Fame, Feet, Fish, Birds, Rabbits and an Airport Trip

January 14^th Madam was out of the house by quarter past six this morning; she’s joined yet another group of Chinese OAPs. This one is for太極. (Tàijí), known by the Western world as Tai chi. Tai chi is of course one of the martial arts but hopefully Huan is sticking to the slow movement version used for health and meditation.

With all her extra-curricular activities, because ‘school is off for the holidays’, we do still have time for walks. Our plan today was up and down the scenic hill, with a stop at the bank for me on the way home. Before we reached our turn off we spotted a new road sign so we ambled up that way for a look. Straight on is the road we know, eventually leading to Ledong. The sign also has a left turn pointing towards the bridge to nowhere near our house. There is no turn off yet. The right turn is just as bad, it points to a road that hasn’t even been started yet. The whole thing, when finished will be the western bypass road.

Anyway, by now Huan had found that the sun was very nice on her back so rather than turn round to go up the scenic hill we carried on into the countryside. We stopped off at a new apartment construction site where someone we presume was a salesman told us that there would be no problem, we could buy one if we wanted to. There are a lot of fiddles to get round the government’s rules on house purchases! We did quite like the decorations on the trees outside the complex though.

Mere minutes later we were off down this little lane. As you can probably imagine, on a hot summer’s day it can be a bit too much, but on a day like today it was perfect. We get to see a bit of nature, a bit of farming and yell out greetings to those working in the fields. That’s me of course, not Huan; it’s not really a Chinese thing. Most of the time, the people I yell out to, or just speak to at the side of the road, are friendly enough and usually more than willing to talk back.

After a ‘wee wee’ stop at the petrol station, for her Ladyship, not me, we came back the other side of the road on another lane, just as nice.

When were almost back to the main road, we came across this. It almost looks like a shrine at the side of the road but all is not as it seems. Huan translated for me and it’s a waste water, or sewage management control point.

Back into town we went and off to the bank. “Why are we going to the bank?” came the plaintive cry of the “don’t like spending money bird”. Well, it’s time to renew my ‘keep in touch with friends and family all over the world’ software so money was needed for Alipay. Huan is not over keen on me spending $99.00 every year but without it I can’t keep in touch.

After that we did a once round the river walk where I took this picture. This is one of those where a professional photographer may well be able to show you just why I thought it was so nice, but you’ll have to make do with an amateur shot.

Once home and after lunch had finished I’m afraid I needed yet another OAP kip, it seems to be getting more regular. Huan went out for a show rehearsal after I woke up and I started sorting out my photos. It wasn’t long before I was disturbed again! She came back early and told me I had to go down and test my guitar and voice on the show amplifier. I must say it’s much bigger than mine! Of course I’m even more worried now seeing that they have a stage of sorts and lots of chairs for an audience.

I did my song practicing in the evening while Huan was dancing. I have no idea just what I’ll sound like tomorrow. Even worse is that I’m the only foreigner so if I make a right b***s up of it I won’t be able to hide anywhere. Photos and videos will be taken, some of which you may even get to see…

January 15^th Not a very auspicious start to the day. Huan went out for her Tai Chi again but came home severely under the weather. What I believe are her menopausal problems resurfaced this morning with retching and generally feeling terrible. She did come downstairs with me for moral and translation support. However, she wasn’t up doing either so as soon as my spot had finished she went off back to bed.

So, what about our ‘show’ then? Well Huan came down with me just to help me out a little at the beginning. Unfortunately she was too worn out to provide either the moral support or the translation. I was third on and unfortunately my planned Chinese didn’t come out quite as I intended it to. This is what I was facing, but I was further over to the right, on stage. More people appeared out of the woodwork during my performance.

And the performance? Let’s just say I will not be sharing the video. I messed up a little with the chords in the first song and for both songs the microphone volume was too low and could have done with a little more echo. I looked alright though! The audience did give me a round of applause and I heard a voice shout, in English, “Very gooder!”

As soon as my bit was done Huan went home and straight back to bed. I stayed to make sure the organisers got a video from which I also took screen shots to give them photos of each act. Even though I wasn’t happy with my bit the audience were very kind and generous with their compliments and some of the acts that came after me were just as bad as me if not worse. I have to say though that the organisers, the committee of eleven, did a marvellous job. We had ample entertainment provided from within our group of residents thus incurring no cost. Apart from the singers and dancers we also had, amongst other things, a brass band! Some of the children were also involved. Every one who took part was also entered into a raffle, with the prizes supplied by the Bank of Hainan. This was the queue for those prizes.

Once it was all over, it was back up the apples and pears for me, or should I say the lift. I had a quick check on Huan then got on with uploading all the videos and photos. While this was in progress I also played nurse and made some rice soup, (rice porridge or congee) for Huan, it’s all she can eat when she’s not well. She did manage to eat some for lunch and then disappeared back into the bedroom again. I carried on working.

