National Day Decorations, Dancing Continues (On and Off)

October 4^th More shopping for me this morning, I needed some more fruit and vegetables to keep my leader healthy for her dance performances. My shoes were still not dry so no long walks were possible, I started off going over to the small island park. I was hoping that this crop of a photo would like a raging river in the jungle, it doesn’t.

Being alone I then played Poohsticks against myself, I won! Of course, I also lost…

Our one and only roundabout was all decked out for National Day, I have given you three views of it. The first view celebrates the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the second welcomes you to celebrate China’s National Day and the third view celebrates the 73^rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Stating with the decorative theme I took a few pictures of the bridge as I went back into town.

My last photo was only a half empty shopping trolley with a few fruits and vegetables in plastic bags so you couldn’t see them anyway. That went in the bin. All of today’s photos were taken with the phone ‘just in case’ the heavens opened again. They didn’t this morning, but they did in the afternoon and stopped me from any further walks. I even posted this on Facebook; “Pouring with rain, home alone, cooking finished, I wonder if I can get away with having a quick fag!” Someone, who shall not be named, would be very unhappy with me, don’t you agree?

October 5th Someone had a very lazy morning, me of course. I didn’t wake up until nine, missed my morning exercises and then skipped my walk too. However, after lunch was served to the weary dancer and she went back for her afternoon session I got myself out there. I thought I would try the bridge to somewhere, Huan thinks it should be finished by the end of the year. The view from the bridge was quite nice and stitched well.

To show Huan the progress I needed to take a lot of photos. Once she had perused them, all nice and large, then I shrunk them into collages for you.

Soon I came to the end of the road to somewhere, it will one day cross the road you see here, and go somewhere through the mountains in the second photo, we think.

We haven’t had any Chinglish for a while, here’s one for you, just a simple mistake this time.

And the penultimate one for today, they say that every cloud has a silver lining, this one did and I tried to get a lovely photo of it for you. I guess I don’t know what I’m doing with Percy yet.

Remember my shoes were still wet? They should be OK by tomorrow, if not then my new sandals are going to have to come out of the wardrobe in the spare bedroom. My present sandals have reached their natural end of life!

October 6^th Test 29 for me today, Huan had hers yesterday. When I arrived there, just before eight o’clock, this is what I found, no test personnel and a big queue.

By the time I got to the blue tents the queue behind me had grown even longer. However, I do have to say that the whole procedure is very efficient, they must have seen over a hundred people before me and I was finished by half past eight.

There was danger in the air today so my dry shoes came into play, my new sandals had to wait for another day. My route took me down by the river.

Humans were rare, I spotted one Hainan local chewing betel nut; at least I am assuming he was a local. Other than that there was just one snowbird fishing, four rods and no catch as I passed him. A real bird came into the frame but as usual, distance was problematic.

This route is one that Huan likes; she spends most of her time searching the trees for lizards that I miss. I did find one today, only one, here he is rotated so that you can see him better.

At the six kilometre mark I was outside Huan’s rehearsal hall, I could see signs of progress, a show was coming together. There was no time to chat of course so spotting some of my bovine buddies up the road I went there instead.

You can see that they are closely observing me in the photo above, well closely became closer. The security guard nearby was wondering what was going on. Two of the cows, the front two in this next photo, came for a chat and a head stroke, no Huan to snap the evidence though.

Around the corner I bumped into my little friend from 30^th September. It’s not so obvious from this photo but he was overjoyed to see me again.

It was a long walk today and almost at the end, between the nine and ten kilometre marks, I found a tiny little spider. He’s very colourful don’t you think?

With Huan being busy six hours a day I am of course duty chef every day. Huan said I should show you more of my attempts so here is today’s. This is a Philippine chicken adobo, slightly modified for us. I added a potato, a carrot, and some mushrooms, all diced up. I guess it looks odd because we tend to use all these strange colours of rice instead of bog standard white. However, it worked, the end result was tasty, the chief was pleased and so was I.

