Colleagues and I went to the Tokyo Deli the other day for lunch and it certainly does have some great Japanese food. I am hoping to find a place that has some dishes with umeboshi. Folks say there are tons of Japanese restaurants around. I have ocntinued to find Vietnamese and Korean restaurants ,,, so far I have only been to one Western-style restaurant when I went out with friends.All this week I have been preoccupied with looking for apartments. I have quite a bit of time left on my month in the serviced apartment at Eva Silk, but I thought I could take a nice-and-easy-does-it approach to apartment hunting and find something just perfect.
Somehow that translated into looking at apartments every day. I have been going out with Ha, a lovely woman with excellent English, whose specialty is in Phu My Hung. Ha is the agent of choice for many people in my department. I actually liked two apartments Ha showed me quite a bit but they both were snapped up ... one by someone in my department! ... so a sense of urgency surreptitiously crept into my looking (and my psyche). Most people in my department are looking for the cheapest possible rent ... I haven't got a big budget, but quality of life seemed more important to me. Size, Feng shui, sound, style of shower, etc. But I wasn't so terribly concerned about price. Then I went to Ron and Kathy Moore's place for a visit yesterday. They've got the best of both worlds ... I think they have really good value for their apartment and it's a really nice place. So then I started thinking a bit more about value for the Vietnamese dong, as it were. At any rate, I found one today that I liked and that is quite inexpensive and so I signed a contract! It is relatively small with 2 loft bedrooms and a tiny bathroom, but I think it will be just fine. It's not on a busy street, so it will be quiet enough. The layout is comfortable. I am hoping it will be fine. It is a bit further away from the pool than some of the other apartments I looked at, but it will just give me a bit more exercise when (not if) I get out there and hightail it to the pool! I didn't have my camera today, so I will post pics later. I do hope my sense of urgency didn't sway my thinking and that the place will be good. However, as I was signing the contract, the landlady told Ha that someone with another agent was coming later today to put a deposit down ... but the early bird gets the worm!Came home with my first set of papers to mark and I am having a hard time getting around to marking them. First I had to go for breakfast because I didn't have any milk for my expensive muesli. So I had Pho Tai Chin at Pho 36, a neat little place just behind Eva Silk. 
Yummy. that was 20 VND or a little over $1. Then a nice walk to see some parks along the river on the other side of the big street. In fact I walked along several little parkettes that are dotted through Phu My Hung to get to the main road, which I have just learned is Quynh Van Linh ... I think. 
Went for a haircut at a Korean beauty shop and had a very interesting experience. Two shampoos ... before and after the cut. During the second shampoo, I got a mini-massage and facial cleansing. For all that I paid 100VND, which is about 5 or 6 dollars. My economical day sort of went off the rails when I went for a manicure/pedicure. The place was quite expensive and the prices and services were different from last time ... overall I paid almost 200VND and that is because every different service is extra. Like nail polish! Ha was astounded that it would be that expensive! So, as I was leaving, silently vowing never to go back there, an English woman who was also peeved about the same thing was saying sweetly ... that she had never paid extra for polish and that while she would pay this time, she would not come back. Amen, sister! So, I still have my papers to mark, but I had a good breakfast, my fingers and toes are very clean and polished, and I have someplace to live. I'm thinking that sometimes procrastination is a good thing.
Yummy. that was 20 VND or a little over $1. Then a nice walk to see some parks along the river on the other side of the big street. In fact I walked along several little parkettes that are dotted through Phu My Hung to get to the main road, which I have just learned is Quynh Van Linh ... I think. Went for a haircut at a Korean beauty shop and had a very interesting experience. Two shampoos ... before and after the cut. During the second shampoo, I got a mini-massage and facial cleansing. For all that I paid 100VND, which is about 5 or 6 dollars. My economical day sort of went off the rails when I went for a manicure/pedicure. The place was quite expensive and the prices and services were different from last time ... overall I paid almost 200VND and that is because every different service is extra. Like nail polish! Ha was astounded that it would be that expensive! So, as I was leaving, silently vowing never to go back there, an English woman who was also peeved about the same thing was saying sweetly ... that she had never paid extra for polish and that while she would pay this time, she would not come back. Amen, sister! So, I still have my papers to mark, but I had a good breakfast, my fingers and toes are very clean and polished, and I have someplace to live. I'm thinking that sometimes procrastination is a good thing.I had just got back from Ha's office when the heavens opened and it is still pouring down rain and thundering and lightning. People say it is now the end of the rainy season but it often rains two or three times a day. Could this really be the tapering off of an even rainier part of the rainy season??? Oy. After a rain, the sky is lovely and clear and the sights from RMIT are really lovely. I'll attach a couple of shots.
One of the shots above shows two number 34 buses. I have decided to try and take the bus more often and so the other day I got on the #34 and waited for the driver to finish his break. After 10 or so minutes, he got in and off we went. We went about 500 metres down the road when he stopped and crossed two lanes of traffic to attend to something. There we sat for another 15 minutes. When I noticed the next #34 going past us, I started to get annoyed because it looked like it was going to rain and I didn't relish the though of having to walk home from Quynh Van Linh in a downpour. So I pointed to my wrist to let the fare collector know I thought enough time had elapsed. She tried to see what he was doing and she ended up not coming back. Finally I just got off, walked down to the corner, and crossed the road and tried to get a taxi. No luck. Finally a man in a motorcycle taxi came up and offered to take me, so I took him up on it. He told me he'd take me for 5 VND and I only had a 20 and of course he had no change ... lucky, toothless, old guy. Who could begrudge him almost $1? In the end, it still cost me less thn a taxi. I have since learned that the #34 is quite famous for this and I should brave the traffic and cross the road to catch the #102. More professional or something^-^.Last news. All RMIT people have to have some extra jobs and so I think I will be one of the people to look after the resource room. My colleague, Nick, who has had this assignment, is leaving for Japan at the end of the cycle, and so he suggested I think about taking it on when he leaves. There is some mindless organizing and tidying, but also some committees from the larger school and possibly a bit of buying books and STUFF. Could be worse ... I could be marking exit tests or placement tests! So, I will give it a shot.
Hope all is well with youall. Labour Day is just around the corner in Canada and folks will be going back to school. Fall is around the corner and surely the skunks who have been spraying Billy on a regular basis will have better things to do with their time. Take care.
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