By early evening Huan was feeling a little better and, after another bowl of rice soup, moved from the bed to the sofa. I had to have a quick trip out, it’s lottery ticket buying day. Unlike the UK, you can’t buy in advance here; you can only buy for the next draw. One day…

January 16^th Huan felt a lot better this morning but not up to long distances or hills. That meant my boots were not needed and I could wear my new casual shoes. First of all I had to put the new socks on, bought especially for the new shoes. At least I can’t get this wrong!

And the new shoes? Well, they’ll do, they were cheap enough. I’ll be happy as long as I get six months to a year’s wear out of them.

We only went around the riverside today, via Huan’s bank and the sausage market. She had to put money into her account to pay my Alipay bill for the software I mentioned earlier. The sausage market was for the weekend’s breakfast, time we had another good fry-up. The Fuji was in action today but apart from my shoes the only other thing was this. Just imagine if this little one had to spend money on shoes!

In the afternoon we spent a while trying to pay my bill and eventually we succeeded. I’m not quite sure where the difficulty was. The final part, when we knew we were doing everything right required a code sent to Huan’s phone. Checking that, Huan saw two other transactions, one each from August and September last year. Panic set in and after my bit was all done Huan was off, Speedy Gonzalez style, all the way to the bank. After she left I found September’s by searching on my computer, it was my guitar. August’s needs a little more searching but both of them should definitely show on Huan’s Alipay list. I tried calling her to let her know but, her phone was on her desk. She came home reasonably satisfied so I asked her to open her Taobao list and there they were, my guitar and her bike. Sometimes, even after fifteen years, we still have communication breakdowns!

I spoke too soon when I said Huan was OK now. Just as she was finishing cooking dinner she had to run off to the bathroom again. This time it wasn’t just retching, something actually came up. I worry when she has these bouts but they are few and far between. In many ways they resemble morning sickness but an internet search resulted in ‘menopause problems’. By half past eight she was back to (almost) normal again, just in time to greet one of the committee with loads of fruit and yoghurt for her.

January 17^th Huan much better again this morning, lets hope for her that she stays that way today. The order of the day was much like yesterday; walk but not uphill, fast or too far. While waiting for the GPS to find a signal we went round the road with all the empty villas in our complex. This little road has a Buddhist shrine which we have seen many times but never taken any pictures of. So, here it is.

To keep the sun on us we crossed the river via the bridge to nowhere, where we heard some voices from the bushes down below. Me, being me, I shouted out something or other. The next thing we know is the son of the foreman who supervised out house in 2015 came running out. Of course he had to climb over the bridge wall to say hello. He was ‘sans shoes’ so a few minutes later he and his friend sped down again to fetch his shoes before yet again coming up to pass a few more minutes with us. We carried on after and went down to the river. You may remember where I had to do a ‘bumslide’ before; well they obviously took pity on me and built some steps.

Next up we spotted some movement on the wall which we both thought was a spider or maybe a queen ant with some followers but when we got home and saw the picture it’s five ants moving something. They were fairly shifting too!

We took a few pictures ‘in the river’ where I could walk and then carried on along the side. Under the main bridge we played with the echo and each of us sang a little. You can see the bridge in this next panorama. We stopped there, trying to get photos of little birds and failing. Note that not all of China is wall to wall people.

Crossing over at the pedestrian bridge to begin our walk back we spotted some men looking down and occasionally using a catapult. There was a small shoal of fish down below, almost stationary in the water, and they didn’t seem at all worried by the ‘hunter’ up above.

We had so much fruit and yoghurt in the house after our visit from the neighbours yesterday that we had no option but to have fruit and yoghurt for lunch. Aren’t we the healthy ones? No OAP nap today, which quite surprised me, I had half expected to fall off my chair again.

January 18^th Another fairly easy walk so that we could come back through the market today. Here’s the view on the way.

And here’s the market, bigger and fuller than we’ve ever known it.

As always the birds had their eye on me!

And I had my eye on them.

And our last one from the market today, it seems a shame that all the creatures we see will eventually be eaten, but, that’s life I suppose. These little bunnies will of course be allowed to grow more first and some may be used to breed more.

We had bought some fresh baps on our way so lunch was banana sandwiches, still using up the fruit from the neighbours. Today we both needed an OAP nap. In fact once Huan was up I felt like I could have stayed there another few hours. I didn’t of course, it’s the weekend again so I had to rouse my weary bones and cook our routine fry-up.

Unfortunately the evening brought bad news. Huan was out dancing when her sister phoned. It was expected, but maybe not quite so soon, Huan’s Mum passed away today. She’s gone out now to buy a plane ticket, only one as she doesn’t want me to go with her. I guess I wouldn’t be a great help to her anyway and the family will all be there. I’ll be ready with lots of TLC when she comes back.

