May 2021

May has been a time for me to rest and reflect as I transition between jobs. I quit my old job at the end of April and will officially start full-time in August as a biology teacher at an international school in Wuhan – bet not a lot of people saw that coming 😛 In May and June I am working part-time and am only obligated to be present at the school on Mondays and Tuesdays. However, I am still working to prepare for teaching on the other days, but my schedule is extremely flexible. That’s why I had been able to visit some restaurants and coffee shops that have long been on my to-go list, and even travel a bit outside of Wuhan. Days like this won’t last so I’m cherishing and enjoying them to the fullest before I return to full-time work. Here’s May!

I will always try to get a window seat on a plane or train ride and this is why – the views speak for themselves. The high-speed train from Guiyang (a post to come later) to Wuhan passes by countless mountains and villages, and this stretch of rice terrace had to be my favourite scene during the 4.5-hour trip.

Had to catch the end of spring in May anf take a few more leisurely strolls along the East Lake in Wuhan before it gets too hot in the summer…

…or cycle a couple dozen kilometers. The end of may already saw some 33-degree weather so this might be my last cycling trip for awhile, unless I’m crazy enough to brave the summer heat waves!

Donut art, random encounter during a supermarket visit. I don’t particularly like donuts as they’re too sweet, but here they look like they might as well be in a museum!

Lamb chop time! Jian and I had been intending to make lamb chops at home but it only stayed an intention until two weeks ago, when we finally made it happen. Well I did the cooking and Jian helped with devouring it, heh. The lamb chops were first pan-seared and then baked in the oven. Side dishes included q colorful salad and some garlic-sauteed potatoes. May I give myself a 12/10 for this, please! It looked fantastic, if I could say so myself, and tasted so delicious!

Animal friends at a cafe that I frequented during my free afternoons in May. Why cats in any form have gone viral is anyone’s guess…

I’ve seen a couple of these ducks lurking around the neighbourhood recently. The English says “I am very busy” but the Chinese tells you what he’s busy doing as it translates to “busy making money”. Well played, Mr. Duck, well played.

This photo was taken by Jian, presumably one day during lunch break, and I just had to steal it and post it. It was a simple snail but I love how the image was super clear and the details came out so sharply. I do have to admit that lately my husband’s photography skills have improved greatly and they indeed deserves applause.

Finally, a real animal friend, our beloved Shanshan. I suppose I answered my own question about cats going viral – how could they NOT??!!!

I’ve been loving my coffee shop afternoons and in fact I’m sitting in one as I write this. I guess coffee culture has become a fad in many parts of the world and though I know nothing about good coffee, I do find it delightfully pleasant to work or chill in a nice coffee shop (with a reasonable purchase, of course). And here comes June with the summer weather – I’m not ready for this yet!!!

March 2021

I’m sick again, ugh! Seems like this always happen during the season-changing periods every year, mostly during the transition from winter to summer and vice versa (spring and fall don’t really exist in Wuhan…) It had been raining non-stop for the past week or so and I’m hoping to get better from this cold in a few days. Meanwhile, a bit late but here’s a snapshot of March 2021 😉

Wuhan is known for its cherry blossoms in March but I prefer the humble plum blossoms that could also be found everywhere.

Here are some cherry blossoms but they were not from Wuhan…this photo was taken in Taiyuan in Shanxi province! ZJ had a weekend business trip and I thought I’d tag along for a few days because I hadn’t been to Taiyuan before…heh 😛

Jinyang Lake in Taiyuan, with the West Hills across from the lake. The lake was actually a lot bigger than I had expected, and I would have liked to stay for a bit longer but it was a rather chilly day and the winds were strong. I could imagine it being gorgeous during the summer in Taiyuan!

A lone bell hanging from a temple along the way during my visit to the giant stone Buddha at Meng Hill in Taiyuan.

