We’re Alive, Luthier Bob (again), Army Tofu, Dentist and Insects

March 2^nd Another omission! I forgot to tell you yesterday that we are both still alive! We did our monthly home tests of Blood Oxygen, Blood Pressure, Temperature, Pulse and Blood Sugar. Looking at the results we decided monthly checks are not necessary, we will go to three monthly checks, synchronised with my PSA tests.

Two of us may have been alive yesterday, this morning it was only one and a half! Yet again I was stricken with some bug or other, affecting my head, sinuses and chest. It could have something to do with being cold in bed last night but being too lazy to get up and do anything about it! No long walks were planned for this morning though, all we had to do was to escort Huan to the OAP school so that she could sign on for Hulusi classes and Chinese Calligraphy classes. Yes, she has found even more to keep herself occupied.

On our way we had to stop and pick up some plants. Remember how lovely our traffic islands were at the beginning of the New Year. Today was clear up day and all the plants were being removed unless people could get in there quick enough to grab some. You can see all three traffic islands in the first photo, all under siege, and you can see Huan in the second photo, if you look carefully, choosing her five ‘takeaways’.

After lunch my weary bones took me to bed where I promptly fell asleep and dreamt of Covid tests. I have no idea what the test really feels like but in my dream, where I wearily lay my head on a very high reception desk after saying I needed a test, the next think I knew was the nurse was round the front in a flash, forced my head back and shoved a long cotton bud up my nose. I remember telling her that as she forced the swab to the back I saw a flash of blue light behind my eyes. Dreams eh? In this case I can identify all the parts and where they came from. The hospital with me nearly fainting came from me being absolutely worn out and a FB chat about my father stopping me from falling when I fainted stirring the morning porridge. The long walk up to the hospital and the swinging around a corner to get my feet on the floor came from our last countryside walk where we had to swing around a blocked bridge. The Covid test probably came from a FB friend, Randy, who seems to have to have many, one of which was mentioned on my feed this morning. I’ll have to ask him why. I am puzzled by the blue flash behind my eyes though; I can’t find the source for that. Do you think Huan bopped me while I was snoozing. Addendum – from Randy – “Day call on set , if I take a day call I have to have Covid test 2 days before, a Covid test on the day of and a Covid test on my last day. Most shows require 3 tests a week. If I’m hopping from show to show I end up getting tested more.” I feel for him!

Life is returning to normal now that the holidays are over so Huan was off to our little square tonight for some dancing, hulusi and maybe even some taodi, who knows. As for me, nothing except this post, my Chinese practice and some Youtube movies.

March 3^rd There was some life back in the old dog this morning! Some people decry Chinese medicine as being all quackery, not me. I don’t believe everything I’m told, but some of it is pretty good. What’s more the pharmacies, (chemist’s shops for us Brits), know what to give you most of the time so no doctors required. Additionally, because Chinese medicine is usually made from all natural ingredients, there are no worrying side effects although some can take longer to ‘fix’ your problem. This is what we have for head and chest colds; you can either chew the contents of the sachet or mix it as I’ve done here.  The dosage is three times a day and after taking it three times yesterday I’m feeling much better, by tomorrow I’ll be 100% again.

Huan was happy that I was well enough for us to do our weekly shop, and also well enough to cook today’s dinner. For a change it was a Western meal, steak with black pepper, garlic and mushroom sauce. I was a little worried about the steaks, they weren’t bought as steaks, I just bought a large piece of beef and chopped some off. The remainder I cut up into cubes for a future curry and a future stew. Huan was impressed with the presentation, hers is first. With mine, I tried to do something different; I must admit I prefer the way Huan’s looked.

No dancing for Huan tonight, no walking for me either, the rain appeared. Huan’s guitar bits and pieces also appeared but I told her I’d start on that tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, the rain will have disappeared by the morning and we can have a walk, even if it’s just around the river.

March 4^th Our plans were dashed again, by the weather this time, rain stopped play. Huan made sure I wasn’t bored though, after NAAFI break she put me to work. With all the parts that arrived yesterday for Huan’s guitar I was a luthier again. Here I am putting it back together.

I was successful so here’s Huan after lunch with a big smile.

