Day 53

It’s a new day and it’s Sunday Easter for Catholics. In Vietnam doesn’t mean anything but for Catholics means to be together with your family, don’t eat meat and other stuff that I really don’t know as I’m not a Catholic, basically I don’t believe in any of those religions beliefs but I respect all of them.

I get up and go for my shower. I’m still a little bit numb with yesterday’s events but I’m not going to let it put me down. I need to be happy and enjoy life as if today’s my last day…

I put Erik Hassle’s We Dance playing and get ready for breakfast. The kids already had breakfast so Carlos takes Xuan and the kids to the restaurant and then comes to get me. We eat prawn noodle soup and drink cà phê sữa đá and when finished, Xuan takes me to the nail salon.

Today I’ll leave before lunch so I wanna absorb everything I can and I start my acrylic nail practicing until a lady enters the salon and have her gel nails changed. I go watch how it’s done because as more I watch better I’ll learn. Then 2 Australian girls enter the salon and I help a little bit with the translation and with what they want. They’ll have acrylic nails done and then nail art painting.

It’s noon and Xuan comes to pick me up. Today we’ll have a Portuguese lunch: boiled potatoes with boiled codfish and flan pudding for dessert.

After lunch I have a pampering day, I really need one so my mood goes up. I get my color done, I cut my fringe and do manicure and pedicure. While washing my hair I have a refreshing cleansing mask done and when I finish I feel as new. Xuan also had a pampering day and when the kids wake up I have to go to her to see if Thach Thao can eat a chocolate, she says yes and Thach Thao is the happiest girl on earth. =)

After giving the kids what they want I go to my room and without noticing I fall asleep just to wake up near dinnertime. Carlos, Xuan and me go to the barbeque and as usual, my friends say hi and get my food ready as soon as I seat. After we eat, we go for a walk around. While crossing the touristy street a girl from Vietnam starts talking to us because she’s very curious from where I am and also wants to practice her English. When we part ways we realize she works at a travel agency and that’s why her English was pretty good according with the standards.

It’s time to go home because tomorrow we have to get up very early to catch our flight to Da Nang. At home I connect Skype and notice my parents aren’t online so I call them. They’re with my grandparents, my aunt, uncle and cousins having an Easter lunch and so I’m able to send my best to each and every one of them.

When we finish the call I go for a shower and start doing my backpack for tomorrow and in the meantime my parents arrive home and we Skype. My mum sees my new fringe and says she loves it and after a little bit of talk we say bye bye, as tomorrow I have to wake up at 5 am.

Night night peeps!

P.S. – not a cover today but a music to celebrate life…

Day 52

It’s Saturday and we can stay in bed a little bit longer… around 8 am I choose what I want to wear (shorts and a white shirt) and then go for shower.

The other day I saw a funeral here in HCMC and when they walk the streets it looks like a parade with many colors and drums. The people closest to the family are the only ones allowed to dress white and have a white ribbon on their heads… guess when I woke up today and chose what to wear I was predicting nothing good…

After Xuan went to get the breakfast for Thach Thao and Phuc I went to check my Portuguese phone and received a very sad news: a friend of mine had passed away the day before and today was the funeral. It was a shock! 3 months ago I had meet him in the mall and he seemed perfectly fine… his birthday was in 6 days… he had my age…

I felt helpless and so I cried. I cried because he was my friend, I cried because he was too young, I cried because the way a received the news, I cried because it was unfair and I didn’t know what took him from us…

When Xuan comes back I go downstairs and tell her I’m no condition to go to the nail salon and practice and learn and explain her the reason why and I tart crying and she also started crying. She didn’t know my friend but she is very sensible and she saw I was in pain and so she cried for me and for him…

We still need to go for breakfast so Carlos and Xuan hop on the motorbike and call a motorbike taxi for me; this was a first one for me. We go to Phò Lé and we eat phò bó, 2 eggs each and drink iced tea. When leaving Phò Lé the three of us hop on the motorbike and ride it until the big crossroad with police and it’s where I hop off, cross the crossroad and little bit further I hop on again. They leave me at the coffee shop and go get Thach Thao and Phuc.

I seat at a table and order a cà phê sữa đá for me and just wait for them to arrive. Many thoughts run through my mind and tears come to my eyes again but I’m in public surrounded by people who doesn’t know me and that already think I’m weird enough with my long nose and my tattoos… so lets swept it away!

Carlos, Xuan and the kids arrive and we change table as where I was everyone was smoking and that’s not good for the kids. Thach Thao and Phuc make me laugh because they’re lovely kids and they don’t need much to play and be happy. At the coffee shop if you give them a couple of colored straws they’ll create all kind of funny stuff to do with it.

