m.i.a.

 

Well. What a week full of sadness, happiness, exhaustion, wine, family, and far too much time flying. With promises of us having adventures, taking photos, and sharing all very soon, we have been somewhat m.i.a. on the blog/communication front, the reason being a very last minute and unexpected trip home. 

A's grandpa passed away the week before, so with 17 hours of flying we found ourselves back in Adelaide for the memorial service, family, old friends, cupcakes, and red wine in the garden to remember a man that meant so much to everyone.

To the other extreme we also found ourselves at a fabulous wedding filled with love and much happiness, much more family, friends, all in their finery. Champagne, toasts, and dancing, not to mention the eternal question. Beef or Chicken?

Then the flight home. Now. Tired very tired. Too tired to blog anymore, instead look at the stunning bride and groom as captured by a very clever bridesmaid.

three weeks

Well, it seems that today is three weeks in Vietnam. I am not sure where those three weeks have gone, in the very same instance it feels like we have been living here for much longer. We have settled in so very easily to living here in Hanoi and work has certainly embraced our presence...we are already working Sundays! Okay, I exaggerate, it was not exactly against my will - there was chocolate croissants and brownies as bribery, nor was it a regular occurrence (I desperately hope)! Consequently, the camera has still not made it out for an excursion.


Post our self imposed "adjustment period" (read: excuse to eat whatever we want and be lazy) we decided that it was best to getting exercising to work off all of that indulgence we allowed ourselves to enjoy back in Australia, since, well Christmas. So, off we went to the nearby gym to enquire about memberships (ignoring the fact that in my history of gym memberships, the closest thing to a work out I got was carrying the card around in my wallet). We decided that no, it was serious, we need to get active.


In we walked, the door held open by one of seven, that is right, seven concierges to one seriously plush and sauve gym. As we were escorted around past the heated pool, spa, yoga classes and all that other stuff gyms have, we had mostly convinced ourselves that this gym would change all of those past experiences and would absolutely be going three times a week. We sat down to dinner after visiting the gym, we looked over the details, worked out it was a bargain at $350 a year, and were finally invigorated for our new regime. As we later made our way home, I paused in the street thinking, hold the phone, something is not right with this equation. Too many zeroes, too much confusion, not $350 – $3500 a year. Consequently we walked to the patisserie, bought ourselves some cake and promptly forgot about exercising.


Clearly some more time practicing my mathematics in the land of six zeros needs some work, although, on a daily basis one does get to feel like a millionaire. Best not to convert the dong and just embrace our new lives!


* Image: A little bit of Vietnam from our apartment back in Australia

hound hell

Sleep is one of those blissful things that I have recently discovered that I have long taken for granted. Not to compare myself to new parents, but it is only when some new factor, such as a baby, is introduced into your life, some such factor that disrupts that very thing that you have come to take for granted, that you realise how valuable, how wonderful, how utterly necessary to your survival that blissful thing is. Now, perhaps this is where my reality deviates from my example. I have discovered in the past week or two that when something does disrupt that very thing that I love, and now cherish, so very, very dearly, I become a less than nice person. I imagine as a new parent, that disruption is also considered a bundle of joy and does not cause the same pure hatred and loathing for said disruption.

However, I am not a new parent. I have NO attachment to this, disruption. Consequently, I have nothing, not a single ounce of sympathy for that disruption as I lay in bed for hours in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, I WANT TO KILL IT! Yes. At 4am in my mind I plot murders. I count the ways I could kill this disruption, silence that damn disruption. Once this process begins, should the disruption ease for any period of time, I cannot return to my blissful slumber, because I am too preoccupied. My mind whirling away with vicious thoughts and having mental tantrums as I do not want to wake the person sleeping next to me that miraculously can doze right on through.

I never considered myself a violent or malicious person. It is quite incredible the change one mere little creature can cause at 4am after long nights of listening to that creature bark, and bark, and bark. That’s right. We live next door to a dog. Something that would be seemingly minor and not really affect your life all that much. Certainly it would not cause you to fundamentally despise a species that you have previously always been rather fond of. I too foolishly believed this. Until now. BUT. It is personal now, does it bark during the day, noooo, does it bark once I get out of bed, noooo, does it bark when watching tv or reading in bed at night, noooo. No, this canine knows just when I am in that blissful part of my sweet sweet slumber and then, then he lets rip (I have no evidence to suggest whether this hound is male or female but since it is International Women’s Day I am figuring it to be a boy-dog).