Her smile didn’t actually disappear as the afternoon went on but it did become a little more subdued. At one stage she even looked rather serious, I’m not allowed to use that photo! She started to realise that learning the guitar is not quite as easy as it looks, even more so as this guitar is a big one and she only has little arms and hands. However, never put anything past Huan, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s playing better than me in a matter of weeks! I did have a go this afternoon, after my long break, it wasn’t easy. Barring that pesky ‘F’ chord is going to take me quite some more practice again.

After dinner we forced ourselves to go out, partly because we needed it and partly because the Post Office had called. We stopped there first and found a birthday card from one of my brothers, only two weeks late. It was posted on 22^nd January but apart from the travelling time Huan tells me that all incoming ‘stuff’ from overseas has to go into quarantine for a month where it is sprayed just in case! Our next stop was to pick up some good old Xinjiang naan bread, or as they call it here, 新疆馕 Xīnjiāng náng. Since we are doing some translating, here’s a bit more. On our way back along the riverside I told Huan the ‘army tofu’ crowd were back, that’s what I call them. It’s a big crowd, much bigger than you see in the photo; they were also across the road by the riverside. They are all exercising and chanting and when I first heard it I thought it sounded like army tofu. The chant in Chinese is actually, 南无阿弥陀佛 Ná mó ēmítuófó but the ‘ēmí’ sounds like ami with a long a. One day we’ll stand with the people at the back and join in, it will be very relaxing. There will be no photos on that day though. Why don’t you Check the chant out on Youtube, you can relax too.

March 5th Bang went our plans yet again! One of us, i.e. me, slept very badly last night with toothache keeping me awake most of the night. Anyone who knows me knows that despite being 71, I have, like many people, an irrational fear of dentists. I decided to go in the morning but then woke up with a throat full of phlegm so decided I should go back on the medicine and wait a couple of days. Lunch forced me to change my mind! After a top up of medicine around half past one we set off to the dentist to arrive around two thirty, after their lunch break.

We were early and had to phone the dentist, this was our view whilst waiting. Being straight after their lunch break, nobody was hanging around on drips today though.

British people, turn away here! It’s OK, there are no photos, I did give my phone to Huan but she was too busy grilling the dentist and talking to the next customer. The pain in the upper right rear of my mouth is probably just a minor abscess, so that only needed a little medicine forcing under my gums. The lower right rear was a different matter, every time the dentist asked if it hurt I almost shot out of the chair. He had to remove an old filling so that he could check to see what was wrong. That required drilling of course, more pain. Did I tell you that Chinese dentists don’t really like to use anaesthesia? Apart from drilling he was also using tiny needles to get to the nerve endings and by golly, did I know when he got there. He probably thinks all British people are big babies now. When he’d finished rooting around he gave me something to kill the nerve endings and some temporary packing with instructions to go back on Sunday afternoon. “Do I have to?|” is what I was thinking but within an hour or so I was definitely feeling better. The other thing you would notice about Chinese dentists is that there is no private surgery. This means that apart from the dentist observing the depths of your oral orifice, there’s also the wife, Huan of course, and one of the next customers. She was a student from a mainland university, I forget which, who spoke exceptionally good English and was also having a good ogle at the dentist’s work. More people to see that I’m really just a big baby at heart!

The walk home did me a world of good and we arrived just in time for me to finish cooking dinner. I had started in the morning and cooked the thick mung bean soup, comprising of mung beans, (obviously), onions, garlic, mushroom, ginger, tomato, and a couple of small chillies. That needed heating through while Huan’s rice was in the microwave. Her rice was a mix of four, white, black, red and brown, (I think). All that remained to do then was a quick fry in hot oil of the dried fish, here’s the result on the table, ready to eat. PS We cheated and used spoons instead of the chopsticks.

March 6th Rain stopped play this morning which was just as well as we were both up late. By the time breakfast was finished, a fry up for me, (to use the leftover beans), and noodle soup for Huan, to use the leftover dried fish, it was NAAFI break. A lazy morning followed.

The weather cleared up after lunch and we were able to have a round the river walk. We were lucky today and saw signs of life, no lizards though. First was this little pooch who didn’t stop barking until we were well away, he even barked when we gave other dogs attention.

Pigeons were next, I thought I was going to get close enough to touch the first one, I was wrong. This was the only grey one, the rest were all white.

Next up was a Praying Mantis, just sitting on one of the wall pillars, not scared at all. I decided to lend a hand.

While I was busy with it and with my camera, Huan was busy with her phone. Here’s her photo of me and my photo of the mantis.

