BBCT (XXV) Latter day frustration & fun & food & friends

4:00

enough sleep

5:15

Desperate to get to the market at 6:00, I try the gate.   But today it has been LOCKED properly?  

WTF?  B must have been more paranoid than normal last night!

After all, as is easily demonstrated, if someone wants to take a scooter off the yard, they only have to ride along the beach .....

making tracks

I manage not to get stuck in the sand ......and I'm OUT

When I get back, B is awake, but for about 10 minutes she is unable to open the friggin padlock.  

I finally give up and WALK around along the beach.  

Only when I get to the gate from the inside does she finally manage to get it open.

11:00

Life at My Beach is too annoying right now.  Sure, B is away praying, but one of the Valkyries is still there, whining that puss is issuing from her leg (no such thing, she took a still healing crust into the ocean this morning) and showing me pictures on her cell phone of her long-deceased dog. 
I ask M about his plans for building on my neighbouring property and he says they have NO plans and NO ideas.  2 minutes later, when I tell him my plan he says "That's exactly what we are going to build".
WTF?
Add to this that B is in a FOUL mood after she returns from communing with God (prayers unanswered again?) and I just know that I need some away-from-the-beach time.

Hop on the scooter !   Should I get ANOTHER haircut before I leave?   By the time I'm back in Vancouver in about 3 weeks my head will look shaggy and it wouldn't hurt to ogle that hairdresser again...... but he's busy when I ride by so maybe tomorrow.

I keep riding towards Song Cau. 

 The sky is BLUE the vegetation is GREEN and most of the land is still flooded from the downpour a few days ago.   

But it all comes together to such beauty!   I can't even IMAGINE NOT being here...... misery awaits.

The two Valkyries who are back in Valkyrie-Land now want more cigarettes to give away.  B was supposed to get them in Song Cau, but did NOT.  I need cigarettes anyway so I'm thinking of grabbing two cartons for them..... but then the store only has 2 cartons left.
Love thy neighbour but love thyself first !  Especially when it comes to cigarettes!  And WHY can't they buy cigarettes at the duty free in HCMC?

And I'm finally going to eat some decent food again.  A-Stop should do...... the waitress brings me a bilingual menu with many pages and stands there awaiting my order. 

 I don't like to be rushed, so I just ask "Co com chien hai san, khong?"  She nods affirmatively.    SHIT, I SPEAK VIETNAMESE, LOL.

And it's GOOD (and EXACTLY what I ordered in Vietnamese;-).

  Instead of using lots of oil in a warm pan like they do at home, they stir fry the rice at HIGH heat which renders the rice crispy and crunchy instead of oily. 

Munchies at the gas station shop.  A half-tube of Viet Pringles, a pack of Oreos, and another DELICIOUS chocolate ice on the stick..all for $2 ;-)

14:00

16:00

18:30
Tom is used to be the shrimp around here (you have to speak Vietnamese to get that particular pun ;-) but now there are some visitors here who have kids even younger than him.   It's a delight to see him cheer up:   He is the tallest at the front of a row of three kids and he shows them around.    He seems to grow even taller when I give him the Frisbee and ask him to watch it for me until I come back whenever it is I get to come home again.....
And when I use Google Translator to tell him that I am leaving tomorrow, I am actually SHOCKED at what comes out of the phone's speaker "Ngay mai, toi se di".  I don't even have to look at the writing ..... I could have said that without the translator, lOl.