Tickets bought, not in the town, that was impossible, online was a little easier. This is not a good time for travel in China as 春节, (Chūnjié) Spring Festival also known as Chinese New Year has already begun. I read somewhere that there will be three billion trips in this forty day period. Huan will be off tomorrow morning early, from Sanya. That means starting from here about half past two so the best thing for me is no sleep.

January 19^th We got away on time, more than likely because neither of us had slept. I stayed awake to make sure I could wake Huan in the morning, but she couldn’t sleep at all. After a while she lay on the settee to watch TV but ‘her eyes still didn’t fall down’. Anxiety would be my best guess; all I can do is to try and take the pressure off. We stopped at half past three for a break. The moon was beautiful this morning, three quarters visible in some streaky clouds with the other quarter hidden behind a cloud. The cloud didn’t appear to be moving either so if I could have taken a better picture you’d be seeing it. As it is, all the ones I took showed the moon as a glowing orb, not special at all.

Not long later we went through a psychedelic tunnel. The lights on the ‘bands’ of the tunnel roof kept changing from blue to green and the bands were in all different colours too. Now that we got a screen shot of.

We reached Sanya airport far too early, lesson learned for future trips using that particular highway route. Huan had rice soup for breakfast, I had Kentucky (wash your mouth out) coffee. We waited, sitting and wandering while the airport filled up. Huan’s flight was a half past seven and it was the twenty ninth on the departure board! Speaking of departures, this next poster is something you would expect to see in arrivals. We had a walk down there too and it was bare, the poster was only in departures. Maybe it’s to make sure the tourists come back another time to see the bits they missed.

By ten to seven Huan had gone through the security checks and I was back on the road again. My eyes did start to feel heavy around seven thirty but luckily for me it was right across the carriageway to our stop on the way there. A bit more coffee and a little walk helped. The SD card was also playing a lot of D’Oyly Carte’s Gilbert and Sullivan, which without Huan in the car, I had turned up quite loud. I was home just before ten; it would have been earlier if I hadn’t made such a simple error coming out of Ledong! Time enough to guzzle some water before Huan rang at quarter past ten from Wuhan. You may have seen Wuhan on the news a lot in the last couple of weeks; they have a new ‘coronavirus’ there. I’m hoping Huan will not get exposed to it!

Dashcam work kept me awake for the “I’ve arrived” phone call, I had to do something to keep my eyes open. The call, when it came, was late; the flight was delayed, not by much though. Huan landed to quite a warm temperature for Dalian for this time of the year, 3ºC. She is with her family now, burning her mother’s clothes. Traditions are a little different to our way where we would give them all to charity.

An afternoon sleep was definitely on the cards today so that’s what I tried. Despite having no sleep last night I didn’t find it easy to drop off this afternoon though. As far as my body is concerned, every little bit helps at the moment. I played Paddington Bear and had marmalade sandwiches for tea before settling down to some guitar and Chinese with the last bit of dashcam work going on in the background.

Bonus today, a Skype call from my brother John, it was great to speak to him again and to see him of course. Mind you, there was a slight problem which I didn’t realise until Maureen came into the picture, from my left where she usually comes in from my right. Now they haven’t moved the furniture so it appears that their Skype is giving me a mirror image. I’ve never seen that before, Google search required! So, on mine, using a Logitech camera, I can set it for mirror image or normal. Message sent to big brother!

January 20th Last night was a late one, I don’t like it when Huan’s not around. In fact “I don't like to sleep alone” (Paul Anka). As a result I slept badly and late, it was after eight when I got up, a real nice minty time of the morning. Monday is usually a rest day and that’s all I wanted to do but common sense took over. I went for a stroll around the town to buy the lottery tickets for today and tomorrow and to do a little shopping. With Huan not being here the list is miniscule this week.

Speaking of the devil, she called me while I was out and told me I had to go the post office and pick up a letter. It turned out to be a Christmas card from one of my sisters, postmarked in the UK 11^th November 2019. I don’t know where it’s been but it looks a little travel worn.

Being alone means that I am also the chef. Today’s dish will be nothing special, just a vegetable stew made from all the stuff left in the fridge when Huan left. This will last me at least three days, maybe more if add some meat in tomorrow or the day after.

Correction to my previous paragraph, this is what is left over after I’ve whizzed everything up and eaten today’s. Most of it will have to go in the freezer.

I’d just tucked into today’s when the doorbell rang. It was Yu’s daughter with a duck dinner for me! I explained that I wouldn’t be able to eat it today but I’d be more than happy to eat it tomorrow. Chinese people can be very neighbourly, especially if they feel someone is either ill or wanting in some way. More soup going into the freezer methinks!

And that’s it another week over. See you next time!

