Day 83

Today we’re going to take the kids to Den Sen Park for a little swimming and playing time so at 7 am I get up and go to the shower. I get dressed and prepare my backpack with everything I’ll need at the park. Around 8/8.30 am everyone’s ready so we call the taxi and when it arrives, Thach Thao, Phuc, Miss Thoa, Xuan’s mum, Xuan and me jump on the taxi and head for the park.

I’d seen how things work at the swimming pool but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw today. Today is holiday in Vietnam; they’re celebrating the end of war, which is something very important for a country that was devastated by war. So when we arrive we go buy the tickets and if you’re thinking there’s a cue to buy it, you’re completely wrong, there’s no organization, no respect for who’s in front of you, nothing! There are just many people in the same place fighting to be the first buying their tickets.

Then it’s time to enter the park and here there’s a cue but not organized either.

When we enter, we start walking around and, in the end, this is just another big thematic park for kids and grown-ups and there are so many people, so many people that it seems everyone in HCMC is here. Every shadow you can find there’s someone putting a blanket, a raincoat or something else so they can seat and eat and drink.

While going around the kids go on a carrousel ride and we see the faces of the people who go on this big rollercoaster, Thach Thao even participated in a magician’s performance while I was asked by 2 Vietnamese to take pictures with them but I also had to show my koi fish tattoo. I think all we did for an hour was walking around so of course Grandmamma and the kids start to be a little bit tired and hot so we go and seat at this place where we drink ice tea. Because it’s still early we also go on a bus ride along the park and the other side of the park, where we hadn’t gone yet, has so many other stuff to see…

did I tell you that this park besides the rollercoaster and the swimming pool also has a circus and a haunted house inside? Insane!

The bus ride finishes and the kids start to be a little bit sleepy so we find a shadow and grass and lay them down. Miss Thoa and Grandmamma stay with them while Xuan and me go in search of raincoats and food for lunch. As we can’t find anything good we decide that we’ll all going to eat at the stone garden where, at least, we know the food is ok and that the kids will eat properly.

We seat at a big table and I eat beef with French fries and rice while all the others eat chicken or beef with pepper. The kids are getting very sleepy and are even start saying they don’t want to go to the pool anymore, they just want to go home. While Xuan and me drink a cà phê sữa đá, the kids rest a little bit on the grass under the shadow. When we finish our coffee we call the kids to come dress their swimming suits and head to the pool.

Only Miss Thoa and me go with the kids and when we enter we try to find a place under a shadow to put the backpacks and the shoes.

As soon as we find the place, Miss Thoa goes with the kids to the pool while I stay near the backpacks but always paying attention to what Thach Thao and Phuc are doing. There are so many people in the pool that I’m always scared to loose the kids so when Thach Thao starts running away from Miss Thoa and not caring if Miss Thoa is calling her or not, I leave everything and enter the pool running.

Neither Miss Thoa nor me can see where Thach Thao is so when I find her I reprehend her and calm down Miss Thoa. I tell her we’re leaving the pool because she was bad and she starts crying and trying not to leave the pool, I’m so upset and the adrenaline is running so high that I grab her and take her out from the pool. We dress the kids and call Xuan to meet us so we leave.

We get a taxi and head home, the taxi driver gets lost in the streets of HCMC, which I understand… HCMC is a big city but if you are a taxi driver maybe you should know the street names to do a proper job, it’s just what I think… at home the kids go to sleep, and I go undress my wet clothes and take a shower. Then I rest a little bit ‘cause my adrenaline is still pumping with what happened; it’s a big responsibility taking care of children that are not yours and imagining that someone could have grabbed Thach Thao and we’d never see her again is very scary…

Around 4.30 pm I leave the house and go buy my ticket for the cinema tomorrow, I always like to try the cinemas in every country I’m in. I buy my ticket and go for a walk to calm down my still nervous brain.

When I get back home Xuan tells me I should eat so we can go to the center after and it’s what I do; I eat and get ready so we can go out. It’s a nice night tonight and so when we arrive near the park there are so many people to watch the show to celebrate the end of war that it’s difficult to find a place for us. There’s a TV channel doing the coverage of the event so I ask Xuan to ask for the producer in order to understand where can I leave my résumé ‘cause who knows what can happen, maybe I find a job here and that could be nice… after watching a bit of the show we go for a walk along the big avenue that goes from the park to the Vincom center. We do window-shopping, we watch the fireworks but we mostly walk and see the sights.

