Been a little eventful since my last blog entry, Facebook followers may know most of it already.
Rose is slowly recovering although understandably she is a little paranoid that the cancer may return with things she or I do. On her last checkup visit to Guangzhou (area city) to the cancer hospital, we stayed at her friends hotel for the night before returning home, In the morning I got up to get something from the car, went down the hotel staircase ( a grand affair ) and promptly misstepped the last three stairs and ended up flat on my face in the foyer, I felt a right prat, there was no one around except one reception lady who after a short pause decided to come and see if I was OK. I managed to get up and walk OK but when I got back to the room my foot had decided to imitate a football. Rose had by now called this local ( I thought a doctor ) but it turned out he was just the hotel masseuse and proceed to pummel my foot, which was none too pleasant an experience. Luckily it was my left leg and we have an automatic car so I could drive home easily. The swelling has now gone down and I should be fully mobile again by the end of the week, hopefully. Anyway due to my incapacity, Rose has been driving herself around to wherever she has had to go and has managed on 3 outings to scrape the car paintwork twice. nothing serious, but she finds it difficult to judge the size of the car. She has now decided not to drive again till she feels stronger. We were given tickets for the local High Tech Fair at the exhibition centre here, we didn't actually get to go until around 3pm and it closed at 4.30, we were stuck in traffic the last 100 yards or so, I got out and hobbled in while Rose parked the car I was inside looking round and got a phone call she had scraped the car again (last one) and needed the driving documents that I had on me, so I had to go outside again and give them to her, I then went back inside unfortunately by the time I got inside again everything was being packed up, a total waste of time. So we sent to the new Irish Pub McCauleys, at a place called Coco Park which is right next to the ex centre and had dinner before we went home. Mostly I am sitting here with my leg in the air and its a little boring to say the least. You may never look at tea the same way again once I have told you this story. During the preparations for Julie and Jasmin's wedding reception here in China, I was out and about doing bits and pieces and I came home to the sight of one of Rose's ex pupils, Sharon, hacking away at a big round lump of tea, Now for those that have never seen tea like this, it is often sold here in solid lumps like a great big discus. Anyway, Sharon was hacking away at this solid lump with bits of tea all over the place, she was using a kitchen knife, I tried a hacksaw on it and it was as solid as a piece of Mahogany, We eventually got quite a lot of bits of tea off this thing and I thought it was being done for tea for the reception. They drink tea everywhere. but no. As readers may know Rose recently had 2 hysterectomy operations, which left her with a bit of a sever case of piles. (She had them before the op but now they appeared with avengeance) The next day I found out what the tea was for, it was warmed up in a large flat pan and then Rose sat on it in the toilet, it is, believe it or not a Chinese cure for piles! You may think that a little strange as I did, but wait, she has now moved on to pomegranates, boiled in a kettle and now she sits and washes in that. We had a visit to the doctor today to check up on her and they say all is well and most of this is in her mind. Obviously she is worried about everything at the moment. but I think the local 'cures' are stating to go a little strange.
When we flew back from Canada, we got on the plane, waiting to take off and Rose decided she need the toilet urgently, so off she trots to the loo. After a little while, no Rose, the plane started taxiing, still no Rose, getting near to the runway now, so I ask a steward to go look for her as she had already had a touch of the runs, and I was starting to imagine her in the toilet in full flow and the aircraft taking off and shit flying everywhere. Anyway after a couple of announcements via the speakers Rose suddenly appears the other side of the plane waving, She had found a row of empty seats further back in the plane, and decided to stay there so she could sleep lying down, bud didn't bother to let anyone know!, panic over.
Well after one week in Canada we are now back in China, Before we left China Rose had a blood test, and we didn't get the result till during the week we were away, The test proved positive for a return of her cancer, albeit a small one. We decided it was best to return and start treatment as soon as possible, this has obviously meant that she will now miss her daughters wedding but that is something that cant be helped. She had a whole body CAT scan today to determine how far it may have spread and that has proved that it hasn't spread, just stayed in a small region and her specialist we went to see in Guangzhou yesterday said that it was easily treatable, either by radiation or chemo. He also told her that in the 10 years he has been treating this type, he has only ever had 2 people die on him, probably because they came to him too late, so her prospects are very good even though the re occurrence is obviously a set back for her, we remain very optimistic about it.
