storm trippin'

Sapa Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:40:00 +0000

Last week was a break week for most of the international schools in Hanoi so we headed on a little jaunt to Sapa in northern Vietnam. Caught the 9:15pm train from Hanoi to Lao Cai arriving around 5:30am. The kids were very excited to be travelling and sleeping on a train, futilely hoping to be sleeping on the top bunks, gazing out the window as the lights of Hanoi slipped away.

About a half hour before arriving in Lao Cai, hideous Vietnamese music blares from the train's speakers, encouraging passengers to wakeup and prepare for arrival. I was encouraged to wakeup and bash in all the speakers.

Arrived in Lao Cai, drive up the twisty road to Sapa which caused Asha to heave up -- first indication we had that she gets car-sick. Breakfast in Sapa, a short walk around a local village, then a ride out of town to the Topas Ecolodge to checkin for a couple nights.

The next couple days consisted of walks around local villages & countryside, some time at the town market, climbing a hill for a grand view of the town, enjoying the splendid scenery, fresh cool temperatures, misty mornings, and saying no to the very persistent local women hawking their handicrafts. We had women follow us for a good half hour trying to chat us up and sell their wares. Apparently the best time to visit Sapa and not feel hounded by persistent vendors is during rice planting and harvesting seasons when everyone is in the fields. And wow, there are lots of rice fields, terrace upon terrace stepping up the hillsides, the harvested stalks left standing, being cleaned over by pecking chickens or grazing water buffalo.

Very interesting to see a part of the country with groups of H'mong, Dao and Tay ethnic minority groups, each with their distinct style of dress, the dark blues and blacks of the H'mong, the red head-dress of the Red Dao, and the green of the Tay.

After the pleasant cool quiet of Sapa and the Ecolodge, the return to the evening bustle of Lao Cai and the shriek of bus horns was a slight shock. Then the 4:30am arrival in the heavy, stinky humidity of Hanoi almost made us turn around and return to Sapa.

Some trip pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevjblack/sets/72157622668118526/

PS: if you're in Hanoi, the 2009 KOTO Ba Vi Bike Ride is taking place on Saturday November 21st. It's a great chance to cruise the countryside outside of Hanoi and support a worthy organisation. If you're not in Hanoi, feel free to sponsor me as I enjoy my 3rd Ba Vi Bike Ride. :)

How the kids imitate us

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:54:00 +0000

The kids were playing "mommy & daddy" yesterday. To help mommy (Asha),
daddy (Naveen) carried a big bag of stuff for mommy to take to work.
Mommy sported a bag of tennis balls to give to daddy when he goes off
to play tennis.

Our kid's play reflecting our lives -- mommy goes to work and daddy is
a slacker ;)

What People View

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:51:00 +0000

It's curious to see what people search & view on a Flickr Photostream. Here's a snapshot of my top 12 pics by page view since I activated the Flickr stats. Curious that 'pooja tray' is out in front by such a wide margin.

1. pooja tray 319 views

2. IMG_0620 221 views

3. delivery 121 views

4. wheelchair bound 113 views

5. clothes from India 113 views

6. Hu'u sunset 106 views

7. Palm Garden pool 88 views

8. basket boat paddling 84 views

9. A crowd gathers 70 views

10. unattended briefcase 69 views

11. blindfolded Jasmine 65 views

12. IMG_0437 64 views

Tết Trung Thu

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:26:00 +0000

áo dài kids
Originally uploaded by kevjblack

The moon is full and hanging low and orange in the sky. The dragons are dancing through the streets. Moon cakes are selling like hot cakes. Lanterns are decorating street posts. Kids are decked out in áo dài. Time for another Tết Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn moon festival) celebration this past weekend.

Some pics of the kids partaking of the fun: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevjblack/sets/72157622404483211/

Happy Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:57:00 +0000

cake
Originally uploaded by kevjblack

Good Gosh, another year gone by! The Big Boy is 5!

The clerk at the Hanoi Club thought it would be too difficult to make a Treasure Chest cake, so Lạp & I managed to make one ourselves. Lạp did the baking and I did some fine-tuning during the construction.

I got hand it to all the teachers out there -- we had 5 boys over for a couple hours -- so much noise and rough-housing -- I don't know how teachers withstand 15 or 20 kids each day. I think they enjoyed the treasure hunt we set up for them: a couple kids said it was the best treasure hunt they had ever been on and one gent even insisted on taking home all the clues!

