Birthday party! cont...

... because today he got celebrated at school, too.

A good thing for parents about birthdays is that we can demand more of him now, threatening him that if he doesn't behave he might turn back three. And oh, how much broccoli he has to eat to be able to turn five!

Birthday party!

Kai is now a big boy of four years. Sunday we celebrated all day, and in the afternoon we had 10 kids - and their parents - over for a couple of hours of hysterical fun...

Dining at the Opera

We havent actually gone there yet, but from the outside it looks like this.

Last Wednesday I took my motorbike downtown, met Keisuke at the entrance stairs and later had beer and some food in their posh garden restaurant. The evenings still warm but nice and fresh.

Museum of Ethnology

This weekend we went to the Museum of Ethnology, to run around in the big garden, check out traditional houses built up here and there, and to enjoy the Japanese Mid-autumn Festival. For lunch we had okonomiyaki and gyoza and yakisoba and even sushi.
Afterwards, of course, Vietnamese tea.

Before going home we watched the lion and dragon dance. Loud drums and fast movements. Too scary, Hana thought.

Staff lunch break.

Onigiri

Yummy!

Princesses

For Kai, drawing princesses is now competing with racing cars and space rockets, as the most popular motif. Especially if you are going to give the drawing to a girl it is important to draw something that girls like, he tells me. "Oh, so there are different things that boys and girls like especially?", the Taketani family minister of gender affairs (me, that is...) asks. He says yes, and gives this one to his new best friend Isha as well.

Open house morning at Kai's school, "Systems Little House".

Chợ Hôm - the textile market

Impossible to see anything and impossible to remember what you actually needed. It's just too much and too chaotic. I went today, bought a lot. Now I have to think about what it was I needed it all for.

Lunch by the fire extinguisher.

Downstairs is a fruit market ...

... and outside you can breathe again, and also get some traditional dessert.

Furniture shopping II

Voila!

And, I didnt even have to go to Saigon, just down to Nguyen Freres hidden store by the Opera. Apparently one of the Nguyen brothers travels around the Mekong delta and Saigon area looking for old French colonial Art Deco style furniture like these and takes them to their workshop where they give them a little shape-up. Most likely they are from the thirties or fourties or so.

Everything that is less than a 100 years you are allowed to bring with you when leaving Vietnam...

Gecko

A gecko on my kitchen window.

Every evening he comes.

Oriental Party

For the first time since we came to Hanoi we contracted our nanny to come babysit at night, and went to a party together. There were belly dancers, shisha water pipes, great arabic food and lots of people. It was an oriental party and I could finally use my new silk dress from Hoi An. Next time we just have to ask the babysitter to come back for the morning shift as well...

Keisuke in the shisha room, where else...

Very romantic photo frame.

During the weekend, we also had an italian style lunch with a Swedish-Colombian family who just arrived in Hanoi, and went to the pool with some Australian friends. A great weekend in the city.

Motorbike

When we got back from Sweden I finally got my very own motorbike, and am now cruising around all Hanoi. From West Lake to the city center is a nice ride along our street and the lake, passing busy Yen Phu street, around Truc Bach lake and passed some wide tree-lined french style boulevards before entering the completely chaotic old quarter. Wonderful!

Yen Phu street.

The fact that it is electric makes it even better. I dont make any noice and dont contribute to the ever worsening pollution, the two things I dislike most about Hanoi. And it looks ok, although still just a little like a three wheeled one, for someone with a physical disability. Green cool, yes, but cool cool, maybe not...

And, I have already developed a complete tunnel vision - dont look to your side, never back, just forward, and am learning to use the horn. But I dont think I will ever go completely native, as I feel rather far from ready to write SMS while cruising the busy streets of Hanoi, preferably at the same time as giving a ride to at least one friend.