Coffee for two in Taiyuan, after ZJ’s lunch with his colleagues and my visit to the stone Buddha at Meng Hill. If you see an owl at the bottom of the large pitcher, you’re not hallucinating – it was sitting on top of an owl coaster, ha!

Iced latte at a coffee shop overlooking the Yangtze River in Wuhan. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of free weekend afternoons exploring independent coffee shops around Wuhan, having a cup of latte and either writing or just chilling and daydreaming…

An unusually nice day in Wuhan, with temperatures in the 20s. The parks are filled with people out to enjoy the sun, including ZJ and me and this couple having a rest side by side.

These plush dolls were not in a shop and were in fact in an open area in a mall where anyone could go up and grab one. But the sign says “There are security camers above watching who is stealing the sheep”…so can I take one or not?!?!?!

Finally, a collage of our dear friend Shanshan who, as usual, likes to pose for the camera, whether she did it on purpose or not. I haven’t yet been scratched or injured by her so we’re still on friendly terms…heh.

January 2021

Happy new year…again?! Yep, it’s Chinese New Year in three days and we’re on holidays. It’s also been over one year since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak and the initiation of Wuhan’s lockdown, and…how things have changed. This January has certainly been a lot livelier than the last, at least here in China. As usual, stay safe, everyone!

It’s sunset time again – this time across from the ancient city wall in Jingzhou, a city that holds an important place in Chinese history during the Three Kingdoms period.

I always find the patterns of branches fascinating and am often surprised by what awaits me when I look up during a walk through the woods. Though most of the branches are bare and leafless, they are such an intricate beauty!

You might think this is a work of Chinese ink painting and you’d be wrong. But it certainly is an amazing art of nature – these are actual shadows of bamboo shoots against a wall in the evening. When I saw this I literally said, “This is so beautiful!!” I had to walk through the bamboo bush to get close enough to the wall for the photo but I simply love how it turned out!

A visit to a museum (Wuhan Municipal Museum featured here) isn’t complete without some imitation art. Here ZJ is the live version of the heroic General Yue Fei – 80% resemblance, at least?

Crossing the Moon Lake Bridge from Hanyang to Hankou in Wuhan, on a lovely evening after a birthday meal for the husband…

…and this is the view of Moon Lake Bridge from the 24th floor, where we had the birthday dinner at a home-based restaurant. The view over the Han River is definitely one of the selling points of this small, cozy restaurant!

Happy birthday to my loveliest Mr. ZJ. Thankful for another adventurous year with you ❤

Another meal here, but at a much more local and down-to-earth restarant in Jingzhou. Piping hot dumplings in the midst of winter – can we dig in yet?!

Hello and meow. During my Wuhan coffee shop explorations I visited this chic shop, which sold an item named quinoa coffee. You can’t see it here but there’s actually quinoa at the bottom of the cup…definitely something new for me to try. And this little kitty seemed to want to join the coffee party 😉

Alrighty folks, time to truly relax and enjoy the long Chinese New Year holidays (it began four days ago for us 😉 ). See you in the year of the ox!

December 2020

Happy new year! Just like that, we left 2020 behind, for better or for worse, but we still gotta look back on the final month of 2020. Before that, I just want to present some brief stats for the blog: 9 entries were posted in 2018, 19 in 2019, and 38 in 2020 – a huge improvement! Looking back, there was a period of time when I had way too much free time on my hands because of COVID-19, and a lot of blogging happened then, mainly with the Japan and Norway series. These entries were of course not all posted at once, but they were pretty much written within the same period of time. One of the goals of 2021 is to blog more but I think that’s been a goal for the past few years…I mean, at least we saw some gradual improvement, right? Let’s try to do better than just posting the monthly summaries this year. First post of 2021, here we go!

Catching a fiery sunset in the quiet countryside of Hubei province. I love the silhouette of the trees and houses against the setting sun.

