My home

I have been working at the CSES for about 3 months now and I haven't got a name on the door, so I decided I would use my time wisely and make one. Now this required me to think very carefully about what I do at work. Essentially I push a mouse around all day. In a more global sense I create or sometimes if luck is on my side I recreate data. I give it a little extra flair - a touch of evil. Hence the title of my cage, oops, I mean room. After posting the sign on the door noone noticed.

It took three weeks for anyone to notice. I guess the boredom of statistics transends my room. Then someone must have noticed as people started to ask me if I would like to be paid in bananas, which amuses me. Now anyone who really knows me, knows that scotch or vodka would be the appropriate currency.

Its not what you think

Well at the end I just started to laugh as it is quite amusing, how wicked my thoughts are.

Addicted to Salsa

In an effort to keep from getting too round, I have taken up salsa dancing. I am pretty geared up with this as I have always wanted to be able to dance like a professional salsa dancer. At the club I go to, there are some really good dancers who just amaze with their spins and turns and their steps. Really ballroom professional looking. After practice on Sunday night I went and asked this girl for a dance, forgot to intro myself etc., and received a weird look with a quick yeah! why not. So after the class I was on a high and this just lifted me to the stratosphere. Getting out on the dance floor was shattering. She was a much much better dancer than me and my male ego took a battering. She is flying around like a ballerina and I am like an elephant on ice skates. I just remember really starting to look for the end of the song so that we could finish. It was like the spotlight was shining on me and I was doing a comedy routine. Luckily the song wasn't long to finish and I quickly found another class member to dance with and I was relieved that my male pride was restored.

To find some music to infuse myself with I have been going to Itunes podcast section and downloading some salsa podcasts. I was at the addicted to salsa website and found the following lists amusing in the forum sections.

TOP 10 REASONS TO DATE A DANCER

10. We know all the positions

9. We have perfect technique, good rhythm, and great hip rotation

8. We are used to having bruises on our knees

7. We are used to performing in minimal amounts of clothing

6. We are perfectionists: Well keep going until we hit it

5. We can shake it like no other!

4. After a quick intermission, were ready to go at it again

3. We dont mind getting hot and sweaty

2. We are not as delicate and fragile as we look

1. One word: FLEXIBILITY!!!

Some reasons NOT to date a dancer:

1. They insist on a hardwood floor.

2. Good rhythm, but do you really want to make love to the clave?

3. They pay professionals for private sessions.

4. They want to change partners every 5 minutes.

5. Always looking at themselves in the mirror.

6. Unexpectedly, they push you away to 'shine' solo.

7. Their feelings get hurt if you're not smiling all the time.

8. They post all their experiences in online forums.

9. The men expect the women to do exactly what they want, when they want.

10. The women expect the men to constantly come up with new moves.

Oh in other news, Liverpool is starting to hit some form (geez I hope I haven't cursed them now).

Whoa!

Last Thursday night I was invited to share my experiences in the Mekong Delta. I had a good time however I was curious as to why every story I told started with after drinking x amount of y, then main point of the story. I am sure I did more than just drink in my time in Vietnam. Well anyway Friday was hell, because the night before I drank too much wine. The head was throbbing all day and my concentration easily departed from the task at hand.

Trying to find some photos of the crocs that escpaed in Hue and filling the flooded town with fear, I want to offer Tyler some advice if he meets one. I want to let him know about how we handle crocs down here below the equator. Now you have all seen The Crocodile Hunter, and I just want you all to know that it is a little Hollywoodised. You don't need to go to the bush to find them, they are in all the cities here. Anyway, also when we catch them we cut them up and eat them or make boots out of them a la Crocodile Dundee.

Sometimes we are not so lucky and the croc gets to eat the steaks.









Anyway I came across this picture which took my breath away with how amazing it is. I found it like one of those pictures on perspectives where you look and see an old woman for about 10 minutes then bam! you find the young woman and the old woman left the building.

I really am not sure if this is a true rock formation or just some photoshop trickery, yet I like it. Just in case you are having trouble with seeing it below is the bam! factor.

