tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199996332024-03-14T01:05:49.935+07:00Backwater ViewsA South African in Saigon.hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.comBlogger224125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-52617395582779948762012-06-29T14:19:00.001+07:002012-06-29T14:19:20.176+07:00Postage and package included… sometimes.<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-AU
X-NONE
X-NONE
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>
hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-28010150996382555862012-06-05T18:00:00.000+07:002012-06-05T18:00:18.400+07:00The Value of Green Space
A few months months ago, before the incessant daily downpours had dampened my spirits like a dead fella dressed in red hanging limply from my chimney on Christmas morning, some mates and I decided to celebrate the sunshine by spending the day in the park. Said celebrations in South Africa or Australia usually include packing a mountain of food and beer in a cooler and spending the day on the hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-91697081244380862232012-05-02T10:45:00.003+07:002012-05-02T10:45:37.023+07:00Expat extremesOne of the defining characteristics of
being an expatriate is the transient nature of your life. What I mean by this
is that people are always coming – arriving for a new job on a short or
long-term contract – or going – reaching the end of their stint in their
temporarily adopted homeland. This has benefits in that you are constantly
meeting new, interesting people who have left the comforts of hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-2418964794685036472012-04-24T09:42:00.001+07:002012-04-24T09:42:15.611+07:00Come rain. Or shine.As an expat living in Vietnam, there are a number of subjects that inevitably arise when talking to other long-term foreigners living here. I’ve compiled a mental list of the top, and sometimes most tedious, subjects expats in Vietnam talk about. I think at this time of year, the weather is probably right up there near the pinnacle. Put it like this, if "expat talk" was Twitter, #rain, #weather, hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-53869701955599064012012-04-19T09:37:00.000+07:002012-04-19T09:37:27.424+07:00The Curse of the Crazy LandlordIt’s inevitable. You move to Vietnam and start looking for a place to live. Nothing fancy. Just somewhere to lay your head at night, really. Lucky for you, a friend of a friend is moving out of this great place in Tan Binh District - a little bit further out than you expected, but it's just what you wanted; a nice two-storey house, with a rooftop terrace and three bedrooms – perfect for sharing hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-90563668525357100292012-04-16T12:46:00.000+07:002012-04-16T12:46:09.620+07:00Writing column articles for Doanh Nhân Sài GònOver the next few months I've decided to publish some of the column articles I've written for Doanh Nhân Sài Gòn (Saigon Entrepreneurs Weekly Edition). These are bi-weekly articles for a column called Một góc nhìn khác (From a different perspective) where I give an expats perspective on life in Saigon. I was introduced to DNSG by Jon Hoff, who passed the writing baton (read: responsibility to hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-7975416204304592472010-10-27T10:55:00.000+07:002010-10-27T10:55:55.981+07:00What's been going on in the 'Gon
We’ve been back in Saigon for three months and many people ask me what I think has changed in the year I’ve been away. So what’s been going on in the ‘Gon that wasn’t before?
Well, you could just as easily ask – what’s not going on anymore? A lot of restaurants and bars have moved or closed and new one’s have sprouted to try their hand at the slippery food and beverage industry. Take Thai Van hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-40237085991193738982010-08-13T18:09:00.000+07:002010-08-13T18:09:45.369+07:00Foreign Indulgences
Okay, as much as I ranted about the local food in the previous post, I must admit hauling along quite a number of what you could call “ foreign essentials”, things which are either too dear in Vietnam, too difficult to source out or just impossible to find (for reasons of either legality or culture). Turn the cart upside down, though, and they could be called a Westerner’s “lavish indulgences”, hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-10597338232407341502010-08-09T10:33:00.000+07:002010-08-09T10:33:25.641+07:00The food, the glorious food!To pick up where I left off on Friday’s post, there isn’t a single raison d'être for returning to Saigon, but rather the amalgamation of factors which I touched on. Yet, one item that is high up the list, peeking over the top edge with greedy little eyes is this country's gastronomic delights, in extreme plurality.
Despite being a self-confessed hedonist, okay, honestly more of a glutton than a hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-59920304195925256632010-08-06T15:55:00.000+07:002010-08-06T17:00:18.089+07:00Round TwoThe keyboard has been dusted and the mouse de-cobwebbed but my mind is still rusty from a lack of writing and an overwhelming, yet much-anticipated, return to Vietnam. Sarah and I have been back for exactly a week, having touched down in the sauna that is Saigon for another crack at this spinning, whirling city existence. I wasn’t sure what to expect or what emotions would unwrap themselveshennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-30822300709975509052009-10-01T16:54:00.000+07:002009-10-02T17:01:32.008+07:00A new dawnAfter much procrastinating, I've finally settled on a name and created my new blog:
an african down under
I've exported all my links so all of you on my old blogroll are on my new one too. Thanks for reading my Vietnam blog for all these years and I hope you enjoy my perspective of this Australian adventure just as much!
hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-40686726169286179252009-08-19T05:44:00.000+07:002009-08-19T10:56:42.379+07:00End of a ChapterI’m sitting here in our unit sipping on a super strong cup of Trung Nguyen’s Legendee coffee, that famous Buon Me Thuot blend, my last stash of Vietnamese coffee that I brought with and also the best I’ve ever drunk. There’s nothing like a distinctive aroma to bring back memories and enduce a bout of nostalgia. After less than two weeks in Brisbane, coming back to my blog feels like an alien hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-12048391013556022422009-07-24T08:37:00.000+07:002009-07-24T08:48:52.166+07:00A Rooster Ruckus<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-49034102758612303192009-07-17T10:30:00.000+07:002009-07-17T12:36:44.144+07:00Flour PowerBot Chien is a favourite pre- and post-class snack for Saigon’s school kids and you’ll nearly always find a vendor eagerly parked outside a school or language centre. I first discovered it when I was working at a school up in Tan Binh District about three years ago as I headed outside for a between-class ca phe da. I saw dozens of little backpacked, black heads clamouring around a single steaminghennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-45562793055763392522009-07-09T11:35:00.000+07:002009-07-09T11:47:51.665+07:00An Ode to the Raiders A ragged bunch of mercenaries, battle-hardened warriors, drawn together from the far corners of the globe troop onto the field at the National University in Thu Duc District every Sunday in Saigon. A South African, a handful of British and Irish, Aussies, Scandinavians, Yanks and Europeans, all gleaming with the iridescent glow of sweat, toiling in the tropical heat or ubiquitous afternoon hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-44708918096649169822009-07-05T11:42:00.000+07:002009-07-05T11:50:09.307+07:00An Ode to Mr WobblesYesterday some of my friends came over for a garage sale that wasn’t in a garage and it wasn’t a sale. I basically gave what’s rest of my house away to my friends and Ms Sau the cleaning lady who comes in twice for a few hours. Her name literally means Mrs Ugly in Vietnamese – some people have this tradition of calling their children ugly names in hope of the opposite becoming true or for good hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-28484878853973635472009-07-03T08:33:00.000+07:002009-07-03T08:51:03.497+07:00What's going on?Okay, since I last posted anything a lot of things have been going on. Firstly, the total inventory of our house was literally shoved into a corner; punched, pinched and prodded, stood on and shoved until it fit into 2.5m³. Okay, the bed and big bulky things stayed, but the rest – including 15 paintings, a bunch of clothes, millions of CDs, bric-a-brac aka miscellaneous goods from Nepal, Myanmar,hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-31116434002535194552009-06-25T20:57:00.000+07:002009-06-25T21:36:35.756+07:00Vietnam viewsJust some random shots from around the southern part of the country. These are the kind of pics you don't really know what to do with so they just lie around in a random folder until you have about five or six of them and then you're like *ahaa, let's make a little blog post out of them".My football team the Saigon Raiders were out for a tournament on Phu Quoc Island about 6 weeks ago and these hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-33763926722934839262009-06-22T22:11:00.000+07:002009-06-22T22:38:09.374+07:00Thing's I've eatenWith time running out in the country I’ve come to love with a smirk on my face and a tasty banh mi in the hand, I’ve started reminiscing on the things I’ve seen, eaten, and experienced, places I’ve been, people I’ve laughed with and at and all the fillings in between that make everything just, well, bloody good. Now, I’m not trying to compare myself with Andrew Zimmern, but I think it would be hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-11286828740123054332009-06-16T09:55:00.000+07:002009-06-16T10:03:06.881+07:00Things to look forward in Oz No.1I'm moving to, officially, the fattest country in the world. I'm looking forward to putting my investigative journalism skills to the test by uncovering some of the reasons behind this phenomenon. Hey, I've already started, look what I found: The Bogan Burger! If you don't know what a Bogan is - check out this site dedicated to their ilk (they're sort out like the Aussie version of hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-40059995430314453592009-06-15T10:11:00.000+07:002009-06-15T10:28:01.383+07:00Back on track, sorta...Woah! It's over *double-tap high five myself*. Yes, sorry again for the absence but that Celta course was intense but now it's done. I'm pretty sure Sarah and I both passed and did okay but we haven't got the results yet. If any of you teachers out there have sado-masochistic tendencies and are thinking of putting yourself through hell for the sake of professional develeopment, I can highly hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-90360485471846657982009-06-03T18:29:00.000+07:002009-06-03T18:33:39.489+07:00'Scuze my not being around, but...Just a short note to apologise for not blogging actively these last two weeks. This behaviour might continue until next week when this course from hell ends. I'm currently shackled to second conditionals, partnered with pronunciation and married to modal verbs. You'll find me in the dork section of the geek handbook in the nerd library. What the hell is 'realia' anyway? hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-34963868007612165232009-05-28T21:01:00.000+07:002009-05-28T21:38:44.310+07:00Spontaneous ProseAs time is the essential thorny bat that ends each day with a solid thwack, and a training course of monstrous proportions (and slippery contortions) attempts to envelope and bear-hug the life out of any sense of belonging and individuality left to embrace with my Freudian self, I shall attempt a short, yet thoroughly encompassing literary review of my secret idea-words based on Jack Kerouac’s 30hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-75598001384123250972009-05-20T18:23:00.000+07:002009-05-20T18:47:16.263+07:00Life, the universe, and everything I don't have time forIs having a social life overrated? Do you find having friends annoying and seeing them a tedious chore? Is free-time a taboo subject? Do you consider going home before sunset a definition of laziness? Well, then I've got just the thing for you: The Celta Teacher Training Course! This fantabulous course is guaranteed to allay any fears of what to do with your free-time...as you won't have any! hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999633.post-32190443917227646812009-05-14T22:50:00.000+07:002009-05-15T09:53:28.765+07:00Leaving LagosOver the last two years in Vietnam I’ve been curiously following the fate of the Nigerian community in Vietnam and have had some contrasting emotions and reached divergent conclusions.In general, Nigerians living in Vietnam have been ostracised by not only locals but other foreigners alike, due to nefarious behaviour a number of them are involved in. I know this is not a localised opinion, from hennohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13271287560061649773noreply@blogger.com8