Well for the last 2 or 3 months the weather has been rain, rain, rain. Heavy rain, light rain, torrential rain, 'standing under a lukewarm shower in the bathroom rain'. And the rest of the time just sticky and grey. But today.......the sun is shining. Slowly here comes the good weather. October/November/December are the nicest months in Hanoi and we are going to use the garden and enjoy the outdoors. Life is great.
Our new house is in another world. On one side of our lane (well track to be precise) you find houses like ours, and on the other side are some small family dwellings with their own plots of agricultural land. One picture here shows a dwelling where a family does actually live ( I took the picture just by our front gate). The picture below shows, in the distance, the Fraser Suites where we stayed for the first 6 weeks after arriving here last year. It's maybe 300 metres away but on the other side of the main road, which is 'expatville'. We are so close, yet so far from our old area in Hanoi, in a very Vietnamese area now, and when we tell other expats where we live they tend to say " Oh wow.....I've never ventured over the other side of the main road before. What's it like?".
One major issue here is the difficulty in getting taxis. We have an incomprehensible address, that even locals look at as they scratch their heads. They use numbering systems for the small lanes and alleys that adjoin the named roads, and our number has obviously been produced by Hanoi's 'random number' machine, 'cos it makes no sense at all. But we have our 'taxi lifesaver'. This is Mr. Ninh (or his fiance Miss Phuong). He is our gardener/maintenance man (before you ask, yes we still have Ms Chi as our housekeeper). We now get Mr. Ninh to ring for a taxi , and each time we know that in Vietnamese he is saying "Go down Lane 200 Au Co; go past the market and turn left onto the track where there's a sign with a lane number that seems to have been borrowed from another district of Hanoi". And sure enough, the taxis come......although when it's raining we have a long wait, and sometimes a taxi might refuse to drive past the market, which in the morning is heaving with people, and so we have to walk 150 metres and hope that somebody else hasn't nabbed the taxi.
Changing the subject, blogging is getting quite interesting here. There is a real crackdown on bloggers. Not bloggers like me, who merely chat about nothing in particular, but rather bloggers who have a point to make......and the point is usually one which is frowned upon , no matter its relative merits. I make no judgement here, and perhaps enough is now said (and hopefully understood).
Changing the subject again I thought I would share 3 interesting photos with you. The first two show the view from two of the Mazars offices I have visited recently - Hong Kong and then Liverpool - compared to the third which is the view from my office window. Where did I go wrong when we chose the Hanoi office?
I can't remember whether I have ever covered the fact that I am now a member of the Hanoi Whisky Club. What a fine institution it is. And how much have I learned and can now appreciate about Single Malt Whisky! There have only been around 80 members in 9 years (with a maximum of around 20 at any one time). It's a real privilege.
Ok everyone.....until next time,
Kevin