Since this personal vendetta has begun, colleagues have watched with amusement as the bags under my eyes get larger. Only to inform us this week that the dog problem is in fact a notorious problem in Vietnam. People have moved homes and offices for this very reason. In fact, many colleagues, having encountered similar nocturnal foes had their very own suggestions of how one should deal with this situation. One colleague first suggested that perhaps sleeping pills would solve the problem. When I responded that I was not entirely comfortable with developing a drug dependency to be able to sleep at night, it did after all seem a slippery slope, I was promptly corrected – not for me, for the dog, how many could it take really!? The next suggestion was that an acquaintance of his would be more than willing to come during the night and take the problem off of our hands, valuable dogs fetch very high prices in Hanoi, they are in very high demand. I am not sure what constituted valuable in this context – meat or breeding. I did not ask. I figure it is probably better that I do not know.

In short, I am becoming an increasingly irrational person, when the ear plugs and the pillow do not do the trick; you know you are in trouble. Thank god A does not snore otherwise we could be in real trouble! So tonight, we move bedrooms and if that does not work, at 4am I will practice my Vietnamese. Then the next time I see the landlord I will be able to tell him in no uncertain terms that something simply has to done. Or, alternatively, I would be able to ask someone where I can find some bolt cutters and set that mutt* free…

* The mutt in question is most certainly nothing like the puppy pictured above that I am certain would NEVER disrupt a soul. In fact the mutt in question is most certainly an insult to dog-kind.

Slumbering puppy pictured via Snippet and Ink.

back it up…

Before we left on our big bold new adventure, we were fortunate enough to cram in one last weekend away with some of our very beautiful friends. A + I spent one very relaxing Thursday night at Ridgetop Retreats, three gorgeous, architecturally designed, modern retreats in Deep Creek Conservation Park. 

Despite the lack of bath for relaxing and weather for lighting the wood fire, it was a very quiet secluded and lovely place to play some cards, have a bottle of champagne, read books, and simply relax. Spectacular views of some Australian beauties: gums, flowers, shrubs and forest. Not to mention the abundance of kangaroos happily munching away…

Friends, food, wine (and then some), games, and good times soon arrived for a very wonderful weekend with many memories best not described for one and all. Needless to say it was a magnificent weekend and our last opportunity to enjoy some Australian beaches and thankfully it was not only warm enough to go for a swim there was a kiosk close enough for an ice cream afterwards!

chào đón nhà

One week in Hanoi. And how the last month has FLOWN by. Posts have been sparse, but now that we have finally arrived, settled in, finished assignments and started work, we will hopefully have a chance to get out and about and take some photos and have some adventures! We will also try to post some pictures from home before we left...


After a hectic schedule of farewells, we were on the plane and embracing the movie marathon, to arrive in Hanoi and head straight to the hotel. The first few days were spent experiencing Vietnam, both the good and the bad!


Setting up was easier than one could ever imagine. You want a motorbike, just call and it will be delivered within the hour. You want a place to live, just call and that day you will be taken around to 15 apartments and houses in any area you choose. Eventually this resulted in us being rather confused as to whether you choose a five story vietnamese house, all the space but kitchen benches up to your knees, wooden benches and rock solid beds... or a western style apartment, rather expat but all the perks of a single floor, cushioning and air conditioning in every room!

In the end we settled for lazy western luxury and are rather thrilled about it! Not only can we walk to work, we have lake views (above) and everything one could possibly need and most cuisines imaginable, including wonderful vietnamese in close vicinity. BLISS!

On the less pleasurable beginnings to our new adventure... shopping for fundamentals can be a little... surprising when you cannot read the language. Needing toothpaste, we ventured to the supermarket, went straight to colgate. With three options I opted for the visual that most closely represented my experience from home. Naiive you might say. Well mint green with little breath freshening strips, I thought we could not go wrong. That evening before bed, eager to experience minty freshness, toothpaste on my brush, I thought, gee, this just does not smell quite right.


HINT to readers, green in Vietnam, not minty, green tea!!! In my mind far less refreshing. Let us just say this is one of the fundamental cultural conceptions that I am not sure I will ever come around to. Green tea toothpaste, I do not find refreshing. In the same way that mattresses harder than the floor do not a good nights sleep make. 


However, we have settled and now know to avoid the green toothpaste. Best I get to learning that Vietnamese pronto... there was mind you, absolutely no confusion as to what treat to get from the french patisserie - clearly some things do translate.


Hopefully some photos to come, as Vietnamese new year has just passed, people are frequently driving their scooters with incredibly large mandarin or blossom trees balancing behind them...and we thought we were clever with our pillows, doona, wine glasses and crockery! I am sure the locals were amused.