Well sometimes a headline just arrives, and this one I had to grab. But you are going to have to get to the end of the blog to see what it's about. And please don't feel let down when you get there......ho ho.
For anyone who is interested, the recent typhoon did arrive in Northern Vietnam , but by the time it got to Hanoi, it had pretty much run out of steam and just deposited a vast quantity of rain on the city. The evening before it was due here, we moved all of our garden furniture inside and we noticed that our gardener had secured our trees with cord attached to the garden walls. But you can see from the photo here (taken about 100 metres from our house) that other peoples' preparation was of a fairly 'Heath Robinson' nature. And since that day, the ladder has disappeared.Now the weather is just lovely. About 20-25 degrees, blue sky, cool in the morning and evening. But when I emerge to go to work at 7'ish in the morning (thinking "this is bloody lovely, why can't it be like this all year?"), I have to smile at the sight of the locals who are in puffa jackets, scarves, gloves, woolly hats and shuffle around braced against the 'Arctic' conditions.
It was Karen's birthday a week or so ago, and our treat was to stay for a night at the Metropole in Hanoi. This is THE hotel in Hanoi and it has an amazing history. Pictured here is the entrance to the Bomb Shelter under the hotel from the American War which incredibly was only 'rediscovered' about 2 years ago, and has now been designated a Unesco Heritage site. This was where Jane Fonda and Joan Baez (amongst others) gathered when American bombs were dropping on the city in the early seventies.
Last week saw the Hanoi International Women's Club Annual Charity Bazaar. This is not (as one of my colleagues 'kindly' suggested) a few ladies baking cakes, but is a highly organized event attracting about 10,000 visitors over a full day with about 100 participating organisations, including this year 43 different countries and communities (many of them Embassy backed) displaying food and craft from their area of the world. Karen was the Country Table Coordinator in 2012 (helping the Chinese and Taiwanese and also the Israeli and Palestinian tables to peacefully co-exist) but this year she ran the British Table. We persuaded one of the local hotels (the Marriot) to produce Fish and Chips and boy did they fly out the door! Everybody is hoping that last year's Bazaar total of 125k USD is going to be exceeded, with all proceeds going to Northern based Vietnamese charities. It is a simply astonishing event and I am proud to have Mazars as one of the key sponsors. Here is a picture of the UK table, and if you look very carefully you can see that one of the offerings was a "love it or hate it" Marmite Challenge..
And so to my Page 3 wife. Karen wrote an article about the K (cancer) hospital in Hanoi which one of the local magazines was very pleased to tell her was going be published and innocently advised "Miss Karen, we are going to publish you on Page 3". We had to smile.
And finally......you remember our houseguest Roland Rat a few months ago? Well here's our new houseguest. Anyone who has any clue what 'it' is......please let us know, as we want to give it' a name.
Back to the UK for Xmas soon .
Very best to all
Kevin
