Yes that is my motorbike. And that is a massive beanbag strapped to the back of it.





I picked it up yesterday and then made my way home with it balanced on the back. I stopped for bread on the way and the parking guy at Joma gave me a strange look. I succeeded in weaving through the traffic though and got home with both me and the beanbag in one piece.

And today I've been treated to this ALL GODDAM DAY!


There is a funeral going on next door and this is what happens at a Vietnamese funeral. They pick the most uncoordinated and out of tume musicians as they possibly can then get them to start playing at 6am. It stops at random points throughout the day for a little while but for most of the day they're making this racket. After being worken up at 6 I tried reading my book for a bit but eventually I gave up and headed to the gym at like 8.30 this morning. Dung looked rather surprised to see me there so early as I'm normally there at 10 at the earliest on a Sunday. I spent aaages there today - partly to avoid the funeral of doom and partly as I didn't go yesterday because on Friday I had a really bad back. I could barely stand up straight, much to the amusement of my students and although it felt better yesterday I didn't wanna risk it at the gym. It was fine today though. I also finally got round to buying a yoga mat thing today so that I can do sit ups and stuff at home without the humiliation of other super fit people watching me! AFter the gym I headed up to West Lake to buy food and to further delay my return home. I thought about getting lunch there as all the Bun Cha places smelled really nice but I couldn't be bothered in the end. Got home to some peace and quiet but it wasn't long before the lame musicians got back into their "music". At least I'll be gone for most of the day tomorrow so if they're still doing it tomorrow I'll miss it. Just hope they don't start up at 6 am again tomorrow :o/

A couple of week ago it was Women's Day and I got two fancy bunches of flowers from both my Monday classes.





Had some nice students last term! My classes this term are pretty nice too. Some of them I taught a couple of terms ago but between now and then the retards have been weeded out so I'm left with the good students!

Just four more weeks of this term and then I'm off on another holiday, this time with my sister. We're spending some time in Vietnam, and then going to Cambodia, Borneo, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Shopping!! I've also managed to convince my sister she wants to stay here in Siem Reap. Dunno if we will go for a villa or just for a suite/the hotel but all the rooms there sound pretty sweet with the swimming pool and stuff as well. The villa sounds extra fancy tho. Will be going to Ha Long Bay again and am going with the same company as with the parents. This time no private boat tho. Did manage to get ex-pat rates so it's only $129 for an overnight trip on a fancy boat. We're also going to Hoi An and I'm gonna get another dress made. It's about time to add some more clothes to my wardrobe! I'm also looking forward to eating some good food. Indian food in Borneo and Chinese food in KL!

Had some good Singaporean food on St Paddy's Day. On my way out of work Alison convinced me and Nat to go to Derry's with her and Calder for green beer and satay. passed on the green beer but the satay was good. There are a few Singapore dishes available there now which sound nice. Will have to try some of them some time.

I've managed to get to the gym most days these past two weeks. Getting my moneys worth! It wasn't too traumatic with the trainer boy the other day but I suck at sit ups and stuff. Have been trying to do stuff like that each time I go and today he made me do more with him - I'm getting better! I can do a few more now compared to two weeks ago, but I still can't do too many before I die! Dung also made me pinky promise to go to his 8am aerobics class tomorrow morning :o/ What a way to start the week! Don't know if I'm even fit enough to make it all the way to the end of the class without dropping dead as it looks pretty hardcore - will have to see how it goes.

Had a nice dinner at Alison and Calder's place yesterday. Had to go via Derry's to meet Nat so that he could follow me to their apartment, then Calder had to send the key down on a piece of string as they're on the fifth floor and can't be assed to walk up and down the stairs unless absolutely necessary. Alison cooked meat pie (from scratch!!!) with mash and veg and it was yummy yummy yummy. We had apple crumble and custard for dessert as I'd stopped at Joma (an ace new cafe we first investigated last weekend. This place sells real bread! None of this sweet bread nonsense - it's the real deal! And you can buy loaves to take home so I intend to indulge in some marmite sandwiches at work this week. The best lunch ever!) earlier in the day to pick some up. It was nice to just chill out for a few hours and eat good food in a nice Western apartment. I get jealous of their place sometimes as it's a really cool apartment, but I can't be bothered to pay two or three times my current rent for my own place (or to faff around moving stuff around Hanoi!. My house isn't actually too bad, particularly considering how little we pay for a fully furnished 4 floor house. And it is nice to have company without having to actually venture outside. We have a new housemate moving in sometime soon as Mark is finally off to Cambodia and so he managed to let out his room in less than 24 hours. We had heaps of people to choose from and hopefully we picked a nice normal housemate from the bunch!

I finally joined a gym (again!) today so am now all motivated to go and be active again. The super hot and humid time of the year is coming so my exercise will dwindle down to nothing which is not good for my plans to go climb a mountain before leaving Asia. When I got back from my big trip I didn't really have the funds to rejoin the hotel gym so I put it off. A new gym actually opened up fairly recently so I'm glad I didn't go back to the hotel as this one is heaps better. For starters it's a real gym rather than an attachment to a hotel and it is full of top quality equipment (including cross trainers! Yay!)that works really well. The staff there actually know stuff about training and there are a whole bunch of classes on offer like yoga, pilates, kickboxing etc. Will try some of them out at a later stage methinks. There is a $300 joining fee which kinda sucks but I get an appointment with a trainer as part of that so on Tuesday I'm going to embarrass myself and find out how unfit I am with this dudes help.

This week is the last week of term for all but one of my classes so a cruisy week is coming up. Time to relax!