Paying 3 months rent in Vietnam -



Despite making me appear to be rich, this is worth only about $600!

This past weekend I was rather social as a friend from uni was in Hanoi with some friends so we met for drinks at Derry's on Saturday night. Ended up staying there so late that banana fritter lady had packed up for the night by the time I got home - she's normally sitting at the corner of my lane til well into the small hours! About an hour after getting to bed I was woken by a phone call from brusque German Tomas telling me my friends had left their bag at the bar they had gone on to and that he needed to know how to return it to them. He called several times over an hour asking for info like their hotel, full names, room numbers etc. I'm glad that he was the one to find their bag as he knew who to call to go about returning it to them and didn't steal anything from it but it still sucked that every time I was drifting back to sleep I got woken by another call from him. On sunday I was pretty tired as a resut and so I very slowly marked some assignments in the aternoon before going to Alison and calder's place for dinner. The art of lowering the key down from the fifth floor balcony is improving but I'm still crap at wheeling my bike up the ramp into their parking garage. It's too steep for me! We ate beef stew and then settled down to watch some Phoenix Nights. They're into British comedy so I thought I'd take it round so the could give it a try. Wasn't sure if the Northerness would be an issue but aside from having to explain a few things to Calder they enjoyed it. Alison did at one point ask if Calder needed the subtitles but he battled throughthe heavy accents without them in the end. The night before at Derry's he and our German friend Carmen had had issues dealing with the poncy British accents of my friends and I but apparently Northern accents pose no problems!

It is the last week of term again this week so the usual lazy week has been under way. Have slacked a bit on the gym this week as I just couldn't be bothered - I needed more sleep on Monday, and I got there a little late yeaterdy so didn't have much time and then today I had to cut it short as I had one of my strange sicky leg crampy things and I didn't want to make it worse so instead I had a shower and went to work where I just walked back and forth through reception to control the cramp, much to the amusement of the Vietnamese staff. Will be doing lots at the gym tomorrow to make up for it as there is no preparationto be done for tomorrow's lesson so I can go in later - I love exam days! After work tomorrow I'm gonna come home and kill time til the taxi comes to take me to the airport to meet my sister (provided I actually get round to booking it tomorrow morning)!!!!

I have a 6 week holiday lined up with her which I'm excited about. Hoping for some good weather on this trip as he weather in Hanoi has been pants recently. There has been a very British rain which has settled over the city recently which is no fun! Have a feeling it is monsoon season in most places tho :0/ Still, my sister is bring some creme eggs with her which will make everything better!