On Thursday I ventured to the dentists to get a filling sorted out. I decided against taking my chances with a cheaper Vietnamese dentist as the filling was behind my veneer so I didn't want them to make a mess of it and leave me needing a new veneer as I HATE having the old one and then the temporary drilled off. Instead I went to a modern foreign owned dental surgery with modern and hygienic equipment and got a good filling put on by a French dentist without damaging my veneer. It was expensive for Hanoi but still cheaper than a filling back home plus they gave me a free mug and were tripping over themselves to help me and offer me things in the waiting area beforehand - a much better experience overall than some of the horror stories I hear about Vina dentist destroying people's teeth or doing unnecessary work to rake in more money. Once feeling returned to my mouth that evening I got me a delivery of okonomiyaki-

Good stuff!

On Friday I went to the Old Quarter in an attempt to find string. I went to a massive stationers but they didn't have any and from the amused looks on their faces I think i was the first person to ever go there looking for string. It wasn't a total loss though as I got some cheapie books and a detailed road map of Vietnam for motorbike adventures. I then tried to get string at the post office but apparently they couldn't sell me a length of string - it seems it is reserved for wrapping packages only. I decided to go to some hardware stores but they had nothing of any use there either. Finally I walked past a paint shop where everything was hanging from the ceiling with red twine so I stopped and asked if they had any for sale. At first the woman thought I wanted to buy various assorted paint brushes but finally she understood my request. She pointed to a big roll of twine on the floor and sold me several meters for a few pence so I've finally been able to hide the dodgy paint job in my room with all my pretty scarves (you can also see my funky elephant throw thing I got in Laos!)-

I also learnt that string doesn't exist in Hanoi, or if it does it's kept in a top secret location that no foreigner has access to.

On Saturday it was really sunny and when driving past the temple near my house I saw that the gate was open - it's usually all locked up - so I went to have a quick look around





Also on Saturday our housekeeper Huong came and she bought us flowers!


She's much happier now our dirt-monster housemate has left - Huong felt really intimidated by her and was never sure what she could move after Fiona went crazy one time when Huong took some old beer bottles to the recycling place. Now Fiona's gone Mark and I have cleared out all the crap and we have a grown up house again with clear surfaces. This makes Huong's job much easier as she no longer had to clean around piles of crap and our house is now much nicer as there are no longer piles of paper all over the lounge and we can actually use the table in the kitchen for eating as it's no longer covered in bags and books and whatever else Fiona felt like leaving there.

My motorbike burn is finally getting better too which is nice. Fiona didn't bother using the kickstand on her motorbike and instead she just propped it against a step outside our house. One day I was putting my bike into the yard when I got home from work when hers fell over. I turned to catch it to try and stop it crashing into my bike and in doing so I ended up with my leg pushed up against the burning hot metal of my exhaust pipe. First my leg was all red and stingy-

Then after a few days it was covered in blisters and was really itchy-

then finally all the scabs fell off and I'm left with a strange patch of skin on my leg that's lighter than the rest around it-

Most people in Hanoi have a scar like this tho so now I'm part of the club!

As I'm going crazy uploading pics here is my pink sparkly Hoi An skirt (tho it's too blurry to see the sparkles!)