Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Treasure Hunt

This weekend we celebrated Kai's fifth birthday during three days.
We started on Saturday with a treasure hunt party at the Ethnological museum. Five boys and one girl running around the gardens, looking for secret notes, eager to find the treasure before the fat pirates and their big bad wolf. Afterwards we had cake in the museum cafe, got rained in as a tropical storm passed traight ahead.

Isha, Eliott, Jordan, Kai, Hosea, Yuuki. Getting ready.

Group photo by the magic tree.

Rained in.

Yummy!

Sunday we celebrated at home and Monday I had to bring cake to be had during snack time in school.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Caterpillars at the Flower Market

Today Hana and the other Caterpillars in her school went on an excursion to the flower market. It's about a three minutes bus ride from school and they were all very excited. Even got some pocket money to buy flowers for!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Ten-ten-ten

On the 10th of October Hanoi kicks of its official 1000 years anniversay celebrations. It's said to be massive, although no-one seem to have a clue of what will happen. Will there be a national holiday? Will it be possible to move around? Will it be fun or just a tremendous chaos?

Traffic, I'm sure, will just get worse and worse from now. And then, when it's all over, it's close to Christmas and all of those preparations anyway (for a holiday they don't celebrate, but it doesen't seem to matter) and then well, comes Tet. And that is always hysterical. After that, the new level of chaos will become normal, and from there it will get worse and worse again...




A brief stop on my way to town the other day. Feels good to have an electric motorbike. No pollution, no noise. From mine, that is.

More than that, today heat was unbearable again. It is supposed to be "mid-autumn" but that doesn't seem to matter. Four p.m. "current weather report" says "36 degrees / feels like 45", almost too hot for the pool. Luckily tomorrow it is supposed to cool down a bit.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Museum of Ethnology

A busy weekend, including Saturday Soccer at UNIS, moon festival at Sedona, a night out for Keisuke and me, Sunday Karate and even a tour to the wonderful Museum of Ethnology, where children's day was celebrated and we did some research for next week 5 years birthday party to be celebrated in the Museum gardens, with treasure hunt and all!

Hana and Keisuke in the kite work shop.

Open day at Systems Little House

This Friday Kai and Hana's school opened up for parents to come visit. Keisuke had an important meeting and couldn't make it, even though him visiting might have made more sense, as I generally go there three times a day anyway, to leave and pick up kids at different times... Even so, Hana got to visit Kai's class where we made family pictures and then we went downstairs to her class and made a clay family.

Taketani family, including a doll!
Hana in Caterpillar II cosy corner.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Blue skies!

Oh well, now it's grey again, but the other day the sky was really blue, the air fresh after a heavy morning rain. The kids loved the afternoon by the pool and Kai is actually doing some real swimming now.

Swim class.

Poolside snack. Emi, Kai, Yuuki, Isha, Hana.

Thuong Dinh

Now we got them. Both Keisuke and I. A pair of cool original Thuong Dinh sneakers each. Rumors say they are becoming the latest of super hip in Paris, "avant the avant-gard" as retro as they are and priced thereafter. Here, they are still about 60.000 vietnamese dong. About 3 dollars or 25 kronor. Yes, 25 kronor. At least that's what I paid. And no, I did NOT bother to bargain on that.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Lazy Sunday

Keisuke and Kai in the hammock on our third floor terrace, Hana sleeping siesta in her second floor bedrom and I got the first floor all to myself! Now she's woken up, though and I have promised coffee and snack on the terrace. Later, we'll go down to the pool for a refreshing swim. What a wonderfully lazy Sunday.

In the morning (after he got back from Karate class with the kids) Keisuke also installed some kind of super-shield on the computer as blogger and all blogspot pages were all blocked again...

UNIS Saturday Soccer

Yesterday was premiere for Kai as an official football player in UNIS Little Dragons. An excellent dribbler, shooter, goal keeper and goal maker, he had a lot of fun. Hana had a ball too, hanging out with plenty of little friends.

Isha, Elliot and Kai.

Hana-chan and Ayo-chan.

A little tough for parents though, thinking about we actually have to be out there at 8.15 every Saturday morning all year. Well, mainly Keisuke, as he will also be one of the rather many coaches. Keeping them all on the field is hard work!

The doll house

Hana's doll house is now fully occupied. Apart from the original family who moved in as soon as she got it - a super ordinary family of mum and dad and big brother and little sister (guess their names!) - a pink haired troll and three plastic girls now live there too, as well as animals moving in and out regularly.

Second floor balcony.

Master bedroom.

Entertainment area and open kitchen.

Its all wooden and sturdy and kind of eco-looking. Last week some friends who came back from Italy brought a Vespa, definitely an essential accessory for a Hanoian doll house!
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This summer Hana enjoyed playing with my old doll house, highly fashionable in the seventies. What nostalgia that was!

Plastic fantastic shopping at Hang Ma Street

The other day I went down to the center, for a stroll along wonderful Hang Ma street. If you need anything that's got to do with paper or pens or other stationary, or plastic lanterns or masks or whatever little plastic stuff you don't need, this is where to go. I got spiderman masks, princess tiaras, a blond and a rasta wig and a big bunch of fake hundred dollar bills for the kids to play shop. A great success and all for about six dollars.

If you manange to make your way through the djungle of plastic crap flooding onto the street, there are actually "real" shops inside...
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Preparations for upcoming moon festival, with plenty of huge dragon masks for sale. Maybe something for Kai who loves to dress up as a lion or other animal to scare Hana and her little friends...
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The possibilities are endless and these chaotic, almost flourescent couple of blocks is kitch heaven - its only drawback the tiny sense of guilt all this plastic shopping gives you, as it is all obviously completely enviornmentally unfriendly. The lack of the eco-prefix couldn't be more evident.
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Blondie.
Raz.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Friday Night Massage and the Swan Sea

This Thursday Vietnam celebrated National Day, commemorating Ho Chi Minh's Declaration of Independence 1945 - that time from the French, and Keisuke and I had to postpone our weekly going-out day till yesterday. On our way to the Chinese Calligraphy Exhibition we changed our mind and went for a 75 minutes foot reflexology in stead, which - apart from the obvious foot massage - also included hand massage, face and head massage and hot stone therapy. All for the modest price of 7 dollars (about 50 kronor). We also got iced green tea and sweet bean soup and some relaxed time to talk.

The hot day was followed by a warm night with a fresh breeze. Perfect for a swan pedal boat tour on one of Hanoi's lakes. Maybe next week. Or maybe not.

Tay Ho (West Lake). 6 p.m. On my way to town.

Little swimmers

Kai takes swim classes with best friend Yuuki and teacher Mr. Quang every week and is making quite a lot of progress. He just has to learn how to do it with his head above surface every now and then and he will be fine. Hana is, as always, fearlessly copying Kai, but still needs some more practice.

Kai. Below surface.

Hana. With new special built-in floaters swimsuit.

And, we still got a month and a half to practice until all public pools close for the season on October 15th, no matter how hot it still is.