Three weeks and counting

Actually it was three to go...fillings that is, as well as weeks. All done now.

So, Friday 25th May. Calidore is 17th months today. And we now have exactly three weeks left in Vietnam. This time in three weeks, we'll be having out last morning in work at ISHCMC - the kids go home early, midday I think. We go home at about 2.30 and we'll have to leave (as in LEAVE!) our house at about 6pm to get our flight...A last minute play at Riverside and a mango/pasionfruit smoothie for the road? Perhaps, if the cat has been taken care of by then.

Tonight we have a baby-sitter and will be heading up to a very plush restaurant on the top floor of the Sheraton Hotel, overlooking Saigon. One of those things we've been meaning to do, but never quite got round to...

Furniture has started to disappear from the house - not of its own volition, I might add - and the all-too-familiar sight of half-packed boxes encroaches...

Teeth

I lost a filling just over a week ago and went to a somewhat upmarket dental clinic, given that my insurance through work now covers such luxuries. The photos-in-the-mouth tricks I can do without, but the instant x-ray gimmickry is fairly impressive. Even if it does reveal that 11 of your existing fillings need drilling out and replacing with a scarily high-tech sounding high-impact composite. I have two left to go, this afternoon.

Oh joy.

In the absence of other inspiration...

We all love animals. Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?" ~k.d. lang

because we don't care...or because we don't think?

What to do with the cat...

Two years or so ago, I was intrigued by a mewing sound outside the house which I couldn't quite place. It seemed to be coming from our 'garden' but I couldn't find the culprit. Needless to say, he eventually turned up, 400 grams or so of frightened and hungry Siamese kitten.

At the time, the closest our daughter could come to saying 'miaow' was 'bao', which quiclky became the cat's name. For some reason that became doubled - bao bao - and, as she developed her linguistic prowess, Monsieur Bao Bao. This is what we call him to this day.

Now we are leaving Vietnam. An integral part of the family, he will be coming with us. But we're off to France first for 2 months, which means he needs looking after. The ex-pat community here flies the coup for the long vacation, so we have to resort to catteries. Having checked out one such place here - a two-foot cubed metal barred cage - we're investigating provision in Bangkok, which is where we're heading to after France.

Mmm...feeling just a tad guilty and sorry for M. Bao Bao...

Loreto Vietnam

The colour sample came back and was fine. I have Monday 28th May as delivery date. The book will be on sale at ISHCMC Grade5 Exhibition, with 20% of profits being donated to the Loreto foundation in Vietnam. Loreto runs several programmes in Vietnam:

The program's two shelters for street children in Ho Chi Minh City, Sunrise House for girls and Sunlight House for boys, takes in children from the streets or unhappy family situations and provides them with a safe home.

The program helps to put these children into neighbouring schools to learn to read and write or into vocational training centres, where they receive training for future employment.

In the shelters the children experience a sense of security and receive counselling about health issues such as drugs and sexual transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS.

Many of the children also suffer from the legacy of chemical warfare, medical problems during pregnancy, hereditary traits and unhygienic living conditions.

There are about 70,000 children who are blind in Vietnam and of the 5.2 million disabled people, many who have lost arms or legs or both to the unexploded landmines left after the war, about 22,000 disabled children live in Ho Chi Minh City.

LVAP is involved in the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School where more than 200 blind children are taught English to help them increase their job prospects.

The program also provides financial support for a music program and to train teachers.

LVAP also supports the Sunrise Special School in Ho Chi Minh City to help train teachers in theory-based disability studies, participatory approaches for children's learning and community based rehabilitation.

Visit my website to order your copy of 'Benny and Binny' and make a contribution to the valuable work of this charity.

Samples

I am due to get the colour sample of 'Benny and Binny' today - a historical moment. My first published children's book will be in print and available in ten days' time if I sign off on the sample today...

Maybe one day I'll be able to do this full time. Meanwhile, thoughts are turning to teaching Drama and Geography next year in secondary school. I must brush up on my Shakepeare, forsooth!

Plutarch on Pythagoras

"Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?" ~Plutarch

The more I think about it, the more abhorrent it becomes. I also stumbled across this little gem from The Old Testament, no less:

“Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering, like one who offers swine’s blood; whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. They have chosen their own ways and in their abominations they take delight.”
Isaiah 66:3