Bad Dreams, Dogs and a Four Minute Mile

January 7^th SD card for music finished last night, we now have Chinese, Movie Soundtracks, Brass & Military, and some Gilbert & Sullivan. I can see some high volumes, especially if I am alone in the car. Dash cam work is still in progress.

As for me, I woke up like a zombie this morning, having been awake on and off since about half past one. “Why couldn’t you sleep?” you may ask. Well, I had killed a pussy cat, in my dreams I hasten to add. It was a very strange dream; the vet was stitching up the cat’s middle after carrying out a post mortem, no gore, just fur. The cat was supposed to be dead. Lying on my knee, it began to plaintively mew. Knowing that half its insides were missing I knew what I had to do. Floods of tears followed, mine, because I felt so sad. I found a small, cat’s head sized plastic bag and did the dastardly deed. Almost instantly, or at least it felt like that, I was wide awake. My first reaction was to make sure Huan was still breathing! For some reason, I could hardly sleep for the rest of the night. Usually, I can work out where my dreams have come from, something I’ve seen on TV, something I’ve read, something someone has said etc. In this case, I have absolutely no idea, and no idea why it stayed so clear in my mind either.

Huan wasn’t up so early, maybe I disturbed her a lot, so a long walk was out of the question this morning. Instead we walked up to the street market and managed to get a load of baps and a couple of sausages. We passed a little scenic spot on the way so that I could take a photo of Huan.

Not to be outdone, she also insisted on taking one of me. I think you’d agree that she looks much better than I do!

Next up on the photo agenda was a couple of my four legged friends. We have seen these two before but never taken any photos of them. One was a Miniature Schnauzer and the other I think some kind of poodle. I was quite taken with how intelligent the Schnauzer looked, so much so that I did a Google search when I got home. “"alert and spirited, yet obedient to command ... friendly, intelligent and willing to please... never overaggressive or timid”. Huan said it was almost as if he was trying to talk to me.

Although it wasn’t a long hard walk we still managed over eight kilometres which, according to Huan, is more than enough. I on the other hand, will need to pop out this evening to make sure I make the ‘ten’. Other wildlife spotted today, a rat, which unfortunately we failed to get a photo of. I asked Huan to go round one side of the bush and make lots of rustling noises so that it would come out on my side where the camera was primed and ready. The clever little monster scooted out her side and into some denser bushes!

The afternoon was taken up with more dash cam work. After dinner, a lovely dish of soft pork and cabbage, Huan had to go and collect a USB with dance music as ‘Teacher’ is going back up North. With all the problems in her life we don’t know if she’ll be back next winter or not. I took the time to make up my missing kilometres. Arriving back home I spotted our amphibian friend, we haven’t seen him for a while. I took dozens of photos, some with flash, some without, none of them turned out brilliantly. And ‘Froggy’ himself didn’t move a muscle through all the photography, just totally ignored me.

Once home the dash cam work was done but then Huan arrived home and I had to sort out her dance music for her. Quite a long day was had by both, should sleep well tonight!

January 8^th Today’s plan was almost kept to. Huan had choral practice so I was going the landfill route and then a little longer to join the main road further up. Just before leaving I was informed that we are invited out to dinner this evening, or should I say late afternoon, four o’clock. I changed the plan, just a little, and kept to the landfill route but with no extras. What I was looking for was highway progress and I found it. They seem to have accelerated their work recently. Half the carriageway now goes over the road and quite a few more supports have been completed.

Carrying on a little further you can see the big machine they use to move the road segments into place, the actual road was out of my view I’m afraid.

And then it becomes all dusty and horrible.

Now a Bob Blog would not be complete without some four legged friends so here are two that are trying to camouflage themselves.

They were still in a dusty area, before I had passed the landfills. Once the landfills were behind me the walk improved tremendously.

And then of course I was over the crest of the hill and on my way back into town, quieter and cleaner all round.

All that remained was a water stop in the village at the end and a chat to another friend.

Today’s target was achieved, ten and a half kilometres in two and a half hours. With the hills at the beginning I actually felt I could have continued today for fifteen or twenty but, that was not to be; another time maybe.

Our dinner date was fine, I avoided more than just a little báijiǔ, only had one bottle of beer, but probably ate far too much. I have to say it was a good spread for only eight of us. This is what it looked like before another four or five dishes were added!

It was a sad and happy occasion, sad because Hé huā and her husband are leaving, happy because we were all enjoying the food, drink and company. After dinner, the ladies went to the town square for some photos to mark the occasion, I stayed home, feeling bloated! We have received some of the photos, but none of a good enough quality to include here. Who know, we may receive more tomorrow.

