Went to the Christmas do last night - was pretty good fun! Shared a taxi with the manager as she lives just down the road from me and it saved me faffing around with the buses and I think we must have got the slowest taxi driver in the whole of Hanoi. It was quite a novel experience to go that slowly - usually taxi drivers just go for it and assume everything else will get out of the way but this guy was giving way and everything!

The place we went to is in the swanky Hanoi Towers where all the rich ex-pats live. The restaurant seemed kinda pricey so I don't think I'll be heading back to eat there any time soon, but as yesterday evening didn't cost me a penny price wasn't an issue! There was an open bar and a buffet style xmas dinner - turkey, stuffing, gravy, roast potatoes, mince pies etc. Yum! Met a whole bunch of people there too, plus there are a couple of people with rooms to rent so I now have some houses to check out too. Not only were all the teaching staff there all the Vietnamese staff who do admin and stuff showed up too, most of them with kids in tow, so there was a really good atmosphere. Once the meal was over people started to drift away but there were still a fair few people staying around to finish off the last of the alcohol so I hung around and chatted to them - including a bunch of British people. Haven't really spoken to many fellow Brits since being here so that was nice!

Got a lift back with Nat and for the first time since being here I've actually needed to wear my fleece! It's a bit breezy on the back of a motorbike late at night!

Still not sure yet if I'm going to do anything at all on Christmas Day - will have to see what happens.

Am also now starting to consider places I can go at the start of next year for a bit of a holiday. I have two weeks off for Tet and most people have recommended getting out of the country. As I have no choice in having two weeks off I guess I should use this as an opportunity to get out of Hanoi. However transport and accommodation in Vietnam are really expensive over Tet and pretty much the whole country closes down so I think this is a good time to leave the country for a bit. It has to be somewhere cheap though as I won't actually get paid til after Tet, plus I'm no doubt gonna have to put down some money on a house soon so I need somewhere cheap. There are some bargain flights to KL and Bangkok but I've been to both of those places before. Air Asia have some dirt cheap flights out of KL to other random Malaysian places so potentially I could fly there then get another flight out to some sort of beachy resort. Might go and try and get a bargain guide book tomorrow and have a read about places Malaysia has to other besides KL. I got a lonely planet for Vietnam for the grand total of £4 the other week and this store had a whole wall of second hand guide books, mostly for places in Asia. Will go hunting tomorrow.