October 7^th Huan went off to dance and rain stopped play for me, at least in the morning it did. In the afternoon I was lazy and watched Ocean’s 36, it would have been 44 but I couldn’t find a way to watch Ocean’s 8. When Huan finished her afternoon session she came home early with good news, no rehearsals for another week. That seems wrong to me, and I have already bet her that she will get a message that she has to go back earlier. Anyway, I had promised her a cheapo restaurant meal tonight for a change so that’s what we did. Checking the weather I decided the new sandals could have their maiden walk tonight. (Check my left foot, that’s why I have to walk every day if possible; my foot will swell up otherwise.)

With me cooking this week Huan needed her fish fix, I stuck with chicken.

Huan certainly enjoyed her fish!

There was another photo of Huan perusing her phone with a frown on her face; she refuses to accept that she needs to wear glasses. I am under orders not to use that photo!

October 8^th Huan was due for another test today, I was due tomorrow but decided we should take this opportunity to get back in sync for a while. As it happened, we both received messages last night telling us that Wuzhishan was having another mandatory testing day today so would be back in sync anyway. This was our 30^th test.

Passing the river on our way to check out the Saturday market we thought we would show you what the submerged farm looks like now. Things are definitely growing there again, although we have no idea just how much of the crop was lost.

As is often the case, the director insisted I take some photos of birds in the trees. Now the only problem with that was the weather, Percy was left at home and we were carrying our umbrellas. Maybe another time you’ll be able to see more than black smudges.

Unfortunately there was no market again today. Huan thought it was because of the weather but as we didn’t see a single stallholder I think it was down to Covid regulations again. Someone from Wuzhishan was returned to a quarantine hotel this week after travelling in through Haikou. They had shared the plane with someone who tested positive.

No canine friends today, well there were one or two but Huan skipped taking any snaps of them. She did however take over twenty photos of this little cat.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the finals of our knobbly knees competition!” Many of our readers will have no idea what I am talking about but those of a more mature age, from the UK will. There did use to be such competitions, you can find out more by following this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knobbly_knees_competition. You can even do a Google search for images if you want to see more. So why did I mention it here? Well, as we were almost home, I moved onto our little square to let a car pass and went head over heels, again! If Huan had been ready to take a video, and if she had been a bit less caring of me, you would have been able to have a real good laugh. Instead you can just snicker at my minor wounds.

October 9^th Guess where we had to go this morning? Yes, you’re right, we had another message last night telling us that Wuzhishan was carrying out its seventeenth round of mandatory testing and we all needed to go again today, and tomorrow! Not many people were there this morning, maybe the weather was the reason why.

The weather brightened up and although we had to use or brollies now and then for the most part we were fine. A few photos were taken; this one shows the National Day decorations on the road out towards Sanya.

Further down the road we spotted a very lethargic caterpillar. Checking the photo at home we wondered whether it has been a victim of wasp eggs which have now hatched and flown away, or whether it was a new victim and the eggs hadn’t grown yet.

At the home of the three legged dog, who is still missing by the way, we came across a few bovine buddies. As usual Huan went crazy with her phone, I had to edit quite a few out, but she did catch me talking to them.

People were not quite as scarce this morning although pre-pandemic levels have still not yet been reached. We found a couple of fisherman, proud to display their catch. They had been there since early morning so will have been fishing in the rain.

This route takes us along the river which is of course Huan’s favourite ‘spot the lizard’ walk. She succeeded today, here is the first one, against the light and against the tree to show you how difficult they can be to spot. Both of these photos had to edited in post to raise the lighting levels.

That was the only one, at least at that stage of our walk. As we were approaching home on the other side of the small island she managed to find another one, behind a tree. Into the bushes I went, ignoring the bites and scratches, like every good hero should. These four photos also had to edited in post but not as much as the previous two.

By now we knew that we would cover just over ten kilometres by the time we reached home, and looking at the sky that couldn’t be soon enough.

The distance fair took it out of us, we had to have an afternoon sleep, mine being much longer than Huan’s. Still, no cooking was needed today, cooked duck and salad was already prepared. Old age is definitely rushing up on me, I’ll have to start going to bed even earlier!