Whether it was happy or not I have no idea but I took it across the path and put it in the trees. It did seem a little unsteady on its legs, not sure why, but we left it making its way up the branches. Another audience were busy with their phones by then.

Next, much nearer to home, came a spider and a seed. It was very difficult to get a good shot of the spider, it was all over the place, but I think you can see enough.

Huan soon found another two, what they are I will leave up to you and Google for a change.

As if that wasn’t enough, Huan also managed to find one in my favourite colour, yellow. As a child Huan was always warned not to touch caterpillars, especially hairy ones, so I made sure I kept my distance too.

We saw that work had started on the dam again but as yet we can’t tell what they are doing. We’ll let you know when we can. Huan then thought that she saw mushrooms growing on cables. I just hope that our internet line doesn’t go through this box, or should I say ‘half a box’.

And that was it, our walk for the day was over, just in time too, the rain started just before we got in. Mind you it wasn’t heavy so we could have stayed out, but I had to cook dinner. As usual, it was a two day stew for the weekend, this time duck. You can see the duck at the back, I boiled half a duck last night then removed the skin and fat. Don’t you just hate cholesterol and doctors! The broth was left in the fridge overnight and was added to the stew after the fat had been skimmed off the top. No picture of the finished product I’m afraid, it’s just stew after all.

My day was finished off with a nice long Skype session with #1 son, something I really enjoy and look forward to. As usual, we put the world to rights!

March 7^th The weather was on our side today so we took another riverside walk, starting over the bridge to nowhere so that we could look down on the dam from the other side and give you a progress report. Well we looked down, and there’s no progress report! After all the bugs we saw yesterday, we saw none today. Even one of my favourite pooch pals didn’t want to come out from under his chair. I did manage to get him to raise his head though.

We passed another big hole in the road on the way home where a lady on a motorbike, who didn’t exactly look very rich, was asking when she would be able to buy business premises. The gate guard told us it would be finished by the end of the year. I laughed that off and told him I didn’t believe there was any chance. Huan told me after who was building it; they’ve done some good work in Wuzhishan so the gate guard may well be right.

Next we saw people cutting trees that were getting a little too close to the overhead electricity lines, you’ve seen the ‘lumberjacks’ in action before so no photo here. Instead, here’s another kind of climber. For some reason food cannot be delivered to the nurses’ college front gate and it’s delivered via the back gate instead.

After lunch it was torture time for me again, another visit to the dentist. Just like last time we were a little early, so I took a photo through the window, yes, people can look in and watch while you are blubbering like a baby! The dentist arrived shortly thereafter so I tried to make myself as comfortable as possible.

Huan excelled herself today and took over forty photographs, I’m fairly sure you don’t need to see all them, even I don’t need to keep that many. I’ll just show you one of the dentist at work and then one of the two of us together. I had been going to ask for one when the work is all done, but he asked if he could have a photo with me today. He also asked Huan to send a few of the ones where he’s working on me.

Today’s visit was over very quickly, just more nerve medicine, I have to go back next Friday. Our short walk after was much needed and much enjoyed. All that was left for me was to warm up today’s stew and then sort out today’s Blog Post.

March 8^th We had a plan, but I changed it, I didn’t feel like walking today, I felt like being lazy instead. There was work to do though, sticking things on Huan’s guitar. I had found on Taobao a set of stickers that supposedly help you remember where the notes are on the fretboard. It only works if your guitar is tuned to EADGBE which ours are. The job was difficult to start with until I worked out that using the sound hole to get the stickers underneath the strings was a good idea.

I doubt if the stickers will stay on a long time but if they help Huan a little they’ll be fine. Here’s the finished project, it only goes up to the 12^th fret because after that the sequence repeats itself. The second photo is me of course, just testing!

If you check my photo carefully you may be able to see which chord I’m playing. I chose a photo without the barred F chord, after so long without practicing that, it’s not so easy. I went through a few of my songs this morning, in between helping Huan now and then and explaining that she really can’t practice more than five or ten minutes a day yet.

No walkies after lunch either, Huan had to go out and make a noise. She was off to the Yefeng housing complex where lessons have started again after the holidays, Monday is drum day. In fact she’s tapping away in the living room while I’m typing this. I had to go out this afternoon as well, the car needed filling up before we go to Haikou tomorrow. Because we are leaving early in the morning I also decided to not park in our usual place and leave it somewhere where I knew I would have no problems getting out.