It’s time to get home so while they go on the motorbike, I go walking, as I need to clear my mind. I feel numb and don’t even react to anything. I arrive home and I didn’t even noticed the time go by… I go to my room and watch a couple of TV shows in order to distract my mind of today’s sad news…

Around 2 pm the kids are already asleep and so we go for lunch. Chi Lam made beef with veggies and put a secret ingredient that made the beef so sweet: sugar. Not good for the teeth but the flavor was really good.

Before lunch I also practiced a little bit of nail art painting and so after lunch I finished what I was doing with not great success…it’s just better if I go out and go to the salon. At least I’ll be trying to learn and I’ll be distracted. I walk there and arrive around 4 pm; I explain what happened and why I arrived so late today. They nod their heads and let me do my thing.

I stay there until 7.30 pm practicing and watching how to do the acrylic and gel nails and then I walk back home. I have my phones and just don’t wan to hear no one, don’t want to smile to no one, just wanna be left alone…

At home I go to my room and decide to practice a little bit more, just in case my head is clearer… after a few minutes Xuan and Carlos arrive and so we eat dinner, hotpot, very good.

We talk for a little bit and then I head once more to my room. I continue practicing the nail painting while watching more TV shows until my parents call me via Skype. We talk for a little bit but they know I’m not for big conversations and they also have to leave home so we say bye bye and end the call.

It’s already 11.30 pm and it’s time to go sleep… my last thoughts go to my friend Rui Alves. His smile, his good mood, his fashion sense, his professionalism will stay in my memory forever… and lets not forget his passion for Kylie Minogue… =) Rui, you’ll be with us forever and you’ll be missed…

Goodnight everyone!

Day 51

After yesterday’s night, today I wake up very easy, the alarm clock is needed today but after a few bed rolls I get up, take my shower and get dressed to take the kids to school. Thach Thao and Phuc are already downstairs and there’s a fight to see who gets with the corner of the gate today. Phuc was the first one to arrive and Thach Thao wants to take him out of there but that’s not fair. Thach Thao gets in front of him and he starts crying so the solution is to take her out of his way. She gets very very angry with him and doesn’t want to talk to me until she goes for classes.

Then, Xuan and me go for breakfast and, while she does a couple of stuff at home I work on my blog. Around 9 am we start to get ready to go to the salon but never before our cà phê sữa đá. =)

Today, when I arrive to the salon, I’m informed today there’s no painting for me but the beginning of the training of acrylic nails and if you think it’s easy, it isn’t. My first tries where just weird nails but fortunately I’ve been a quick learner and around lunchtime I’m already able to do a pretty good acrylic nail. Xuan shows up with lunch and tells me I have to eat it right away, which I do it gladly. Soup and squid and veggies and flan pudding for desert: the sweet I was in need!

After lunch I watch the teacher making the acrylic nails to a lady and then Châu paints her nails with a Louis Vuiton pattern. This Vietnamese ladies are crazy… =)

In the end I go back to my acrylic nails and when the teacher thinks I’m good enough I start the manicure to the fake nails and that’s not easy neither, there’s a certain way to do it and if you do it to the wrong side that hurts not only the client but also the nails.

At 4.30 pm I’m too tired to continue so I call Xuan and tell her I’m walking home. When arriving almost near to the supermarket, there’s a horn horning and there are Phuc and Xuan to take me home. A stop at the supermarket, then at the lady who sells juices and finally at home.

When I connect Skype my father is online so lets have a chat! =) After a while my mum joins us and we talk about what I’ve been learning and what I’ve been doing in the past few days, because even if they read my blog everyday it’s different when you tell it in person.

Chi Mi and Phuc come to the office to call me for dinner and I say bye to my parents and go downstairs. We eat and then it’s time to go pick up Carlos to the airport, the kids are ready, we’re ready and we find a taxi almost at the home door. While in the taxi to the airport, the driver gets a call and his ringtone is gangnam style so Thach Thao starts dancing in the car and because she likes it so much, the driver even puts the video for her to see and dance again. With all of this action we arrive to the airport and Carlos had already landed and is almost entering another taxi when we call him from inside ours. All in, it’s time to head back home. The kids are so happy to see Carlos and I can only hear laughs from their mouths that make me happy.

