Monday 23rd December
I escaped to the local spa for a manicure on Saturday morning so now I have nice Christmas nails for the festive season. Amanda and I were able to get together with regard to some food and gift planning.
Later on in the afternoon we went to Amanda's works Christmas Party. It was a family event, great fun for the children and very good for staff relations. Unfortunately we got caught up in bumper to bumper traffic on the way there and had a horrendous taxi driver, he managed to slightly knock two people on motorbikes and the wing mirror was also caught by a van driver who appeared to be having a video phone call!! It was the worst drive I have experienced here. We were glad to get out after about a 40 min stop-start-undertake-overtake journey!
The location was a purpose built event complex by the river. A variety of sizes of rooms set in gardens around a man made lake, with pagodas etc, all lit up for Christmas. Our room was a glass walled pavilion with lots of sliding doors, it was indoors/outdoors, which would have been fine had it not been chilly and damp. I was dressed in smart silk trousers and top and kept my quilted jacket on throughout! I had thought the venue would be air conditioned, but not quite like that! Others obviously knew about the venue and were wearing sweaters etc!!
Orlo is still not sure how they knew he wanted this annual 😉
However the party progressed noisily with karaoke, Santa giving presents to the children, followed by a Secret Santa for the adults in which the gifts were placed in a circle on the floor and the recipients formed a circle and moved around to music. As it was all conducted in Vietnamese, I didn't quite understand it, but once they all stopped they took the present in front of them. The whole evening culminated in a water puppet show in a theatre on the man made lake. The puppeteers must have been frozen standing up to their thighs in water to work the puppets. They always come from behind the screens at the end of the end of the show.
We were very relieved that Amanda had booked one of the regular works' drivers for the journey home.
On Sunday we had a lazy morning then went out for lunch at one of their regular haunts, Maison TeT, I met the owner, Pete, on my first visit here, his restaurant is now in its third location since then, it is near the Sheraton Hotel and fronts onto the lake not quite opposite to where we live. It is about a 30 min walk. Later in the afternoon we decorated the Christmas cake which I made in October and brought with us. It was not without incident, they have powder food colouring and Granny managed to spill a bit of the green. Suffice it to say that the floor turned green, Orlo walked in it and it was spread around the apartment!!! Moral: use liquid food colouring, it is much easier to manage!!
Orlo, Amanda and I all contributed and here is the result!
Here are a few things we saw on our walks
Kumquat trees being prepared for Tet which is at the end of January next year.
Lilies flowering on the lotus pond
One of the original lakeside houses.
Poinsettia tree and razor wire!!
Poinsettia tree and razor wire!!
This morning I have been to a yoga class and I am now in the midst of doing prep for Christmas Day, stuffing, brandy butter, mincemeat slice.
That's all for now.
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