It’s getting late so we go back where we parked the motorbike and we head home where I take my shower, watch a TV show and fall asleep… =)

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

Day 82

The kids are still on holidays so there’s no more waking up at 6.30 am even if my internal clock doesn’t care about it so at the same time as ever my eyes open and I roll in bed until 7 am. I take my shower, get dressed and wait for Xuan to come down. Around 8 am, she comes down and we go for breakfast at Lady Bulldog but when we arrive there the Lady says there’s no thin noodles so Xuan orders food only for me and goes home while I stay at Lady Bulldog eating breakfast. When I finish, I get up and head home so we can go to the coffee shop.

The kids already ate and they’re going to stay at home watching TV and playing with their new toys so Xuan and me hop on the motorbike and go to Highlands coffee shop. We order our cà phê sữa đá and stay there talking… we talk about the kids, about my nail practicing, my parents, my life, my objectives, Xuan’s friends, personalities and different cultures. In the end, we pay and go to the furniture store to get the invoice of all the stuff Xuan and Carlos bought for the house in Portugal.

When everything is ready we hop again on the motorbike and head to the nail store near Bên Than market to check the prices of the electric filing machines plus some other stuff that I’ll need. Xuan tells me that if I want to buy the machine today, I can but I prefer to buy all the stuff I need first and so after the holidays I’ll go to the street market with Miss Loan, my first nail teacher, to buy everything I need and then what they don’t have in the market I’ll go buy in the shop. Of course we don’t leave before buying 3 boxes to put my nails stored, look how pretty they are now!

It’s time to head home for lunch so we leave the shop and go. The kid are sleeping when we arrive so we eat lunch without a noise and then Xuan goes to rest a little bit and I go put my nails in the beautiful boxes we bought, then I watch a couple of TV shows until it’s time for the water puppets show we’re going to watch this evening. Around 4 pm I start getting ready which means put the make-up on and put my new wedges to good use.

The kids are ready, Xuan’s ready and even Xuan’s mum is ready so we all jump on the motorbike and go to the theater… wait, Xuan’s mum went on another motorbike as 5 people in a bike is forbidden by law…

We enter the theater and Thach Thao says she’s scared because the room is darker than outside but when the show starts she starts laughing and enjoying the show as much as everyone else. The show tells the story of Vietnamese people and their beliefs and it’s a really nice show, if by any chance you come to HCMC don’t loose it!

The show lasts 45 minutes and then we head home again so we can have dinner ‘cause after we’re taking the kids and everyone else for ice cream. We eat, we prepare the kids, everyone gets dressed and it’s time!

Xuan, the kids and me go by moto and Xuan’s mum, Miss Thoa, Chi Mi and Chi Lam go by taxi. They meet us near the kids’ park and while they stay there with the kids, Xuan and me go for a walk through the market.

I managed to find a gift for my aunt and in the end we entered a store where I bought a skull ring and an angel wings necklace and Xuan a pair of sunglasses. We look at watch and we have to run as it starts to be late for the ice cream for the kids so we leave the store and start walking very fast to the coconut ice cream place – for me it’s a difficult walk as the sidewalk is not plain and I’m with my wedges… anyway, we buy the ice cream and start walking back and, of course, we’re doing it fast so fast that it arrives to appoint and I fall down, graciously, on my knees… hehehehe while Xuan is coming back runnin’, I get up, again graciously, and continue walking as if nothing had happened. =)

After all this emotive happenings, we meet the children and the grown-ups and seat on the floor of the park eating our coconut ice cream. 

the real city of lights

the real city of lights

We spend a good time and when we finish it’s time to head back home ‘cause the kids need to go to bed. Xuan and me go get the motorbike and the kids and the other grown-ups go home by taxi. While on the motorbike I start remembering my fall and Xuan’s reaction and can not stop laughing! Hahahahaha what a funny fall!

Anyway, we’re at home, it’s time for a shower, put the p-jays on and watch a TV show…

Night night peeps!

