22/5/25
Jonathan got up early and polished off the second series of Weak Hero. An unusual but enjoyable Korean show. Frankie woke up at 8am. She made, you guessed it, pancakes. We watched some more of The Let Down.
The parcel had yet to even be collected from the parcel shop in Wales. Our anxious wait begins here, we thought. There’s always a chance it doesn’t turn up at all. Perhaps we should have been willing to pay even more for shipping. Too late now.
We spend the rest of the morning and start of the afternoon doing almost nothing. Jonathan worked on the blog. He was trying to make it more user friendly and informative. Unfortunately we’d also had a couple of issues with our house at home. The overflow was leaking sporadically. We tried to research the cause. Cold water tank ball valve or kitchen mixer type was our conclusion.
Frankie’s glasses had broken. The arm seemed to be have been bodged from the get go. It seemed prudent just to buy new glasses. We headed to a snazzy shop called Laito Optical. There was a whole street of small shops nearby. They only sold tacky, fake, sunglasses. Laito seemed to be more reputable. The man inside was very helpful too. Frankie tried on many different styles before managing to settle on a pair which had rubber nose supports. Hopefully they wouldn’t slide down her sweaty nose so much.
We were near Hố Hoàn Kiềm lake. There were fish nibbling spherical sugar donuts that someone had dumped. Many Vietnamese men were running or speed walking round the water. There was a small island too. Ngoc Son Temple was reached by a bridge. We didn’t bother going over. It felt like a bit of tourist trap.
We walked back via a supermarket and a pharmacy. Jonathan bought some acyclovir for his cold sore. We hit tofu alley again and then revisited the same woman for vegetables again. We’d been there so many times that she knew us now. For 54k dong we bought red pepper, mint, oregano, coriander, 2 tomatoes, 3/4 of a squash and a cucumber. A mere £1.55.
We prepared spring rolls again. Wrapping up three at a time. Fried tofu and mushrooms with bamboo shoots as a filling. Kimchi and soya sauce as accoutrements. Tonight would mark a week in Hà Nội. It had passed us by astonishingly quickly. We hadn’t visited a single ‘sight’ in the city. We agreed that it didn’t bother us. There was still time. We’d be here at least another week. We knew it couldn’t be anything life changing anyway.
Surly They Won't Make It 