January 9^th Not an early start today, which is what I had initially planned. Instead, as we were taking Hé huā and her husband to the airport, we were set to leave around nine o’clock. We were only a few minutes late and of course there were tears, mostly from Hé huā. Huan told me that she has been very emotional for a few weeks, bursting into tears for all kinds of reasons. Not least of these is that she has a dicky heart, her husband has some form of diabetes, he’s already had something fitted in his heart, something else fitted in his leg, and now he’s beginning to have trouble with his eyes too. In fact, he doesn’t expect to be around if or when Hé huā comes back to Wuzhishan. Having been there myself, I suspect she is in the throes of depression but I doubt very much if anyone else will see that or if she’ll get any help for it. I was able to explain to Huan once we were alone in the car and I think she understood. She knew where I was in my mind when I met her! Anyway, we had an uneventful trip to the airport and here am I, as you can more than likely see, parked in the wrong place for ‘drop-offs’. I think I may have been in the lane marked for buses but it was only written on the road, in Chinese. My ‘navigator’ was a bit too busy to navigate today.

I then had to drive round and round in circles waiting for Huan, she had gone to help Hé huā use the e-ticket machine and to make sure they were both OK. I only had to drive round the airport twice, hair raising at a couple of the roundabouts due to all the construction work going on, they are upgrading all the roads. I thought you might like this next one, something I have never seen before. Can you spot anything strange in this picture? Huan didn’t see it.

Perhaps I needed to be a bit closer. I’m sure you’ll see it here. Maybe the driver is not allowed pets in the cab! I know it’s not exactly safe; the dog is on a short leash on that little platform. He did look very happy though.

Once our friends had been seen off it was time for shopping, with the first stop being the bank. I wanted to check my pension ‘incomings’ were up to date, change some of it to RMB and draw some out for my other bank in Wuzhishan. The rate of exchange was good today, £1.00 got me ¥9.05, that’s almost a whole ¥1 more than last time. Next job was to find some new casual shoes for me. Of course, we had to argue about the price again. Most of the time in Wuzhishan I wear shorts and sandals, if we’re walking a fair distance I wear my boots. Casual shoes are worn once in a blue moon with my jeans so cheap and cheerful is good enough. At least Haikou has shoes in my size, and we were successful. No photos of my shoes for you, instead I managed, with great difficulty, to capture this amazing photo of a UFO just before it disappeared!

The next stop was the hospital for the needle. I was not looking forward to it, especially after last month when the nurse bruised me quite badly. Despite it being later in the afternoon the cashier queues were not bad and we were in to see the doctor in no time. The prescription queue was a lot longer but patience is a virtue, and I got used to having to have a lot of it in the Middle East. Thankfully there wasn’t much pain this week. I wonder what the various nurses think of this foreigner who has to cover his ears and his eyes whenever he has a needle. He also has to make a quick exit when the next in line is having a needle in his arm and thus is not behind the curtain.

And our last call of the day, before dinner and the hotel, was the opticians to collect my glasses. I was a little disappointed to find that despite costing a small fortune, the lenses are still made of plastic!

January 10^th Our trip was shorter than I would have liked, Huan had to attend a meeting for the residents New Year show. Still, we got our bread, butter, cheese, whipping cream and a fair bit of frozen stuff for Chinese New Year. Waiting in the car for Huan to sort out the parking fee on her phone, I tried taking some selfies to show you my new glasses. I failed miserably, obviously far too dark in the underground car park and I didn’t think to turn the courtesy light on. Dummy! If you’re wondering why Huan has to sort out the parking, it’s because cash is not really the done thing, you have to use your phone. My phone, being a Windows phone, will allow me to install WeChat, but not its associated banking app. Aren’t I the lucky one? No doubt I’ll be forced into buying a new phone soon. I’d much rather have a new telephoto lens for my camera.

What are the new glasses like for driving? I can certainly focus further away but I think it is going to take some time for me to get used to them, especially being graded lenses.

So Huan came back from her meeting with a request. Would I like to play the guitar and sing a song? I think she thinks I’m much better than I am. I said no, but who knows, I may reconsider nearer the time. Other than I had a lazy evening uploading all the dash cam videos.

January 11^th Yet another not so early morning and for me, one with achy bones again. Huan is convinced I am getting another cold and that I should be taking medicine to cure it. I’m just as convinced that I’m feeling just a little run-down and that even if it is a cold, I don’t nneed medicines to put me right.

Saturday again so no hills or mountains or very long range walks, just around the town and the farmer’s market. Within, I would guess five hundred metres, my phone told us that we had just walked a kilometre in five minutes! It’s been a few years since I could move that fast. Arriving at the market, after the first few metres I abandoned ship, I didn’t fancy the fight through the crowds.

We did go to the market of course, but after walking up and down the river and then approaching from the other end. Being a little later, it was still crowded but a little less so. What have we got to show you from there today? A couple of identical machines, one working a little faster than the other supposedly making something out of coconut powder and wheat, with ‘no added sugar’. Well, we had a taste and there was certainly no sugar. In fact it almost tasted like solidified talcum powder to me! Here are some screen shots from the video.

