The train station:

The spiders are out in full force. Every garden is full of dewey webs.

This is what freaks you out after three and a half years in Saigon. WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE! No noise, no people. Just the clock ticking as you sit your kitchen. The tapping of your fingernails on the table. A pigeon flapping out of a bush. This is Saturday - you don’t want to know what Sunday looks like!

Autumn Tree

Street sign

Now this is what Chi and I really appreciate about our time back in the UK. This park is just a few minutes from my house. Fresh air, a beautiful stroll, a vast area of green. Playing fields serving the rugby club in the winter and the cricket club in the summer, and an 18 hole wooded golf course criss-crossed with walking opportunities. Singularly better than anything Saigon has to offer (Dam Sen, Thanh Da….).

Ahh, the pregnant one.

]]> http://www.itsthefinalword.com/2008/10/autumn-uk/feed/ http://www.itsthefinalword.com/2008/10/babys-coming/ http://www.itsthefinalword.com/2008/10/babys-coming/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:14:33 +0000 JH http://www.itsthefinalword.com/?p=229

Mamma mia the time is coming closer and closer. The weeks go by, the nights draw in, the excitement and the anxiety builds (and the spending too..). Our little baby will be a girl. Maybe she’ll get her mother’s good looks, or her father’s horrendous nose. No matter what Chi says, I am sure we could not see Louisa’s nose on the ultra-sound scan. Definitely not. November the 27th is the precise date we are expecting. In preparation for her arrival my wife has proved to be as useful wielding a credit card as a Charlies Angel with a knife caught in a tight spot (once again if you are reading honey just joking). So far we only have the baby bath, 6 bodysuits, some pjs, a tiny hat and tiny gloves, a fistful of T-shirts, some nappies, a pushchair (complete with car seat travel system), a moses basket (with stand), a ‘baby gym’, a changing mat, a changing bag, oils and lotions, a small tub for splashing baby, some pink flannel sized things for putting on your shoulder when baby is puking, and on and on….

I have yet to buy the earplugs and the Valium. Ahh what the hell, I’ll only have to get up in the mornings and go to Britain’s finest state schools to learn my trade. Just what you want after a night of green liquid poo, a classroom full of adolescent British males.

One things for sure, it’ll all be worth it.

Households bording up their driveways : 

This video from Lisa shows a similar yet very regular occurance during rainy season in Saigon.

I thought I escaped all that! 

Earlier, at the end of August, Bournemouth hosted a free Air Festival over 4 days for the residents of the South Coast and beyond. The highlight was most definitely the Red Arrows, as usual. Awesome.