Today we went to visit and old friend of Rose's that she went to school with. She got instructions from her that we followed, sort of, we were told to go to the corner of St Clair West and Dufferin, which we did, only to find that the place we were looking for wasn't there, I then asked Rose what the actual address was and she said "512 Keele street" This was about 30 minutes from where we actually were, so we made our way there, walking and by bus, when we arrived it was pouring with rain. Eventually I found the address which turned out to be a second hand car dealership, so not the right one! Rose then looks again at her little book of addresses and says "Oh its not here its so and so on St Clair West, which was just a little way down from where we had just come from, we went by taxi just to make sure we got there this time. It turned out to be a bar called Rockys, a little bit run down with very elderly type customers, Jane, her friend owns and runs the bar, her husband is retired, we spent the rest of the day with them and had lunch next door, we stayed till Jet Lag started to catch up again and now we are eventually back home after getting a little lost with William (the husband) driving us home ag
After nearly 15 hrs flight time from Hong Kong we are now In Toronto Canada, in Julies new apartment block. Jet lag is still with me anyway, I was knackered once we got here as I didn't sleep a lot on the flight as I usually do. Its a 12hr time difference here to us so it takes a little time for the body to adjust when you don't sleep on the plane. I slept about 10hrs as far as I can remember! and I wait to see what happens to me today.
We've been watching the Chinese version of Britain's got Talent, and its called (in English) China's got talent., the layout is the same, 3 judges and lots of silly contestants, and they say "Yes" instead of the Chinese for yes! (must be in the contract). A few weeks ago in one of your backstreet's I saw this guy standing on his head playing the guitar and singing, a couple of weeks later he appears on this show and gets through the audition! The show to me is a lot funnier than the UK or US versions as everyone comes out of the woodwork to perform, they have had a one legged man and a one armed woman dancing together, this week they had a man whose talent was telling chickens to go to sleep????? a singing dog that cant sing and there are a lot of very poor people on just trying to make their way the best they can, some of these are seen in the street begging in normal circumstances. They have quite a few 'Susan Boyle' types on and a lot singing Italian opera! One woman was on doing an opera but she didn't know the Italian words so she sang the names of vegetables instead! she was a veggie saleswoman anyway. Some of the poorer folk have the audience in tears, supporting their young brothers or someone who is very ill in the family, some maybe just doing it for the sympathy vote. The 'Simon Cowell' of china is a bloke called Mr Zhou (pronounced Mr Joe) he is big here and has his own show that is on just about every channel that they have, and they have a lot. Rose tells me he gets away with criticising the regime in all sorts of ways, but because he is basically a comedian they seem to let him get away with it. They maybe think he isn't serious. They have a female on the panel who wears nail ornaments, like crowns and things on her nails, very strange, they had to replace one of the judges last week because he got jailed for drink driving! I wait to see what talent appears this week!!!
Well, it could have been painful but wasn't only a little bit of embarrassment. I was at home in my usual state of dress (none) with Rose out, there was a knock at the door, I thought she had forgotten her keys so go over to the door, and just in case it wasn't here I just stuck my head round and low and behold two Chinese police officers are there who immediately start asking question in Chinese. So I ask them to wait (yes I know how to say wait in Chinese) while I grab a towel and the phone to ring Rose, well as usual when I ring... No answer... the cops then come in and keep speaking, me not understanding when one then comes over to me and points to a line in his little book. and on the line is..... my name..... he points at me and says 'You?", I say "Yes", so I then think they need to see my passport to prove who I am, I go to get it but when I return they are halfway out the door already end of encounter. I still don't really know what they wanted, I can only assume that they were doing an alien check to see if I was where I was recorded as being. Something the UK doesn't sound like its doing at the moment. At least they were friendly and didn't beat me up or drug me. Still, I have found them to be quite polite here in this town anyway. As regular readers will know, we do have some Police friends anyway.
