Retirement of Paul Scholes

Yup, it is confirmed. Scholes has just announced his retirement.

Thanks for your years of magic.

The club will be very different without you.

Best of luck for your future!

A Happy Day

Nic returned from UK today.

We were very happy to see her.

The house has been too quiet without her.

Welcome back, baby!

Tam Dao

Brought the family to Tam Dao today. It is a mountain resort 1.5 hours from Hanoi.

The road up the mountain was narrow and it was a nerve wracking drive up. Lorries were competing to get up. Mind you, it is a 1 lane but vehicles were going both ways.

At one stage, a huge tour bus decided to squeeze through forcing many of the cars coming up to stop. We found ourselves having to go backwards to give the bus space to move. Imagine doing this while on an incline. It was no joke.

I was nervously watching my driver to make he was alert.

Why must driving outside Hanoi be such a terrifying experience? I recall going to Mai Chau and the several near death experiences.

Perhaps lives are too cheap in Vietnam?

The bad experience going up in a way spoilt the mood by the time we got to the top.

Aside from the breath-taking views, there was little else to do.

Wish the locals make more effort building up tourist spots.

One thing for sure is that I will not go up again!

Daily Reflections - Nat and cows

Had to record this down.

A few days ago, we were rather behind time and was running a bit late for school.

I told Natty that we had to hurry up and not "wait for the cows..."

I deliberately paused for effect and waited for her reply.

She looked at me innocently and asked with an arched eyebrow, "Moo?"

I had a good laugh.

My little girl has a good sense of humour.

Daily Reflections

More than four years and yet Hanoi's traffic drives me nuts at time.

How should I summarise traffic in Hanoi?

(1) Red lights means go.

(2) Green lights means go.

(3) Amber means go.

(4) Green man means go. Pedestrians? What pedestrians?

(5) When crossing roads, good to have religion since you can meet your maker in a bang.

(6) Never run across roads. Just slide through the traffic. Or find a Hanoian.

(7) Helmets are for display. Protection is for wimps.

(8) Never open your mouth while on the bike as things WILL go in.

(9) Big cars good but some big cars are better than others. Same for all other classes of vehicles.

Reflections

Six more months and it will be time to return home. Well for more than four years Vietnam had been my home.

I will miss this place. For now I will prepare my family to return home in June.

How fast time has passed.