Thursday, 17 May 2007

Tinh

Tuesday morning I got a message to meet up with him and Tinh at 5 for drinks. Well time flew through the afternoon as it was the first day in a while that I was actually really busy. On the way to TB I ran into Tri, although he says he was chasing me for quite a while he caught me as I decided to let a big truck go in front of me. We arrived and got a table and waited for Eric and Tinh. I still always feel nervous when I go out in LX as wherever you walk everyone stares at you, and feel self conscious, do have something between my teeth, is my fly undone, etc. It weighs on you a bit yet soon enough you forget as enjoy the company you are with.

Well is wasn’t long when the others arrived and we started to enjoy the food and beer. Tinh was telling us about an exhibition he just did in Hanoi, and the upcoming one in Saigon. I am eager to check it out. He is such a great artist, that you see his work come to life in front of your eyes. He drew me a landscape picture which is in Brisbane at the moment yet I remembered being floored by how good it was. I was experiencing being at the floating market in LX. His new exhibition is contemporary art.

Awhile later Nam arrived and we continued to discuss things from the art world, movies, and life. We decided on a venue change, and thought Truyen’s would be a good place. It has a nice atmosphere and as you know the owner is really friendly. We got ourselves a corner table and ordered some food. Eric was looking for Truyen who had disappeared and we guessed he went to buy some special ingredients for a special dish. I was intrigued by this dish and impatiently waited for its arrival. Spaghetti a la Truyen. It was so delicious, the best spaghetti in LX. I would go there every night if that was a regular dish.

Not long after the spaghetti arrived the guitar came out and the singing followed. I was having so much fun trying to remember the words and eating I nearly didn’t notice that every time I went to the bathroom someone always wanted to drink a glass of beer with me. By the end I was afraid to leave the table when the first visitor came to cheers us. He worked at AGU and was quite done. He kept mumbling across English and Vietnamese and I am sure everybody was just as confused as I was. Well the party continued until we realised that it was time for home or we would be locked out the campus.

On the way back we bought a case of beer and let Tinh and Tyler to catch up. Not sure what was going through Tyler’s mind at this time however he appeared to be having lots of fun. We also had two new visitors to the room, Kirsti an Australian volunteer and Vinh. We met Vinh before, although I had forgotten about it. As we all talked, joked, and drank the night away new friendships were forged and old ones strengthened. All in all a great deal of fun for me.

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