Karma Seatra

I somehow got subscribed to Borders' (bookstore) email advertising for new books each month, must have been one of those afterwork zombie moments. As I was going through it I was pretty surprised and impressed with the cleverness of the title when I checked and found this in it.

Kama SEAtra is a comical exposé of the raunchy sex lives of marine creatures. From desire and deception, lust and fetish, pleasure and pain - it's all happening beneath the waves, according to this new book about the marine world. The author Sherre Marris takes a different approach, by humanising the marine life, she is engaging and writes about marine creatures in a way we can relate. It's wacky, wonderful and occasionally weird; KamaSEAtra gives you a whole perspective on what goes on under the sea.

Anyway it had nice pictures attached so I thought I might share them with you.

Big head time!

While working in Vietnam I had the luck to be able to work on a few research projects. Most were directly related for the university's performance identifying weakness and strengths within the economics faculty. However the last project that I did was a study on the Pangasias (Tra & Basa [Vietnamese] catfish) value chain. This project looked at the uncertanties facing the industry at the industry level to identify where improvements could be made to ensure that the livlihoods of those working in it could be secured for the future.

While working on this project I met another Australian who had done similar work in Laos, and had proposed to do a project for the whole Mekong region, Vietnam, Cambodia, & Laos. He was in the process of writing the application when we met and was fishing around for ideas and collaborations. I really liked his enthusiasm when I met him and it gave me a push to complete the project, as my comitment was starting to fade.

Well yesterday, I was in contact with my old boss and he informed me that the funding for the project was secured and the individaul project proposals are taking shape and my work on the catfish value chain is the basis for his project. I was pretty much blown away when I heard that and my head swelled to an all time size, bigger than the Eureka tower shown from my work in the in right side of the picture. I am now on a work high, as this I think is the biggest accomplishment from any work I have done previously. However, I am going to try to top it with the current work on climate change, and try to make my work make a difference for the better.

Looking southeast from my work with the Eureka Tower at the right

The focus of the photos is beyond the buildings that is why the Eureka Tower is not well shown.

Another shot from work with the Eureka Tower at the left.

History making

A history making event, yet still a long way to go.

iPod Nano

Well, last week I finally broke down and bought an iPod. I bought the Nano style due to the cost and projected use (oops work vocabulary slipping in). I have been exercising lately and as anyone knows if you are not really playing sport it is quite monotonous. I have been riding an exercise bike and it seems like every second drags for a minute, so by adding music I am hoping to remove this effect. It does work and my workout productivity seems to have improved.

One thing I can’t get over is how small the iPod is. I was expecting it to be a bit bigger than my phone yet was surprised it is smaller than the phone. It can store 1000 songs and playback is for 22 hours. It has a little video screen for when I download the UEFA Champions League Vodcast (Don’t think about the Liverpool Besiktas game). I am not a big fan of iTunes and unfortunately you need the latest version too I am limited to uploading songs from work yet I find it is a great thing to have. I am just going to make sure that I don't use it while walking in NYC.

Kung fu and fashion

This is the reason why kung fu and fashion should not mix.

Radio Wisdom

I heard on the radio today a surefire way to lose weight.

When you drink coffee use low fat milk, and to give it taste add cream and chocolate.

Strange Days

No this post will not be about the Doors song or the movie. More about an interesting 12 hours. Last night I was suffering from insomnia, once again, and I couldn't sleep. I thought that the bed was too hard and it was keeping me awake. I am currently using an air mattress, waiting for the credit card to go down a bit before making the plunge to real furniture. Eventually I fell asleep and when I woke up in the morning I found that the bed had deflated. I recall that some of my last thoughts were taking some air out of the mattress to make it a bit softer, and I wonder did I do this while I was sleeping.

Well I prepared to go to work and arrive in the lift and the last person in is someone I am currently working with. With a formal work related greeting asking me if I had seen a report, I then listened for 10 minutes as I was told how to proceed with my tasks, his way (he was offering advice while later that day my boss liked what I had done). Now this is not a bad thing per se, just that I realised that I wasn't aloud to talk through this lecture.