P.S. – guess I’m getting addicted to Biffy’s new album so here’s another song I like from this album…

Feet

Day 81

It’s after midnight and I’m still awake, I tried having the computer off and so the air con but nothing I working so I turn on the computer again and go surf the web for the supplies I’ll need to continue my nail art and acrylic nails “business”. I find a couple of sites with interesting information and fortunately after finding the info I was looking for, sandman comes knocking and I’m ready to sleep and have good dreams.

As if it wasn’t enough only be able to fall asleep around 1.30 am, I spend the all night waking up almost every 5 minutes and at 6.30 am I decide I can’t continue like this so I get up and go for my morning shower, I get ready and look at the computer until Xuan and the kids wake up and are ready for breakfast. In the end, Xuan leaves the house without me understanding and she goes to Phó Lè and gets the breakfast for the kids and me.

After breakfast I prepare my stuff and Xuan takes me to the salon where I almost get a party from the people there, as they haven’t seen me in more than a week. After explanations given I get all the stuff I need to do the acrylic nails and I start.

First I file the nails that are too big for the fake fingers, then I glue it, after I file it again, then I open the liquid and the acrylic powder jar, so after wetting the brush I mix the acrylic powder and then I’m ready to start… liquid, acrylic powder, nail, liquid, acrylic powder, nail and so on and on in the 9 fake fingers I have in front of me but it’s not over yet, I still have to file it again until there’s no imperfections… basically I spent my whole day doing this while listening to Biffy Clyro’s last album “Opposites”, only stopping for lunch. 36 fake nails after I don’t feel my arms anymore so I just put everything in the right place, send a text to Xuan and walk home…

After being at home for 5 minutes, my parents connect Skype and we start talking for a bit. Then I hear Xuan calling me and tells me that we’re going to buy the tickets for the water puppets show, something I’ve been dying to watch. We put the kids on the motorbike and head to the theater. The sky is getting darker and if it rains that’s not nice when you’re four on a motorbike and two are children. We buy the tickets and head home, fortunately there’s no raindrop falling on us and we’re able to arrive home dry.

With all this it’s already time for dinner and even if I was thinking on going for a walk after it, my arms are too heavy for anything so I decide to head to my room after dinner, I can always go out tomorrow… and in the end this past night was hell, I need my beauty sleep! )

 After my shower and a couple of TV shows it’s time…

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

P.S. – after hearing in loop Biffy’s Opposites, here’s one of my favorite musics of the album…

Day 80

Saturday… I allow myself to stay in bed longer so I only get up at 8 am. I hear the kids talking while I go to the shower so I know that in a little bit they’ll be knocking on my door. I’m ready exactly at the same time the kids are coming down for breakfast so there’s no knocking only smiles and good mornings. While the kids have breakfast, Xuan and me go to Lady Bulldog and then buy food for lunch at the market.

At home, Xuan has to work with Miss Hoan so I prepare my nail stuff and start practicing a little bit more…

 It’s time for lunch and there are ribs and prawns, steamed rice and soup. I eat the ribs, the rice and the soup and I feel ok. I go back to my practice until my parents show up on Skype and we have a long talk ending with me frustrated, stressed and disappointed… so I grab my stuff my computer and get out of the house, my mind is so not here that I even forget the camera. I start walking without knowing where I wanna go until I decide to go to the center so I wave at a taxi and ask the driver to take me to Saigon center and from there I can walk to the ice cream place where they have free Wi-Fi.

As soon as I find the place I seat at a table, order 2 scoops of ice cream (yogurt and avocado), turn on my computer and start searching… searching for jobs, here, in Australia, in the UK, anywhere… the ironic thing: as in Portugal, there’s not that many production jobs and the ones I find I have to speak Hungarian or Swedish which I don’t. I find 2 offers plus I sign in in a couple of other job offers sites and now it’s time to wait, something I’ve been starting to get used… I continue frustrated and feeling hopeless so I order a cà phê sữa đá and continue my quest of job search…

Around 5 pm I get up and start walking home. It’s not raining, there’s a little bit of wind but it’s very nice to walk with the weather like this. I curse myself for not bringing the camera with me as I see a couple of situations I’d like to register for posterity… anyway, there’s nothing to do about it so when I arrive home I head to my room and finish my nail practicing painting.