The moon was unusually round and especially bright on the eve of New Year’s Eve (yes, you read that correctly, December 30) and this photo doesn’t do it justice. Maybe even the moon was ready to say goodbye to 2020 for good…

I often take time during my lunch break to walk around outside even during the winter, and here is a random area beside a creek near my workplace. This photo was shot from an angle that makes it look somewhat clean and serene whereas in reality, the creek was full of trash and next to a road where loud trucks pass by frequently. But hey, you could always pretend or hope to be in a nicer place 😛

Headed to the Wuhan Garden Expo on a beautiful day with Mr.J, taking advantage of free admission until the end of the year. The Expo itself was nothing too impressive, but it was pleasant to spend a full lazy Saturday with Mr.J (no group meeting!) outdoors.

Our food explorations happen on a daily basis where every Friday I pick a new restaurant to try. This time we went for Japanese soy milk hot pot (tonyu nabe), which is something that I’d honestly never heard of but sounded great. With the soy-based hot pot we got a side order of fried shrimp and plum wine (along with other items not pictured here), all of which were lovely complements to the delicious hot pot itself ❤

Ohai. I don’t remember if Shanshan here has been featured on the blog before, but there’s always room for more cat photos. In fact I think I took too many photos of Shanshan that day from too many angles…

…and who is that behind the emoji pillow but yours truly?! There was a prize draw for the new year at the office and I picked up this guy from the draw – lucky me 😛

Went trampolining with some friends and one of the activities was wearing a sticky spider suit and jump-sticking onto the spider web…harder than it looks!! I didn’t manage to jump very high at all but Mr.J did pretty well. In fact, he seemed to enjoy his time on the web so much that I wasn’t sure I wanted to help him get down from there.

Happy husband, happy wife, happy to be healthy and with each other through thick and thin. Adios forever, 2020!

I’ve decided to revive Picture Worthy, which has been inactive since 2017, with a new series called “Alphabetical Cities”. Head on over and check it out, and don’t forgot to also take a look at The Food Gallery, which is updated on even-numbered dates. Till next post 😉

September 2020

September has historically been my favourite month of the year as it marks the beginning of autumn as well as my birthday 😛 This year, September was extra-anticipated because I took my five-day annual leave at the end of the month, giving me two weeks off work when combined with the eight-day National Week holiday at the beginning of October. Still, let’s see what Annie had been up to this past month.

I’m constantly discovering new places in Wuhan and this time it was a walking path near the Huanglongshan (literally “Yellow Dragon Hill”) area. Who would have thought that there’d be this “I ❤ U" sign in the middle of nowhere! So Jian and I had some fun with it, heh 😛

And at the same time, there is a “I LOVE HUST” sign in front of the HUST (Jian’s university) library. Can’t say I myself love HUST that much but J is a loyal faculty member indeed 😀

Weekly fellowship combined with a birthday party this time, at my place.

Birthday girl making a wish upon a star…or upon a cake?!

Sleep vs. grumpy cat, with that “what are YOU lookin’ at O_O” look. It’s OK, I still like you.

Cat #2 here, looking photogenic as passersby stop to admire the gorgeous beauty.

Dramatic sky one afternoon, with the clouds trying to mask the radiating sun. But Mr. Sun’s like, “Nah bro you ain’t taking the highlight away from me” as it attempts to burst out of the sombre clouds…

The baking experiments continue, this time with…classic banana bread! First bite was like OMG this is delicious but it ended up being too sweet…AGAIN, even with reduced sugar content. I guess I didn’t take into account how sweet ripe banana themselves already are…need to work on my sugar control!!!

Tidbits of street food in Chaozhou in Guangdong province, a small trip taken at the end of September before going to my hometown Guangzhou. Top left: beef and tripe soup noodles; top right: glutinous rice stuffed in pig intestines; bottom left: a variety of street snacks in Chaozhou; bottom right: matcha shaved ice milk. Food heaven! ❤

There are two and a half months left in the peculiar year of 2020 but we’ll see if it could get any more bizarre…see you in November with the next monthly update!