Then I went to boil water for my coffee and then had a similar conversation with my boss, on a different topic. I was starting to become irritated as I wanted to sit down and drink my coffee. I had been at work for about 20 minutes and yet to taste the much wanted coffee. I WAS LONGING FOR MY COFFEE. I was starting to think about going postal.

All's well, that ends well. Finally, I got to sit down and enjoy my coffee. And today, much inspired by a quote I read recently I am going to look for the book A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man. I had heard about James Joyce while drinking at Sheridan's in HCMC and had been curious about what his writing would be like and I am eagerly anticpating reading some of this tonight. Also I will see if I can find a book called Blink.

Someone notices

I have been working at CSES now for about two months on a project for the SEEK employment index. Essentially my role was to write programs to analyse the number of applications and number of advertised jobs and pass them onto my supervisor. It was a frustrating experience writing the code and organising the data so that it runs right. I was satisfied when on Monday this week I had finally finished that project.

That night though I actually wondered if anybody besides my boss ever read the report that is produced each month. I started to think that in general, the more you get paid the less impact your work has. As a teacher at AGU I wasn’t paid much yet it was bang for buck for those I worked with – students, staff, and community people.

Here in Australia, we have a lot of people paid good salaries and it appears that not much is really done. Although people produce work it is not as obvious as it was at AGU or work in a restaurant or on a construction site. So I was surprised today when I opened the newspaper and saw a reference to the SEEK EI report. I was proud that some of the work I did possibly benefited some people and made it into the press.

The project that I am currently working on is one on climate change. I hope that this will also have some impact. The impact is getting a lot of money for our centre and to run lots models – and running the models is my thing.

Kenny

When one of the first lines in a movie is “Is there any Indonesian or curries being served?” and it is about corporate toilet blocks, it gets my attention. Recently I had the pleasure to watch such a movie, Kenny. I was amazed at how close this film got to being a documentary yet still maintaining the fictional story. I found that there were enough laughs and little chuckles to go throughout the whole movie. I have attached the trailer for your enjoyment and if you get the chance I would recommend that you watch it.

Retired

After watching some videos on You Tube using Adobe Illustrator, I have been playing around with my copy. The videos made it look so easy, and at times manipulating the artwork was quite frustrating. Other times I was inspired.

Since I was no longer far from the Great Southern Land, I thought it might be good to update the logo. I had a discussion with Tyler for some names and the best we came up with was Standing on the Great Southern Land. I didn’t think that was that good so I let the unconscious run wild and came up with Under the Southern Cross. I know you can be under the Southern Cross (Crux if you’re an astrologist) on many continents, yet is has quite a symbolic meaning in Australia, check the flag.

I had this picture of Melbourne looking westwards from the Rialto Tower at night and thought that would make a good backdrop for my new logo. I sat at home and designed a little sketch of what I wanted on paper and then tried to illustrate it. As I was working through on the computer I could see what I wanted was not going to work out so I changed it midway through and came upon the design that you now see.

I had a bit of luck though. With the font I used a brush tool write the characters and then accidentally clicked another button and saw that the font turned out better that way. I was impressed so I left it that way and added it the backdrop. After lots of messing around I finished and it is time to hang up the old logo and add the new.

Officially out of service for a while

Welcome to the team

Bonded!

A while ago while Tyler, Hendrik, and I where still in Long Xuyen we challenged Tyler's Photoshop skills. We asked him to make some photos of people. I got James Bonded. I came across that photo today and thought I might share it with the world. It brings back a lot of good memories, about partying in the ER in LX.

As I stand now, while it was possible to be that popular with the girls in Vietnam, it ain't happening to me here yet!

Football Capital = Melbourne

It has been a good year for Victorian football teams this year. In the rugby league this year the Melbourne Storm won, beating the Manly Sea Eagles. I was on my way to watch it, yet the heavens opened and I didn’t feel like going to walk through the rain. I took the rain as a good omen, and thought the storm would win, not only because they were the best NRL team throughout the year. The Melbourne Victory (soccer) also won this week after 6 games, yet they are undefeated.

