Hanoi for Christmas - boring but Fabulous

It’s going so fast, a week since our long day at the airport!

White Cat in the apartment lounge

Sitting in the apartment and we could be anywhere – Radio 2 on iplayer, afternoon tea and cake, G&T before dinner, steak, macaroni cheese, spicy prawns, slow cooked belly pork so far, oh yes, and a tin of custard powder! Custard powder expensive - £3.50, bottle of Gordons gin £7.20. Cheddar cheese (well almost – it’s Australian) and yummy pate from the butchers. 

Breakfast on the 4th floor balcony

We were in yesterday replenishing stocks and I had to feel for the man in there, he’d gone to collect his turkey for a big gathering (someone else was doing duck as I gathered) only to find it was frozen. This I think had thrown him! We’ve only been out to dinner once – a restaurant that only does curry, but Indian curry, Thai curry, Japanese curry, all very different from each other, but my biryani was very nice.

White cat on the coffee table, eyeing up the G&T's and pringles

A nice homely Christmas scene

Our first night on our own was a little exciting – I was woken by noise, was it a party? Went onto the balcony to look, to see smoke billowing from not very far away, it wasn’t that close, and the wind wasn’t blowing in our direction, but I still had to wake Brian as it was a little close for comfort, should we pack our bags and put the cat in her carrier? What do you salvage from someone elses house? We were pleased to hear sirens and the noise of a man with a whistle. The Building, a small house, on the main road has been completely stripped, down to nothing, and has started on the re-build. They don’t hang about!

That's the remains of a B52 bomber in that lake apparently

We walked to the botanical gardens and to see a small lake with the remains of a B52 sticking out of it on Monday, well the maid was coming in and we didn’t want to get in her way! She normally comes every other day, but we’ve put her to once a week, as apart from fluffy White Cat fur to sweep up, what else is there? I don’t expect anyone else to do our laundry, or ironing, or shopping (though she probably would get a better deal on flowers than we would.)

Pagoda by the lake

Carpet shop and barbers on the edge of a main road

We had a trip to the bouldering wall which we quite enjoyed (after we’d waited 20mins or so for the local school class to leave) though it’s not something we’ve ever done much of so found it really quite hard, not to mention you don’t get the belaying break, so perhaps we should have taken it a little more gently. We were a source of interest for the staff though as we were obviously older that their average clientele, they seemed impressed we were there anyway! I did manage to slip on the way home, and have a bruise on my bottom and a scrape and bruise on the palm of one hand, perhaps I should claim it as a climbing injury, sounds much more impressive!

White cat hides in a box!

A wedding 'selfie' in the street below

White Cat is lovely, she is very talkative and likes to play (particularly likes a mad half hour at about 05.30 when anything on either dining or sitting room table finds itself relocated to the floor. B struggled to find the case for his glasses under the sofa this morning!) but isn’t very cuddly. I’m really hoping she’ll sleep on the bed before we go, but she’s her own cat! She gets very excited every time we eat, and has been offered a taste of everything, and turned her nose up at all of it!

Sunset from our balcony

So all in all, I’ve read 2 ½ books, watched Strictly Come Dancing on iplayer, a couple of films done some soduko and cooked lots of food. It may be time for a G&T and a few crisps before we amble out for a burger or some Mexican tonight!

Bookcase cat

It’s all very confusing watching and listening to iplayer. We’re 7 hours ahead of the UK so we can’t listen and watch todays, because it hasn’t happened yet, so we’re listening and watching yesterdays at the appropriate times so, other than the fact that it’s yesterday’s broadcast, it still feels right and we’re listening to all the Christmas music. Call us ‘sad’ if you want, ‘feeling normal’ is a really nice break from the madness of travelling, staying in different hotels and eating so many different foods. It’ll recharge us ready for more madness in the New Year.