Firstly, Rocky Horror was…well, a very enjoyable way to spend an evening. Such a fun film it’d be hard not to enjoy watching it, and being surrounded by people dressed up and singing along added an extra dimension. Kat and I didn’t dress up but really wished we had made more of an effort as we didn’t realise until watching it how easy it would have been to have done something simple. A lab coat maybe. Anyway, next sing-along we will try harder! Between Hong Kong, where I left off with ramble part I, and now we’ve had a few highlights. Firstly our engagement party, which Laura very kindly organised for us at new restaurant Cousins. It was in the courtyard and she’d decorated it with merchandise bought all the way from the US and organised canapés and drinks and some live music. We didn’t invite a big crowd, as we’re saving that for Paul’s 40th, but had a few good friends along and a really enjoyable — if not wild! — evening. Unfortunately we didn’t take a camera so I do need to hunt down some photos from those who did. I’ll post when I get some. The weekend after that our friend Bryony arrived to stay for a week. Bryony lived in Hanoi back in 2010 and we spent a lot of time with her. It was great to have her over but a very gluttonous! We were out all but one night checking out various local establishments. We even made it back to Ete — an old haunt — and Old Quarter. Although I skipped on Hanoi Backpackers. On the less fun side of things, we left VietFighter and have joined Elite — a fancy pants gym really near to our house. When we left the UK we swore we wouldn’t join a gym again, but needs must and the schedule and style of training at VF had just stopped working for us: too many joint injuries were occurring. We’re trying to get there most mornings, although in reality miss one or two a week, and then go at the weekend as well. Although I say less fun, we’re actually quite enjoying it. Definitely less fun is the construction work that has started on the patch of what was waste-land outside our house. And for those of you who have visited, I mean on the patch of land literally 4 feet from our wall.  Fortunately they didn’t have to knock somewhere down — that is probably the noisiest and messiest part of construction here — and they are building quickly, but I know we have the tile cutting to come… We are lucky that our landlord is so good and has ensured they only work between 7am and 5pm, although that time seems to be creeping a bit. Still, at least they aren’t working all night. And we got a discount on our...

Is it really over four months since I last wrote? Where did the summer go? Clearly it passed in a haze of heat and humidity which prevented me from functioning properly. Yes, that’ll be it. The temperature, and humidity, have dropped slightly now, but it’s still started out as a damn hot October. September was particularly humid – it got up to about 90%, and that was in the evenings. That is one of the notable things about the weather here versus the south: it may be hot all year round in HCMC but the temperature tends to drop in the evening. Here, not so much. But we do get a winter, which is fast approaching. But onto things other than weather.  A few exciting things have happened since May, most notably Paul proposing to me while we were away on holiday for our 10th anniversary. As if the holiday wasn’t special enough — we stayed in some awesome resorts — he popped the question over our anniversary dinner. And while it may not have been particularly notable in it’s delivery it was accepted. Then it was onto the exciting business of selecting a ring. We decided to order one on line from a well-regarded US supplier and get it delivered to a friend in Hong Kong for me to collect when I went in August — more on that later. I spent hours pouring over diamonds and settings, comparing the 4 Cs (as ever, when I research, I really research!) and different platinum settings. Eventually, with the aid of James Allen’s online chat we selected the ring and then had the anxious wait to see if it would get to Hong Kong on time. Fortunately, it did … but it’s too  big! Not to be deterred, I’ve stuck on a ring snuggie and am proudly wearing it around, sparkling in the sunshine! So Hong Kong: I met Kristel there at the end of August for a 5 day visit. I love that place. It really has everything I would want from a place to live: vibrancy, great restaurants, easy transport, countryside with good walks, beaches…if only it were the same price as Hanoi! Although we stayed in Wan Chai, on the island, we spent most of our days outside of the city walking on Lamma island, visiting Big Buddha and sitting by the beach on Lantau and exploring the wetlands in the New Territories. That did also involve quite a bit of time on public transport, so thank goodness it’s clean and reliable. Of course, we squeezed in a bit of shopping too — Paul wanted an Nano and I decided to buy myself the MacBook Air that I am using now, so Apple got  few visits. They’re the main adventures in the last few months, but I’ll ramble more tomorrow. For now I have to go out to a Rocky Horror Picture Show sing-along event. I think it may be a bit more raunchy than the Mamma Mia sing-along we attended a while ago, but who knows!      ...

In a quest to find a hobby — the desire exacerbated by Paul starting guitar lessons –, I arranged a short course of private cookery classes with Cameron, a Canadian chef based in Hanoi who we met when setting up a blog website for him. Myself and two friends, Laura and Urshi, spent three very enjoyable Wednesday evenings at Cameron’s house cooking a range of delicious dishes while imbibing good wine and chatting about food and general gossip. Each week we prepared and cooked snacks, salads, vegetables, meat and desserts, learning to joint a chicken, cook duck to perfection, make crumbly pastry and bake a chocolate souffle, among other things. At the end of the evening we ate the results of our efforts and returned home full, learned and a bit tipsy. Needless to say, when the course finished we missed our Wednesday night adventure, so Laura and I arranged to spend an evening cooking pork pies: something we both wanted to have a go at (as you can’t buy them here). Laura bought all the ingredients and prepared the jelly — which involved boiling pigs’ trotters with vegetables for hours — during the day and I turned up after work. Neither of us was prepared for just how long finely chopping over 2kg of pork and streaky bacon would take but neither had we really calculated that the length of cooking time meant we’d need to wait up until 11.30pm to remove the pies from the oven and pour in the jelly. Not the end of the world of course, but bear in mind Laura gets up at the crack of dawn with baby Aubin and I just like my sleep! Were the results worth it? Well, we learnt that making two pies was excessive, that the smaller pie dish was a better size, that duck fat is a better replacement for lard than shortening (but we’ll use butter next time) and that we should have used a lot more salt, but having initially declared we would never make them again, we agreed to give it another go in our quest for the perfect pork pie....