Yet more importantly for Victorians was the AFL grand final. In Melbourne, I have found if you know nothing about this game then there is nothing to talk about. I think it is crazy. I have been keeping tabs on the results so I don’t look like a complete fool when the topic comes up, except when asked to rattle off 5 players from a team. Well the grand final was between Geelong (Victorian) and Port Adelaide (South Australian). There is rivalry between these states like that between Queensland and New South Wales. All week there was nothing else happening in the world, and in Melbourne it was important that Geelong wins, since a Victorian team has not won for over 5 years.

How crazy people get for the AFL

I noticed how everyone thought Geelong would win, yet I was thinking that this might not be the case. Port looked good all season and beat them a few weeks before the finals. I wanted Geelong to be victorious only because it was the lesser of the two evils, since Geelong is not really Melbourne.

I went to watch the game at my Dad’s house in Rosedale, and it was easy to watch as that was all that was on TV. As the game started Geelong looked good, and stayed good throughout the game. By half time you wondered if Port even showed up. I was relishing in their defeat, as Port has to be the team I hate most, or equal with Adelaide.

According to trivia, the final score was quite symbolic – 24 goals (6 points each) and 19 points for a total of 163 versus 6 goals, 8 points totalling 44. 163 is linked to the year Geelong last won the premiership in 1963, Port’s score of 44 years is the length of the wait for the premiership, and 24 and 19 are jumper numbers of the players on the roster who missed out on a flag this year.

Lastly, I found it interesting that now that the football season is over people will have to fill the void somehow, so some physiologists think that office chat will turn nasty. Great! Let the gossip begin.

What is love?

Not that this post will tell you, however here is an interesting audio clip I came across today giving the finer points of how to keep a marriage together, especially for women. It is not something you should play loudly at work. Listen to it here or save it to your computer for personal laughter time (size is about 4mbs).

Random thoughts about work

Sometimes at work when I think about what I need to do to get a promotion ( a little premature, I know). I also think about how the field of economics is just too constrained within its little structure. For example, I was reading a blog about environmental economics and saw that the author was rejected from the journal he submitted the paper to. The problem was that the author didn't use an optimising model of behaviour - such as to maximise happiness (utility) or profits, etc. I am against this sort of thinking personally, as most of us in the real world know that when you go to the shop or restaurant you don't have perfect information to make an optimal choice so we do the best we can (I know it can seem like optimisation). Other choices are made much in the same way.

Some times to get ideas about an optimisation paper I might search the Internet newspapers so that I can something off the wall. One such site is weird news asia, with a tonne of interesting reads. Check out the picture below from China, what was this guy optimising when he was constructing his house? I like music a lot, yet not that much. Perhaps if I was playing an instrument it might suit me more. Anyway, I am confident that once he plants a garden it would be a gem of a house. Definitely a talking point.

Scrolling down the page I came to a picture that pretty much sums up academic economics as I think it stands.

The last kingdom

Lately I have been without a TV which is a blessing and a curse. The curse bit being that I just can’t lie around and watch TV or play video games. However, not having a TV allows me to read. At the present rate it seems to be about 2 books in 7 days. For me I have doubled the amount of books I have read in about a month.

One author my father recommended is Bernard Cornwell. He is a historical writer who fabricates stories around historical events. The first book I read was in the Saxon Stories – The Lords of the North. I was hooked, engrossed in the story and before I knew it, it was over. I felt an affiliation with Utred, as he tried to regain what was lost in the first book.

After reading that book, I quickly secured the two previous books in the series from my father’s library and devoured them. Now I am waiting to find the latest book which apparently has just been released in the UK.

In the meantime I have moved onto the books about the hundred year war between England and France. These books are older, yet just as good. I am determined to find out whether Thomas, will recover the Holy Grail and complete other tasks set of him.

What the?