So, a lazy(ish) day comes to an end, another week comes to an end, unfortunately, visits to the dentist have not come to an end and will continue next week. See you then!

Taobao Fail, Spring Is In The Air, Huan's New Toys, Weetabix, Luthier Bob

February 23^rd First a PS, I forgot something yesterday, I had two Taobao deliveries yesterday evening. First, I’m running out of socks so I ordered ten pairs for ¥20.00, second I’m going to start my guitar practice again, I think my wrist has had enough rest, so I ordered five sets of ‘finger plectrums’. The socks were supposed to fit up to size 44; they don’t fit me so Huan now has ten new pairs of socks. With my hands, the finger plectrums were also too small for me; I’ll have to keep strumming for a while.

Retirement has its pros and cons, pros, you don’t have to do anything, cons, you don’t have to do anything! This morning we were supposed to go for a nice long walk but I felt completely washed out so we stayed in. In retrospect, the walk would have done me a world of good.

I wasn’t completely lazy though, I did cook tonight’s dinner, another noodle soup. Here it is cooking and the finished result with the noodles added at dinner time.

Just in case you want to repeat that masterpiece the ingredients are: - Onions, Garlic, Ginger, (Olive Oil), then Octopus Tentacle, Yellow Pepper, Celery, Some Green Leaf whose name I don’t know, Mushrooms with long legs, Bamboo shoots julienne style, Diced normal tomato, Quartered cherry tomatoes, a little salt, Oyster sauce and enough hot water to simmer. Noodles were cooked separately just before dinner and added while the soup was being reheated. The head chef was suitably impressed. Me, on the other hand, I had to visit the throne room a few times after dinner so maybe you shouldn’t try this recipe! PS It may have been an apple that was going bad and not my cooking!)

February 24^th This morning was much the same as yesterday but not for the same reasons. The boss had to go to a committee meeting so I stayed home and cooked, just like yesterday. Take the same ingredients as above but substitute marinated (a little soya sauce and red chilli pepper powder) minced pork for the octopus tentacle, red pepper for the yellow pepper, add a couple of small diced green peppers, skip the oyster sauce et voila, chilli a la Bob. I was going to show you two photos again but the cooking one is almost the same, just more red and no yellow.

Huan was home fairly early, the meeting was only to confirm that fifteen names had been chosen from which the eleven new committee members will be selected. The fifteen were chosen by voting amongst the residents. The eleven will be chosen by the local government office that deals with title deeds and housing. I have no idea why it’s done like this but it seems to work.

After lunch it was bath time for me with Huan giving me the exfoliation treatment. I don’t like it very much, with all my lumps and bumps, moles and stuff, it hurts! Every now and then though I relent and let her have her way.

Dinner was good, even though I say it myself. I thought I had done myself proud here and Huan was pretty impressed too. It obviously looks a lot different on the plate to yesterday’s.

An after dinner walk was definitely needed today, for both of us. The first thing we noticed was that the weather is definitely getting warmer now; soon it will be shorts in the evening as well as the daytime. The second thing we noticed was the crowds; there were throngs of people everywhere, most of them sounded like northerners. Huan thought they were all coming here instead of Sanya but I think it’s down to two reasons, one being a reluctance to travel back up north for the holidays and two being more people have now retired and taken up residency in their winter abodes.

The moon looked good tonight so I took a lot of photos at X1, X5, X10 and X50 zoom. None of them were any good. All I have to show you is an apartment block nicely lit up, probably for the holidays, maybe to sell more while the snowbirds are here.

February 25^th We were up early enough this morning, in fact I was far too early. Having no clock in the bedroom last night I left Huan sleeping and went to check the living room clock when I woke up, quarter to six, too early for me but too late to go back to bed. At least it meant we were able to do our postponed Sanyue San 3 walk, this is where it starts, and the first village on the way.

On our left there used to be only farmland when we walked this way before, the builders have been busy and this is what it looks like now.

Looking ahead, you can see what it used to be like and hopefully how the road ahead will stay. You can also catch a glimpse of the highway bridge that passes this way, that’s all completed now although not in use just yet.

Under the ‘legs’ of the highway we met these not so gentle creatures, all of whom were far to scared to come anywhere near me.

