see at the bottom. Today I had some of the bit in the middle, 山药 (Shānyào), yam as you probably know it, along with some of the red fruit, 枸杞, (Gǒuqǐ), otherwise known as wolfberry, and some rock sugar in a soup. I have no idea how anything that tastes so sweet can possibly be healthy for you! Try to imagine a cup of tea with five or six spoonfuls of sugar in it!

We were housebound for the rest of the day again so it was keyboard for Huan and guitar and Chinese for me. I found a new teacher, no, I’m not ‘blaming the teacher’, but I think this one starts me off better. I will end up using many teachers I’m sure, but first I have to finish the ‘free’ course provided by .justinguitar.com. I learnt a new chord, D, and then spent some time trying to move between the three I have learned so far. My fingers hurt! I’m following the advice though, little and often is the best way to practice.

September 5^th The typhoon that had been moving like a pinball between Vietnam and Hainan has finally disappeared so the weather was reasonably OK this morning. It was ‘back to school’ day for Huan, her singing class started again today. This meant I could go out for a walk alone. I’m not used to it but I did manage to get my ten kilometres in and within two hours, just. I met a few of my four legged friends, all happy to see me but one did get a little too boisterous. I thought he was going to actually sink his teeth into my arm. I did take a couple of photos of the scratches but they ended up very blurred so instead I have these two photos for you today, both at the furthest point from the house. After four years, I still love the scenery around the town.

As you can see from the clouds, the weather is far from perfect but at least the rain held off until I got home, after meeting Huan on the way. My lunch was a not very tasty pearl barley soup today; I hope Huan soon forgets this latest ‘fix Bob plan’!

The rain did return in the afternoon so it was more keyboard for Huan as well as collecting some kind of leafy green vegetable from her garden for tonight’s fish dinner. For me it was more guitar of course. Why do my fingers appear to be so much fatter than they were when I was younger? My ring finger also seems to lean towards my middle finger so I think I might need a small piece of apparatus to help with my finger strengthening exercises. Of course, Huan can use it too to help with her finger strength for chords etc. I didn’t forget my Chinese either, even used the flashcards again today.

September 6^th The weather has definitely improved! However, we decided to stick to going around the river and not venture further afield. Not a great deal to report, no photos were taken, instead I filmed three videos. One was of a butterfly, one was of a dog, and one was of ‘Gentleman Bob’. Huan had decided that although it was a nice day, she wouldn’t be needing her Japanese hat. However, it became a little too warm for her so I graciously handed over my shirt to use instead. Here’s a screenshot.

Just the usual for the rest of the day, keyboard and singing for Huan, guitar and Chinese for me. At the moment Huan has a recording on her WeChat from the singing teacher so she sounds a great deal like ‘Hyacinth’ a lot. I’m not quite as bad as ‘Emmett’ yet!

September 7^th Aren’t we the lucky ones, yet another nice morning. It was boots on today and a trip to the countryside, staying on the roads and paths though because Huan didn’t have her ‘off road’ shoes on. She did keep nagging me to make a video of this, or that, or the other, so I ended up making one. At the beginning I said it would be a little video, it ended up being fifty two minutes. If you want to see it in full, you can watch it here: - https://youtu.be/_B9hPoLvaWg

I’ll just add a couple of screenshots in here. We filmed a butterfly yesterday and lo and behold another one today. This one decided to settle on Huan for a while.

The second one is just to give you an idea of how pretty it can be on some of our walks. We are lucky in that we have forests, mountains and country lanes like this.

We got home just as it felt as though the rain was starting but, as soon as we were indoors, the sun came out again. It did rain again later, but we can cope with that.

Huan seemed a bit worn out so I volunteered to do the ‘full English’, today being Saturday. Normally, I would have to fight but today she gave in immediately, a sure sign that she is not 100%. At least she enjoyed it, even commented on the taste. “Lard, my dear” I said, “not oil”. If you don’t use lard for your fry-ups I seriously recommend that you try, it makes for a much better tasting breakfast all round.