I was going to a job interview sometime in July and I came across this picture in the toilet at Victoria University. I was quite amused by this photo and thought I might share it with the world. You will find this helpful if you ever come to Australia as you know we are different down here, so this will help you feel like like a local. You will be surpised to find that there are not some made for late night etiquette, especially for kebab shops and taxi ranks. With those then you too could say you come from the land down under.

Chewing gum

As some of you know, I am not for chewing gum. I think it is sticky and messy. Many times it has jumped on my shoe when I have been unaware and once or twice it has jumped onto my pants, because people are sometimes careless. I have been blessed for a while of not having such occurrences.

So today in the Yahoo oddly enough I found that chewing gum does not have to bother me anymore. A stickless chewing gum is a blessing. No more chewy on the boot, yeah!

The hunted becomes the hunter!

I have spent the whole day messing around with econometric programs and have finally made some progress. I was waiting for one of my programs to tell me I have an error, which tends to be the norm rather than the exception, so I decided to check out a few other blogs which I read.

On one of them I came across this video and decided the accompanying text made it worth while to watch. I knew I had about 5 minutes to kill if the program worked. I was amazed at what I saw and thought I got to get a better discovery channel than the one I used to watch. Anyway there are crocs, buffalo, and lions. Enjoy!

And, it was gone with the flash of steel

After about 1 year, I decided that what I wanted my beard to be was not going to happen. Think Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. It was too thick. Besides, I was tired of it jumping into my corn flakes at breakfast. I had tried a few other models such as those seen here and here, yet it was not long enough. So with defeat, I pulled it off and here I am in my naked bare chinned glory.

Thirsty?

Here is an ad that is currently being shown in Oz at the moment which I really like. Enjoy!

Also Carlton is where I live.

Bass Strait Tour

A few weeks ago, I travelled around Bass Strait. This trip required me to travel through the hills between where I live in Rosedale and the coast. Lots of fog was hiding in the mountains.

Monash University, Churchill in Gippsland covered in fog

Of course there was not a straight road anywhere to be seen, and street signs with directions left me lost.

The road winding around the hills past the university

the hills with their farms

Philip Island was the first destination I visited. It is an island famous for having the motorcycle grand prix each year. I felt excited to see the track and you could feel that the electricity of the park. I went into the gift shop and saw that they would let you ride in the car around the track. I inquired about the price and found out that it was about $200 for 9 minutes. Now that does not sound like value for money, yet an exciting proposition all the same. When I have some spare money I might just give it a try.

Phillip Island racetrack

From there I went to a place called pyramid rocks. Here I saw some whales breach out at sea, rabbits, and some wallabies. From here I moved along the coast pretty much going all the way to Wilson’s Prom, the most southern part of the main land.

I heard that the road pretty much ended beyond the gates and a 4WD (SUV) was needed to reach the exact point. As I looked at the map I had accomplished something by reaching the most southern sealed road on the mainland. With that I started to go home by the coast road past the lifeless wind farm on the cliffs and through some back streets to Rosedale.

The scenery on the way back

Two weeks later I wanted to complete the trip so I visited Lakes Entrance. It was recently under water from the floods (just before I arrived) however you could not tell when I was there. I noticed that the wind and rain made it a bitterly cold place. For all the hype I had heard about this place I thought it was pretty average. It was quiet, wet, and cold. On the way back though as we climbed the hills that separate this town from the main road to Melbourne and Sydney we stopped at some of the outlooks and got to see why it was called the lakes district. It was quite breathtaking yet the rain was forcing us on our way.

didn't get this photo just right, the street is actually straight

Why they call them the lakes

The way back we stopped at the last town on the rail line passing through Rosedale, Bairnsdale. Bairnsdale is a bigish country town, with wide streets and enough modern entertainment to keep everyone happy. From there I returned to Rosedale and was relieved to have seen the Gippsland’s Bass Coast. My next journey I was hoping would be the mountain region, maybe next year, since the snow seems to have finished for this year.