5 blessed years with our little boy.

--

check out the pencil sketches of the kids done by our landlord's son: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevjblack/3877409909/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevjblack/3878203802/

Quote of the day

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:18:00 +0000

While chatting about a friend who has chicken pox... Naveen: "Mommy,
what is chicken pox? Do you turn into a chicken or something?"

Quote of the week

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:41:00 +0000

G: "Asha, we have to call your school tomorrow to see if you'll go to
school in the morning." (Hanoi's Vietnamese public schools have been
closed due to a recent H1N1 case, and we're uncertain if Asha's
preschool will be open.)

Asha: "But Mommy, schools can't talk!!"

she's smiling because it's cake

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:30:00 +0000

she's smiling because it's cake

When we arrived here, she wasn't walking, and now she's already 3.

She had a few friends over to enjoy magic cupcake decorating, toss-the-beanbag-into-the-flower, and pin-the-petals-on-the-flower. And to complete the theme, loot bags were replaced by 'loot potted plants for the guests to take home and nurture or kill as they please.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevjblack/tags/flowerparty

A quote of the week

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:02:00 +0000

While outside in the yard...

Me: Naveen, you look like you have to go pee. Please go inside and go pee.
N: Can I go pee in the plants?
Me: No, you can't go pee in the plants, go pee inside!
N: But the Vietnamese go pee in the plants. Why can't I pee in the plants?

Sometimes, he's a little too observant...

recent media

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:14:00 +0000

Last Friday we were treated to Naveen's class presenting "Blue Suede Shoes" as part of the Pre-Kindergarten's show "Our Rainbow World".

Check out some pics and video of the wee Elvis impersonators.

Quote of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:31:00 +0000

This week Geeta participated in the launch of the Action Month for Children, and she informed the children that she "was on TV".

Asha queried: "How did you get off the TV mommy?"

The Angels live on (sorta)

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:39:00 +0000

Occasionally, one of our TV channels, STAR World TV, has some free programming time before the regularly scheduled 8pm show. They have decided to fill this roughly 5 minutes of free time with, thankfully not an infomercial, but a Blast from the Past, a Charlie's Angels episode! It cracks us up.

But, you say, a Charlie's Angels episode is about 45 minutes in duration (1 hour show minus time for ads, etc.), how can they show it in 5 minutes?!? Well, they show the opening title & music, cutout the opening "teaser" scene, jump straight to opening credits, then slice & dice the way through the rest of the show to the final happy ending and closing credits.

We feel a little out of sorts watching these sliced-and-diced episodes, leaving us wondering what juicy information has been denied from us. e.g. There are scenes where they'll refer to a character, or an item that is crucial to the investigation, and we'll go, 'jewels!?!? What jewels are they talking about?!? we haven't seen no jewels!'. In a recent episode the closing credits listed Tom Selleck as one of the characters. Bloody 'ell!! We never got to see Tom Selleck! How can anyone cut Magnum PI out of a TV show?!? Another episode was a disjointed stream of car chases, gun fights, and foot chases; we had no idea why the Bad Guys were Bad (other than their Bad Hair) and why they were in conflict with the Angels.

So the question is, how are they able to distill a blast-from-the-past episode into 5 minutes and show it on today's TV:

it's the 21st century and in this day of Twitter, news tickers, and information overload, we are trained to absorb the bare-bones information and do not have the capacity or patience to savour the full-hour Angels? (not that I've ever been on Twitter) Who needs the full story? Who needs a storyline?
most TV shows are fluff. 5 minutes of hard-core story surrounded by fluff. Fluff to suck you in and keep you watching more advertisements that periodically interrupt the fluff.
it would be too dangerous to air a full hour of a show from the 70s. I used to watch Dukes of Hazzard as a kid - that and Hockey Night in Canada were our TV shows. I started watching a Dukes episode last year, nearly vomited, wondering how I ever watched such a horrific show in my youth, and as I gasped for oxygen, managed to change the channel before the next scene of Daisy's shorts sucked me in and glued my eyes back to the TV for the remainder of the episode.

The beauty of watching these Angel snippets with my wife: she has already seen the episode and can fill me in on the missing segments, or she had the Charlies Angels trading cards and remembers the scene vividly right down to the details of the outfits (especially Kelly!).

Siem Reap, Cambodia

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 03:39:00 +0000

Did you miss the pics from our Tet trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia?

