Author: Rosencrantz O'Dowd

My Old Man ramble this morning revealed a pleasant surprise – my favourite cafe is open again!

Good news – it means I can relax under cover, at a adult-up sized table, away from the flies, and get my ritual morning boost and head together for the day ahead.

I later leaned that restaurants and other businesses are opening up too, including internal flights … *.

This after five or six days of no new reported covid-19 cases here in Vietnam. *

On the downside, the beaches here in Nha Trang are still emergency-taped off.

No word yet on schools re-opening, but the peanut gallery is guessing that it may be early May. 

Vietnamese?

If the above link is gibberish, use the Google Chrome browser with the Google translate extension. And it’ll make slightly more sense in English.

Yes, I kept my social distance gathering the morning haul pictured.

The Black Sesame Seed milk is a new discovery, a fat-rich ‘milk’ with a few carbs ( NZD 40c ) , made by a roadside vendor, and fresh every morning.

That’s ca phe mang ve ( takeaway coffee, NZD 1.00), since the cafes stopped allowing ‘gatherings’ a day or two back.

The Banh It is spiced pork wrapped in cooked and cooled rice, my excuse for a cheap ( NZD 20c ) carb-fest.

The coconut fresh and ripe, ‘meat’, water and all, ideal for hot afternoons.  Another recent heat remedy came after pondering the phrase ‘cool as a cucumber’ ( sliced, with a pinch of salt, and apple cider vinegar ).

There could be worse places to be ‘stuck’ in.

And, apart from the obvious shorts and a singlet, that’s about it.

For a while now, I’ve been walking and running barefoot, and see no good reason to change. It feels good, once your feet are adapted. The roads and footpaths here are clear of nasty stones, but as you see, dusty.

Exercise recently has all been in Zone 2, at a heart rate aimed at training the aerobic system. Right now, that’s ridiculously slow, or Old Man pace, and almost all walking.

Afternoons are probably ideal performance-wise, but by then temperatures are in the mid-30’s, and not even bearable for mad dogs.

So mornings it is, along with hundreds of Vietnamese out moving their carcasses.

Back to Running(?)

This morning, I even ventured a few little trots, without my system hitting red alert for a change.

I think lots of protein, and a decent run of sleep, is doing the trick, but thus far only baby steps on the way back to running.

The Vietnam government has just extended the social distancing order for Khanh Hoa province for another week, and maybe more.

Which means that school’s still out , as it has been since February 2.

Now, the earliest that schools will return here in Nha Trang is April 22, and likely later.

My Vietnamese friend ‘Henry’ and I are a little puzzled as to why Khanh Hoa has been put in the ‘high risk’ basket. There’ve been no new cases here since the province was declared virus-free after our one case was cured on February 26.

There are noises from the peanut gallery about school re-opening here in May, but these are coming from chrystal-ball gazing. For now, no-one knows.

Flights leaving Vietnam are few and far between, and a recently-announced NZ Govt.-organised flight from HaNoi to NZ would be nigh impossible to get to. Travel restrictions.

My Visa here is paid until June 1, so for now at least, I’m staying put, and working online.

It’s possible that my school will re-open April 20th, according to the Head Teacher.

However, we’ve heard this before, so there won’t be any breath-holding happening.

Meantime, I now have a third job, apart from teaching online and the above , er, Clayton’s job.

That is transcribing audio files. I’m about to start today, after passing the entry tests two weeks ago, and finally getting some files assigned.

It’s USD$38 / hour , but that’s per hour of audio, so it may turn out to be an effective hourly rate of … pittance.

It’s a ( backup ) job, Jim…