On our way back down again we passed a couple of ordinary cows that we had seen on the way up. The calf was fine, not averse to being touched at all, but check the mother looking backwards. When I tried the same with her she almost head butted me, I just stepped sideways quickly enough. Huan missed that shot!

On our way out Huan’s classmate, the retired doctor, had called her again and asked if we were free for lunch. Getting my people mixed up I said yes.

What’s that? That’s a glass of Baijiu, fierce Chinese alcohol, I always agree to one glass just to show willing. After that I stick to beer. What a mixed bunch we had, Huan’s classmate, Huan and I, another classmate with her neighbour, a retired army doctor on my left, a government man responsible for business licences and a late arrival, the manager of some serviced apartments.

Within minutes the retired army doctor was trying to convince us that what he wanted to use on us would be highly beneficial and, because Huan had said she was a little tired after our 8km walk, would revitalize us. We managed to say no. Before long lunch was served, most of which you can see in this collage. There is a dish of stewed yams missing, I got it out of focus!

However, during lunch, the sales pitch continued, this time for Huan’s classmate’s future residential clinic. There would be a shop where Huan would be able to work, (for free), while I walked around the grounds just talking English to people now and then. For this, they would put us up in one of the villas, supposedly rent free. Now Huan, as you may have read before, is, like a lot of Chinese people, very gullible and an ad-man’s dream. She was quite convinced this was a good idea. Slowly I will have to try and point out some of the disadvantages and hopefully change her mind.

Later on, the conversation turned to skin colour, Huan is not as ‘white’ as many people think she should be. One suggestion came from the government man. “Shave your head, your hair will then grow back thicker and blacker, more luxurious. At the same time, you can use certain creams to whiten your face.” Luckily, on this occasion, Huan didn’t listen to what was being said. Whether her face is brown or white doesn’t matter to me, but trying to chemically change the colour is not something I would agree with at all.

By the time we were all getting ready to leave, and Huan foolishly saying that she felt ready for a good rest, the retired army doctor suddenly reached across me and managed to rub both of Huan’s temples with his roll-on medicament. It was all I could do to stop him trying to get it on my temples too! We needed a nice walk home to relax ourselves.

February 26^th Ah, spring, when a young woman’s fancy turns to romance, a young man’s turns to rumpy pumpy and us two geriatrics wondered what to do today! Today is not the first day of spring, not even in Chinese solar terms. Just so that you know, here’s the last two solar terms and the next one, (for the year 2021) The Beginning of Spring (Li Chun), Feb. 3rd, Spring begins, Rain Water (Yu Shui), Feb. 18th, It begins to rain, The Waking of Insects (Jing Zhe), Mar. 5th, Hibernating animals come to sense. For us, today was ‘Lantern Festival”, a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar. Usually falling in February or early March on the Gregorian calendar, it marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. That meant breakfast had to be sticky rice dumplings, Huan had a plateful, I had only four, I’m not a big fan but I do like to follow tradition.

After breakfast we decided that the reservoir we had planned to visit was probably just a bit too far to get back in time for lunch so we set off for the countryside instead. Not only is that route a little shorter, just over 8km, but there are no hills involved. We headed off past these two signs, the first one shows the ‘road to the bridge to nowhere’, (L), ‘road ahead, not yet built’, (R) and ‘mountain village road, (S) which we would obviously turn off before we reached any mountains. The second sign, or stone, shows where we turned off.

This next hoarding amused me, there were three or four in total, I chose only this one to take a picture of and got Huan to translate the title for me. “养猪科普技术知识 - Yǎng zhū kēpǔ jìshù zhīshì - Technical knowledge of pig breeding.” The ‘cartoons’ are quite amusing and I’m sure get the message across but I’m afraid you’ll have to ask a Chinese friend to translate all the captions for you.

Before long we decided to go off the road and walk along the farmer’s raised pathways. Yet again I was banned from making a gif of Huan so this will have to do.

From the fields we went through the woods, in this case fairly passable.

Next we passed some villagers ‘fish herding’, we’ve taken a lot of photos here before, on the same Chinese day two or three years ago. We will have to try and remember this next year and go and get a good video of it. That time they did two or three sweeps, today they only did one and had finished that just before we arrived. They told us they had scooped up a few hundred fish, I guess there’ll be a big feast in the village tonight.

Having Freddy on photographic duty today I decided to experiment a little. I took three panoramas covering 360º and then used the computer to stitch them together. You may need to click and enlarge to see the result, possibly even in another tab.

