feeling normal for a while

Hi everyone back home ... great news ... things are settling down to normal over here. Been back in Hoi An for about a week now, and it's monday night, and I;ve just had along weekend before heading back to work tomorrow.

Everyone here at Fawlty Towers is looking after me ... too well .... i've just sat down to check the emails etc and have been given one cup coffee, one cup of tea and three bananas ... after they have all had a laugh at my new hair colour. Went down to the markets this morning, and have made lots of new friends down there, because last week I went Christmas shopping. When they knew I was working here, I got a discount, but still no where near local prices. They all loved me last week, because I was about the only one there, many of the tourists have kept away because of the storm. Sp back I went this morning .. needing a hair cut and colour ... Since being here, I have needed to wash my hair nearly every day because of the heat ... so it needed attending to.

Young girl last week told me that she was a hairdresser and also a beauty therapist (Vietnamese kind) ... and one of the older ladies down there told me that she had to move in with her in-laws cause her whole house had washed away with most of their belongings ... and she didn;t like her mother in law. So feeling sorry for her, I decided that she was a worthy cause for a sale.

Sitting amongst the silk scarves, she is cutting away happily and whispered to me that the government had banned all hair cut and beauty work from being done in a market. Great I thought .... I'm going to gaol for getting a hair cut ... No worries she said, but kept me hidden in the scarves ... I'm thinking that someone else is going to buy these scarves one day ... So out comes the cats water bowl and she starts combing the water through my hair and proceeds to cut it razor like ... This is different I'm thinking... back home they usually do the colour first ... but I guess I;'m in vietnam so ..... Ok hair cut over, she then disappears and comes back with a sample of colour.... Excellent I said, just what I like ... and so she mixes it all up, and combes it in really well .... We're getting to the end of the colour application when I ask .... How are we going to wash the colour out ... Oh she says ... Where you stay? Hoang Trinh I said .... Oh that 10 minutes away ... You go now ... when you get back you wash it off yourself.

OK I'm thinking ... I don;'t think that I'll be wearing the crash helmet .... thoughts get interrupted though .... Hurry Huirry madam ... you need to wash off! ... Ye gads, I'm thinking, If I don't get nack in time, my hair is going to fall out .... And no-one even looked at me ... it's normal to do this .... And the colour ..... ummmm kinda orange! Not the deep colour that she showed ... Oh well ... any wonder it was cheap!

So with 6 weeks down, there's only 6 weeks to go ... We've done so much ... there's so much to do .... and sometimes I wonder if I've done anything at all.... Robyn asked me the other day if I would consider staying .... longer .... we had a long discussion re what / how / why etc .... but I think that this three month spell will be long enough (for the first time anyway) ...

Cheryl is still getting paperwork through to the travel insurance people, and hopes to be back in a few weeks .... Hurry Up Wilson ....

Oh ... Mr Tam ... a really old man from the old town died last week ... funerals are big over here ... and his was huge. And someone else died up the road ... well somewhere up the road ... cause another coffin was being towed behind a pushbike up the street .... All covered in glad wrap ... really ornate coffin ... and this one had about 6 bed pillows ocker strapped on top of the coffin lid .... looked v v strange ....

Got sore throat .... first time felt off since we've been here ... must go find more vitamins ...

Hi to everyone back home .... I'm surviving well ... taking care and being looked after ... hug hug ... lyn oi