At home, Carlos starts unpacking and everything I asked my parents to send me it’s there, of course: shorts, perfume, hair dye, creams and so on… thanks mum! =) While Carlos is unpacking my phone rings and it’s my dad who wants to watch a movie and doesn’t know how to get it so let’s go to Skype again and take him through the steps needed. When we’re done, Carlos and Xuan show up at the office door and they all talk a little bit then it’s time for my parents to go eat a pastel de nata and time to go to bed for us.

Night night everyone, don’t let the bedbugs bite!

P.S. – I don’t feel I’m in a cave but I love her voice and I love their song…

Day 50

Today my morning changed from the usual, in fact there were no kids coming to my door, no crying in the morning, nothing… after I took my shower and got dressed, I was able to rest a little bit until around 8.30 and then I heard Thach Thao and Phuc. I keep doing what I was doing until a smiley Thach Thao comes to my room and tells me that she was sick last night and spent it all vomiting.

It’s time for their breakfast and Phuc is in a bad mood so I go downstairs to do my role as bad cop/good cop and everything runs smoothly. When Xuan and me are getting ready to leave the house for breakfast, a truck pulls at the door and guess what they’re coming to deliver? All the dinner sets we bought last Saturday. There’s around 20 boxes, each one weighting around 30 kgs, when we go shopping we do it big!

There’s a mistake with box so we go for breakfast at the Saigon Centre so we can go to the store after. During breakfast Xuan and me talk a little bit and we share funny stories, me about my parents, what they taught me other funny stuff, and Xuan about her family and the kids.

At the store they tell us that was a writing mistake and that inside the box everything is ok so we have a look around in the other stores and then Xuan takes me to the nail salon. They have a client so I put my stuff in the back, grab a chair and seat next to the teachers to watch how they do their art. This lady has toenails so big she seams an eagle and I can say without a doubt that’s really ugly. She tries to put them beautiful by painting them in black with white big roses and glitter but is an unsuccessful try, I assure you. It looks awful, not because of the nail art but because everything in this lady is wrong.

When the lady leaves I ask Châu to teach me another flower and I’m doing so well that they all let me try on their nails. I’m happy, I’m not feeling frustrated and I’m getting there, I’m starting to be good at this. Around 1 pm Xuan shows up with lunch and I go eat my steamed rice with pork ribs, lotus flower and roots soup and watermelon for dessert. After lunch I go practice again and then another client comes in and when it’s time to paint her nails she goes to was her hair and me and the girls have a couple of laughs with that because she felt asleep, she started snoring and was always pulling her arm not letting Châu paint the flowers in her nails. Too funny…

Around 4 pm, Xuan comes to pick me up with Phuc and tells me today she wanna go dancing and hearing live music and, of course, I’m down for it! My middle name is Party, or maybe not… but I wanna experience everything I have right in this trip, there’s not many opportunities like this one. We leave Phuc at home and go to the supermarket. When we leave we have so many things that we almost seem one of this…

We head back home, put everything into place and we eat dinner around 6 pm and while the kids have dinner I go to the office prepare all the images we need to go buy the fabrics and to go to the tailor.

It’s time! I put my make up on, my black dress (I’ve been wearing it the all day anyway), fish tail on my hair and there we go. Xuan looks beautiful and I know she was in need of this night out. When we arrive to the place is still a little bit early but we go inside anyway and stay talking a little bit more. This place has lots of flashlights, tables and chairs surround the dance floor and there’s also a stage next to the dance floor. For me, all of this is just surreal but nothing prepared me for what I’ve watched after….

Basically this place is a Vietnamese ballroom dancing place and the average age is over 45. There are amazing characters everywhere you look: the ones learning, the ones who are there every night, the ones who take that as a competition and so on… I can tell you this was one of the best nights of my life, I had never laughed so much with ballroom dancing. There are tango moves mixed with cha cha cha, there are bright sparkling dresses, men with high heeled shoes so they can dance better, all the ladies with high heels, well except me as I didn’t bring any high heels to my Vietnam trip.

dancers

There’s a couple there that, I guess, the old lady is learning and the teacher is a younger guy and while I’m watching them she’s dancing around the dance floor, shaking her shoulders and floating ungraciously in front of him, all of a sudden the guy gets tangled in the middle of other couples but she continues her shoulder shaking and her ungraciously floating until when she turns back and realizes the guy is not after her anymore and her face is priceless… and my laugh too loud that is possible to hear me in Hanoi! =)

What a night, what a night. Xuan is tired of so much dancing so we leave and before heading home we go for a strawberry smoothie near the park. We’re still laughing about what we saw at the ballroom dance place and we’re both in such a good mood. =)

It’s starting to be late so it’s time to go home, take a shower, watch a TV show and sleep until tomorrow…

Night night peeps!