We were on the wrong side of the river for this next shot, it shows a lot of photographers, I guess it could be a club; China is quite big on clubs of people with similar interests. Had we been closer I would have been able to get Huan to have a look through their lenses. I think they were shooting birds in the reeds on the other side of the river, our side in fact. They will probably have done far better than we would have, despite them being much further away.

A motorbike for you next, one which a quick Google search tells me is from a Chinese owned Italian manufacturer. It’s a Benelli TRK 502 and surprisingly, as the size of motorbikes in Hainan are reputed to be limited to 125cc, this one is 500cc. That means there is zero chance of me ever risking my life on it.

So the company is Italian, but Chinese owned, I wonder who created the warning sticker on the fuel tank. They obviously couldn’t find an English speaker in Italy or China. It seems they are talking about a crash helmet and high visibility clothing.

Huan was out practicing for the show again this afternoon. What do you think she did when she came back? She asked me yet again to sing for them. The show is going to be on the fifteenth of January, so not a great deal of notice. I tried to get her to understand that the audience, however many of them there may be, will not understand a word of what I sing, and also that any song I did sing would be completely different to anything they sing. It would not be patriotic or nostalgic for times gone by in China!

Dinner was different today. Although it’s a weekend, our planned fry-up failed. I was going to use a tin of meat but the one I opened for a sandwich yesterday was not what I had expected. I didn’t even know I had bought this one. The tin is the same size and shape as the processed meat we occasionally use for sandwiches or breakfast but it’s “Stewed Pork Sliced”. It was tasty enough though.

In the evening I had a fair bit of guitar work to do, having been remiss for two days. Well I don’t take the guitar to Haikou and I was far too exhausted last night. Surprisingly enough I was better than I thought I would be. Maybe I need to have a guitar rest on Mondays as well as a walking rest.

January 12^th “Woke up this mornin’ yeah, felt like I needed a new body, yeah.” Just a bit of blues to start the day. In fact neither of us was top notch today, whatever bug has been doing the rounds is not so easy to get rid of. We both agreed walking would be good for us. What a start we had, according to Endomondo, we did almost four kilometres in about four minutes! For some reason the GPS often plays up when I first start the Endomondo app.

We planned on no hills and some countryside today so that’s what we did. Passing by the end of the irrigation canal, before it hurtles through pipes to make some electricity, they have put a little bridge and a new warning sign. I loved the sign, can you see why?

Cows were on the agenda again, I love this bunch, although only one or two are usually brave enough to come and say hello. Today it was the darker one, the lighter one was a little more nervous. If I’d stayed longer she may eventually have come nearer.

As we are wont to do now and then, we headed off the paved surface and into the woods. After a while we recognised some of the path and carried on that way. I’m sure you can see why we like to ‘get back to nature’ at times.

Our memories were not as good as they should have been. If they had, maybe we would have taken a different route. This one brought us to a place we know quite well.

Unfortunately, it’s also a dead end so we had to retrace our steps which we did without the forest detour and ended up back where we saw the new warning sign earlier! Never mind, we got back to town and with a little detour around the river managed our (my) daily ten.

Huan had more dancing practice this afternoon. When the rain started that was my cue to get on with our Sunday fry-up, this time with the right ‘tin of spam’! She was ‘well pleased’ when she arrived home. I was ‘well pleased’ because the rain didn’t let up which meant she had no evening practice today. I had the pleasure of her company.

January 13th There isn’t a lot to report from today. Being a Monday it was a shopping and rest day. For us that was just as well because the weather started off badly. That gave me a good excuse to pop into the bath for an hour or so, I hate shopping in the early mornings, in winter, too many people. There was still a mob when we got there but thankfully, they had dissipated by the time we reached the cash desk.

When we left the supermarket to do our usual trip to the wet market, we found that overnight a one way system has been implemented on the town’s two main shopping streets. No advance warning was given, or if there was I didn’t see it. Don’t worry, I did see the temporary road signs they had out today. It looks as if it will be a permanent thing as the road markings have all been changed too. We now have parking on the left, cars in the middle and bikes on the right. Bikes here means motor bikes and not cycles. It’s something that has been needed for a while due to the increase in traffic that is now almost logarithmic. There is however, one major problem. While we drivers in our cars are obediently following the rules, the riders of the bikes and mopeds are neither sticking to their lane nor even going one way!

In the afternoon, while Huan was out, I got the amplifier out just to see if I could play anything passable for the ‘show’. When SWMBO returned I asked her to have a listen and she was full of praise. Her mouth tells lies! I have though, agreed to do two songs for the show which I’m betting, you already knew I would.

The plan had been to upload this Blog post at this stage, but the site is down for a day or two. I’ll just have to keep them separate on the computer. Bye for now!

