Saturday 2nd March

Saturday 2^nd March

 

I have been getting unusual comments, on this blog. Some of them gibberish, some of them kind and friendly. One of them invited me to look at their own blog and – oh dear – it was a (very beautiful and tempting) weight loss program… I am feeling just a teensy bit paranoid!! Has this person SEEN me?? Can they tell I have put on 4 unwanted kilos since returning to Tasmania? If this unknown person is still reading- thank you, duly noted, but…I am onto it and have already lost one of the unwanted kilos; the other three are soon to follow!

 

Coffee in the street Saigon 2008

 

The next morning Pete and I walked (hot hot hot! We had to walk slowly…) to Ben and Rose’s house and stopped for coffee at a corner café. Kerry and Pete had spent a lot of time in this little café the year before, and the owner, Toi, was besotted with them. He would hum and skip about as soon as Pete hove into view, and would pull out the very best little plastic chairs for us. It was all very basic - dirt floor, a few tiny tables, a heap of plastic chairs, a TV high on the wall, and a cabinet with a few sundry items to buy - toothpaste, a couple of dusty batteries, maybe toilet paper, not much else. Toi made coffee which Pete just loved - strong and thick, and poured over a big glass of ice. I really don’t like iced coffee, so I would ask for hot, please, which stumped Toi just a bit. But off he would go, and I would soon find myself with a dear little cup, with a little metal coffee filter thingy perched on top. It took three minutes for the coffee to trickle through, and when it finally was ready, it was strong enough to be used as a heart starter in an ICU. We were very contented sitting there, with Toi beaming and speaking to us in Vietnamese, occasionally laughing and punching Pete in the arm because he had said something so witty, if incomprehensible. The little street was in a constant state of roadwork… Months ago they had started putting in sewerage pipes (or so say my notes…it could have been drainage, or waterpipes), and we were right up close to the doings. All very entertaining. While sipping my coffee, I had a moment of mild panic over money - I had started off with two million dong, how much did I have left, how much had I spent, with nothing to show?? Pete did a rapid check of my finances and a conversion - I had, so far, spent the princely sum of…three dollars…