Wednesday II

This year, Kai goes to school every day. Wednesdays as well. Thoa, our nanny and helper, comes in late, and in the morning I normally invite some of Hana's little friends, including their mothers - my friends. Today Annika and Anouk came for mugi-cha and mango. In the afternoon; playdate at Sondre's and later Keisuke and I had our weekly Wednesday-escape and evening out.

This week, we met by Truch Bach lake for a beer and some Indian food at one of the many small eateries surrounding the lake. Today - finally - with windows wide open, no aircon running, instead a fresh evening breeze coming in. Wednesdays aren't that bad this year either.

A rainy taxi ride, but who cares, when the typhoon brings cooooooool weather!

Rainy season

I thought it was supposed to be rainy season now. Yet, even though every now and then a brief almost-tropical rain falls that makes the pond water level rise just a little and cools of the city for a short while, I seems to be sunnier than ever.
Now that we got a thermometer we have also found out that the temperature actually never falls below 30 degrees, and most probably hasnt since May.

Picking flowers in the garden in the rain.

A sunny day in West Lake. Looks fresh but is hot hot hot...

Hana and Kai III

On the kitchen wall, we keep track of Hana and Kai. Growing steadily Kai already passed one meter, Hana still 70 something.
Even so she is a very cool girl, she can eat by herself, drink from a real cup and experss herself both in words (at least mama, papa, poopoo, byebye...) and with sign language. She can run and practices jumping and everything cool and dangerous Kai does and goes regularly to visit his school where she likes the toy kitchen and to serve the other kids tea most of all. And the swing.
Kai also loves school, especially all arts projects they are working on but also music and cooking class and to dress up like spider man and play football and run fast.

Ipa Nima

The coolest bags in Vietnam are from Ipa Nima, and finally I got my very own!

And although Hana had to try it out her favourite is still the ladybird bag she got from moster Karin in Sweden, perfect to fill up with small plastic farm animals.

Furniture shopping

In June I finally managed to order a large wooden dining table, Japanese style, with a matching wooden bench, just like I wanted it, and really, really cheap. Last week I finally managed to get my deposit back, after a Kafka-like process where I finally just showed up and stayed at the (new - as meanwhile they had time to move) office. Obviously it is not too uncommon that, all of a sudden and for a Westerner and newcomer in this country completely inexplicable reasons, they just change their mind. Simply dont wanna do it anylonger. But, of course, they would never tell you, would never say no, and "why?" is a useless question.

Yesterday I paid deposit at another furniture shop, fifty meters down the road from the other one, for a huge book shelf, that will accomodate all our books and a lot of other stuff we have lying all around the place. If I get it, and its good, I migth try to get the table from them as well. Although the English-speaking madame in the shop already let me know, the price will be much higher, it wont be the same wood and definitely not one massive piece. New the other one was too good.

But, what I really, really would like are a couple of those French colonial style armchairs. Just seems like you have to go down to Saigon to get them...

Painter?

Although the Maya priest who did Kai's horoscope in Guatemala told us he would be a medical doctor, his favourite pastime is still painting. Normally things like space rockets, very fast airplanes or very very fast speed boats or racing cars, but also mum in a brides dress, animals, all Taketani family or portraits of whoever visits.

Fish family creative process, including assitant Hana in rubber boots. Comlete with a pregnant mother fish and all.

Sunday lunch

Swedish company and Vietnamese food. Great!

Theo, Kai and Hana.
But... what happened to their clothes!?!

Hats and whiteness

They are everywhere, Vietnamese women in conshaped hats, making the atmosphere really exotic, but mainly to protect their delicate skin and keep it as white as possible.

And ever so often you see the women wearing long pants, long sleeved shirts or even jackets, although it is fourty degrees hot and sunny. On the beach I saw vendors in fleece jackets and gloves and in the supermarket you can buy a whole range of whitening products, from deodorants to creams and lotion.

.

On the motorbike you have to wear a helmet nowadays (and people actually do), but you can buy special blouses with sleeves that turn into gloves and a collar that can be wrapped around your face. Protects against pollution and dust as well I guess.