The woman in the shop, new breakfast foods and a laugh with the street vendors.

I liked the idea of going to the park in the morning, so when I woke up early, I headed off down to the park.  Today my back hurt and made my foot dead, so after a few dances i packed in and went for a walk into town, I've not been in that early before.  I wandered around a little and then found some food that.  I had two boiled eggs, boiled in soya sauce or something like that and and a sausage wrapped in steamed dough.  Nice.  All ordered in Chinese and paid for in WeChat.  I'm getting there if only slowly.  I then took a walk around.  There is this corner where the these older guys usually hang out.  I've always been curious.  "Hello!" shouted someone.  That was my cue.  Straight in there.  They spoke the local dialect so I struggled to understand, but they understood my Chinese!  We chatted a bit and then did photos.  Apparently they were therefor work... not sure what work but I sort of get the impressions this is where those who want work hang out and those who seek workers come.  Could be wrong.  As usual I was offered a cigarette ... I refused politely.  They were OK with that.  As I wandered along the street I met a guy who I know form the park.  There is something unusual about him.  For a guy of his age , maybe fourty, he is in quite good shape an dwers smart clothing.  He was eatin gwhat looked like cupcakes.  He smiled at me and offered me one.  I smiled, thanked him and took it.  It looked like a cupcake but it was spicy!  Lovely. 

I wandered around the corner and headed towards the long way home.  "Hello" shouted someone as I passed a shop.  At first I didn't recognise her, but when she pointed to the barbers over the road, it all came back.  In the early days in Jiangkou there were a couple of kids in this street who were so excited to see me.  They eventually took me to the barbers shop and this woman came over.  Memory refreshed.  She is a salt of the earth type maybe 40 ish.  She did her best to speak in English and I did my best to spaek in Chinese.  It was good.  We were both patient and helped each other speak.  I thought she was the manager of the shop but it turns out she is just the employees.  We chatted small talk and exchanged names.  I told her that I had a Chinese name and that I could write it.  She seemed excited and asked me in to the shop to write it down.  The shop was a high end beauty product shop, well high-end for Jiangkou, beauty product shop.  She led me to the counter.  There was a full single bed behind the counter.  six months ago I would have been amazed and wondered what the heavens was going on.  Now I just saw a bed.  You nap on it when custom is quiet and during the hot hours of the day.  There was a big knobbly stick on it too.  Used for self massage! Anyway, she got some paper and a pen and I wrote my Chinese name.  She corrected my pronunciation and it was time to go.  Sorry no pictures here but will update this page later. By the way, my Chinese name is 王英悦Wang Ying Yue.  As with most Chinese names there are lots of levels of meaning.  王 means king, best or strongest, 英 can mean British or handsome, 悦 means pleasant. Altogether the characters sound like 玩音乐 which means 'play music'.  So I suppose the general meaning of my Chinese name is The pleasant strong handsom British king who plays music.  It is also the name of one of the characters in the water Margin stories.  Google it if you want to know more.  My friend Susie picked this for me long before I reached China.  Most people are impressed by it but a few say it sounds a little feminine.  I'm ok with that.
So as I walked along the road there was a big traffic jam, so I cut down an side street and noticed a turtle sunning itself on the rocks below.  It was a long way away but small things keep me happy,

There are three rocks sticking up in the river.  The turtle is on the third rock. 

I headed back and to my surprise found a bookstore.  A huge one with a lot of stock.  I wandered around, talked guy behind the counter and eventually bought a map of China for my wall.  It shows the provinces.  He was puzzled as to why I wanted it as it is all in Chinese.  It was difficult to explain!
I decided it was time to head home as it was getting hot, maybe about 32 degrees.  As i crossed the bridge there was a small food waggon and a guy selling peaches. The food waggon had these cupcake things on it.  I started to talk to the woman on the wagon.  We treid to work out the price but I got confused as they were three for a yuan.  Really cheap!  The peach seller came over and we had a good laugh trying to understand each other!  There are some really lovely people over here!

I bought three, walked away and ate them.  They were lovely.  I came back and bought some more and some other seller is the guy in black.

The new things I bought were flatter and oval. Like pitta breads but sweet and sticky, possibly rice flour and rolled in a brown powder.

I ate too many of these on the way home but saved a few for the photos!

The cupcake-like things

Inside the cupcake-like things

They were a bit like UK dumplings but a little sweeter and a spicy centre.

The other things

The other things were sweet, but not sweet by UK standards, and it si hard to see, but a sticky paste in teh middle, possibly rice flour.  That was a good morning!  TomorrowI Have an invite to Tongren to help Wendy with her school.  It looks like a fun day.