It’s time for dinner and I go down, my mood is still sh*tty so I eat without a word and Xuan respects my mood… then I go to my room and start watching some TV shows, I try to fall asleep but my head is full of cr*p and my brain doesn’t stop working… it’s almost midnight and I’m still awake, guess I’ll let you know tomorrow how did this night go…

Day 79

It’s a brand new day ‘cause my nose is not dripping as much but it’s still 6.30 am in the morning… I get up, take my shower, get ready and go downstairs to take Thach Thao and Phuc to school. It’s their last day of school before a couple of days of holidays and they look so lovely this morning… =) When we hop on the motorbike Phuc tells Xuan that today Phuc didn’t cry because he didn’t run and so Inês didn’t got upset… hehehehe well we were having a couple of problems with that because every time Xuan would take the motorbike out he would run to it and I was always scared that another motorbike would come and hit him because he’s a small kid and isn’t aware of danger, so I would always grab him, he would always cry and today was the first day he didn’t do it and so he deserves congrats!

We leave them both at school and then go for breakfast at Lady Bulldog. Today the food is really spice and when I finish I don’t feel my mouth at all… at home, I take again the Vietnamese bomb pills and after a little bit of trying to maintain my eyes open I need to go to my room because they knocked me out. I was K.O. until 12.30 pm when Chi Mi knocks on my door and calls me to go to lunch. My face is swollen and my head is empty, my brain is not working properly… Xuan laughs when she sees me, I guess I look terrible…

We have lunch and once more I take The Bombs but this time I’m not able to go upstairs and curl in my bed, in fact, there’s work to do and I need to help Xuan with some frames we bought a couple of months ago. The pass partout of the frames is awful and not made well so we bought white drawing paper and I’ll cover all the pass partout with it. It takes me the whole afternoon and the beginning of the evening, one orange juice and a cà phê sữa đá and many times of trying to explain why the biggest frame will be the last one until I finished it… when it’s done I feel very tired so I go upstairs, grab my computer and go to the office where internet is faster. I edit a couple of photos and I update my blog… I’ve been a little bit away from it with everything that has been happening…

Anyway, it’s time for dinner and today Chi Lam fries 2 eggs for me and I eat them with rice and bread, then a soup of lotus flowers’ roots to finish. The Vietnamese Bomb it’s taken for the last time and after my shower my head is calling for bed again… it’s 9.30 pm…

Night night peeps!

P.S. – I know this has been the shortest entry on my blog but when you’re sick and spend the whole day sleeping there’s not much you can do about it… =)

Day 78

When I get up today I know I have a cold, as I don’t stop sneezing and blowing my nose into tissues. I take my shower, get dressed and ready to take Thach Thao and Phuc to school ‘cause after, Xuan and me have to head to the warehouse where all the stuff is.

After leaving the kids at school, we grab breakfast at the bakery, go home to get my backpack and head to the warehouse. The trip is always the same and long and my butt it’s starting to be squared because of all the time I spend seated… when we arrive to the warehouse, the tree guys hadn’t still arrive so we have time for our breakfast. When we’re almost finishing, two trucks arrive and the two of them full of trees ‘til the top: 9 thousand trees! Too much work to do too…

The guys start passing the trees from the truck to the container and that’s how’s it going to be the all day, so I grab my book and travel to a place far away from where I am right now.

During the day, Xuan and me go get food for the guys putting the trees in the container twice and drinks once. The lunch food, chicken with rice, is just awful and I can’t eat much… my nose keeps dripping and doesn’t let me feel ok so after lunch I go rest a little bit on the top of a table. While I’m resting, rain starts pour heavily and like by magic, it stops… this is how Vietnamese rain rolls! =)

After the 9 thousand trees are in the container it’s time to go back home and I feel bad… but not before doing a couple of photos on the way back.

At home, I rest a little bit and then I’m called for dinner… I eat beef with rice and soup, 2 bowls of soup and then take the Vietnamese bomb medicine… I head to my room and I’m able to talk with my parents for a bit after my shower, unfortunately I couldn’t speak with them very long as the medicine started doing what they have to do and I fall asleep almost instantly… it was 8.30 pm… I wake up again at 11.30 pm, I go to the toilet and head back to sleep as my head is heavy as a coconut full of water…

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

more than words

sacred

the bitch van

blondes 5M on the right...

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