Chinese New Year (Tet)

At new year Charlie had the opportunity to venture our of the house again when we did the rounds of the various houses that Hien's family live in.

The 3 larger pictures above are the lunchtime spread and the other smaller pictures were taken at the party.

Upon arriving back in Ho Chi Minh City we arrived to a spectacular sight. It was the day of Charlie's 1 month party and in Vietnam one month parties are very serious occasions. Unbeknown to me it is tradition to lay on a spread at lunchtime, which you can see above. Mum, Dad and I were all greatly relieved when we found out that we didn't have to eat this food and that it was all going to be given away to people. I still don't know who it was given away to.

The evening of the party had arrived and we set of to a famous seafood restaurant in downtown Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate with Hien's family and a few close friends. Making the invitation list was a long drawn out task when we realised how many people we had to invite. Hien's family consisted of about 40 people and then there many others we wanted to invite as well. In the end we invited about 115 people to the party, but thought only about 80 would arrive.

An hour after people were asked to arrive the room was still looking decidedly vacant of guests and if I were in any county other than Vietnam I would have been panicking. In Vietnam it is customary to be very late for everything and it is not the done thing to arrive less than 1 hour late for a party and 1.5 to 2 hours late is generally considered very acceptable. An hour and a half after the scheduled start time Hien turned up with Charlie and it was around this time that the majority of the guests turned up as well.

Many of the guests brought presents for Charlie and as is customary in Vietnam many guests brought money. The party was a great success with over 100 guests in attendance and we would like to thank everyone for coming and especially for bringing gifts and money. Charlie now has enough presents to last until he is about 35 years old and he has the finances to put himself through university.

Spent the next couple of days in Ho Chi Minh City being lazy and generally not doing much with the exception of a trip through the mangrove swaps of the Mekong Delta in my motorboat.

Then off on another motorboat for a 3.5 hour trip down to Can Tho in the Mekong Delta. There we stayed at the Victoria Hotel which was situated on the banks of the Mekong Delta overlooking a bridge which is presently being constructed to span the great river. The main reason for going to Can Tho was to experience the river so one evening we charted a huge junk just for the 3 of us. We spent about one and a half hours on a sunset cruise and with the exception of 4 staff had the whole boat to ourselves. One can certainly be decadent in ways like this in Vietnam.

After a couple of enjoyable days in Can Tho we found ourselves geting up early ro get the 7:15 am boat back to Ho Chi Minh City.

15 Jan Mum and Dad arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. I collected them from the airport and to my great surprise Dad came out of the airport in a wheelchair. Knew they were getting on a bit, but this was still a bit of a shock. Dad claimed something about falling over playing tennis, but this was a little difficult to believe.

Was great to see them and they were obviously delighted to get back to the house to see Hien and Charlie.

Champagne Charlie!!

It was a guys only night at Bar no. 5 to wet Charlie's head. About a dozen of us gathered from 6:30 pm onwards. It was champagne and finger food all around to celebrate the arrival of Charlie and to catch up with friends, some of which I hadn't seen for some time. A thoroughly enjoyable evening that went on to the wee hours of the morning and inevitably ended up around the pool table. Luckily I had my driver to take me home. Hope everyone else got home OK?

Wetting the baby's head

This Friday 5 January, starting at 6:30 pm, I will be celebrating Charlie's birth with friends at Bar no. 5 on Mac Dinh Chi Street. It will be an all guys' affair.

Charlie comes home

This morning, Wednesday 2 January, the doctor at the FV hospital gave Charlie the all clear and we took him home. Even though we were overall very happy with the hospital it felt especially good to be home together as a family.

In true Vietnamese tradition Charlie insisted 0n photos being taken as soon as he had entered the house.