The last moments in Vietnam

Here they are the photos I promised from the I would have written earlier post. The last night in Vn was a special occasion. I spent it with the person I knew most in Vietnam, Eric. We met up with some friends at O’brien’s and then went on to Sheridan’s (17/13 Le Thanh Ton St District 1). It is the best bar in HCMC I think as you are free from distractions you find in other places. The music is good and the owner, Michael, is a good host. We met Duc and Sabrina that night and we stayed there until after closing time. It was a great time and I am sure all had a great time. The next day I caught up with some friends that I will miss.

I went to Diamond Plaza, a Korean style department store which appears to sell everything. It was a good idea as it would prepare me for the commercialisation I faced when I arrived in Australia (it was weird to be so confronted with so much advertising).

After a long chat with my friend I headed to the airport. And of course I had problems at the airport. First it was too much luggage, so I had to split it and pay extra weight. Went through and waited for the Visa stuff then it was something you can’t take on the plane. Went down to the check-in and took it out of the suitcase. Next, I walked through the metal detector and then another trip to luggage check-in room, this time behind the scenes. Here I had too many DVDs and the customs guy wanted to check them all out before I jumped on the plane. I was pretty surprised as this what you would think they would do when you arrived to keep out socially evil ideas. Well I was polite and explained my purpose for being in Vietnam and he decided to let it go.

By the time I got to the gate it was time to board. On the flight I sat next to this idiot he knew everything about Vietnamese and wanted to show off to everyone. After that short 2 minute conversation and a promise to keep my mouth shut, I waited to feel the forces of the plane elevate into the air. As we got in the air I looked at the mess of lights outside the window and it finally hit me. This was it, I am leaving Vietnam for a while. The emotional toll and no audio (once again on Vietnam air), let me drift into a deep slumber. I awoke and was practically in Melbourne. As I got off the plane I started to realise that I was in a different place, with different customs, a familiar language, and I am not the unusual person any more. I had reverted back to the mean (average).

Next Blog >>

Have you ever wondered what is after your site when click the Next Blog>> link at the top of the page. I satisfied this curiosity today by clicking it. The first kind of amused me. Being an economist, and thinking about everybodys' belief of what an economist does (he/she really studies chooses), as I perused the title and all the links to making money (http://moneymoneymoney247.blogspot.com/).

I reloaded my page and proceeded to click the link again. My first thoughts are these things targeted. It was about cycle tips (http://bikecommutetips.blogspot.com/). I am thinking about buying a bicycle and recently looked at some adds.

The third time left me at http://esbboston.blogspot.com/, and this was right out in right field. I had no idea what this was and spent some time poking about. It is a site which is similar to most peoples I look at which was interesting.

The fourth time I arrived at was another advertising site for health products (http://healths-club.blogspot.com/). I had zero interest and without thinking pressed next blog and landed at what I think is another targeted site, http://mjnisselius.blogspot.com/. This site was an English language site, sorry guys no lesson plans that I saw, just book reviews.

The last one I guess was setup for ice hockey fans - http://duckswire.blogspot.com/. I had no interest whats so ever. I was hoping that maybe I would end up at a blog of one of my friends or the others that I read. What I found from this activity is that it is possibly random or targeted I am 50 - 50, I found one site I might look at again (time permitting), and I just wasted about 30 minutes of my life.

Rosedale, 3847, Australia

Rosedale is where I have called home since I have arrived in Australia. It is a big town of about 1000 birds. We have lots of birds nesting outside the house and I sometimes just enjoy watching them play. Soon it will be magpie season so I hope I will be safe. A magpie is a vicious black and white bird that swoops on you when you aren’t looking. Besides the birds it is rather peaceful here, I hardly know anyone else is around. Looking for a job and a house have been rather tough activities. The train takes a nice 2.5 hours to get to Melbourne, and the trains so infrequent (3 times daily early am, midday, early evening) that it is a rather time consuming adventure. I have taken some pictures of my times here in Rosedale so that you can see what it is like.

Just off the main rd (Princes St or the Princes Highway), downtown.

The main st a.k.a the Princes Highway.