Wildlife was noisy but for the most part invisible, we could hear frogs and birds, spring was definitely in the air. Huan spotted a lizard but it darted away before I could see it, mostly what we saw were chickens, geese and ducks. Passing one field though I decided to get nearer to snap a picture of the noisemakers, not too near though! I wasn’t sure if they were wasps or bees, Huan said bees, which I always thought were fatter and rounder. A quick Google search turned up almost the same picture in the “People’s Daily” as a bee in love with rape flowers so Huan was right. It seems Hainan also has some stingless bees but I was taking no chances!

Wherever we went today the farmers, and their wives, or maybe even the farmers, and their husbands, were out in droves, it’s definitely springtime in Hainan.

This next view took my fancy, mostly because of the shape and the utilisation of the land. We see a lot of farms tucked away like this.

We walked down the left hand side and, out of shot, behind the trees on the right; we could see a bridge on the main road. It looked as though we could walk in front of the trees in the centre of the picture but Huan asked a local just to be sure. He told us that we could go that way; it was a little bit further than going back through the fields in the left side of the picture. Off we went and within no time we came up against a fenced in chicken farm with no way round near the ‘bowl’ of the farm. I left Huan and went on a quick recce, this is what I found, I guess our friendly local has not been this way in a while. Huan may have been able to squeeze herself through, although I think that’s doubtful, I wouldn’t, I’d have been permanently stuck between two trees!

After a bit more paddy field hopping, we crossed the main road and set off down another track that we know takes us home. Coming across this next view, there were two local lady farmers sat having a rest so I had a quick chat with them, Huan translating as necessary. They were of the same opinion as me; it looked a lot better before. We used to walk where the top end of the construction is, on our way to the old medicine factory. The building on the right is supposed to have been an old airport and the last time we were there, the caretaker told us that apartment buildings were going to be built in that area. It’s sad, there’s really no need for them.

OK, enough schimpfing and muttering for the day. (Schimpfing, by the way, is an old army term, derived from the German word “schimpfen” which means to grumble, to complain etc.) Let’s leave you with yet another panorama, this time to show you that even though the fields are full of crops to sell, even smaller spaces are planted with other crops either for family use or selling locally. They can be seen at the front of this photo.

Somehow we both managed to stay awake after lunch but I’m sure if either of us had suggested a nap the other would have agreed in an instant. All I did was the usual whittling down of photos from over 120 to 65, you don’t realise until you get home just how many you’ve taken. Nothing changes though, I used to take far too many even when we had to pay to develop them!

February 27^th Another kitchen morning, boiling the pork before cooking the weekend stew and then adding the pork, sans fat. We’re still doing this on one electric induction hob of course, no idea when, if ever, we will get our gas back.

After lunch, our plans, as so often happens, went awry. Part of this was Huan’s doing, she found a new toy and had me printing instructions and songs. Part of it was my doing, I follow a Youtube channel where a British guitarist, Fil, aka ‘Wings of Pegasus, analyses various artists for their singing, their playing and their performance, not just guitarists. Today he played someone called ‘Junior Brown’ so I immediately thought of the son of James Brown perhaps. I was completely wrong. However, I was very impressed with the performance I saw, so much so that I had to find some Junior Brown to add to my collection.

We did manage to get out after dinner and the first photo shows Huan having a play with her new toy, it’s called a Taodi, not to be confused with a Xun. It is similar to an Ocarina in that it has a ‘fipple’ mouthpiece which the Xun doesn’t. Where did Huan get it from? She stole it from my bookcase; it was a prop for a Halloween costume of mine in Harbin, when I was playing a Chinese hungry ghost.

Why is Huan playing it outside? Well, after our walk she will join the other ladies in our little square for some dama dancing, some hulusi and now some taodi too.

Our new park is certainly getting some use, off the island as well as on it. Huan thought it looked like a day at the seaside this evening. I guess as the holidays are now officially over, work will start on Monday, tomorrow for some, this is their last chance to have fun.

Today’s last photo was taken in town just after we left the lottery shop with our (positive thinking) winning tickets. Are turtles lucky? I don’t think so and these two certainly weren’t. The gentleman ‘selling’ them told us they were fresh water turtles and only needed feeding twice a week. Once he realised we weren’t potential buyers he tried to stop me taking any more photos, I was trying to get both looking at me at the same time.