P.S. – tonight lets have Ellie Goulding singing “anything could happen” acoustic… guess why… ehehehe

Vietnamese by the eyes of a Portuguese

Day 49

Guess what I did this morning? The alarm clock rang at 6.30 am, I rolled in bed until 7 pm and then shower, get dressed and go downstairs to take the kids to school. Lately, Thach Thao has been coming to my door to call me to go with them and today was no exception.

After leaving the kids in school, Xuan and me went for breakfast to the lady next home, picked up my stuff at home and we head to the nail salon. It’s around 9 am when I arrive and the salon had just opened, the girls are still cleaning and putting everything in place. As it’s early they ask me if I wanna eat but I already had breakfast so I just make them company to the market where they buy their breakfast.

While they’re having breakfast I start practicing my flower petals and dots in order to do a drawing. I’m getting pretty good on it, now I just have to start practicing in nails. Did you know there are 60 different types of flowers that you can draw in nails? I didn’t know either and I guess I won’t have time to learn all of them. After breakfast, they order drinks and a cà phê sữa đá for me, when I want to pay they don’t let me again so I tell them that tomorrow it’s my turn to pay and don’t’ want any arguments.

In the meantime a client arrives and I stop my practicing to go see another type of flower. This takes time and it’s a precision job so I’m trying to absorb everything I can while she draws. If you could only see you would understand what I mean. Maybe just by talking you think that’s too much and it might look awful but you’re wrong, there are lots of drawing and ones more classy than others, in fact there are drawing for every taste. My next trying will be a skull… for my birthday! =)

Xuan brings me lunch and it’s so good! Inside my doggy bag I have spring roles, rice, fried egg and sweet mango. Chi Lam is the lady in the hooooouuuuuussssseeeee! And the funny part is that she even put inside the mango bag a barbeque stick so I could stick the mango. =) She thinks in everything!

After lunch I continue practice a little more a new flower with two colors until a fat lady and her son arrive and she wants her nails done. She has awful nails and it’s good that she puts acrylic nails otherwise she would have awful hands. Shouldn’t have talk this soon… she asks for her nails to be pointy instead of squared, as a normal person would do!!! Creepy…

Nails are done so now it’s time for the drawing session and I watch the teacher doing another type of flower I didn’t know. It gets really beautiful and I hope I’m as good as her one of this days. When the fat lady is ready, I grab my stuff and start walking home. It’s so good to walk around and see people, and traffic and mess everywhere. I stop by the supermarket and when I’m arriving to the dogs restaurants I hear a horn and it’s Xuan who gives me a lift the last 500 meters.

At home the kids show me their new motorbike toys and I seat with them while they have dinner. Then, it’s the grown up’s time so I leave Thach Thao and Phuc in my room watching Disney’s Dumbo.

When I come back to my room the movie is almost finishing so I decide to practice my nail art a little bit more and start doing my portfolio…

Dumbo finishes and it’s time for the rugrats go to bed, I take a shower, watch a TV show and bed…

Night night everyone, don’t let the bedbugs bite!

P.S. – I can’t stand Gotye anymore but this cover by Fun. is really cool…

Day 48

Tonight was just the night from hell… around 4 in the morning the judgment day starts: heavy rain, wind and thunders. So much noise I woke up and even got up to see what was happening by going to the living room look through the window. Then I go back to bed and the routine starts all over again: when the alarm clock rings I turn it off and roll in bed a little bit more, then I get up, shower, get dressed and go with Xuan to take the kids to school. After that we stop by the market to buy meat and head home as Chi Mi has my breakfast already ready. 2 fried eggs and bread and to finish cà phê sữa đá.

It’s still early to go to the salon and Xuan has the accountants coming so I go back to my room and edit a couple of photos until she comes to get me. Today I take the camera again with me hoping that I get some nice pics from the surroundings.

At the salon I’m welcomed with smiles and after getting ready I start my practice. This one is frustrating as I’m not getting the hang of it and I guess it’s frustrating for the teacher too ‘cause I say ok, I get it but I’m not able to make my brain communicate it to my hand and wrist. Fortunately in the middle of the morning I manage to kill it and I almost make a party all by myself!

Around lunchtime I make a little pause and go for a couple of pictures and while doing it, the girls come ask me if I wanna go to the market with them and of course I accept the invite. While strolling around the market I do a couple of pics and I feel happy that we’ve been able to communicate even without speaking the same language.

