27th March - malapropisms - fines - backpacker found - 2XS on Flinders Island

Wednesday 27^th March

There is quite a lot of local news at the moment which is particular ghastly so I will just write two brief snippets which are neither ghastly nor terrifying…

·        At lunch recently the conversation turned to malapropisms.  Chris told us about somebody’s Uncle Reg, who could always be relied upon to say something just slightly wrong… He often regaled his visitors with tales of the local priest, who got up to no good in the confection box…

·        Fines enforcement – I have been living a very innocent and sheltered life… Apparently there are many people who just don’t pay their fines.  This is incomprehensible to me; if I get a parking fine I tremble a bit and rush off to the internet to pay it IMMEDIATELY.  Not sure what I think will happen if I don’t pay it, but a fine seems to me akin to The Word of God.  But…as I said, some people don’t pay.  The biggest offender so far this year in Tasmania is a recalcitrant driver who has, so far in this CALENDAR year amassed 97 parking fines… This person feels the need to park close to work, no matter what…

Some of the potentially bad news in Tasmania has since dissolved away into VERY good news – an 18 year old German backpacker, presumed lost on the East Coast, walked out of the national park, wreathed in smiles, having had a lovely time camping with new-found friends.  She was, I am sure, totally unaware of the gasps of horror all around the state at the thought of yet another horrible death, or missing persons case, on our beautiful East Coast…

And…good 2XS news.  Far from sailing express, nonstop, wind in their hair, Pete, James and Rachel are holidaying on Flinders for a day or two.  They got there unscathed, with the port engine behaving beautifully.  It is far too wild and windy to leave until tomorrow, so they are having a wonderful time, dining out with Steve, driving Steve’s car around and generally enjoying the glories of Flinders Island in the Indian Summer Sun.

Sapa 2008 continued

Back at Cat Cat View Hotel we found ourselves all just a bit achey after our exertions, and in need of a soothing cold drink on the terrace.  Our dinner that night was just delicious.  Quinn (sp?  Surely Not Quinn??) was one of the workers at Cat Cat View.  He was about twenty, very cheerful, handsome, enthusiastic.  He seemed to do everything, running up and down all the levels, meeting and greeting, washing and cleaning, carrying, chatting.  He took a big fancy to Pete, and kept saying, “Please give me a job on your farm in Australia.  No I don’t know anything about farms, but I could clean it very well!”  I’m sure he could do anything very well.  He wanted to cook a steam boat/hotpot for our dinner, and managed to move and shake in the small restaurant kitchen to achieve this goal.  It was the most fabulous feast.  I got a definition of hotpot from Wikipedia.  A spicy variation of the Vietnamese sour soup, with many vegetables, meats and seafood, as well as some spicy herbs.

We had a big bowl of broth in the middle of the table, and Quinn stood and cooked all manner of vegetables and chicken and meat in the broth, and served it onto our plates.  Each item more delicious than the last…We might have been achey but our tummies were full and happy!

The next morning I abandoned my much loved pho ga (chicken noodle soup) and ate, with much gusto - pancakes!  I think Pete and Kerry had bacon and eggs, but Rina and I had the most delicious crepes, with lemon and banana.  Set us up very nicely for the day’s activity!  Rina and Kerry spent the morning shopping.  Rina wanted to buy a quantity of woven hemp, to make cushions, so we left her to her (slightly fraught) negotiations with younger Yang, who brought some from the market to the hotel.  Pete and I went for a walk to the ATM and stopped at a roadside stall for bia hoi.  This is home brewed beer, served from a jug, nice and cold and VERY cheap.  Near us, also sitting on small kindergarten-sized plastic chairs, were some young tourists from Seattle, of Japanese extraction.  They were ordering hard-boiled eggs.  We knew about these eggs, and warned them that they might be surprised not to find an egg in there, but instead, a hard-boiled chicken.  “Yes we know!” they said, enthusiastically  “Very delicious they are too!”  I took a photo of this gruesome little snack, being eaten with great gusto… They were making the most of their time in the mountains.  They had arrived at 7am and were leaving at 5pm the same day… They thought they would sample the culinary delights of the street stalls and maybe walk to Cat Cat Village, and that would DO Sapa….

A very sad moment - time to say goodbye to Kerry and Rina…They were going to Hoian and then back to Ho Chi Minh City so that Rina could spend some time at the dentist.  Pete and I had two more days in Sapa.  We stood in the steep little street with half a dozen sad Hmong girls and waved as the little bus took them away to their next adventure.  (I happen to know what happened next - they spent up big in Hoian and were VERY popular with the tailors…)