Laser Torture, Hairy Potatoes and Stuff

January 1st No songs this year, poems instead. “Again I reply to the triple winds running chromatic fifths of derision outside my window: Play louder. You will not succeed. I am bound more to my sentences the more you batter at me to follow you. And the wind, as before, fingers perfectly its derisive music.” (January, by William Carlos Williams)

One good thing about not having a ‘real’ New Year means that everything is open as normal. We took a trip to the 快递 (Kuàidì), Express Delivery office this morning. There are many of these companies, China lives on “on-line shopping”. I just trust Huan’s choice, which was made on a recommendation from her singing and dancing friends. It didn’t cost a lot, only ¥60.00, and they even supplied some packing for us. You don’t need to see packed boxes though do you? How about the little birdie that was in their office instead? He’s a handsome little fellow that even let me tickle his tum. He wasn’t impressed when I got near his beak mind!

After lunch we had a walk around town to try and buy my new chair locally. I almost bought the one that Huan thought was good, even though I thought it was too expensive. When we had been everywhere else we went back to that particular shop and had another look. I didn’t buy it. It had one option that I don’t need; it can ‘lie down’. If I want to lie down, the bedroom is inches away from the office! Also, having a closer look at it, it appeared to lean a little to one side. The normal price would have been around ¥1,800.00 or ¥1,900.00 but it had been reduced in the ‘New Year Sale’ to ¥1,350.00. Huan even negotiated a further reduction to ¥900.00. It was the closer inspection that led me to understand why, added to the fact it was the ‘only one left’ and a display model to boot. Presently I’m using a dining room chair so it looks like the next one will come from Taobao after all.

Huan cooked us a lovely roast chicken dinner for New Year’s day, after which we lazed around again. She has no dancing these evenings; her teacher needs a short break. It made a pleasant change to be home together.

January 2^nd Whatever bug Huan had she eventually got rid of it yesterday, but not before passing on the bad throat to me. She really loves me and likes sharing! That meant I had no walkies today, yet again, but the weather was miserable in the morning anyway. I did think that when the sun came out after lunch I might go for a little one but sheer exhaustion took over and an OAP nap was called for. That was me dead to the world for a couple of hours.

Huan was out for a committee meeting again. No news except that the price of our water will be going up. It’s a shame my pension never goes up, but I suppose we’re lucky that Huan’s does. She also paid our maintenance fees for the next year; we must be one of the few that pay on time and in full.

Her Ladyship was back to gallivanting again in the evening, down at the town square doing her ‘Dama dancing’. I caught up on all my scanning and filing. I wonder how many of my friends do the same kind of thing. Old habits die hard.

January 3^rd Sometimes I have to do things I really don’t like to do, today was one such time. Those of you who know me, may or may not know, that I have a mole just below the right corner of my right eye. Well in the last couple of weeks I have noticed it appears to have grown, become a little more ‘wobbly’ and started itching. Also, a couple of nights ago I awoke to some blood spots on my pillow. Perhaps I scratched it when I was asleep or perhaps drying myself with the towel ruptured the skin, I don’t quite know. Anyway, the “Minister of Health” decided a hospital visit was in order, this is what happened there.

Talk about pain, which as you already know, I’m allergic to, this hurt! Afterwards the doctor told Huan that it could be less painful but that would have cost more and the healing process would be slower. How much did it cost? Well the fee to see the dermatologist was ¥13.30, (£1.45) and the charge for the treatment was zero. Yes, you read that right, zero. In addition to that, because it was the dermatologist in our local hospital there was no queue and we were in and out in less than half an hour, probably much less. It will take a few days to see how my ‘new face’ looks but here’s what it looked like when I got home.

Before going home though we had a stroll around town. The first thing I needed was a coffee and a fag! I know, I should give up but the spirit is weak and the flesh is even weaker. A new pair of casual shoes was next on the agenda; you know the type, canvas tops, blue, tan or white kind of thing, preferably as cheap as chips. Now Huan will buy herself cheap shoes but keeps guiding me towards Adidas and Nike and such like which I most definitely do not need and are absolutely far too expensive. It didn’t matter in the end anyway because not a single shop in Wuzhishan has shoes that will fit me. Stop sniggering in the back row! My feet are not that big, but Chinese sizes are all over the place. Usually a size 44 will do but today only one shop had that size and I couldn’t even get them on my feet. Haikou may be better or we may have to resort to Taobao again. I don’t really want to do that because shoes are the one thing I have never yet managed to successfully buy on-line.

Evening time gave me my first Endomondo of the year, not a long one though. I walked about five and a half kilometres just to give me my daily ten. We did walk a fair bit this morning so we entered that manually. It felt good to be out walking again. Let’s see how we go tomorrow, it won’t be too long though, it’s farmer’s market day.

January 4^th Would you believe that we both woke up with the sniffles and sore throats yet again? Whatever is around this year doesn’t really want to go away! We both still decided that a walk would be beneficial anyway as long as we didn’t overdo it.

