Monday 3rd November 2008
Re: yesterday’s comments. According to Judy’s father, the snake was poisonous... but what does he know #*?
Well, it’s been a beautiful day and I’ve not been out all day! I have however, had the back door and big front doors open for fresh air and together with the fan I’ve been OK. To venture out into the heat can only appeal to mad dogs and Englishmen and I’m neither.
I spent the morning preparing for my class tonight, after Mark left for his private class after breakfast. He had to visit to the Doctor again to check on his ears and returned at 12.30 with Judy and food for lunch. At 100pm two students came for an hour and then he had to go to KTV for a meeting at 3.00pm. So I was contentedly attached to my laptop all day, even taking it to bed with me for a siesta. Well, what else do I have to keep me happy?
Actually I’d been checking out DVD’s for Mark, all copies of course, and sorting out the ones that actually play. So I watched a film all afternoon, which was so good I didn’t fall asleep. Called ‘Freedom Writers’, it’s the true account of one naive young woman’s efforts to teach English to the problem youth of LA, in the midst of racial gang warfare. It’s such a moving story and well worth watching if you get the opportunity. Mark never got back from KTV, so Michael picked me up for classes at 7.30; I just had the one, then home to bed.
Tuesday 4th November 2008
Happy Birthday to Cathy who’s 20 years old today! Lots of hugs and kisses, our kid**** I remember it so easily because it’s the day before Guy Fawkes!
Today we’d planned to go to Saigon to finish arranging our new account with HSBC, pick up our ATM cards and do the online banking business. Mark had already bought tickets for the 8.15am train from Hanoi, but as we waited patiently for the train to arrive we were told it was delayed because of floods in the North. We’d heard that people had died in the worst floods for years in Hanoi over the past few days. We went back home with young Michael who was coming with us, had a drink and returned an hour later. Forty five minutes later the train arrived so we didn’t get to the Bank till 11.0’clock.
We always try to have a native speaker with us and Michael wanted to show Mark a huge showroom of electrical toys; huge TV’s and dinky Notebook laptops, where I bought a very neat 160GB external hard drive for less than £50. So if I leave my laptop with Mark when I leave; (he needs a new one and mine is too heavy to cart around), I can plug into any computer and access all my files. Very useful!!
On our way to the Station before 8.00 this morning, we passed a man on a bicycle with three snakes about a metre long dangling from one hand. Whether they were alive or dead I do not know! When we got to the station a girl drove up with a dozen or so hens hanging from her handlebars, alive and trussed by the feet. There’s no sentimentality here and no such thing as animal rights; just food, alive or dead. Mark tried out a Harley-type chopper bike while we were waiting at the station. That's him with Little Michael.
Michael had to get the 2.00pm train back as he’s working tonight, but we stayed on and ate in a restaurant that was somewhat more expensive than in Bien Hoa, but very good. Mark bought DVD's at Saigon Square market and I got a new backpack, apparently a Samsonite that would be very expensive at home. After what seemed like hours in the Bookshop, where I bought a couple of very interesting books, (more on that later), we instructed two motorcycle taxis to take us to the Station. That was some hair-raising ride through the Saigon rush hour to catch the 7.00pm train back home!
Unfortunately I didn't take any interesting pictures to show you. Just a young girl taking a nap in her stall at the market, who woke up as I took her picture, and Mark bargaining for DVD's!
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