February 28^th Today’s walking plan had to be temporarily delayed, but not by too long. There is this viral thing that concerns Weetabix and Baked Beans, and I was challenged to have a go at eating it. If you want to see, check it out here - https://youtu.be/H57hQlBevBE If you know about Foodtribe you can also see it on there.

As it happens my camera operator was in superb form and we still managed to get out just after eight-thirty. Our route was the long planned fourth turn off on Sanyue San Road leading up to the fish farm. Turn right just after the army barracks and head away from this traffic sign towards the first village where, as you can probably see, we have to veer left.

As you can see the weather was a little overcast and made a perfect day for walking, just as well because it was a thirteen and half kilometre round trip. As usual, I took over a hundred photos, then pruned them down to fifty four for us, and now I have to prune even further for you. Being a serial chatterer that’s not always easy. I sometimes consider writing a Blog similar to being on the radio. Sitting alone in the studio in Abu Dhabi you never really knew if anyone was listening but it made you happy just to think they were. Anyway, on with the photos, here is where I suggested to Huan that I take the high road and she take the low road and meet up later. She said no, she’d probably get lost! I must admit the low road is more difficult whereas the high road leads you straight to the destination.

We had a surprise not far up the road from here and before the new highway construction; we were approached by a pig, lots of chickens and some geese. I still couldn’t quite get near enough to touch any of them though. We wondered if it was near feeding time.

Soon afterwards we passed under the highway, it’s looking like the end of March or April could see us trying it out. This shows it coming from the north (approximately) and disappearing into the mountain heading south, approximately).

Just after the next village we spotted a new sign on a lamppost showing us where we were going to. It looks very nice in the picture.

Needless to say it doesn’t actually look that good in reality although it has improved since our last visit. The first thing we saw today was a “cream, a dole, a dule, a flock, a gang, a posse, a raffle, a raft, a rafter,” (Choose which collective noun you prefer) of turkeys.

You probably think that’s enough pictures of turkeys but I had to include this next one, even though the ‘photo bomber’ is not quite in focus.

There were a couple of gents near the pontoons, if that’s what you call them, so we asked if there was any chance of a cup of tea. It turned out that they were visitors from Harbin staying there and the boss had gone out for a while but they made us a pot of tea anyway. Here we are relaxing whilst waiting.

On our way home Huan had me taking even more photos of chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks but I suspect you’ve seen enough. Instead, here’s a panorama of our way back, on the ‘low road’, which as you can see is not a road, but a track by the fields.

We ended our ramble with me playing at dirty old men and taking a surreptitious photo of myself outside the local conveniences!

On our way out this morning, Huan spotted an old guitar at the top of the stairs with some other rubbish, cardboard boxes and bottles, to be collected by the cleaners. Before you could say “Bob’s your Uncle”, which I am of course, the guitar was safely ensconced in our living room awaiting our return. I did try and explain that I would be busy with videos and photos all day, to no avail. I ended working as a luthier until dinner time.

As you can see from the photos, everything was removed, well, nearly everything. Three strings were already missing, (actually broken and stored inside the giuitar), so only three had to be taken out. The ‘saddles’ also needed replacing as did the ‘tuning pegs’, they had no effect on the strings at all. Could I rest then? Absolutely not! After dinner it was Taobao time again to order all the pieces we need to hopefully get Huan a working guitar. In addition to strings, tuning pegs and saddles we ordered a ‘nut’, a ‘bridge’ and a ‘String Ruler’. All I can hope now is that the frets are not too badly damaged.

PS I tried ordering socks again!

March 1^st Happy Saint David’s Day to all you Welsh folk out there! Also on this day, Frédéric Chopin (1810), Glenn Miller (1904), and Roger Daltry (1944) were born and the world was better for all of them. (Penguin Pocket Reference ISBN0-141-02715-0)

Today we decided a nice easy walk was the order of the day, past the lottery shop and then up to the bap and sausage men before coming home. At each stop in the market I told the stallholders that Huan was the boss and I was the donkey!

And that, would you believe, is the only photo for today. We did take another one of us both but that was a special request for a FB friend who wants photos for her Mum’s seventieth birthday, not one to be shared on here.

Another month has begun, along with another week, we’re both older, I’m nearly seventy two now! We’ll be back next Monday, see you then.