We managed my planned ten kilometres and came back via the Saturday farmer’s market. Most of today’s photos were of dogs, and you’ve seen most of the dogs before. This one impressed Huan though because every time I stopped making a fuss of him, he put his paw out for me to start again. I’ve seen him a few times but Huan had only seen him once before, when we didn’t have a camera with us.

It seems that it’s not only cats and English children that like boxes. This little chappie was happy sitting in his box snacking on peanuts while his Mum and Dad were busy making and selling peanut oil.

And our last photo of the day, also from the market is vegetables. Can you guess what they are? The nearest I could get from Huan was “hairy potatoes, they are white inside”.

Lunch today, even though it’s the weekend, was not the ‘Full English’. Huan had cooked so much yesterday, vegetable dumplings, sliced stuffed eggplant and vegetable balls, that we had too much food in the fridge. Not to worry, I love all of those things!

We both had an OAP sleep in the afternoon, disturbed by Huan’s singing friends. The ‘boss’ wanted them to go up to the place where they practice to film a short movie. Whether we will ever get to see it I don’t know. She also came back with a few balls of wool and some knitting needles. They have been asked to knit some sweaters for poor children. The finished products must be produced by April, by which time of course, sweaters will not be needed!

January 5^th Two sleepy heads this morning, for some reason we both woke up late. Still, we did have our first real walk of the year, thirteen and a half kilometres in three hours. We went upriver the northern side of the river and came home downriver on the southern side. Did we see much? Well it was not a very auspicious start. When we were in the lift going downstairs I told Huan I had forgotten my old tracksuit bottoms for the clothes recycling bin. No problem, we can do that tomorrow. A short way into the walk I realised I had also forgotten my glasses and my camera! At least I remembered to get dressed!

Not having the camera means I wasn’t really looking out for much but I did spot what I thought was a dead worm. I thought it was a worm because it was brown and I didn’t have my glasses on. Huan pointed out that it was in fact a dead snake.

There was a little lad from the village there who was warily walking away from us until we saw the snake. He then came to have a look too. To our surprise, he held out his hand and asked for money; that rarely happens in China. Perhaps his sisters who were nearby chatting to him were egging him on.

To come downriver on our side of it, we usually have to fight our way through the undergrowth just near the bridge but today we were lucky, there’s a new set of steps, not quite complete yet, but good enough for us.

Being out so late today meant that when we got home neither of us felt like a real lunch. Instead we had milkshakes made with Nescafe Smoovlatte Mocha and ice cream, very nice! That meant we finished off Huan’s Friday cooking marathon for this evening’s dinner so no work needed by either of us. After that it was the usual Sunday for me, a nice hot salty bath, this time in the company of “Denise Mina”, an author who, in this book anyway, writes a great story set in Glasgow. Huan did her stint of Dirty (oops) Dama dancing.

January 6^th “Monday is shopping day, is everybody happy, you bet your life we are.” A bit of poetic licence there, I know they are not the correct words. Anyway, morning was lazing around for me while Huan went to her choral practice.

Now you may not know this but I am in China on a ‘spousal visa’, in other words my visa is dependant on Huan. All Chinese people, as you may remember, have a household registration book, known as a ‘hukou’. Now because we live in Hainan, and not Dalian which is where Huan’s hukou was issued, she has to get a temporary card here every year. If she didn’t do this, we would not be able to live here despite the fact that all the property we own is here. Tomorrow is the expiry date of her present card so she had a trip to the police station today. There was a new girl there who had no idea, and it didn’t seem to be ‘in the file’, that Huan lives here along with me, her foreign husband. We now have to wait another three weeks before a new card will be issued. Don’t you just love bureaucracy?

So, shopping today was after lunch, not a big shop, we’ll be off to Haikou again this week. It was also time to replace the music SD card in the car, Christmas is now well and truly over. The dash cam SD card also needed replacing. Both SD cards were brought home with us and promptly forgotten about until I started today’s Blog entry!

Do you remember the previous saga of Bob’s office chair? Today we learned that money had been reimbursed to Huan’s account. This is good news, right? Wrong! The chair cost ¥218.00, the shipping charge was ¥90.00. For us to send it back the charge was ¥60.00. Total cost equals ¥368.00. I didn’t expect to get our return shipping cost back, but what appeared in Huan’s account didn’t even equal the cost of the chair. She received ¥198.00. I have to leave her to argue about it but I doubt if anymore will be forthcoming. Just to add to how comical it all is, Huan received a phone call this evening from one of the express delivery companies. Having not ordered anything we were a little puzzled, could it be a long lost Christmas card perhaps. Nope, it was a replacement arm for the chair we had already sent back!

At least the day finished on a happy note, I had a call from #1 son, it’s his birthday today. Happy Birthday #1!

I’ll sign off here, post this, and then get on with the SD cards. Bieee for now.