If you follow the main rd you can go to Melbourne if west or Sydney if you go east. This route to Sydney is longer yet more beautiful with the Pacific Ocean on your left side.

Yes that is ice on the ground. Rosedale is absolutely freezing.

I have been lucky enough to see this a few times well a lot more than a few times when I have gone to Melbourne. I feel that the cold weather always shows itself when I need to go to town. And the answer to your second question is yes, the sun is on the way up.

Ned Kelly's Bakery is the bread spot in town.

There are quite a few references to Ned Kelly in town, mostly all at this bakery.

One of the sulphur laden sunsets that we see here as the sun goes down over the northwestern sky.

There are numerous power plants near by that lover to pour sulphur into the air so that occasionally I can taste and smell it. Plus they also have a by product (an externality

tec[h]onomic speak) of allowing me to use lights, computers, and watch DVDs.

Now I am down under

I would have written earlier however I have found that the internet is not great here at all. Rural Australia still gets shafted I see.

Anyway, my last few days in Vietnam were ripe. Just good to see all my friends there one last time and make sure that I hopped on the plane and didn’t change my mind (photos will come soon as everything settles). One of the funniest memories of that week was Tinh who said that he should not come because he thinks he is drunk already. Well having expressed that idea myself before I know it probably is better to sit in and wish well from afar.

I am currently staying with my father in Rosedale, Victoria, about 2.5 hours east of Melbourne. Not really much going on here, it really is a sleepy country town. The only sounds I hear are those of birds and the occasional motor vehicle. A good place for me to relax until my next move.

The last week and a bit

Well since Sunday last week I would have to say that life has been turned upside down. It seems every where I go people know that I am leaving. I can not help to feel a little down as more than two years of my life have passed here in this quiet town. I feel for a quiet town it does have a lot to offer. The people here are what I will miss the most.

Last Sunday I was invited by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and Agifish to go to some pagodas and an ecotourist restaurant. One pagoda was a place where people hoped to receive a great fortune in life. The other was commemorating a great general. It was a weird feeling discussing the general’s life. He was responsible for expanding much of the south of Vietnam to its present day area. I was at a loss trying to think if we had anything like this in Australia yet I couldn’t, the closest I could imagine was the explorers who went over the mountains and claimed the land for the crown.

The ecotourist restaurant was also a hatchling nursery for tra fish, a type of catfish found in the Mekong river. We also saw a variety of other animals there including my most scariest land reptile, the crocodile. The crocodiles were quite small only about 1.5 m. The food was really good at this place, very traditional Mekong Delta food. It was good for a farewell.

Monday and Tuesday were low key however Wednesday was a big party. I had invited many of my closest friends here to have a big party. We went to Truyen’s once again and I enjoyed the spaghetti, fish, and beer. I stayed quite late as the atmosphere was amazing. I must admit I was mixed as I was sad to leave yet happy to see all my friends there.

The next day one of my colleagues and my students organised a farewell party. Each class prepared a dish. Once again the mixed feeling overwhelmed me. It was good to join them and talk about what they will do next. I felt proud that they can now speak English, as I remember when I first met most of them that they were very shy and didn’t utter a word. Some of the students tasted brandy for the first time and it was interesting to watch their faces screw up as the heat from the brandy went down their throat. I still get that feeling when I drink brandy.

Last night I went with Eric to the no name for a quiet one. I did really want to meet Son, as he had been away on Wednesday. I gave him call and he said he just got back and would join us. At the restaurant was an over eager student who wanted to practice her English. I would say she was cute, except her constant hovering at our table was wearing me down.

After that Eric and I decided to return to the house in hope of watching 24. I felt that in the state I was in I didn’t want to watch tv, so we finished off a 6 pack each. I woke up at 6 this morning in ok kind of state, which surprised me. It was not long for this to change, the workmen arrived at 630 and started to bang the wall, the machine next us started up, noisier than living inside a rocket engine, and the kids starting to play. I thought I would go out to breakfast yet the repairmen came 2 hours ago to fix something. My broken toilet, no they came to fix the working air conditioner. Just glad I don’t have a hangover.