HCMC, new job and darts



Darts night.... the high and low point of my week



Had another darts match this past tuesday, it was an away fixture at the M52 bar in downtown HCMC and in my singles match I was matched against another lady...... This was my chance to restore some male pride after my defeat a few weeks back. However there are no fairytails in Saigon league darts and I'm sad to report I lost again.

The small piece of good news was that did win one leg and she checked out on her first and second darts in the games she won so I shouldn't be too down. The bar was also well decked out in halloween stuff which would have made Ted Hanky feel welcome.

The night got worse though when after the matches the bar girl who was scoring my match earlier that evening challenged me to a game and proceeded to kick my butt 4-1. You can be pretty sure happy hours over when even the bar girl beats you. The only way the night could have got worse was if I was mugged on the way home by a girl. Not wanting to tempt fate, I took a taxi. Ladys 3, Me 0.



M52 bar in HCMC



Apart from this ive been working pretty hard. I started my new job which is going well but very time consuming. Ive not had any time to go running in the park and chat to swearing man. I will try and do this next week. It will be good to here what he's been up to and see how his swearing vocabs coming along.

I do have some good news to finish the blog. I had a drink brought for me the other day which was made from sugar cane! which solves the mystery of exactly who buys SCMs sugar cane. 

What they do is crush the sugar cane and it comes out as a white liquid. I tried it and it tasted like orange juice.... I pointed this fact out to the person who brought it for me who said that its because they orange juice in it, which begs the question, why not just drink orange juice?

Despite SCMs hostility towards me last time I saw him I don't want to put him out of business so will keep that to myself.

Working in HCMC.... a second job....... and darts



HCMC



So, Im now well into working in HCMC and teaching English. As I was only on a part time contract at my school ive been looking at getting some additional work and this week I got a second job at a business school called ERC http://erci.edu.vn/en.html

They have offered me the opportunity to teach some business English and e-commerce and e-business to the under graduates for the next semester. This will be great experience for me and something to add to the CV in addition to the teaching English to young learners.



My juniors class with their poster



I was pretty pleased that one of the reason I got the job at the new school was because of the Banking qualifications I'd taken at RBS.

Working at ILA is good fun. I didn't realise how popular halloween is here. This past week we have been making posters about halloween which is a pretty good way to spend a few hours. There is a competition and I think all the teachers want their class to win.

As my art skills are not that great there is not much I can do to help except go and schmooze with the judges.



Our Halloween poster



I have some more fantastic news. I won my first darts match, albeit not in the way I wanted. I was in two games last week. A doubles and a singles. We comfortably won our doubles game and in my single match the chap I was due to play was not registered so got disqualified so I won by disqualification.. You've got to start somewhere!!!

Apart from that ive been working hard most of the time. Ive been going to the cinema which is nice and cheap and running in the park. Swearing man clocks me whenever I go there now and talks to me for as long as I let him.

Me with sugar cane man

However he's a nice guy and its quite nice to have a chat with the locals. Most mornings now I see people working out with swords... Yep, full on swords, swinging them around and doing all sorts of moves. This beats the fan dancers as my new favourite workout.

My 'picture of the week' this week is this one I got my mate to snap with sugar cane man. SKM saw what I was up to and said something angrily to me in Vietnamese, he didn't look to happy so I smiled and walked away. I don't think I'll be trying that again.

Day trip to Binh Quai 1 and first darts match



A night to forget against the all girls team - AC/DC



Had my first darts match as part of the 'blue gecko' pub team the other day and unfortunately I have some bad news. I lost my first game 2 - 0 and it was to a girl. As sad as it sound it’s not easy loosing to a girl but she was very good and even though both games were close she deserved to win, it only took her 5 shots to check out which is impressive. We played an 'all girls' team and we got beat 9 games to 3... It was not a good night for the men of Blue Gecko. These girls didn't fit the usual stereotype of darts players (watch the women play at lakeside if you need reminding) and were quite attractive.

Day trip to Binh Quai 1

To make matters worse and to complete my humiliation whilst I was in a huff and keeping store the girl who beat me decided to stand over my shoulder and correct me whenever I messed up the scoring. However it was a good night and im looking forward to it next week.

I went on a day trip yesterday with some of my work colleagues to a place called Binh Quai 1 which is just outside the city and by a river. It was good to get out of HCMC and the first time ive done it since arriving two months ago. I immediately noticed how much cleaner the air was and it was good to chill out in open space.

Day trip to Binh Quai 1

The local bus was fun, it didn't break down and the 40 minutes journey cost about 15p! We played some cricket, drank some beer and had some good chats. It was a nice day.

Ive been out jogging in the local park this past week which is an experience. Its probably about 1 km in circumference and takes me a little under 5 minutes to jog around. Its always very busy as most people don't goto gyms but ther eis also lots of training equipment in it. As im the only western looking guy I do get lots of people come and chat to me. Working outs a bit different here and some of the best things I've seen is women fan dancing.

Man poking the water with a stick on day trip

At the park this morning a 69 year old Vietnamese chap, who spoke good English, started talking to me and after a few minutes was testing my knowledge to English swear words. After telling me them he proceeded to ask me what they meant so he could check my understanding. He kept coming out with great stuff, it was very funny.

I'm settled in the house now and things are going well. Work it tough at the weekends but pretty chilled during the week. Will try and do some more fun stuff as I think weekly darts updates may get very boring very quickly.