My guitar practice today was abysmal, brain and fingers did not appear to want to work together. In retrospect, my posture may have been wrong; I think I had my fretting elbow on my knee.

September 8^th Today we were blessed yet again with nice weather for walking but couldn’t go too far as we were expecting a Taobao delivery. Some more ‘sofa pants’ were arriving for me, this time 4XL instead of 5XL. I suppose you could say I’ve downsized from a ‘three seater’ to a ‘two seater’! We still had a nice long walk and met a few of our four legged friends. I suppose I should say mine really, Huan puts up with them but it’s me that really likes them.

Today’s photo concerns trees. I have seen trees before, usually on the edges of forests, that are growing at an angle to try and ‘reach for the sun’. I’m not quite so sure about today’s. When we first saw it I thought it was some kind of strange pod but closer examination, and trying to lift it, showed that it was indeed a tree, not just growing at an angle, but growing completely horizontally. Perhaps it was too exhausted to go upwards. It will be interesting to look in on it in a few months, that is if it hasn’t been pruned by the authorities by then. It is beginning to go across a pathway.

Lunch today was not quite the full English, the bacon and sausage were replaced by a tin of meat, think spam or luncheon meat. Well, we all need a little change now and then. I did the cooking again, more healthy today, I had to use oil because we’d run out of lard!

The sofa pants arrived after lunch and a quick comparison between these and the last lot show the only difference is in the label. They are still enormous!

Happy to say, I was right about my guitar posture yesterday. That doesn’t mean I’ll be brilliant anytime soon but at least I found the problem.

September 9^th Woken up by ‘The Big Dragon’ at quarter past four this morning. No, I know what you’re thinking, it’s not another moniker for Huan, it’s the name of the music on my phone alarm. We were on the road within half an hour, making for Haikou and my favourite hospital, and my (NOT) favourite needle.

Even with all the usual palaver, we were finished quite early today which was just as well because we had a detour to make on the way back. Huan’s dancing friend was returning from Changchun (长春; Chángchūn; lit. Long Spring), by rail, bringing her daughter with her and we were picking them up and driving them to Wuzhishan. Not having been to the railway station before, it is quite a long way out of the city, we used our Sat Nav to get there. That worked well enough but using the same procedure to get back to the highway led to some fairly hairy roads. Huan still won’t buy me a four wheel drive though! (Hint to self: - keep guiding Huan to pictures of the new Land Rover Defender!)

In the afternoon it was time for the ladies to go and sign up for their keyboard lessons. What a farce that turned out to be. The office was packed, people were being given a form to fill in and then told that a photocopy of their ‘Hukou card’ was also needed as well as a one inch colour photo. Much later, after a visit to the nearest little photography shop we returned with everything needed only for Huan to be told that she may be too late. I certainly hope not because she has been down to the office three times in the past fortnight, each time being told to return at another time. I have my fingers crossed for her, she will find out by the 16^th September whether she’s in or not.

By this time, we were both completely worn out so a buffet meal was called for outside before we wearily meandered home again. No guitar for me today, brain is just not there. They do say you should have one day off a week, so today is the one day this week!

September 10^th Huan was back to singing class today which meant I could have gone for a walk. I didn’t, because I still felt washed out from yesterday. Never mind, I met Huan from class and we did the weekly shop.

In the evening, as it was ‘Teacher’s Day’, we all had to go out. Huan’s singing class were treating their teacher. We went to the wrong place, not my fault I can assure you, I was just following the ladies. We had a short, but very enjoyable time. No photos were taken but, I did make a video. You can see it here: - https://youtu.be/mQXokE4mZuI

Getting Back to Normal, Ants, Sofa Pants, New Bike

August 24^th All good things must come to an end I suppose and today we took Chris and Amber off to Haikou airport for their return journey to the UK, via Singapore. Let’s hope they have better weather there. If you fancy coming to Hainan you don’t need to worry about the airport at all. For an international one it’s small.

and not too busy.

