2am. We have been awake for a while with the reverberating sound of a large lorry, shouting and calling and enormous ear splitting bangs. My daughter and husband march out of the front gate to investigate. There has been a delivery of huge concrete pillars to the house opposite. We have endured three long days of jack hammering from the work men demolishing a high stone wall in the front of the house, Saturday and Sunday included. This seems like the last straw. Our own house has been shaking so much for weeks now with jack hammering both front and back of the property I am worried that the normal lean on the building has increased and the whole thing might topple over.
The boss greets the irritable couple with an explanation about the functionality of the district commune and police department who have prohibited such deliveries during the day time. When does day time finish we ask, surely 2 am is not reasonable but apparently this will continue in the middle of the night for some time.
This week continues with the discovery of lice in our grandsons hair. This causes a flurry of activity trying to find the appropriate shampoo or treatment to get rid of them. Everyone must be treated. All bed linen washed in hot water. We only have cold water in our machine so they all go off to the laundry. I study all the treatments suggested by the expat community here. One innovative suggestion is a head covered with mayonnaise, apparently smothers them. Not sure this would work with two and three years olds. Finally managed to source a gentle French lice shampoo through one of the expats and the wash process begins. Billy keeps scratching his head "there are still spiders in my hair Nana". The whole process starts again.
I have been helping out in the summer school program for a couple of hours this week, teaching childen to knit. The children are about eight years old and most of this class are from Korea. There is also a boy from eastern Europe and a few Vietnamese children. The western children have all gone home to their various 'home' countries and will not start returning until school recommences, some in mid-August, others not until early September. They all have different calendars according to their nationality. The children have not seen knitting before and are quite fascinated. The class teacher, also Anne (but with an e), and I hand out wooden knitting needles and wool we have sourced in a shop close to Ben Thanh Market. The teacher I am working with has a website where she sells some knitted articles
http://www.etsy.com/shop/atizay?ref=si_shop
great hats and head bands
For the most part the children are very awkward learning this new skill, some of the boys prefer head bashing and wrestling in another part of the classroom. Two or three of the girls take to it like little professionals and the others struggle. I take home a couple of small squares to correct and pull them out and knit them up again. We will finish them off tomorrow. Meantime, watch this great animation of a knitter on Youtube :
The boss greets the irritable couple with an explanation about the functionality of the district commune and police department who have prohibited such deliveries during the day time. When does day time finish we ask, surely 2 am is not reasonable but apparently this will continue in the middle of the night for some time.
This week continues with the discovery of lice in our grandsons hair. This causes a flurry of activity trying to find the appropriate shampoo or treatment to get rid of them. Everyone must be treated. All bed linen washed in hot water. We only have cold water in our machine so they all go off to the laundry. I study all the treatments suggested by the expat community here. One innovative suggestion is a head covered with mayonnaise, apparently smothers them. Not sure this would work with two and three years olds. Finally managed to source a gentle French lice shampoo through one of the expats and the wash process begins. Billy keeps scratching his head "there are still spiders in my hair Nana". The whole process starts again.
I have been helping out in the summer school program for a couple of hours this week, teaching childen to knit. The children are about eight years old and most of this class are from Korea. There is also a boy from eastern Europe and a few Vietnamese children. The western children have all gone home to their various 'home' countries and will not start returning until school recommences, some in mid-August, others not until early September. They all have different calendars according to their nationality. The children have not seen knitting before and are quite fascinated. The class teacher, also Anne (but with an e), and I hand out wooden knitting needles and wool we have sourced in a shop close to Ben Thanh Market. The teacher I am working with has a website where she sells some knitted articles
http://www.etsy.com/shop/atizay?ref=si_shop
great hats and head bands
For the most part the children are very awkward learning this new skill, some of the boys prefer head bashing and wrestling in another part of the classroom. Two or three of the girls take to it like little professionals and the others struggle. I take home a couple of small squares to correct and pull them out and knit them up again. We will finish them off tomorrow. Meantime, watch this great animation of a knitter on Youtube :