October 10^th As mentioned yesterday, we had another test today. No matter how much I argued Huan was insistent on recording the event. As a result here am I, not looking worried but looking just a little bit annoyed! You may also notice that I am #1 in my group of ten today.

Apart from our weekly shop we have nothing else to report. I suppose I could tell you that Huan bought a lot of fish today. She missed her fishy fix last week with me doing the cooking and as she is free until Saturday she will make up for it this week. I have nothing against fish by the way; I am just not a fan of bones!

Huan must have missed being in the kitchen, either that or she is bored. This afternoon she made bread and dumplings. I played at being ‘Onslow’ binge watching Bruce Willis. A good time was had by all and I ate too much.

On that note we will bid you a good day, or morning or afternoon or evening, whatever fits in with your time zone. I think it’s only writing this Blog that reminds me of what day of the week it is. When you are retired and there are no weekend indicators it is easy to forget what day it is. It almost reminds me of my younger days when I worked shifts, I never knew what day it was then either. Anyhow, we will see you next time, tatty bye!

Dancing Continues, Rain Persists, Communication Intermittent.

September 27^th Another test today, #26, so I was obviously wrong about the frequency of tests coming down or even stopping altogether. I didn’t bother with yet another photo from there, I’m sure there will be time for more, instead here’s a late one from Huan’s birthday. Someone sent it to her this morning; you can even spot the birthday badge if you look carefully.

And that is it for today, after our test we went shopping, nothing out of the ordinary there and after lunch the rain came down. Once again we are on the fringes of a typhoon; this one is called ‘Noru’. I know, I can hear many of you saying “Bloody Norah!” Behave yourselves! Just to give you another piccie for today here is a screenshot from windy.com, you can see our little island just above the big swirly bit.

I finished my day with some more “Get Some In” and reminisced while watching and listening to the ‘Thames TV Intro’, ah, sweet memories.

September 28^th Today was a British day, well the morning was anyway. It rained nearly all night, cleared up as we woke up and then came back with a vengeance right after breakfast. Our plan had been an after breakfast walk, with shoes and brollies, just in case. Just before ten I heard a little voice, “It’s stopped raining.” Off we went, with the aforementioned shoes and brollies just in case, as it happened, they weren’t needed. The rain only spat at us a few times. We did notice something odd though; all the testing stations were bereft of personnel.

Our reasons for going out were extremely important, Huan had to buy the lottery tickets for tonight and I had to look for baps. Here I am scanning my way in to the bap compound.

Luck was not with us today, no baps were available. On the plus side though I did buy a couple of those wonderful northern sausages. Almost home and Huan went berserk with the camera again, I saved only two of her snaps, one with the dog looking at me and one looking at her.

Huan’s days off were interrupted by messages from the team leader. She should have gone out last night for a practice but the weather was far too bad. She has gone out tonight for one leaving me sitting at home like an over protective parent. The reason? Huan has gone on her bike which, as she would be the first to admit, she is not very proficient at riding yet. I did consider walking her to her hall, even taking the car, but just like a good Daddy I realised that I had to let her try for herself. At least we don’t live in a very busy city.

I needn’t have worried, Huan phoned me when she arrived there safely, half an hour before the start time. She arrived home happy that she had succeeded in going all that way alone by bicycle, about three and a half kilometres, and then back alone afterwards. Normally she wouldn’t be alone, Yú would cycle with her but Yú was out of sorts this evening. Not only did Huan arrive home safely but she came with another bug photo!

September 29^th We had another British day today, almost, but not quite, the same as yesterday. Our route out was almost exactly the same, we were headed for ‘bap alley’ in search of bread type sustenance. On the way Huan decided she would photograph the floral department at work, National Day is coming up so the streets get their bi-annual flower décor. All there was to be seen was a big truck with large flower pots and a smaller truck lifting those pots off for relocation elsewhere. Huan managed to take forty photos! I kept only four, here are two showing the transfer in action.

On this particular corner only small pots were being used.