I met a Dutchman yesterday on his bike (of all things) When I realised he was from the Netherlands I spoke to him in his own language (I lived there for 2 and half years a long time ago!) (everything s a long time ago now!) He also lives here married to a Chinese national and said it sounded quite odd now to hear his own language again. Not many folk speak Dutch here! The rainy season has started again and its been tipping down, we get in one day what you would get in about a month. Luckily they are used to it and the drains cope, well in this city anyway, they have gone from drought to floods in some parts of the country. Everywhere here is being 'done up' at the moment in preparation for the Universiade that is occurring later in the year, most of the roads are being relaid, all the pavements around us are being replaced and the traffic is in total chaos, driving at the moment is quicker to walk. We have dust everywhere while all this is going on, so hopefully it will soon be over and at least we wont be tripping over the old holes in the pavement we had before. The city is also painting lots of buildings which is starting to confuse Rose, when we drive anywhere she says turn by the green building, well its now a yellow building so her sense of direction is now worse till she gets used to the colour change. I think she is a bit colour blind anyway, she is always telling me something is green when its blue and she is due to renew her driving licence soon as well. Mine is due up here next year as they only last 6 years here. The good thing we have is that Road Tax is no in the petrol. which is cheap (so far) anyway. Gradually prices are starting to rise and will soon be equal to the rest of the world. And finally, Rose is well on the mend and being back to her old self again. Mostly this is all I did on the trip, wait for things to happen. We originally flew to Chengdu and stayed with a relative, that ended in a family argument and we had to move to a local hotel. This was more comfortable anyway. As soon as we got to the hotel Rose wanted to go to her home town of Zigong, so next day we packed bags again and another cousin took us in his car to Zigong, His car was a bit full already with his business stuff and I ended up cramped in the back with the luggage, I did however get to drive half the way as the new cousin was a bit knackered after his trip.
In Zigong we were booked into a hotel where Rose's sister used to work, it was quite a crap hotel, we went to our allotted room which was at the end of this 100 metre or so corridor, Rose complained it was to far for her to walk and so after we got to the room, she got it exchanged for one nearer the lift on the floor below, This she said was perfect. Packed bags again and moved to the new room, got into bed started to sleep. Got woken by Rose complaining that the toilet smelt. After much protestation from me we moved back to the original room. I only had shorts on at this stage, the hotel staff looked a little puzzled. Got to the original room again, started to settle and this one she now complained smelt of smoke. I refused to budge after that and we stayed the night and then next day we moved into her cousins house. for a couple of days. The cousin was a nice guy, he cant speak English and my Chinese is crap, but his son 'Sparky' (I know) did speak it, we got on OK and while Rose was messing around with her relatives getting all sorts of Chinese medicine (her big sister is a nationally famous Chinese medical practitioner). the cousin took me 'up the mountain' this is a tourist spot where we were just about the only tourists there. very run down, but at least it had good views even though it was a bit foggy and the walk was needed. It was at his house that I discovered that my ipod had gone missing somewhere in all these moves. It has all my music on and I wasn't keen to loose it, plus then I had nothing to listen to. We took the bus back to Chengdu and back to the hotel we stayed at, we had dinner with the lady surgeon who did her operation and her daughter and the next day Rose when for her routine checkup which went well. We then went back to the airport and flew home again. Not the most enjoyable trip I have ever been on, but its always different! At least while we were there everyone told here things I've been telling her, and that is to get on with life and stop being afraid of moving all the time, they all told her to lead a normal life, which she is now starting to do, while consuming oodles of Chinese medicine in the process. Still that only last about a month and normal food will be resumed. Oh and the ipod turned up in the boot of his Well, its been very quiet here lately, while Rose has been recovering from her operation we haven't really done to much, when we have ventured out its only been for about an hour then we have to come home again. We will be off to Chengdu again later in order for her to have her follow up checks, so we will be there for about a week or so as far as I know (things change unbeknown to me anyway).
My little pal Happy after having his shower to get him clean and not so dog smelly, a procedure he is not very keen on although like the good dog he is he stands there resigned to the fact that he cant stop it, now when he goes out into our little garden on the 4th floor likes to find dead worms to roll around in. Now these do impart a quite revolting odour so I have to keep a sharp eye on him and persuade him away from the offending worms, which now that its the rainy season, tend to come to the grass surface a lot more and then get fried in the sun when it comes out again. We spend a little while today at 'another new' shopping Mall that has just opened this one is called KK100, and as they way it goes here is grander than the others, its also under the newest and tallest of our buildings that is just about finished being built. The town is in the process of being spruced up at the moment, buildings painted, roads redone, the new underground is getting near to completion and all because of a huge sporting event the Universiade that is taking place later in the year. When we were out today we were passed by a huge convoy of army trucks, cars and vans etc the lorries contained squads of soldiers armed to the teeth, so something is going on, unless they are just here to practice for the above mentioned event. But was an unusual sight to see around here. |
AuthorThe blog of a retired old git Archives
January 2018
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