Once our guests were on their way, SWMBO had asked me to drive to Sanya to collect the rent on our apartment there. That’s another 240km on top of the 170km I’d already driven this morning, plus of course another 130km or so to drive home again. It’s a good job I like driving! After all that, it turned out to be a wasted journey because our tenant was not there, so we still have to go back next week sometime.

Finally, we arrived home, in the pouring rain, to a quiet empty house, where we had a sumptuous meal, comprising of a chicken sandwich and a cup of tea. I did get a pleasant surprise in the evening though, my nephew Kevin gave us a video call with my Aunty Sally, smiles all round.

August 25th Well, we should have slept like logs last night, we were both exhausted and in bed fairly early. However, I was up three times and Huan up once so we were nodding off most of today. Huan did do all the outstanding ironing this morning, despite my protestations. I know, I could have volunteered, but today was not the day. No cooking though, out for a Chinese cheapo buffet instead, and then another early night. The house seems a little empty and quiet at the moment, but we’ll get used to it again in a few days.

August 26^th Neither of us is back to 100% yet but we’re getting there albeit still a little sleepy today. No walking yet, we had other plans. Our first stop was the Traffic Police office to do my annual check for fines and get a new emission sticker. Success on both counts! There are no fines on the computer as of today, more than likely because I’m becoming more and more paranoid about the armies of cameras. To get the emission sticker all I had to do was produce my registration, the latest insurance papers and passport. No money required at all today and that’s us good for another two years.

Second stop was shopping; the fridge needed re-stocking and a few other bits and pieces. On the way, we passed by the bank to put some money into Huan’s ‘Taobao’ bank, I’ve agreed to buy her a bicycle for her birthday. She will receive it early so that she can practice before her singing and dancing friend returns, they will then cycle to classes together. I’ve started worrying already! Look out for upcoming cycling, or falling off, photos!

Today’s ‘Chinglish’ comes from the supermarket, it seems what they are trying to do is rent this space for advertising.

Lazy lunch for both of us and then we moved the keyboard back into the living room so that our budding pop star can get back to her daily practicing. Maybe I should order ear plugs? Of course, if I buy a guitar I can go into competition with her!

August 27^th Another lovely day in Wuzhishan but unfortunately we could not enjoy it. No ‘walkies’ today, instead we were off to Sanya again, our tenant said she would be available around lunchtime. Heading for the east side of Sanya we always take the mountain roads and not the highway, if it’s not too busy it’s quite an enjoyable drive. At the last village we buy some bottled coffee and then drink it under the highway bridge. I missed that particular spot today and we parked up on a side street, right near the Mercedes dealer. No, I’m not considering buying one. When we opened the doors, were horrified to find that our car was full of ants, they were around all the door frames. Last night we had parked up in a different place, under some trees, so maybe that’s where they came from. Our next port of call was a car wash to try and get rid of as many as possible. The attendant took a picture for us; just as well he did as I didn’t. A quick WeChat connection and then I had the picture too. This shows the rear nearside door but the read offside door was just as bad and there were some around the front doors and tailgate too.

Off then to visit our tenant, a wasted trip as it turned out. She had had three months to think about our proposed rent increase and then laid straight into us about problems with the door and she would only agree to the same rent. Huan suggested we fix the door, but she still argued. Finally Huan said “OK, if you don’t want to pay you have to move out in ten days”. That is not as harsh as it sounds, the tenant knew three months ago that there would be a rent increase and her existing contract has already expired meaning we are out of pocket. She also has a very favourable price when compared to others in the area. We left her saying she would have to ‘talk to her husband’ who always tells us we have to ‘talk to his wife’. Let’s see what happens. With a little luck they will see that we are not big meanies and accept the new rent or Huan and I will be back in the renovation business again!

On our way home we had to pass the express delivery offices to collect two of our latest Taobao orders. Here’s Huan holding up her pants and mine, guess who’s got sofa pants this time? Yes, it’s me!