We head back to the salon and I practice a little bit more and, in the meantime, Xuan shows up with my lunch. While I eat she gets her nails done and we talk for a bit. I tell her that today she doesn’t need to pick me up because if I see there’s no clients I’ll walk home and make a couple of more photos. Once more, the girls surprise me by ordering me another cà phê sữa đá and not letting me pay. We hang for a bit and I get back to my practice. Around 4 pm a client comes in and this is my cue to see how the salon boss works with UV gel and how the teacher draws.

the boss

I stay at the salon until 6.30 pm and then I start walking home. I tried to call Xuan but she didn’t hear it, fortunately, in her way to pick me up with the kids she saw me at the sidewalk and called me.

Got a ride home and also learned that they went to pick me up ‘cause Thach Thao wanted to know where I was and why didn’t I go pick her up at school. She’s a very lovely girl! At home it’s time for the kids to have dinner and I play and joke with them a little bit. When they finish it’s our time for dinner and so I leave them in my room watching the chipmunks while we’re downstairs. There’s no sound but the wind coming from my room, which means they’re paying attention to the movie and no fights in sight.

When we finish dinner I stay around the kitchen for a bit and when everyone starts to get ready to go up I also go to my room to find a very interested Thach Thao in the movie and wants company to watch the end of it. I seat next to her and we finish t watch the movie with Xuan that showed up in the meantime.

Time for the kids go to bed and time for a shower for me…. Finally TV show and bed!

Night night peeps!

P.S. – today the kids made my day so why not a “Kids” cover…

Day 47

It’s 6.30 am and I know it because the alarm clock is ringing but I feel so sleep that I turn it off and stay in bed a little while more. At 7 am I really need to get up so I go for the shower and I get dressed. I hear the kids and Xuan but when I arrive downstairs to go with them, Xuan had already left to leave the kids in school. When she’s back she tells me she didn’t call me as she knew I had gone to bed late yesterday and wanted to let me rest, sweet Xuan! =)

We go for breakfast at the lady next to home and then we go to get the Thach Thao’s passport pics and she looks so lovely. It’s time to go to the nail salon so in the way there we stop at Tous Les Jours Bakery to buy my lunch, Chi Lam isn’t back yet, and there we go.

When I arrive to the salon only the girls are there and they say hi to me with a sleepy smile in their faces. I need a cà phê sữa đá so I ask the girls if they want one and my gestures they understand I wanna go out buy it and tell me to wait, they grab the phone and order one for me. Cà phê sữa đá being delivered… wow! Feeling a VIP =)

It’s time to start practice and today I have a hard job in front of me. The drawing I have to practice is just a wave with two colors and it seems simple but if you don’t know how to work with your wrist you’ll never make it, as I learnt later that day… I spend the whole morning practicing and the whole afternoon and I have a big headache. Don’t know if it’s the nail polish or if the loud music they’re listening: Vietnamese electro – and I can tell you it’s not nice, there is only boom tcha boom boom tcha boom and your head starts to feel like a drum… now I understand what my parents suffered when I had a phase I’d hear trance music from dawn ‘til dusk. Sorry mum and dad!

Around 3 pm my head can’t take it anymore and I can’t concentrate so I stop and go watch a girl having French gel manicure and there’s so many tricks you can’t believe it. Xuan come spick me up with Phuc and we head home. My head is still buzzing so when we arrive I just lay down to be interrupted by ideas that come to me about nails. I get up and go put my ideas to practice and the headache comes again…

I go back to lay down and when I’m just there laying down Thach Thao comes to my room and wants to know if I’m ok, the gesture is so sweet that I ask her if she wants to watch a movie, of course she says yes and jumps to my bed. Phuc comes right after and the 3 of us start watching Happy Feet 2.

I know it’s time for dinner when Xuan shows up at the door and tells me we should go, we leave the kids watching the movie and we head to the barbeque place. Today there are chicken cutlets and they’re delicious as always. The sauce goes trough my fingers when I grab the chicken leg and I just want to lick it all… this is paradise!

After dinner we go to the painting store because Xuan wants to have a couple of paintings made but when we arrive there the owner is not there. As the store is in the middle of the touristy street we go for a walk before going home. The Vietnamese girls in the bars seem very young and you know what they’re doing there: trying to find a eastern husband to take them out of here… everywhere is full of tourists drinking, eating and in the background loud music, we even pass by a bar where they’re playing MC Hammer’s Can’t Touch This…

It’s time to head back home, I’m tired and wanna go to rest and Xuan wants to do the same. In our way home I record our little motorbike journey…

Time to go to bed, tomorrow’s a new a day!

Night night everyone, don’t let the bedbugs bite!

P.S. – guess today my cover is for the girls who can’t stop believing…