Breakfast and Injuries

This mornings events.........

We have to go out tonight, and Shan didn't have time to shave this morning so he threw the razor in his bag. On the way in we stopped to get coffee at Segafredo, and Shan was outside sitting on the bike waiting for me to get them. Next thing I know, there is a POOL of blood on the ground, blood all over his shirt, and all down his hand. He has HACKED a CHUNK out of his finger. It took about 10 minutes to communicate with staff that we need serviettes and water, and in the end I stormed the kitchen looking for them. They of course don't have a handle on their tap and I couldn't find the pliers to turn the tap on so that caused a bit of a stir. Up until this point I had a great relationship with the coffee boys.. now I'm not getting much eye contact from them. Still, we got our coffee, rode into work and bandaged him up. I wish I remembered to pull out my phone to get some photos.

After, I went down to our breakfast lady across the road from work to get our herb omelette roll. See below for pics. It's just a little stand on the side of the road, with a breadroll heater, and hotplate, chopped herbs, some cucumber and optional chilli. It costs 7,000VND per one (.40c).

Below is the breakfast stand:

Cooking the omelette:

Shan and his sore finger:

I'm pretty happy about breakfast:

So is Shan:

Our New Playground

3 Entries in a week! I'm on a roll! I thought I would show you my and Shan's favourite new place. It's a pool that is attached to a hotel here.. not a fancy hotel, more low-key and in a great location. The pool is open to the public for 50,000VND per person, roughly $3.50. It's located in Tay Ho which is near West Lake, just about 2km north from our apartment.

It always has heaps of locals and expats there and great atmosphere. Pool on oneside and Westlike on the other. They don't offer all the expensive hotel benefits, they simply have a sheltered area to the left where there are a couple of fridges with beer and coke, and a deep frier that they fry up chips and sausages. The most fun though is that there is a golf area where you can buy 100 golf balls and whack them into the river - or if you have any skills you can aim for the targets in the river.

Pool in front of us....

West Lake behind......

Golf to the left...

And this is a pic taken this morning on the motorbike on our way to work....

Sweet Treat

A few new people have started in our office this week and it's customary to bring a gift to the office for everyone. (Didn't know that). This is the 'cake' that was given to everyone in the office. Apparently it's made from a type of wheat and stuffed with mung bean.. yummm, I knowww! It's quite heavy, and very very sticky. Imagine throwing it against a wall and it will just stay there. Probably forever.

Here are some pics. I tried a bit, it actually didn't taste that bad, but I would choose chocolate over it any day of the week!

Life Goes On.....

Hello! It's been about 3 months since my last post I know..... We have been really busy. Getting into work and trying to get a routine here has been consuming all our time.

We've started our Vietnamese lessons - have been having them for 4 hours a week in total. It's been difficult finding the time to practise and the nerve to start using it. But we're starting to throw in whatever Vietnamese words we know in our sentences. Attached is a pic of us having our lesson on Sunday morning in our apartment. Shan and I do it together and our teacher is Co Van. She's really great - full of accolades which Shan loves, and we have lots of laughs.

We've done a little bit of travelling, a weekend in Hoi An (I've posted these pics on Facebook) and an afternoon trip just out of Hanoi - literally over the bridge to a rural area that is slowly being built up with apartments. The traditional houses and alley ways around and beautiful and I think the apartments are ugly.. they are like confines, bad public housing??? Around some of the local areas they were drying over the streets this bright bright orange corn - a colour I've never seen before.

We've also moved into our new office. It's so much better than the last previous office. In hindsight I can't believe we worked in those conditions - communal filthy toilets, crowded, dirty little rooms. No wonder is was so stressful. Below is a bad photo... but you get the idea.. I took the photo to see show someone the curtain.

But we have fantastic views. Below is a photo of an oncoming storm.

I'm about to have dinner.. will post this now and update more later. Bye!