Another cheapo Chinese buffet, a place we haven’t been for a long time, and as before, all was tasty and filling. We sat in the town square for a few minutes for me to have a ‘coffee and a fag’. That was also long enough for a couple of labourers to come and grill me with the usual questions. It didn’t take them long to get onto money, they thought that I, just like all foreigners, was earning at least ¥50,000.00 a month! Chance would be a fine thing. It took Huan a while to get them to understand so they then asked me ‘if I got money from my son when he visited’. It seems that is what they do when family visits. We enjoyed the chat and I learned something from it but I doubt he went away believing us.

August 28th This morning we took advantage of the nice weather and went out for our first walk since Chris & Amber left. We didn’t even manage five kilometres! Slowly we are feeling less washed out though so I guess we’ll eventually get back to normal. I took Huan past the ‘rabbit shop’ as we call it. It’s really a shop for farmers but they have a couple of rabbits there and there had been five little babies. When I visited with Chris I misunderstood the lady there and told Huan they had all died. It seems they had been given away to friends. Next stop was to check up on my little four legged friend’s puppies. She was very pleased to see me, it’s been a while and one of the puppies took a fancy to Huan’s shoes. She had nine pups, eight of which survived; this is the one who was tormenting Huan.

While we were there, ‘Daddy’ came back and two of the dogs and the chicken went straight for him. I guess they knew he had brought ‘goodies’. Here they are being fed some kind of sweet bread I believe.

After dinner we were both very lethargic but decided another walk was in order. I don’t think either of us really wanted to go but we knew that if either of us said no that the other one wouldn’t go alone. A stroll around the river still gave us slightly over six kilometres which put us back into the routine of at least ten a day. Coming home, we both thought the sky looked lovely, hopefully you’ll all think so too.

August 29^th Typhoon PODUL was poodling around off Sanya today so we had rain here all day. I guess we’re on the fringes of the storm. No walkies ergo no photos.

August 30^th So typhoon PODUL had poodled across to Vietnam when we got up this morning but it seems it was still wagging its tail over Wuzhishan. The rain didn’t stop until nearly nine in the evening. This was the view we woke up to which at times through the day was even worse but the flow does appear to be slowing now.

August 31^st Much better weather today and we got out for a nice eight kilometre walk. It would have been longer but we had a call from one of the delivery companies to say that Huan’s bike had arrived. On our way back we passed her vegetable garden, which, after nearly a month of neglect, is looking just a little overgrown. These are her sweet potatoes.

Once we had the bike we sat down to our first ‘full English’ at home for over a month. It was absolutely lovely! Work started then, I had to assemble the bicycle, from a set of instructions in Chinese that didn’t always make sense when Huan or Google translated them. Anyway, all was going well, Huan even took a photo of me hard at work. You’re not seeing that because it is a side profile of me bending over with quite a large belly reaching for the floor! Things started to go awry when we got to putting the front wheel on. The front forks were not aligned at all, and there was no way I could get them to where they should have been.

A long chat with the supplier on Taobao resulted in us visiting a local bike repair man. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do but at least the view was good.

What he did in fact was use a pipe and put it over one of the forks and then bend it into the shape required. He’s obviously done this kind of thing before. He then continued to assemble the rest of the bike, good news for me eh? Here’s her Ladyship sitting on the finished result.

The rain had come back while we getting the bike repaired so we were stuck in a quandary. Huan didn’t feel brave enough to ride home, on a main road, in the rain, I couldn’t ride it because I had the car to drive. Huan has no driving licence (yet) or she could have taken the car. We solved the problem by stuffing the bike behind the front seats with both our seats as far forward as they would go. Huan didn’t mind too much but my knees were touching the dashboard. It’s a good job the car is automatic!

The supplier had told Huan he would pay for any repair work but in the end only offered to pay half. It wasn’t expensive, only ¥40.00 but that’s not the point, there was a sad lack of quality control before the bike left the factory in my eyes. Eventually Huan agreed to take a pump and a bicycle lock in lieu of any money so we’ll wait and see how that goes.

And so we come to the end of what for us was a lovely month. It already seems like weeks since Chris, Amber left, and it’s only a week. Life goes on, and so must we. We’ll be back of course, next month, so don’t forget to check in then. Bye for now!