Way up North

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:33:00 +0000

Recently, G. has rarely been at home:
9/03 - 13/03 : receiving training in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
13/03 - 17/03 : we join her in K-L for a vacation weekend
18/03 - 22/03 : work trip to Hà Giang, the northernmost province in Vietnam to visit schools & villages in some of the poorer districts of the country.

She had many interesting stories. I'll let her pictures do some of the talking.

Quote of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:38:00 +0000

Malaysian Airlines check-in woman to Geeta:
"Is your hair real?"

Took a little trip to the big city of K-L for the weekend. A nice trip to the zoo, play in a beautiful large playground under the Twin Towers, and stunning architecture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevjblack/tags/kualalumpur/

Multiple antenna in my router!

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:58:00 +0000

It's been relatively cold here the last few days. The Internet was
momentarily offline today and I went to the wireless router to look
for abnormal blinking lights. 3 floors up and I was surprised to see
a path of ants snaking through cracks under the screen window, leading
to the router and disappearing under the casing! Apparently they've
found a nice warm cozy place to call home!

Hopefully they didn't eavesdrop on my passwords and relay them back to
the main nest.

I wonder if the close proximity to the EMF would lead to interesting
genetic mutations? Anyhow, I evicted them with some RAID -- I can't
afford fried insects and router damage in order to wait a couple
generations to observe any mutations.

Tet Scenes

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:03:00 +0000

kumquat delivery
Originally uploaded by kevjblack

http://flickr.com/photos/kevjblack/sets/72157612848828667/

Pics of Ha Noi preparing for Tet (Lunar New Year).

Chúc mừng năm mới!

Goodbye Grandma

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:35:00 +0000

Dear Grandma,

Memories of you:
... Christmas cactus plants and influencing my appreciation of house plants... ...large brick country home with a large garden and fresh produce... ... summer days with white bedsheets flapping in the breeze on the laundry line... ...walks to the fields to take a picnic lunch to Dad & Grandpa... ...faithfully sending a birthday card every year with a letter detailing news of the neighbourhood & extended family... ...compiling local history & family genealogy... ...civic duty with the Women's Institute and 4-H Clubs... ...always a batch of thin ginger cookies on hand... ...large wood stove in the kitchen providing winter warmth, fall canning and year-round baking... ...grace before meals...

God Bless and thank you for the memories.

Alma Black
November 15, 1918 - December 24, 2008

Spirit of the Season

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:49:00 +0000

That time of the year again. Our first year having Christmas at home with 2 children. The kids had a great time decorating the tree a couple weeks ago and are highly anticipating Santa's arrival this week.

Yesterday, a TV producer and a camerman visited our house to take footage of ex-pats preparing for Christmas. Decorating the tree, making cookies, and wrapping presents were recorded. There might be a few seconds of us on VTV4 this Thursday night at 10pm.

A colleague of Geeta's was visiting an orphanage this last weekend with her church group. We asked the kids if they wanted to donate some of the slightly-used toys to the boys and girls of the orphanage. We are very proud of them as they threw many of their toys into the donation box -- many more toys went in the box than if we were doing the job ourselves!

You can also see our Piaggio loaded with the donations ready for delivery to the colleague's apartment. Of course, such a loaded scooter draws nary a second glance here in Vietnam!

Quote of the weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:13:00 +0000

While Asha is squirming in her chair at an eatery...

Mom: "Asha, do you have ants in your pants?"
Naveen (laughingly): "Maybe she beetles in her pants!?!"
Asha (matter-of-factly): "No! Chickens."

Quote of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:40:00 +0000

I know my kids are growing up in a different time & era when:

Naveen: "Mom, can I watch some TV?"
Mom: "No, not right now, it's almost nap time."
Naveen: "Oh."
Me: "Naveen, do you want to listen to some music?" (hoping to distract him a bit)
Naveen: "Actually, I want to play a game on the iPod."

I sure wasn't tech-savvy when I was 4 years old!

Unexpected?

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:13:00 +0000

We knew for quite some time that Asha has gone native since she usually prefers to eat plain white rice rather than just about anything else. Well, other than dessert -- she'll inhale dessert -- she'll poke and plod and be force-fed her entree, but then self-feed and eat her dessert in the blink of an eye. A normal child I suppose.