Our luck was in today and we found baps, only ten, but that’s enough for five days. From there we walked to Huan’s night time rehearsal hall so that we could check the distance she had cycled yesterday. It turned out to be more than we had estimated. By the time we got home it was 4.2km which meant a round trip of 8.4, she did well.

Before we got home, as we expected, the rain came down. That was why we left Percy at home today, we were fairly sure we would get caught.

Having forgotten to take a photo of the bap stall and seller we decided to show you what they are like when we got home. They make an extremely good sandwich!

Huan’s days off shrunk by one again and she had to go out for anther rehearsal tonight. The rain has stayed away this evening so she should be fine.

September 30^th Test number 27 today. Now some of you may be asking how I keep track of all these tests. Others, who know me, may have already worked out that I have them all recorded on an excel file, complete with calendar sheets. We were in and out very quick today, no photographs to prove it though. Our first photo is just to show you that we live in a ‘mostly’ crime free area. These two, the drinks fridge and the ice cream freezer, are both outside a local alcohol store which was closed when we passed. You may notice that neither of these cooling containers have any locks on them. The lady in the background was telling us we would have to wait a few minutes for the shop to open; I don’t think she understood why I was taking a photo.

Huan was busy trying to get pictures of me chatting to my various friends in the animal kingdom; I don’t know why she won’t let me buy her a camera. Here’s a pooch that used to hate me but now puts up with me, possible because I talk to his flying housemate up there in the cage. What’s more, the housemate responds to melodic whistles!

Remember the flower deliveries from yesterday? Here is one of the locations; you can see that some of the big pots have been placed here.

A couple of the local ladies are just finishing off placing small pots.

Bridges will all have flower boxes on them too.

And here is the other end of the road centre decoration.

Huan didn’t do such a good job with my second canine friend today.

She did her usual and managed to find a small lizard which then I mucked up taking photos of. Only one of the few I took is anything like worthwhile sharing.

As you may guess, today was another day much like yesterday, inclement weather and a bap search. We failed with the baps. On our final straight I asked Huan to pop into a bank to replace a damaged ¥20.00 note that I’d been carrying around for a while. One person was being served and there was nobody else in the queue, I told Huan she’d be out in no time. How wrong can you be? After a long wait I asked the security guard if there was only one teller working to which he replied, “Yes, one is resting and one has gone home.” Added to that the single teller on duty was not dealing with a simple transaction, we gave up in the end. At least we managed to make it home before the rain found its way down.

October 1st “The Lift-Your-Spirits Quote Book” compiled by Allen Klein, ISBN 0-517-16309-8, published in 2001. This month’s quote comes from the chapter “Pets” but to keep everyone happy there are two, one from ‘Cats’ and one from ‘Dogs’. From Cats, Time spent with cats is never wasted. (Colette) Bob’s PS –If you don’t believe, try it. Whenever you see a cat, stop, talk and pet, you will immediately feel better. From Dogs, The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. (Samuel Butler) Bob’s PS –Another one for you to try, either with your own dog or with someone else’s, even a stray. It may take time if it’s not yours, but eventually they will play and you will both have fun.

国庆节 快乐, Guóqìng jié kuàilè, Happy (Chinese) National Day. Yes, everyone is on holiday today, well except for Huan and her dancing buddies, they have two rehearsals, one this morning and one this afternoon. Huan went off in the rain to catch her (free) bus, leaving me at home forlornly looking out of the window.

Today was Saturday so it was market day and the rain eased off before ten allowing me to go and have a shufti as it were. The run up was bare of any street sellers.

And the market itself wasn’t much better. Normally at holiday time it would be a lot busier but I think the weather had a lot to do with today’s lack of stalls.

Having failed in my shopping duties I was left with time to waste until I was to meet Huan, and the residents’ committee, for lunch. I tool a ‘long cut’ instead of a short one. Now here is something that you may not expect to see in China, but it does happen.

It’s amazing how much nature you can find in the city if you know where to look. This is a corner plot that will at sometime in the future be built on, not it’s beautiful and wild.

