Chi’s story

When my wife’s brother was born, she was only nine years old. During the birth, her mother had some complications, eventually leading to her inability to take care of the boy sufficiently. Now, I tell the family story as we prepare to meet Dai in France after he was adopted 15 years ago.

Typical Day

The weekend is over, a weekend which involved a long and emotional school closing ceremony. A weekend which preceded a long and emotional 5 days at school, where many goodbyes to students and fellow teachers were shared in the form of cards, gifts, photos, emails and probably to be broken promises. Sharing the same building [...]

Allez Boo

Ahh, those of you who have haunted the streets of Pham Ngu Lao and De Tham, as most residents of HCMC have at some point, will recognise this corner. However, it is goodbye to Allez Boo which entertained pissed backpackers and English teachers for ten years. Although not a place I would go to often, [...]

Getting Married in Viet Nam

Getting married in a communist country that is still developing is just as much fun as you are probably thinking it is.

Economic Slide

Today I happened to catch the BBC World News Business program, and they had a short but worrying analysis from the studios of the Asia Business Report program, also on the BBC. The fact that inflation up to 25% is no secret, but the report stated this was only matched or beaten in Asia by [...]

Moving On

As with every expat, the time to move on has arrived. It may not be forever, but from June 30th TFW will be on holiday. To return, I am sure. When, I am not so sure.
What with all this baby stuff (by stuff I mean having one), it seems a good a time as any [...]

1000 tiny things….

1000 tiny things I hate sets the tone for my return to the UK…pessimistic, witty, cynical, and generally hating the moronic humans who stalk the planet of which I am not one, of course.

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Bike Fashion

Very interesting story today on Thanh Nien News today. This crazy ass kitschy fashion invading Hanoi, youths decorating their bikes :
Teens have beautified small two-wheelers with glitter and plastic flowers, giant silk butterflies and teddy bears, Christmas tinsel and paper parasols and, yes, feather boas, in an anything-goes creative arms race.

Youngsters have rigged blinking [...]

Big News

When informed that he had gotten a girlfriend pregnant, George pondered for a minute, looking shocked, and then screamed ‘I did it! My boys can swim!’ as he ran down the hall in celebration.
Whilst not quite my reaction, Chi is pregnant (3 months) and before Christmas (last week of November) we’ll have a baby added [...]

Urban Jungle

Here is a motorcycle car park from the center of town near the now infamous golden triangle that was recently auctioned off for 500 million dollars or something ridiculous (and that doesn’t even buy the land, just the rights to use it…).

This area of land adjacent to Pham Ngu Lao has been a ‘hung’ project [...]