But an event this week led us to believe that Naveen has also gone native with respect to food. Here's a re-play of Naveen deciding which leftovers to eat for lunch:

Me: "Naveen, would you like macaroni & cheese or phở gà for lunch?" [expecting a reply of mac & cheese, reaching for the casserole dish...]
Naveen: "phở gà"
Me: [let go of the casserole dish and gather the phở gà ingredients]

phở gà is a super-yummy Vietnamese chicken noodle soup.
Of course, the fact that he'd already had mac & cheese twice in the past 3 days may have led him to choose a little variety.

--

Asha knows 3 names for her mother and will eagerly out-of-the-blue list the 3 names:

mummy
Geeta
mama - with a long-drawn out stress on the 2nd syllable: "maMMMAAAAAA"

Recently, she has added a 4th label:

mammia

The 4th label is a result of Geeta indoctrinating the children with Abba's Greatest Hits. Asha has saved some breathe on their hit "Mamma Mia" and associated it directly to Geeta.

--

FYI, there are few scatterings of pics recently uploaded to http://flickr.com/photos/kevjblack. Enjoy. Chao.

Quote of the week

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:50:00 +0000

The last couple days has been nearly non-stop rain here in Hanoi.
While watching me dress, Asha says: "You have to put your t-shirt on
Daddy."
"Why Asha?"
"so you don't get rain in your belly button!"

A visit to Mũi Né

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:40:00 +0000

Last week was a School Break Week for the kids, so we took a little journey south to Mũi Né.

Same timezone, same country, same currency, yet still a tiring travel experience. Wake at 6:30, catch the 8:30 flight from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh, then 5 adults, 4 children under 6, + driver in a 8-seater van on a 5 hour drive to cover the 200 or so klicks to Mũi Né. Hey, didn't the transportation voucher promise a roomy 16-seater van? We yearn for the day of Star-Trek energize-and-beam-me-there transporter, but I imagine our bodies will still be very tired going through the dematerialization and rematerialization process -- and the kids will still be cranky. Actually, the kids were pretty good on the trip, and they were very excited to arrive at Pandanus Resort.

But really, I shouldn't be complaining. A beach vacation. Good food. Good friends. Warm, sunny, and not as icky humid as Hanoi. And we didn't have frost nipping at our toes -- I know some of you readers are settling in & preparing for the deep chill of winter. Although I have seen some of your pics of the Canadian fall colours and I could use a cool, crisp day with blazing leaves against the clear blue sky.

There were a couple features that led us to choose our hotel. One, a tennis court, and, Two, a children's playroom with babysitters. Did I mention 4 children 6 years and younger? Who wouldn't want a children's playroom with babysitters?! Combining the 2 features, The kids get to play and the adults get to knock a tennis ball around. Now here's the joke: shortly after arrival while enjoying a complimentary wine & cheese, the manager informs us that i) the tennis court has a sinkhole -- still playable, but a definite handicap; and ii) the playroom is under construction. Ummmpph, what a kick in the shins. The manager did get a temporary playroom put together for us, although the meager selection of 1 small plastic slide, balls and 1 rocking horse kept the kids entertained for a short 20 minutes, whereupon they joined us at the tennis court. They require much more training before they become qualified ball-boys & ball-girls. (is there a gender-neutral term for the youth that run across the court collecting the tennis balls?)

Thank goodness we only stayed 4 nights in Mũi Né. Any longer and we would have had to start cooking our own food 'cause we had issues at 2 out of 4 dinner meals. Perhaps it was our large group of 9 people that caused the problem, but the Vietnamese food service industry could still use training on coordination & timeliness of delivering food to tables. At one slick-looking sushi restaurant, we ordered 2 pizzas, one per pair of siblings. One pizza came quickly, the other pizza took forevvvverrr to arrive and Naveen got soooo hungry he found the courage to go ask the waitress what was taking his pizza so long. Couple days later, at an Italian restaurant, the meals arrived spread out over the course of 30 minutes. A few of us were finished eating by the time the other's meals arrived. Bruschetta, commonly an appetizer, commonly arriving at the beginning of a meal, never did arrive, so we had to cancel the bruschetta order.

Well, that's enough of my Grouchy-Old-Man report on our Mũi Né trip.

For a much happier report, please read Jackie's blog entry.
For happy, sunny pictures of our activities, please see our Mui Ne Flickr set.

Happy Diwali!

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:23:00 +0000

The lights of our life shine this New Year. Cheers!