Remember the flower boxes from yesterday? Well here they are, on the same bridge but full now. Check the hills behind and you will see that they won’t need much watering!

In fact, by this time, I had been over watered, very much so. My shoes and socks were soaked, my shirt and shorts were no longer dry even though I did have an umbrella. I had some respite from the rain while I waited for twinkle-toes.

It seems that there will now be about five hundred people performing, three hundred and fifty of whom were in the hall this morning. Huan and Yú have been promoted and are now part of a smaller group along with young students.

They didn’t stop until nearly midday, not a good way to treat your performers when the scheduled time to finish was eleven thirty. Still, someone was there to take us to the restaurant so I only got a little bit wetter. The lunch was fine, I had the obligatory glass of 白酒Báijiǔ, well, one must show willing. I also had a few glasses of the not so obligatory beer. By the time lunch was over and I walked Huan and Yú back towards the hall, they had another practice starting at three, I was wobbling a bit. I don’t think they noticed though, they had one eye on the weather.

The river had swollen quite a lot since I walked past it this morning; the lower walkways were under the water. At least the rain had eased.

All that rushing water and the change in the weather plays havoc with the old waterworks, even more so since the prostatectomy, but when I got there, it was locked!

Luckily there was another one not too far away. Luck was also with me for the shopping, I popped into the indoor market to buy vegetables and the roast pork lady was just setting up. Maybe that’s the time we have to try in the future. Goodies in hand I set off on the last stretch, check the river here. The ford is completely under water, the riverside farms on the bend have disappeared and if our new dam was fixed that would be under water too.

My plan was to take one more photo of the rushing torrent from a vantage point in our little square. I failed; I fell over in the dirt and the wet. Of course I blame the weather and the conditions underfoot 100%, it was nothing to do with me having a bit of a wobble going! Huan and Yú arrived home later than they expected, the bus finished before they did!

October 2^nd Huan sneaked off this morning before I was up. Actually I had heard her pottering about on the balcony but I must have dropped off again. I spent the morning being a house husband, first of all preparing a small egg salad for lunch and then preparing a bigger, much bigger, potato salad for today’s and tomorrow’s pork dinner. I enjoyed every minute.

The afternoon saw Huan go back for another rehearsal of course, she has two a day for most of this month, it’s hard work but fun too. I had a little meander, without Percy, just in case. There wasn’t much to take photos of anyway, apart from this little chap. He is always happy to see me and if he can, like today, he will put his front paws on my legs while standing on his back paws. I’m sure he could stay there for much longer than my patience would hold out!

October 3^rd Monday came around again, just like it does every week! This morning SWMBO made sure I was awake and out of bed before she left. Why? Because I had to go for a solo test this morning, Huan had been tested yesterday at her rehearsal. We are now officially out of sync! Soon I was in the queue again, not understanding anything of what was being said around me. A lot of people in Wuzhishan speak the local language 海南语, hǎi nán yǔ, Hainanese in other words. Many people here, especially the younger ones and children, are bilingual, in some cases trilingual. I’m still struggling with Chinese never mind trying to learn a regional language too.

Just for a change here’s another view, this time from the sharp end looking back.

Despite being up and out so early I still couldn’t go for long walks in the country this morning, my shoes have not yet dried out! Instead I decided on another bap excursion where I found the seller only had nine. I stood guard over them while he went home and got another eleven so that I could buy twenty. Why he only brought eleven I don’t know, perhaps he didn’t want to stand outside any longer once I had bought the twenty.

Walking back home I thought you might like to see that the ‘farm in the corner’ is now above the waterline again. Whether any crops can be saved or not I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess.

Home early, ready for coffee and the internet, but I only got the former. Communication with the outside world is not possible today; at least it wasn’t all morning and afternoon. Even in the evening it was only possible due to the generosity of a good friend allowing me to use his different way. The first thing I did was tell my provider that I was online with a different one!

I also forgot that today is Monday and the weekly post was due! Last minute panic set in, hopefully you will get it today and not tomorrow. See you soon!